second looks at internal medicine programs

[DJ LACTULOSE]

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i'm planning on doing second looks at my top 2 choices to figure out which i want to rank #1. my question is does doing second looks at internal medicine programs improve where the program ranks you? i think the question has been asked in the ERAS forum, but i'm wondering about internal medicine specifically.

i think in the more competitive specialties second looks don't really affect anything. but for internal medicine, with so many candidates and so many positions, it seems that programs would rank applicants (that they liked) who showed more interest by doing a second look higher. is this true or am i just reading too much into things?

also, do you think a second look could backfire if you were rounding with a team and couldn't answer a pimp question? do they even pimp you when you do a second look? i haven't studied for so long that my brain is basically turned off right now.

 

[lemonade02]

lol.the pimp thing is exactly what i'm worried about

'hey visiting student, why don't you read this ekg for us?'

eek!

 

[DJ LACTULOSE]

do you really think that would happen? i don't mind being pimped as long as i know the answer... =P

 

[indiamacbean]

I was worried about the same thing last year and did second looks at UCSF/Stanford/BWH/MGH and got asked NO questions. it would be terrible to do that to an applicant. Remember that the program is selling itself to you as well. I don't think that they help much other than maybe showing interest. if are REALLY going because you can't decide then it makes sense. otherwise, enjoy your fourth year of medical school and try to take it easy. intern year will be there before you know it.

 

[CernerDrone]

I did a 2nd look and was involved in a conference which involved going around answering questions. It wasn't too bad!

 

[neehoumah]

I was worried about these things too, but went ahead and scheduled my second looks at a couple programs. They were generally arranged by the chief, and I always got put with rounding teams where everyone was really chill (only got asked the basics, like where I was from and that kind of stuff, but never pimped). The programs I did second looks at were all very accomodating- wanted to know what I wanted to say, questions I had... etc. So I'd recommend you go ahead and do it!

 

[ayfucius]

What is the latest someone should do a second look? I saved one of my favorite places for my last interview, end of January, so I was wondering if it's even worth doing a second look a week or two later?