How many aways should you apply to?

[kwu]

I am currently applying for away rotations on VSAS and I am wondering how many away rotations I should apply to?

I heard from people that it looks bad on you when you reject an offer. That's why you need to be careful applying to too many programs then rejecting most of them. Since we're only allowed to choose one away rotation, how many should I apply to? I am worried if I apply to few programs, I will end up getting rejected from all of them. Currently, I only applied to 3 programs and waiting for response.

I would appreciate your input on this

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[DoctwoB]

I am currently applying for away rotations on VSAS and I am wondering how many away rotations I should apply to?

I heard from people that it looks bad on you when you reject an offer. That's why you need to be careful applying to too many programs then rejecting most of them. Since we're only allowed to choose one away rotation, how many should I apply to? I am worried if I apply to few programs, I will end up getting rejected from all of them. Currently, I only applied to 3 programs and waiting for response.

I would appreciate your input on this

Honestly I don’t have too much advice to give here. When I applied to aways many years ago VSAS didn’t exist. I applied to 3 and selected two of them (and didn’t get an interview from the place I turned down). I am sure this is all quite different now, and have heard of people having to apply to multiple aways to get selected for one or two.

I recommend speaking with your schools graduating students who went into urology and your home programs PGY1-2s (and PD) on the matter. Most of the posters here our advice will be obsolete.

 

[cpants]

Yea agree with DoctwoB. When I was applying 10+ years ago aways were not competitive. Are they competitive now? We did have VSAS, but they basically gave you a spot if they had one. I pretty much called the places and talked to the coordinator and submitted VSAS as a formality after we decided I was going there.

 

[NotaCop]

Good programs or good areas are competitive these days yea. Especially this year with aways limited to 1 and home students sometimes doing 2 home sub-I rotations as a result.

OP if you’re just applying to them now, you’re too late for the good stuff. People have been fighting over spots for the last month at least. Most decent programs will be awful by now for the desirable months.

General rule of thumb in recent years has been applied to three for every one you want to land, and then withdraw the other applications as soon as you get accepted for one and commit to it. In recent years this has been viewed mostly as acceptable, where you get into trouble is if you except a rotation and then back out on it later for another one. If you do that it is reasonable to expect that the program you are a ****ing over it will not interview you. But simply declining an offer should not affect your interview chances, especially with how weird the process is during Covid. Program coordinators understand this, so just be polite if you have to decline an offer and say that you already excepted one elsewhere.

if you haven’t already, you should reach out to the programs you’ve applied to and ask them for a status update, frame it tactfully perhaps just inquiring to see if you’ll have to apply for rotations elsewhere but let the program you’re talking to you know they are one of your first choices

apologies for typos and such, using Siri voice to text