Beware when scheduling 3rd yr rotations at a branch campus/outside location. Ask people who have been there about work hours, learning experience, and especially grades.
At my school, 3rd yrs can be based at branch campuses, which are generally easier in work load and grading. Usually these are people going into noncompetitive areas such as family practice because there are no big names to write letters at those locations. Students from the main campus can elect to do a rotation at a branch campus, which happens occasionally. The school gets funding for the other campuses and must fill rotation spots to get full $$$, so students are required to enter a "lottery" to decide who is forced to do an away rotation.
My school has 2 branch campuses; one to the north, the other west. In most rotations, the west branch gives A's to most people, with prefs toward their own students.
The one to the north wories about grade inflation so, in general, their students get A's and visiting students from the main campus get B's to balance things out.
I got stuck with a peds rotation at the north campus, which was unfortunate because I was interested in peds at the time. They worked me much harder than the main campus works their students. I took 2 months of q4 call where the main campus took 1 month (no call on outpatient). Work hours were much heavier at the branch campus. For example, main students rotated through neonatal and worked from 6:00 am until rounds were done (about noon) and had no call, so they had plenty of time to read, where I had to hit neonatal at 5:00 am, make morning report by 8:00 and work clinic until 5:00 or 6:00 pm. I averaged 100 - 110 hrs/wk where main students average 60 - 70.
Because I was interested in peds, I worked hard and did all the "right" things, including bringing articles, volunteering to give talks, and knowing everything about my patients. My ER attending told me that I was "the best medical student that I've ever had". A friend that rotated there after me told me that I "must've really kicked ass up there" because the residents held me up as a model medical student.
Unfortunately, only the inpatient attendings evaluate you (4 people total, I think) so the residents and ER docs, who I spent most of my time working with, had no input. I ended up with a low B (much lower than my baseline), which I just discovered is in the bottom 10% for my class and am a bit bitter if you can't tell
Peds was my second rotation and first "medicine" type rotation. I didn't understand the detail that was expected in the assessment and plan section of notes, as the only rotation I had completed was OB/GYN where notes were expected to be short and sweet. Of course, main campus students had an orientation that covered those details and included a packet of "ideal" samples where we were thrown into the fire. A/Ps on my notes were scant (OB/GYN style) for the first week (of 8) until my intern called me on it and I fixed the problem. The only negative comment that I received was from one attending who wrote "student got off to a slow start assessing data obtained and applying that data to develop a treatment plan", which had to be related to my first weeks notes because my notes were very good after that. My other comments were all good.
Be careful when going to branch campuses and research them thoroughly to avoid having an experience like mine.
Well, thats my b!tch session for the day... I feel better now
