How Does Obtaining Away Rotations Work?

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Can someone give a general breakdown on the difficulty of obtaining aways and audition rotations? Preferably by specialty? Would it generally be presumed that obtaining an away rotation at a higher tier school is more difficult? In cases that the competition arises, what would it be based on? Step 1 scores? Interviews? Does being a DO student make it more difficult?

Any insight would be nice 🙂

 

[Dr panda]

Following

 

[kraskadva]

M3 here, so havent gone through the process yet, but as far as I understand it...

Can someone give a general breakdown on the difficulty of obtaining aways and audition rotations?
We use VSAS (google that for more specific info) to apply. Difficulty depends on competition - more coveted spots are more difficult to get, obv. But in general, to get some kind of away is not difficult. And "away" just means not at your home institution - doesn't necessarily have to involve travel.
Preferably by specialty?
Same process for all specialties. Again, difficulty depends on the desirableness of that rotation/site.
Would it generally be presumed that obtaining an away rotation at a higher tier school is more difficult?
Of course.
In cases that the competition arises, what would it be based on? Step 1 scores? Interviews?
Yes to scores, but really your whole CV in general. If, say, you want to do an ortho away, and you have an CV with ortho research, good grades in surgery, and a solid step 1, then that will be more competitive than somebody with less/none of those things.
As fara as I know, there aren't interviews for aways, but maybe by phone/skype... I think it's just the app though.
Does being a DO student make it more difficult?
Depends on where/what. More so some places than others, depending on bias and competition.
Any insight would be nice 🙂

Sorry if those answers are vaguer than you like, maybe somebody else will fill in more details.
But don't stress about it now. You need to get into a med school first. Then your school will tell you all about it when you need to know (around the middle of M3 usually).

 

[NickNaylor]

There's a sort-of standardized application process that you go through during MS3. Difficulty will vary; I didn't do any aways, but my understanding of the situation is that they aren't particularly competitive with some relatively rare exceptions (e.g., "prestigious" programs in competitive fields).

 

[CyrilFiggis]

@TRexLife4 This is a question you do not need to think about for awhile. Depending on what field you go in to, you don't even have to do aways. For some, these are audition rotations to impress a program and get face time with the PD. For others, they just want the chance to go home for a rotation.

That said, don't get ahead of yourself. If you are admitted to a US MD program, you will have a student affairs office that will answer all these questions in due time. For now, you're talking about a potential hurdle you may need to jump over, when you haven't even started to crawl.