Peds Convert

[WestcoastMedicine]

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Hey everyone,

I am a third year medical student (for two more months) and am starting to research pediatrics programs. I was dead set on emergency medicine until a great general peds/neonatology rotation and fell in love with the field.

My question is that obviously you cannot rotate everyone you would be interested in going so what is a good game plan? I feel that universities, especially those with fellowships may give you an edge when apply due to faculty connections. I have also heard that if peopel from your school matched a program recently they are most likely satisfied with the end product from your school and are more likely to take a chance by ranking you without you have rotated there. I am in philadelphia and have set up a NICU month at CHOP and a peds sub-I at Dupont Childrens. I have another month and am not sure where to go. I am not tied down geographically and want to go somewhere I have a shot at matching, and also would get the best education. Do you think its a bad idea to rotate at CHOP if I feel I probably wont match there, but might get a letter of rec or just be able to talk about my experiences there during an interview? From my school in the last two years we have sent people to geisinger, Jefferson/Dupont, St Christophers, Einstein, Cooper, Crozer-chester, Robert Wood Johnson, Rainbow, Pittsburgh, Hershey, Inova Fairfax, Texas, Rochester, Jacksonville, Orlando, UCONN, UMaryland, and thats all I can remember... Thanks for your help guys

 

[andyh]

First of all, congrats on deciding on pediatrics! You are right that rotating everywhere would basically be like starting residency and that shouldn't be your goal.

The first question you want to ask yourself is whether you want your training in a community setting or at an academic setting (and there are programs that have a mix).

Then once you figure that out, you want to figure out which programs will be a good fit for you. Apply with breadth and depth (per my Dean) meaning that you want to apply to a broad spectrum and don't count yourself out of a program if you don't think your "numbers" cut it. Programs are looking for much more than just numbers.

So it is great to hear you have set up these away rotations. I would caution that away rotations are a double edged sword. You can do a search on SDN and see all the posts on this. And on that note, you are right that you do _not_ need to rotate at a place to get ranked. I think my main emphasis is that you should view these rotations as a chance for you to figure out if the places you are rotating are a good fit for you. You want to perform well but the great thing about away electives (I'm not a fan of away sub-Is) is that you can see outside in for a whole month compared with the 8 hr interview day.

As for your questions on CHOP, this is a personal decision. I did an away elective in Oncology and absolutely loved it. It is something I am very interested in and my thought was to experience it at a place I was seriously considering for residency. Not only did I have a great time learning about Peds Onc, I got a great chance to see the rest of the hospital/staff/admin etc... and I felt that it was a very good fit for me. I then used this experience plus my home school to figure out what would be important for me for residency and during all my interviews, I made sure I covered those points.

Wrt a letter, I actually wasn't planning on asking for a letter but then I was advised to get a letter from that program just for that program. I know in other fields, people will get letters from the away and put that as part of their standard application which makes sense to me (I had already sent my application with a set group of recommenders).

Again, I would emphasize that away rotations are not necessary. The fact that your home school has had very good matches in the past will be of great help for you. I didn't interview at all the places but on your list, I did go to Rainbow, Pittsburgh, and Texas. I ranked all of them and would have been more than happy to have gone to any of them.

Again, congrats on choosing peds and best of luck.

Andy

 

[CrazyPeds527]

Echoing some of the wonderful post by Andyh (with the first echo being Congrats on your choice!!!)

*There is some good stuff in the FAQ about this topic, check it out; its got some good posts linked.

1) Do an away elective if you like, but not a SubI. My thought on this was seeing my classmates that did SubIs (and in the class the year before) was that they were so busy they didnt have enough time to evaluate their thoughts of the city, which IMO is half of the reason you do an away. In peds, like Andyh said, its not necessary to do one at all, but may give you a good feel for a program. I actually did an away, and matched somewhere completely different.

2) Although it is a good measure to see where other students from your school matched, it doesnt tell the full story of where they wanted to match, and where they didnt. For instance, my school this year is sending peds grads to 4 locations (NYU, Maryland, Rainbow and Ohio St) where they havent matched any previous peds grads. I think this year's peds grads had a good mix of people who wanted to stay local, and a different set who were looking for something different, for whatever reason.

Bottom line: your first cut after you decide if you are looking for community or academic, should be where do you want to live. If you dont want to live somewhere, the residency could be amazing and you probably still wont go there.

3) You may also find that there are multiple places on your list that you would be thrilled to attend, which will make your rank list much easier (or harder, depending on how you look at it!) to assemble. On your list, i interviewed at St Chris, CHOP, Pitt and Rainbow (matched here), and would have been thrilled with my training at any of these places.

Good luck!
~Crazy

 

[WestcoastMedicine]

Thanks for the advice guys. Part of the problem is my school no longer has its own hospital so we do our clinicals at various hospitals in the Philadelphia area, UPMC, Geisinger, and Christiana in DE. We do have multiple ambulatory clinics throughout the city and have a few doctors' offices/surgicenters on campus. Regardless, any peds month I do would have to be away besides the urban clinics we have. Again, thanks for the advice I am going to keep my rotation at Dupont and CHOP for now and am excited/apprehensive about the application process this fall!!!