imperative to take Dec/Jan off for interviews?

[troopersmama]

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Hi All

Wondering what the consensus was for taking time off to interview. I currently have light elective in December, January off. I have away elective in November.

What were everyones plans for taking time off for interviews?

How lenient were clerkships/electives you had in giving you time off to interview?

Thanks

 

[kralwok]

I think this depends on your school, the particular rotation, the specialty you are applying for, and where you are applying.

Some schools make it easier for students to miss rotations.

Some rotations are easier to miss than others. e.g. I had a rotation that would not allow any missed days (though i ended up begging them to let me miss a day for an interview at a place that only gave me no options on interview date and was able to miss a day but had to make up the day). At my school most rotations would let you miss up to a few days in a 4 week period to interview.

Some specialties have interviews from Nov-Jan with tons of interview dates. If you are applying to one of these specialties then it would be pretty easy to spread out your interviews and not have to take a ton of time off. If you are applying to a specialty with a prelim year required then you will have twice as many interviews and will probably have to take some time off to fit all of your interviews in. Also, some specialties concentrate their interviews in January (e.g. derm), so you will pretty much have to take January off.

If you are applying to a lot of programs out of your geographical area, you will probably have to take some time off for travel.

 

[Seville]

Hi All

Wondering what the consensus was for taking time off to interview. I currently have light elective in December, January off. I have away elective in November.

What were everyones plans for taking time off for interviews?

How lenient were clerkships/electives you had in giving you time off to interview?

Thanks

I have a rotation in November which says you can't miss many days. Hoping that is not set in stone. December, I have off as an interview month. January I have a rotation but they are supposed to be really chill about giving us time off. If it looks like I'm going to get a lot of interviews in January though, I can move my April and January months around. Hoping it's all going to work out.

 

[troopersmama]

I'm hoping too! Maybe its good you have the heavier month in November that way December/January is left more open.

Right now I could take December off, take light elective in January ...
or take light elective December and take January off.
Anyone have any advice on which one? I'm thinking I may have to see how many programs get back to me after November 1 to gauge flow of interviews.

I will have to interview for preliminary and categorical programs so many more interviews, however mostly in the area where I live.

 

[gutonc]

I'm hoping too! Maybe its good you have the heavier month in November that way December/January is left more open.

Right now I could take December off, take light elective in January ...
or take light elective December and take January off.
Anyone have any advice on which one? I'm thinking I may have to see how many programs get back to me after November 1 to gauge flow of interviews.

I will have to interview for preliminary and categorical programs so many more interviews, however mostly in the area where I live.

Big picture, it doesn't really matter. There are a few caveats to that of course. The weather tends to suck less in December than in January so travel is less difficult then. OTOH, most programs stop interviewing a few days before Xmas and don't start up again until the New Year. So Dec 23 (ish) to Jan 4 (ish) will be lost, no matter what you do. If you need to stack up interviews, it's somewhat easier to do in January than December, but only a little.

I was fortunate to have most of both Dec and Jan off for my interviews. This is obviously the best option but if you can't swing that, it doesn't really make a huge difference. Just be sure that your "light" elective doesn't require you to be there 80+% of the time in order to get credit. It may only require 3 hours a day, but if you need to be there every day to clock those hours it will not work out for you very well.

 

[Blesbok]

I don't think it is imperative, but I think if it is possible that it would definitely make your life less hectic. I would personally rather be able to drive to as many as possible and have the time to cooldown between interviews rather than racing everywhere all the time.

 

[tfom08]

Check when interviews are offered to you as well. I thought it was normal to take off or light schedule electives for dec/jan, but now it seems that for IM, there are more interviews in Nov than in Jan, so maybe Nov, Dec will actually be the best to take off. Definitely Dec though no matter what.