Question from the FAQ

[brodaiga]

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Faq says: "In medical school, talk to the medical student rotation director for ophthalmology. Arrange to do an ophthalmology elective during the end of your third year. This will allow you to explore the field and build relationships with attendings and staff who can write a letter of support for your application. Doing your first ophthalmology elective as a fourth year is too late because applications should be submitted to the Central Application Service before September of your fourth year of medical school."

my school has no elective rotations third year. What should I do?

 

[arsenalgunner]

Just do the rotation during the 1st month of your 4th year. Tell the chairman early on that you will be applying for ophtho & will want a letter of recc from him. It's not as big a deal as the FAQ makes it seem.

 

[Wolverine98]

Just do the rotation during the 1st month of your 4th year. Tell the chairman early on that you will be applying for ophtho & will want a letter of recc from him. It's not as big a deal as the FAQ makes it seem.

I agree. Program directors know that many med schools don't have 3rd year rotations. For people who are pretty sure they want to do ophtho, it's not a big deal. It's a bigger problem if you're not sure you want to do it. There are a couple of tricks if you're really worried about getting around it. The best is to approach the department about doing some research.
If you have a "winter holiday vacation", you can spend that time doing an unofficial rotation. The upside is you get in with the department early. The downsides are that you give up your vacation time, and many of the bigwigs of the department will be on vacation, so you won't work with them. Where I went to med school, there was a two week break between 3rd and 4th year. What I did was started my first ophtho rotation (away rotation) the day after 3rd year ended, and then took two weeks off later. Honestly, my main goal was so I would be off for my anniversary, and not because I wanted to get through things early, but it had that effect.

Dave

 

[brodaiga]

thanks for the informative post. Are you an ophtho attending somewhere?

 

[Wolverine98]

thanks for the informative post. Are you an ophtho attending somewhere?

Yes, at Henry Ford in Detroit.