- Joined
- May 31, 2007
- Messages
- 386
- Reaction score
- 3
Anyone hear back yet from any of the programs for the externship applications we just sent off on October 15th?
I heard from 3 programs, one said they would let me know by tues, one said they received my info and the other needed another piece of info not in the clerkship manual.
G/L to everyone else, hope you get the months you wanted.
P1 student here with a question. Can you apply to more externships then your specific pod school gives you months to actually go to them? For example, if you go to school X and they give you 6 months to do externships can you apply to 12 programs and then pick and choose which 6 programs you want to spend a month at?
Like Californicator said... Our school advises against this to prevent burning bridges. We get 5 months away from home clinics with one vacation month. I chose to apply to 6 programs. If all of my externships line up, then I will go to all of them. If one program doesn't workout with scheduling then I will have a free month. We will see what happens.P1 student here with a question. Can you apply to more externships then your specific pod school gives you months to actually go to them? For example, if you go to school X and they give you 6 months to do externships can you apply to 12 programs and then pick and choose which 6 programs you want to spend a month at?
I'm not going to say whether I've heard back or been accepted anywhere or not. Take that!!
You can really do whatever you want, but need to be careful because if you accepted to all of them, you will have to tell 6 of those programs you cannot go and this may burn bridges down the road. In addition, you need to put down the top three months you would want to do a certain program and it is nearly impossible to know which programs will accept you for what months. Proper etiquette is to apply to your 6 programs, wait for responses, and then apply to your backups.
I heard that bridges get burned from the lady at our school who deals with our externship and residency stuff. I am not sure if it is true. I am about to apply for a few extras just in case. We will see what happens in a couple days.I don't know if applying to more spots would burn any bridges. Even if you only apply for as many spots as you have clerkships, things still happen. Some programs may not give you the month you want, and you may have to switch, and then that may mean that you have to turn down a clerkship just due to scheduling. Just being in the process myself, I can't comment on how the clerkship directors see the situation. Most of my class applied to more programs than we have spots for. Time will tell if any bridges were burned beyond repair.
BTW, I got my month at Oakwood. Hopefully others will follow.
I understand that schools might be sensitive to what their students do because it might reflect poorly on the podiatry school but frankly its your future on the line here. Where you extern and how you do during externship CAN effect where you ultimately end up IMO. I would want to make sure I get the programs I want or at least get the back up programs I want if my first choices don't accept me. Therefore I feel you have to apply to more programs then the amount of months you have to extern. You have to crack a few eggshells to make some eggs. But what do I know I'm just a P1.
You really can burn bridges if you don't use some sort of strategy.
Programs talk to each other and if gets around that you applied to more programs than you can actually attend, you've wasted that program's time if they've gone thru your app, scheduled you in, and now have to find a replacement for you.
I think it's ok to apply to maybe apply to 1 extra, but anything over that can put you in a bad position.
And unless your externing after match, the programs won't know you're using them as a backup. And that's the last thing you want them to know before interviews anyway, even if you are.
BTW, I got my month at Oakwood. Hopefully others will follow.
You really can burn bridges if you don't use some sort of strategy.
Programs talk to each other and if gets around that you applied to more programs than you can actually attend, you've wasted that program's time if they've gone thru your app, scheduled you in, and now have to find a replacement for you.
I think it's ok to apply to maybe apply to 1 extra, but anything over that can put you in a bad position.
And unless your externing after match, the programs won't know you're using them as a backup. And that's the last thing you want them to know before interviews anyway, even if you are.
And unless your externing after match, the programs won't know you're using them as a backup. And that's the last thing you want them to know before interviews anyway, even if you are.
I could understand what you are
Are saying if someone applied to 3 or 4 extra programs, however in an acceptance email I received they said something to the effect of "please get back to us asap so that we can give other students the opportunity to come here if you choose not to". This would make me believe that programs know we may be applying to more than just our required number of programs. I think/hope they understand our dilemma....most directors were once in our positions too.
I understand that schools might be sensitive to what their students do because it might reflect poorly on the podiatry school but frankly its your future on the line here. Where you extern and how you do during externship CAN effect where you ultimately end up IMO. I would want to make sure I get the programs I want or at least get the back up programs I want if my first choices don't accept me. Therefore I feel you have to apply to more programs then the amount of months you have to extern. You have to crack a few eggshells to make some eggs. But what do I know I'm just a P1.
Let's say your are applying for clerkships in June, July, and August.
So you apply to Programs X, Y, and Z
You get Program X for June and Program Y for July but you didn't get Program Z.
So now you apply again (after the initial application)...
These programs would know you are applying as a back up. They were not on your top list of programs which you applied to in the initial application. This is what I meant in my post.
Yup. As I suspected the clerkship directors understand the process and should know what the students are going through. They are not stupid.
Going thru it now, knowing that residents all talk to each other because they were all friends in school, makes it a lot harder than you make it seem. Until you've actually had to go thru this, you won't know what it's like trying to balance all these factors.
But what do I know I'm just a P1.
If you aren't submitting your apps on the 15th (the first possible day), you are doing every other student applying for the same rotation a HUGE favor...
I just want to put something out there. I'm not disagreeing with you. I'd just like to add that I think many in your position over estimate how much time residents spend with these issues. They may mention things in passing amongst their friends, but they are far too busy to really make a big impact.
Residents are rarely making decisions about who the incoming residents are. They are asked their opinion, which could hold some weight if the student was terrible, but it is rare that a resident will say "we HAVE to have this person here next year", and that advice is followed. Especially with residencies that have multiple residents every year. They are so busy just keeping up, they don't really get that involved.
I understand what you're saying. But in this climate, all of the 3rd years are in fierce competition with each other. I think one of the facets that we care about is being as professional as possible.
I agree with your post, but if there's even a remote chance that programs will talk, I'm not willing to take the risk of applying to how many months I have (+/- 1), just in case.
Neither do you and you are an upperclassmen. Very scary...
The class of 2014 could use some more students like yourself. This would make it easier for me to get the programs I want while you are sitting around pondering the "proper" thing to do.
I don't know proper etiquette, so I won't comment on it. I will say that my experience has been similar to UW66. From hearing from some faculty, this year the programs accepted students very early, earlier than in years past, and I would venture to say that the majority of my class has their schedule complete. There are some programs that go very fast (as an example, I was at a rotation, missed a phone call, and 2 emails from a program, and when I emailed 5 minutes later - total time of 15 minutes from the phone call - they were full.) There are probably programs where there aren't many applicants that still have open spots if someone were to apply now, but I get the sense that those programs are in the minority. Maybe if you only waited a day until you applied to your back-up programs, it might not be such a big deal. But especially if you are applying for some of the more competitive programs, I would apply as soon as you get the chance.email/fax the minute after 12:01(or 11:01 or whatever). Inboxes fill up and fax machines run out of paper. I wish i was joking.
Some programs make decisions on what id call a rolling basis. I had two acceptances the 16th. Think they waited around for paper apps and 'late' applicants to roll in?
Also--Apply to back ups the same time you apply to your first choices. If you arent applying to 2 or 3 extra programs on top of your first choices youre setting yourself up for frustration. Sleazy and mildly rude? Maybe. But at the end of the week its your life and potential residency, while only a slight irritation to the program you deny. Id rather be clerking at my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices instead of some of my 1sts, and then just whatevers left over after a weeks gone by for your other programs to deny you or offer you months youve already filled.
top 15% of your class or not, you should be doing these things.
I don't disagree entirely. I think it comes down to how you deal with the programs. If you apply to more programs than you have spots available, you have to realize that you will need to tell some of them "No thank you" at some point. Also realize that you may be forced to make a tough decision between waiting for a program you really want to respond or accepting the program that makes you an offer and says that they need to hear back by the end of the day or they are giving your spot away. Neither way to do it is perfect, and both have their risks, but for me, I decided that I would rather tell a program "No" than end up having to scramble for any open program since I didn't have a backup already in the works. Like I said, it worked out for me, but that doesn't mean it is "right."For the 1st and 2nd years who think I'm advocating waiting for days to decide - I'm not. All I am saying, which is echoed by other posters on the thread, is that applying to numerous programs than you have months for has potential to turn ugly.
I never said that you should wait. If you know where you're going, send in the applications right away. Competitive programs fill the next day.
However, the 1st and 2nd years would argue with me if I said that the sky is blue. So when you get to this point in your careers, send 234098230948230 applications if it makes you feel better.
I guess it depends on how many spots you have to fill. I wouldn't be frantic yet, but I might try to find out when those programs you haven't heard back from will be sending out emails.How long should I wait to hear by from clerkships before I start getting worried?
I applied to 5 and have heard back from 2.
Congrats. Those seem like good programs. One of the programs in Louisville didn't work out with my scheduling, otherwise I would be headed that way too.If everything works out, I'll be heading to Indianapolis, U of Florida, Louisville, Cincy, and the 2 Pittsburgh programs. Good luck!
I'm using a bit different strategy than most:
Due to the shortage of residency spots, my utter laziness, and my underwhelming gpa, cv, and class rank, I have done extensive research and then applied to what I consider the 5 worst podiatry residencies in the country. By externing at these perennial cellar dwellers, I have effectively eliminated any real competition as these programs rarely have students visit, and those that do usually don't rank the programs high enough to match there anyway.
On interview day, the case I am going to make for myself is "Hey, matching me for your residency is at least better than *******, and could very possibly be better than blindly selecting from a pool of scramblers that you haven't met before."
Finally confirmed with all 5 programs today. was able to get all 5, but I had to juggle my schedule to fit all of them.Nothing so far, starting to wonder if I should have sent more than 5 apps
I was rather impatient and did apply to more programs after 1 week. As a result, I will have to "burn bridges" and deny several offers.