End of 3rd year elective

[DocEspana]

Off the bat, my schools clinical education mentoring leaves a lot to be desired. I've tried a little bit to ask them these questions and mostly get sent to someone else's office or told to research on my own. Frustrating is the right term.

So I come to you SDN. I have 1 month for electives in my 3rd year (technically 2, but we wont worry about that second one right now). My cores are, in order, Pediatrics, OBGYN, Emergency Med, Internal Med (8 weeks), Surgery (8 weeks), Outpatient Family Medicine (8 weeks), Psychiatry.

This leaves me with all my 3rd year cores done and the month of June free to do an elective. I am now trying to figure out what to do. I am not sure how anal different hospitals (especially in the northeast) are about you being a true 4th year vs being done with 3rd year. Can anyone enlighten on that?

Additionally, its mid-to-end of may right now. I am applying for a rotation a full year away. I'm really interested in the more famous hospitals in NYC and want to try to apply for more competitive (aka: less people accepted per month) rotations. A specific example is I would love medical oncology at Bellevue, but they only take 2 students per month. I think applying this early may help my odds, but should I apply to multiple hospitals/programs to assure I get something (since I'd be applying to these 'competitive' ones across the board, no easy ins doing infectious disease at a no name hospital)? Should I apply to multiple ones in the same month in the NYU system, or would that be a big no-no?

Just trying to figure out how hard it is to get one of 2 june spots a year away at a popular hospital. My transcript looks great, but I am a DO student, so who knows what hesitancy that may cause as an intangible. Just generally advise me on what you'd suggest to do, that'd be awesome.

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[BigRedder]

June is a less competitive time to do away rotations, as many medical students are still working on core clerkships or doing a home elective. Unless you know what field you want to go into, you should probably wait to schedule an elective.

 

[Propofol4Yall]

So I have a dilemma. I applied to several away electives in anesthesia for the months of August and September. They had all been filled. Now I'm scrambling to find an away rotation for October. I have a feeling those are going to be filled up as well. If I end up not being able to do an away, will that affect my desirability as an applicant when I apply for residency?

 

[SmokD]

Whats up Doc,

You won't know till you send that email . I've emailed NYU and Columbia, and I got flat out rejected. Pretty sure my email wasn't even read. This was for a surgery elective though. No harm in trying right?

 

[ArcGurren]

Whats up Doc,

You won't know till you send that email . I've emailed NYU and Columbia, and I got flat out rejected. Pretty sure my email wasn't even read. This was for a surgery elective though. No harm in trying right?

I've heard that NY hospitals are incredibly preferential to NY schools and will often outright reject people from other states unless they're literally the best

(Note i have no idea where you go to school though)

 

[OveractiveBrain]

Whats up Doc,

You won't know till you send that email . I've emailed NYU and Columbia, and I got flat out rejected. Pretty sure my email wasn't even read. This was for a surgery elective though. No harm in trying right?

Actually there is. Apparently, cold calling academic programs find this inappropriate and pushy. People at all trained in business are socialized to make the call, send the email, submit the resume. You won't be heard or seen if you aren't gently pushy.

Unfortunately (and this comes from two PDs) academic programs prefer to get contact information through formal channels. Obviously, a letter from some one in the department who knows you personally can give you a connection, and is welcomed, but soliciting them is generally poor form. This was a shock to me, learned only half way through my 4th year.

One anectdote I can share is from my own school. One of the guys was in finance before medical school. He contacted Stanford for a rotation. It got back to our PD that he was overly forward and generally impolite. When the issue was discussed, all he did was solicit them NOT through VRAS.

In general, the applicant should NOT solicit any academic program unless done through appropriate channels (or there is a truly personal connection within the department being applied to)

 

[Jolie South]

Can't you troll their websites and look for info on how to apply for aways there? I didn't apply for aways outside the military, but it's my understanding that a lot of programs use VSAS which you can't access until spring of 3rd year. Even if not using VSAS, there is probably a description of a formal application process.

From what our dean told us, most aways require you to have completed all core rotations.

 

[fletchffletch]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I'm curious how it turned out trying to get an elective at the end of your 3rd year?