FAER or Away Rotation

[koan]

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Which do you think would be more helpful for matching a good university anesthesia residency:

1) FAER fellowship

2) Away rotation at top program

Background: DO student with extensive research background including anesthesia research, publications, high gpa, etc.

 

[cchoukal]

Which do you think would be more helpful for matching a competitive NW anesthesia residency:

1) Apply to do FAER research fellowship at that institution during my 8 weeks elective at end of 3rd year, make contacts and shadow in OR, or...

2) Try to do 8 week away rotation in advanced anesthesia at the program I want to match, during 3rd year (but after core clerkships, i.e. spring / summer) or beginning of 4th year

Background: current 2nd year DO student with 5+ years research experience, 3 peer-reviewed pubs, spent summer doing clinical research in anesthesia at top west coast program. I guess to phrase my question another way: do I need the name recognition of FAER, or would further research be redundant at this point? And how many away rotations in anesthesia can / should I do? Thanks for the input, y'all.

I'm not a PD or on an ADCOM, but I'd be surprised if you could do better on an away rotation than on a FAER fellowship. Put another way, lots of people do "aways," almost no one is qualified enough to secure the FAER gig.

 

[BobBarker]

All irrelevant if your USMLE score is not well-above average.

 

[scudrunner]

Which do you think would be more helpful for matching a competitive NW anesthesia residency:

1) Apply to do FAER research fellowship at that institution during my 8 weeks elective at end of 3rd year, make contacts and shadow in OR, or...

2) Try to do 8 week away rotation in advanced anesthesia at the program I want to match, during 3rd year (but after core clerkships, i.e. spring / summer) or beginning of 4th year

Background: current 2nd year DO student with 5+ years research experience, 3 peer-reviewed pubs, spent summer doing clinical research in anesthesia at top west coast program. I guess to phrase my question another way: do I need the name recognition of FAER, or would further research be redundant at this point? And how many away rotations in anesthesia can / should I do? Thanks for the input, y'all.

I think the general consensus is that if you are a competitive applicant, away rotations are not really necessary. I'd do the FAER fellowship if I were you.

 

[koan]

All irrelevant if your USMLE score is not well-above average.

Thanks for the advice. What would you consider competitive for west coast programs, 240+?

 

[koan]

I think the general consensus is that if you are a competitive applicant, away rotations are not really necessary. I'd do the FAER fellowship if I were you.

Thanks. I'm slightly concerned about taking 8 weeks out of what seems to be a crucial time period (end of 3rd year -- beginning of 4th) for gaining clinical exposure to anesthesia. But it sounds like FAER could under those circumstances be treated like a rotation.

 

[Orin]

Background: current 2nd year DO student with 5+ years research experience, 3 peer-reviewed pubs, spent summer doing clinical research in anesthesia at top west coast program.

You might be maxing out the research score for most places, but I'd agree that you oughta do the FAER as you should be able to get some clinical shadowing time while doing it, in addition to being at lectures/grand rounds/etc to build a relationship with the residency folks. If I remember right, the FAER med student fellowship is ~15% clinical exposure.

If you have one specific place in mind, it'd be a good question to ask the PD there.

 

[courtnes]

FWIW, I'm doing the FAER fellowship in my post-M1 summer. It's great in terms of research and clinical experiences. There's been a lot of autonomy in developing and completing my research project, and I've been lucky to be offered additional clinical hours, had lots of teaching in the OR, getting practice on basic procedures, and having the opportunity to go to all the new residents' didactics.

I hadn't been sure if I wanted to do the fellowship - I had no idea how the fellowship was perceived in the anesthesiology community - or just go back to my old anesthesia group as a summer RA. I'm really glad I went with the fellowship.

 

[XRanger]

Thanks for the advice. What would you consider competitive for west coast programs, 240+?

I wanna know this too

 

[BobBarker]

Yes, 240+. You have to prove yourself more do to your future degree.

 

[mustang1]

I did a FAER research fellowship between MS1 and MS2. It was an absolutely invaluable experience. I am a DO student from a school that does not have its own anesthesia program so the connections I made through FAER have proven very helpful. I was able to give oral and poster presentation at two large anesthesia conferences and meet some huge players in anesthesia. Sure you can do a 4 week away but you are fighting with all the other students and everyone is out for the same thing. But if you do FAER you will likely be the only research student and will be able to interact with faculty and residents outside of the traditional I-am-going-pimp-the-hell-out-of-you setting. Get in there, work hard and have fun. I really enjoyed my experience. Feel free to PM me with questions.