How do you find the time to interview?

[toothless rufus]

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Ok, this is kind if worrisome:How do you make time to interview while you are on electives? I've noticed some schools explicitly state that they will not let you take time off during an elective rotation to do this. And if you are doing an audition rotation, I imagine you don't even want to ask! AND I will probably have no vacation month to use.

 

[Stillwater45]

Hmmm.... Are you a fourth year? Let me let you in on an important concept. It doesn't matter anymore. As a fourth year it's free reign, learn what you can when you can, otherwise enjoy yourself and do anything and everything that you couldn't do the previous 3 years and won't be able to do during the next 3-5 years. You are not going to be making any important clinical decisions, you are not needed by anyone, you are no longer getting graded. Don't sweat it. Go on the interviews. Enjoy this year. It only goes down once.

 

[gutonc]

With the exception of your Sub-I or away/audition rotations (or required rotations that happen to land in 4th year), everybody else 4th year can suck it. Interviews trump just about everything else (exceptions noted above).

 

[toothless rufus]

Hmmm.... Are you a fourth year? Let me let you in on an important concept. It doesn't matter anymore. As a fourth year it's free reign, learn what you can when you can, otherwise enjoy yourself and do anything and everything that you couldn't do the previous 3 years and won't be able to do during the next 3-5 years. You are not going to be making any important clinical decisions, you are not needed by anyone, you are no longer getting graded. Don't sweat it. Go on the interviews. Enjoy this year. It only goes down once.

I'm a third year, but trying to learn about the process now.Yo'ure not getting graded during fourth year!? As I understand it, you need to pass your electives in order to graduate, no? Why take electives at all then?

 

[toothless rufus]

With the exception of your Sub-I or away/audition rotations (or required rotations that happen to land in 4th year), everybody else 4th year can suck it. Interviews trump just about everything else (exceptions noted above).

Lol! So...you just take or "ask" for the time off?! And you don't have to worry about not fulfilling graduation requirements?

 

[Frugal Traveler]

As an MS4, you tell people you are going to interview. They usually let you... on average, you can probably miss 5 days of an elective without getting in trouble. After that, you may have to make-up days... it depends on the school.

If faculty give you trouble, the Dean rolls in and tells them what's up... that you're interviewing and they'll have to deal... because all a Dean wants is happy matching non-scrambling MS4s 🙂

 

[toothless rufus]

As an MS4, you tell people you are going to interview. They usually let you... on average, you can probably miss 5 days of an elective without getting in trouble. After that, you may have to make-up days... it depends on the school.

If faculty give you trouble, the Dean rolls in and tells them what's up... that you're interviewing and they'll have to deal... because all a Dean wants is happy matching non-scrambling MS4s 🙂

On your school or the school where you are rotating at? Anyways, feeling better about all this, fo sho!

Another question: Don't you want to try to make all of your electives audition rotations? ( I'm going to only have 4 elective months)

 

[JPeds]

Check with your school - my medical school is pretty strict about not missing more than 3 days per month-long elective, and you can't miss any time during a 2 week elective. Of course, there are ways...asking your attending directly rather than going through admin. BUT there was definitely a student last year that was caught on this and did not get to walk at graduation and had to finish a 2 week rotation to catch up. So be careful.

 

[toothless rufus]

Check with your school - my medical school is pretty strict about not missing more than 3 days per month-long elective, and you can't miss any time during a 2 week elective. Of course, there are ways...asking your attending directly rather than going through admin. BUT there was definitely a student last year that was caught on this and did not get to walk at graduation and had to finish a 2 week rotation to catch up. So be careful.

Duly noted. You know, they really gotta make this process easier! I mean, they know you need the time off, and that there's no other way of getting it than miss as many days as you have interviews. It's effing annoying. Espcially, because, in the end, elective rotations don't really matter. Fourth year seems, well, useless. I vote for three years of medical school!

 

[ShyRem]

Just wait until you get a rotation where they ask which days you want off before they make the schedule.. you tell them your dates for interview and they schedule you to work those days anyway. 🙄

 

[Frugal Traveler]

On your school or the school where you are rotating at? Anyways, feeling better about all this, fo sho!

Another question: Don't you want to try to make all of your electives audition rotations? ( I'm going to only have 4 elective months)

It is at my school... I don't do audition rotations... it could potentially look bad if you show up at an audition rotation and take 5 days off

 

[Taurus]

Use your best judgment. You can typically take 3 days or so from each month-long rotation to interview. For the more important rotations, you obviously want to schedule them early in MS4 or late MS4 so you don't interfere. You also should schedule vacation months or very easy months where you don't have to show up between November and February.

 

[gutonc]

I'm a third year, but trying to learn about the process now.Yo'ure not getting graded during fourth year!? As I understand it, you need to pass your electives in order to graduate, no? Why take electives at all then?

Here's the thing. When you go to make your schedule for next year, you will make sure that you have at least one entire month off (Dec or Jan) with NO clinical responsibilities, in which to interview. The other month should be something like "History of Medicine" or other meaningless reading elective. If you don't do this, you will only have yourself to blame if you don't have enough time to interview.

 

[canal]

I will be starting peds core soon and with interviews that comes with dinner the night before I will have to take 8 days off. What do you think I should do? Nervous about asking the attending.

 

[toothless rufus]

Here's the thing. When you go to make your schedule for next year, you will make sure that you have at least one entire month off (Dec or Jan) with NO clinical responsibilities, in which to interview. The other month should be something like "History of Medicine" or other meaningless reading elective. If you don't do this, you will only have yourself to blame if you don't have enough time to interview.

Good advice. BTW, I've never heard of a "reading elective". Can you tell me a little more about them, please?

Out of curiosity, how many months do most schools allot for vacation? Mine has only one.

 

[ShyRem]

We don't have reading electives. All rotations are clinical in nature, and we have off a total of 8 weeks for years 3 and 4.. that is used for study time, boards, vacation, etc. Sounds like a lot, but we had two weeks scheduled off third year for Christmas, I'm taking two weeks this year for Christmas (I have children), and I took two weeks for boards so I wouldn't miss rotation time. That doesn't leave me much for taking time off for interviews, not to mention not all places offer interview dates within the same two weeks.

 

[JPeds]

Yikes - our school gives us 14 weeks to schedule off during M4 year - I used 8 weeks between 3rd and 4th year for a family commitment (1 month) and studying for Step 2, and then have sporadic 2 week blocks off, only one of which falls during interview season. Most people at my school did use at least 4 weeks for interviewing time and then try to have some time off leading up to graduation.

 

[toothless rufus]

Yikes - our school gives us 14 weeks to schedule off during M4 year - I used 8 weeks between 3rd and 4th year for a family commitment (1 month) and studying for Step 2, and then have sporadic 2 week blocks off, only one of which falls during interview season. Most people at my school did use at least 4 weeks for interviewing time and then try to have some time off leading up to graduation.

That rocks!

 

[tarlovcyst]

Yikes - our school gives us 14 weeks to schedule off during M4 year - I used 8 weeks between 3rd and 4th year for a family commitment (1 month) and studying for Step 2, and then have sporadic 2 week blocks off, only one of which falls during interview season. Most people at my school did use at least 4 weeks for interviewing time and then try to have some time off leading up to graduation.

14 weeks?!?! I would love to transfer to your school. My school only allows 4 weeks per year, which means I only can take 4 weeks off total for interviews and any personal time / vacation during MS-IV.

 

[gutonc]

14 weeks?!?! I would love to transfer to your school. My school only allows 4 weeks per year, which means I only can take 4 weeks off total for interviews and any personal time / vacation during MS-IV.

Your school (and ShyRem's) sucks goats. I got a total of 12 weeks off during 4th year. I took 6 weeks for interviews, did a 2 week reading elective (and interviewed), another 4 week research elective (where I basically cleaned up after my PhD work, and interviewed) and took a full month of vacation.

Remember, you're paying them. Once your cores and SubI are done, the learning is minimal, the rest is paying dues. You already paid them, in cash.

 

[intmed3]

The best way to figure out how to find the time to interview is to talk to people in the class ahead of you. They can give you advice as to which rotations will allow you to miss days or have flexible scheduling (ER is especially good for this). Most people at my school try to schedule a vacation block to do a lot of their interviews, but I also know people who are going on 20+ interviews and not taking any vacation time for it by choosing rotations known to be lax about interviews.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

The best way to figure out how to find the time to interview is to talk to people in the class ahead of you. They can give you advice as to which rotations will allow you to miss days or have flexible scheduling (ER is especially good for this). Most people at my school try to schedule a vacation block to do a lot of their interviews, but I also know people who are going on 20+ interviews and not taking any vacation time for it by choosing rotations known to be lax about interviews.

This is the correct advice.

For example - at my school ER is one of the worst months (lots of lectures; inflexible faculty) whereas at others it is one of the best. It is all very school specific.