Question Regarding Electives

[GrtWhtNrth]

Hello,

I am a third year american medical student at a Canadian medical school who is planning on coming back to the US for residency.

I am currently planning on doing an elective at Fox Chase and one hopefully at another big center (in the hopes of getting a good letter).

In addition, I am having a hard time deciding whether to do another Rad Onc Elective and an elective in Heme/Onc, or do one in Med Onc and one in Heme/Onc. If I did the former, I would hope to do an elective at a middle-lower tier program.

Given my unique situation, do you all think that doing 3 Rad Onc electives may be a good move? It is my hope to match in any Radiation Oncology program so I want to do what I can to increase my chances. Did anyone end up doing a lot of Rad Onc electives and little else? How is this looked upon in interview? Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

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[bananaphone]

maybe it would be best to do a combination of US and canadian. do you have plans at McGill or Princess Margaret?

 

[GrtWhtNrth]

maybe it would be best to do a combination of US and canadian. do you have plans at McGill or Princess Margaret?

Thanks so much for the quick reply!

I did think about doing a couple weeks at either, but I am not planning on applying in Canada (I have a fiancee in the states). It seemed best to try and do my electives stateside. Bananaphone, would there be any benefit to doing a canadian elective in this situation? Any thoughts in terms of how many Rad Onc electives to do?

 

[bananaphone]

Thanks so much for the quick reply!

I did think about doing a couple weeks at either, but I am not planning on applying in Canada (I have a fiancee in the states). It seemed best to try and do my electives stateside. Bananaphone, would there be any benefit to doing a canadian elective in this situation? Any thoughts in terms of how many Rad Onc electives to do?

for # of elec, i suppose one at your home institution plus two aways are the norm for US grads. for your situation coming back from canada, maybe 3 US aways would help you put your name out there. i suppose a benefit of the canadian rotation would be seeing how radonc is done in canada vs US, and learning how we could improve the specialty in the respective countries.

some things to thing about... is your fiancee going to couples match you via NRMP? extra stuff you need to do to cross from canada to us (USMLEs, ERAS, etc)?

anhyway, i'm no expert and i haven't even matched...so maybe some of the more seasoned sdn members can comment?