MS3 away rotation

[baculum1]

Hi guys MS3 student here. I'm hoping to go into rad onc. I've completed my home program rotation. I got May off and i was hoping to do an away during this time. I'm seeing a lot of places take MS4s only. Any suggestion on some good places to do an MS3 away where some of you guys had good experiences and happen to take MS3s? I'm hoping to get a letter out of it too. Throw a brother a bone here guys. Thanks in advance.

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[californiaXRT]

Look into MD Anderson

 

[baculum1]

Thanks for the response. I have already contacted them and have been told their rotations are for MS4s only. I'm not sure if there's a change in policy but that's what i was told.

 

[RadOnc37]

This is May of the end of your 3rd year/beginning of your 4th year, one calendar year before you graduate? Or the May at the start of 3rd year? Comments on both:

1. May of the end of your 3rd year/beginning of your 4th year. This was like my situation. My school starts 4th year early. VSAS didn't open until the beginning of April, and the earliest available rotation slots were in June. I did one in June. No problem for you to wait an extra month until June. If you've already done your home rotation and it's Feb, 7 months before you apply, you're ahead of the game.

2. May at the start of 3rd year. IMHO, this time point is too early to try and get connected to an away program. They will all but completely forget you by 16 months later when you finally apply for residency. If you'd like to get connected to another hospital in order to arrange a year off of research with them, that's one thing. Otherwise, I would advise you use this time to do research with your home program, rather than struggle to arrange an away that will yield low returns. If your school will let you schedule a research rotation for a month, great. If not, schedule a slack rotation and do research outside of your hospital/clinic duties. It can take quite a bit of time to get a paper through the publication process. Better to start as early as you can, and work towards strengthening your CV before submitting your app 19 months from now.

That help?

 

[baculum1]

Thank you for the response. To clarify, my institution is on a July-July schedule so I am currently hitting the mid portion of the second half of third year. I will become an MS4 in Jun/july. I did my home institution near the beginning of my third year. I've also already completed research year off. The reason i was looking into May is because i have a core clerkship (fam med) scheduled for June (only spot i could get) so my options would be July/August for aways since May is not an option for most programs (VSAS). I suppose i can find programs that do not go through VSAS. I know of Jefferson and Pitt thus far. Any other ones you may know?

 

[SJSM001]

Thank you for the response. To clarify, my institution is on a July-July schedule so I am currently hitting the mid portion of the second half of third year. I will become an MS4 in Jun/july. I did my home institution near the beginning of my third year. I've also already completed research year off. The reason i was looking into May is because i have a core clerkship (fam med) scheduled for June (only spot i could get) so my options would be July/August for aways since May is not an option for most programs (VSAS). I suppose i can find programs that do not go through VSAS. I know of Jefferson and Pitt thus far. Any other ones you may know?

May rotations are available through VSAS (I did one) but they will be for the previous VSAS year - so the 2013-2014 VSAS year. All medical schools have different definitions/ timelines for 3rd and 4th year, so your issues are actually two-fold: a) your school will have to grant you access to 2013-2014 VSAS and b) you will have to check each program's requirements to see whether they require you to have completed all core rotations, which it sounds like you haven't, as most will require that.