Only 2 months before January of 4th year to set up my own rotations.

[MrChance2]

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I'm about to start 3rd year and recently got my schedule. I only have 2 months off in 2016 (September and December) to set up my own rotations before the 2017 match. I do have Jan-March of my 4th year open though but I've been told that may be too late as sites already know who they want by then. How important are these "golden months" in the 1st half of 4th year? I know a few people in my class that have 5-6 golden months. Should I try to change this? Other than for this issue I love my schedule.

I'm interested in doing Neurology or Psych. Thanks.

 

[URHere]

First of all, how on earth do you have your MS4 schedule more than a year in advance?

But, to answer your question...unless you need to schedule substantial away rotations, your elective months will not be as important as when you have your Sub-I rotations scheduled. Do you have rotations in neuro or psych on your schedule for Summer of 2016? If not, you need to do what you can to fix that - grades and LORs from these Sub-Is will be important and you want them to be in place before ERAS is submitted in September.

If you were applying to something like neurosurgery or radiation oncology, I would advise you to do away rotations during June/July/August of MS4 year because that is very much expected for an applicant in those specialties. Although you are free to do aways for neuro or psych, it isn't nearly as vital to your application unless you have your heart set on a very competitive program, and I think it would be just fine to set up an away in September. My guess is that you will want to use either December or January for interviews, and that the tail end of your year will be used for random, gentle electives like every other MS4 in the country.