Need to do a west coast away rotation if I'm from there?

[watermelon master]

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[IntoTheWest]

With your sub-par application, I recommend doing an away rotation at every California residency program. I would make sure to arrive no later than 0430 to ensure that every OR is set up properly and IV fluids spiked. Leaving before 2300 indicates you are NOT dedicated to the speciality and will for sure sabotage your chances at any US residency program.

Ok, I'm done being sarcastic.

Reality is you do NOT need to do an away rotation. You have excellent exam scores and are from the west coast, programs will know you want to come back. You are more likely to hurt yourself by doing an away rotation, it is nearly impossible to impress everyone you work with for an entire month. You WILL inevitably rub somebody the wrong way and that could be the end of your chances at matching at that program. There is NOTHING you will do that'll impress residents or staff, at most you will intubate, start IVs, maybe get a few art lines and maybe have a chance to do a TAP block. Residents and staff will not expect you to perform these procedures with 100% success rate, and in all honestly residents need to do these procedures more than you. Save yourself the time and money.

 

[watermelon master]

With your sub-par application, I recommend doing an away rotation at every California residency program. I would make sure to arrive no later than 0430 to ensure that every OR is set up properly and IV fluids spiked. Leaving before 2300 indicates you are NOT dedicated to the speciality and will for sure sabotage your chances at any US residency program.

Ok, I'm done being sarcastic.

Reality is you do NOT need to do an away rotation. You have excellent exam scores and are from the west coast, programs will know you want to come back. You are more likely to hurt yourself by doing an away rotation, it is nearly impossible to impress everyone you work with for an entire month. You WILL inevitably rub somebody the wrong way and that could be the end of your chances at matching at that program. There is NOTHING you will do that'll impress residents or staff, at most you will intubate, start IVs, maybe get a few art lines and maybe have a chance to do a TAP block. Residents and staff will not expect you to perform these procedures with 100% success rate, and in all honestly residents need to do these procedures more than you. Save yourself the time and money.

Thanks for the advice - my thoughts on doing an away rotation is just to see if I would like the region, not necessarily to help me match. I was thinking about applying to one of the big 4 NYC (Columbia/Cornell/Sinai/NYU) programs so I could see what living in NYC would be like. If I end up not liking my month, I can relatively easily check off NYC and then I wouldn't have to wonder "what if" about NYC 🙂. If the rotation doesn't go too well, I would hope that it wouldn't affect my chances of matching at other big programs on the west or east coast.

I guess my question is: would doing poorly or average/mediocre at an away rotation hurt my chances at matching at that program only, or would it hurt my chances at matching at other institutions as well?

 

[DokterMom]

Some fields pretty much require away rotations; as yet, anesthesia doesn't seem to be one of them. Since you already "look good on paper", odds of an away rotation hurting you generally outweigh the odds of an away rotation helping you. The key reason not to rotate is, as @IntoTheWest notes, because if you're anything less than stellar, you'll have reduced your chances for matching at that particular program.

Why would you want to rotate? To be sure that you truly do like the specialty, to get your foot in the door at a program that's more desirable than your on-paper qualifications merit, or to get to know a region of the country (like you're proposing). So, your thought processes about rotating in NYC make a lot of sense. NYC is definitely not for everyone, but if you love it, you love it and there's no place better.

You'd have to be really, really pick-up-the-phone-and-call-your-friends-awful before a rotation in NYC would harm your chances in CA. If a CA program asks why you rotated in NYC, you simply tell the truth - that you'd heard so much about living in NYC and were curious if you would like it.

 

[watermelon master]

Some fields pretty much require away rotations; as yet, anesthesia doesn't seem to be one of them. Since you already "look good on paper", odds of an away rotation hurting you generally outweigh the odds of an away rotation helping you. The key reason not to rotate is, as @IntoTheWest notes, because if you're anything less than stellar, you'll have reduced your chances for matching at that particular program.

Why would you want to rotate? To be sure that you truly do like the specialty, to get your foot in the door at a program that's more desirable than your on-paper qualifications merit, or to get to know a region of the country (like you're proposing). So, your thought processes about rotating in NYC make a lot of sense. NYC is definitely not for everyone, but if you love it, you love it and there's no place better.

You'd have to be really, really pick-up-the-phone-and-call-your-friends-awful before a rotation in NYC would harm your chances in CA. If a CA program asks why you rotated in NYC, you simply tell the truth - that you'd heard so much about living in NYC and were curious if you would like it.

Thank you so much for your reply and I appreciate your help!

 

[JiPo]

No, with your stats, you do not need to do an away, especially since you are originally from the west coast.

if you had 0 ties to west coast, I would recommend an away rotation to show them that you are serious about going to a west coast program.

 

[deleted875186]

One piece of advice. If you do an away rotation and get a letter from a faculty, do not send that letter to other programs. Places see it, know that you rotated at that place, and may assume that’s where you really want to match. This is especially true if yoj got a letter from an NYC program and interviewed on the west cost.

 

[deleted162650]

Going into Anesthesia, 260+ step 1 score, some posters and 1-2 manuscripts, but otherwise average application, I go to a MD school in the northeast, am from the West Coast, and would like to match back there, but would be happy at any large metropolitan area anyways. Should I do an away rotation at a top institution in the west to prove that I want to go back or is it already implied given my hometown?

That being said I'm thinking about doing an away rotation at a top institution on the east coast just to see how I like it. Doing an away rotation in the east wouldn't necessarily preclude programs in the west from interviewing me, right?

Thanks for the help and advice

Not necessary.

I’m a CA native. I went to a mid tier relatively no name East Coast Med School (allo). No research or pubs. Step 1 in the same neighborhood as yours. No aways (and not even an anesthesia residency at my med school). Matched at my #1 ranked CA residency program.

 

[abolt18]

One piece of advice. If you do an away rotation and get a letter from a faculty, do not send that letter to other programs. Places see it, know that you rotated at that place, and may assume that’s where you really want to match. This is especially true if yoj got a letter from an NYC program and interviewed on the west cost.

I'm not convinced this is accurate. At least not something that is true across the board. As a DO student I did an away (and this may be why it is not true) and got a letter from a big name guy. His letter undoubtedly opened doors that would have otherwise been closed. I had multiple interviews where my letter from that person and working with him was a primary subject of conversation.

 

[lakersbaby]

Not necessary.

I’m a CA native. I went to a mid tier relatively no name East Coast Med School (allo). No research or pubs. Step 1 in the same neighborhood as yours. No aways (and not even an anesthesia residency at my med school). Matched at my #1 ranked CA residency program.

100% agree. With those stats, an away may actually hurt you more than it helps. Also it'll prob be an unnecessarily stressful rotation as you will have to be auditioning every minute of the day. Just do well where you are, get good letters and do well on the interview. I would do an away rotation in california at a lesser ranked place to just live there for a month for fun though.

 

[watermelon master]

100% agree. With those stats, an away may actually hurt you more than it helps. Also it'll prob be an unnecessarily stressful rotation as you will have to be auditioning every minute of the day. Just do well where you are, get good letters and do well on the interview. I would do an away rotation in california at a lesser ranked place to just live there for a month for fun though.

I guess the big question is, how likely is an away to actually hurt me and by hurt me does it mean just the chances at that specific program, or programs in general? I guess I can imagine a situation where I don't get a stellar letter of rec from the away rotation and don't include it in my ERAS, and then people might ask about the letter or absence of such. Anyways, can programs see where I did my away rotation at?

 

[AnonymousPD]

Going into Anesthesia, 260+ step 1 score, some posters and 1-2 manuscripts, but otherwise average application, I go to a MD school in the northeast, am from the West Coast, and would like to match back there, but would be happy at any large metropolitan area anyways. Should I do an away rotation at a top institution in the west to prove that I want to go back or is it already implied given my hometown?

That being said I'm thinking about doing an away rotation at a top institution on the east coast just to see how I like it. Doing an away rotation in the east wouldn't necessarily preclude programs in the west from interviewing me, right?

Thanks for the help and advice

WMM,

I would say your initial instincts are correct. Programs on the West Coast will assuredly take you at face value if you tell them you want to train closer to home. And I sincerely doubt anyone that notices you did an East Coast away rotation will take that to mean you have no interest in coming home and subsequently use that as justification for declining to advance your application. Going on an away rotation to try a program or city “on for size” is exactly what away rotations are for. They aren’t just to help you in the match. If you’re curious about living in NYC for a month just to see what it’s like, you should absolutely do so. Learning about a program and city free from the pressure of making an impression is a freedom few students take advantage of.

Short of committing a crime you must disclose on your ERAS, even a bad month isn’t likely to hurt you anywhere else. Remember programs don’t know and aren’t supposed to ask you where else you are applying. At most, they could contact your home program if something serious happened. In my career, I've gotten that call a grand total of one time. I think applicants believe programs communicate with each other about candidates far more than we actually do. There are only a handful of times I have called faculty I know at other programs about one of their students we had important questions about. Programs do not have a master spreadsheet where make notes about how students did on their away rotations or things they might have said during their interviews.

However, I respectfully disagree with some of the other advice that has been given on this thread. Because of your Step 1 score, several posters are telling you to play it safe, there is nothing to be gained by going on a rotation to a program you are interested in, and that you might even hurt your chances. I must say that the number of applicants who make favorable impressions while on rotation far exceeds the number who shoot themselves in the foot. If you go somewhere with the intention of making a good impression, be confident that you will. And the body of work you will compile over the course of that month will be far more representative of who you are and what you’ll be like as a resident than the hour or two you will spend interviewing and answering questions.

You’ve done some great work so far and have likely earned your way through the front door of every program you will apply to. But the reason I am cautioning you against “playing it safe” is because I am assuming you are looking at some competitive brand name programs. If you are, understand you will be mixing it up with an applicant pool full of students who are AOA, have great Step 1 and 2 scores, significant research and QI experiences, compelling personal stories, and so on. These are applicants who have done just as much as you, and some who have done more. I am willing to wager you are under-representing the rest of your career by calling it “otherwise average.” But if that is truly the case, carefully think about how much you want to depend on a metric that is mostly used as a screening tool and has little to do with success as a resident.

If you stay the course and show well at your interview, you are probably going to do great in the match. @SaltyDog and the others are correct that an away rotation is not necessary. Just know that you are likely to improve your standing on an away rotation you take seriously. And be aware that for competitive positions, a great Step 1 is just one way to demonstrate excellence. Asking these questions now and being deliberate about the next year are great things. But it’s my hope that you do more than great, I hope 12 months from now you’re a surefire top-of-the-list candidate at your favorite program.

 

[ethilo]

I'm from west coast, med school in NC, came back for West Coast residency and for life after that. Did an interventional radiology away at Denver and an anesthesiology away at ucsf.

I DID want to do an "audition" rotation at ucsf but my primary purpose of those aways was to physically get me over to the west coast for interview season. It can be so expensive to make all those west coast interviews happen from the east coast. Fortunately the ucsf away showed me that I wouldn't be able to afford even living in San Francisco so I kinda got to check that one off for me as well. But it primarily made it so I could do my interview season on a shoestring budget. I pretty much only wanted to apply to west coast residencies.