Ideal month to do EM audition rotation

august, september,october, november

 

October (might be okay but pushing it) and November are probably too late to do auditions for at least a couple of reasons. First, your grade and comments from the rotation will be too late to make your Dean's letter. Even if you're doing your audition at the one place in the world youre absolutely sure you want to do your residency it would be foolish to apply only there. So you'll need everyone to see that grade to maximize your interviews at other programs. Second, what if while doing your rotation you decide you absolutely hate EM? By October/november your application should pretty darn close to being complete so it would be difficult to suddenly shift gears/explore another specialty. That's the advice I received anyway.

 

It all depends. If you already have EM LORs, your situation is different. For me, as a third year, I did an EM rotation in January as required by my school... I got a great LOR from the attending then... so I wasn't really in a rush to get a LOR. I did an audition rotation in August, got another LOR from that attending. I also did a third EM rotation in November.

It was perfect FOR ME because the August rotation gave me a good 2nd LOR.. and November was great becasue as they were interviewing candidates, I was there as well...

BUt the problem with a lot of other medical students is that they won't get a LOR until September or October, when you can begin to submit your ERAS... I actually think the best way to do it (and again this is just my opinion)...
is to do a month in August... get a strong LOR...

then do an audition rotation in Dec or January (at your dream place)... hopefully they'll give you an interview while you're there. However, this may backfire, because if they decide they don't want to interview you there while you're a student... that will be a very awkward LONG month...
Q

 

What's wrong with July? I did mine in July. Unless some schools don't start their fourth year until August or you're advocating taking a break between third and fourth year. I ended my third year with peds, which wasn't too crazy, so I wasn't burned out.

mike

 

The one thing that I could say against July is that since most of the interns will be starting their EM residency, they usually are in the ED for an orientation month... so you may not be getting the attention from the attendings and residents that you normally may get...

Q

 

Why not July... because most programs are starting the intern class that month, and it is quite busy with all the new faces and general confusion of "terns". It is likely a student would get a bit lost in the shuffle, but then again, perhaps a student may shine

The months I noted are ideal to do AUDITIONS...because if you are interested in these institutions, you will likely be interviewing with the same attendings you worked with...and they will KNOW you and your work habits (grades really mean little).
It is also a good idea to be fresh in the minds of those you interview with...(at MANY MANY institutions, the residents have ALOT of say with who enters the programs, and a recent good impression goes quite far).
LOR's are important, but the first hand experience of working hard with residents, showing genuine interest, working as a team member, and being a good guy/gal has no particular deadline...closer to the end of fall (prior to holidays) the better.

 

I see. At the place I did my July month, it wasn't too much of the problem. The interns didn't work too many of the shifts, and we were treated the same as the interns, presenting to attendings, etc. I think it worked out fairly well.

Plus, we got to do a lot of the "crash course in EM" intro lectures/labs, suturing, U/S, casting, etc, which we wouldn't have gotten later on.

But this "audition" was also my home insitution. I can see your guys' points.

mike