Importance of away rotations

[Pyroclast]

OK, the more I try and figure out my schedule for 4th year, the more I realize how hard it will be to do a single away rotation with the limited elective time my school offers, finding a dogsitter for a month, etc. I'm wondering if anyone can give me an idea of exactly how important away rotations really are in PM&R? I have a Step 1 of 227, honored a few classes the first 2 years, am getting good evaluations year 3, have already done two "mini-rotations" at my local program and will rotate there again next year, did PM&R research with poster but didn't publish, and have some volunteer experience. Next year I could do local electives in sports medicine and ortho, spend 2-4 weeks doing EMGs, and get some really useful training here at my home school with my short elective time.

So does anyone think that *not* doing an away rotation would keep me out of a top-tier program? A mid-tier program? I hope I'd still be able to match at some program somewhere as things stand right now. Sorry for yet another desperate "how competitive am I really" thread, but I've heard mixed things about the importance of away rotations, and it's hard for me to judge where I stand at the moment. Or I'm just freaking out like every other soon-to-be applicant.

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[deleted185747]

It depends upon the program, not just the tier. My stats are lower than yours and I was invited to interview at RIC and UW and Mayo (pretty much every program I applied to).

I have heard that the prople who go to RIC are the ones that did rotations there; not sure why. It could be that the applicants rank it #1, or it could be that RIC really likes people who rotate there. I tend to think if I was invited for an interview they are very likely to rank me as long as I have people skills.

Just my 2c

 

[axm397]

It depends upon the program, not just the tier. My stats are lower than yours and I was invited to interview at RIC and UW and Mayo (pretty much every program I applied to).

I have heard that the prople who go to RIC are the ones that did rotations there; not sure why. It could be that the applicants rank it #1, or it could be that RIC really likes people who rotate there. I tend to think if I was invited for an interview they are very likely to rank me as long as I have people skills.

Just my 2c

I think I posted in the other thread - about half my class rotated at RIC before matching at RIC - but in that half are 4 northwestern grads who are required to rotate at RIC. So of the non-Northwestern people, only 2 rotated out of 8.