Something to think about...

[Indie4]

There is a lot of talk on these boards about choosing between X-COM vs Y-COM. Here is something that has come up for me as a 3rd year that I wish I would have researched more. Perhaps it would have influenced my decision and maybe will help with someone here.

When choosing between schools...find out what rotation requirements in the clinical years are like. Don't assume they are all the same. I go to a school that is big on family medicine with a push towards the rural underserved. This is in no way a bad thing. However, it has not been a good fit for me. I have been required to do 3 months of FM and a full month of OMM in my 3rd year. One of the FM months was in a rural town 2+ hours away from where I live. In the 4th year I will be required to do 2 more months in a rural hospital. Being from a large city I dislike being required to live in a rural town away from my wife for 3 months of rotations when I have no interest in rural FM. In addition, two of my electives are required to be in "primary care". This year I will only have 2 months for electives to see things outside of FM and primary care that I may want to do as a career. This is tough because I have to start setting up "audition rotations" for residencies Im interested in. It has been hard to see a whole lot when Im booked with so much FM. I guess what Im trying to say is that if a school has a mission statement and is set on training primary care physicians, and you want to specialize, you might not have as much liberty to create a schedule that will allow the time to explore.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[spazzz]

i guess that's the mission of osteopathy huh?

 

[JaggerPlate]

There is a lot of talk on these boards about choosing between X-COM vs Y-COM. Here is something that has come up for me as a 3rd year that I wish I would have researched more. Perhaps it would have influenced my decision and maybe will help with someone here.

When choosing between schools...find out what rotation requirements in the clinical years are like. Don't assume they are all the same. I go to a school that is big on family medicine with a push towards the rural underserved. This is in no way a bad thing. However, it has not been a good fit for me. I have been required to do 3 months of FM and a full month of OMM in my 3rd year. One of the FM months was in a rural town 2+ hours away from where I live. In the 4th year I will be required to do 2 more months in a rural hospital. Being from a large city I dislike being required to live in a rural town away from my wife for 3 months of rotations when I have no interest in rural FM. In addition, two of my electives are required to be in "primary care". This year I will only have 2 months for electives to see things outside of FM and primary care that I may want to do as a career. This is tough because I have to start setting up "audition rotations" for residencies Im interested in. It has been hard to see a whole lot when Im booked with so much FM. I guess what Im trying to say is that if a school has a mission statement and is set on training primary care physicians, and you want to specialize, you might not have as much liberty to create a schedule that will allow the time to explore.

You bring up a very good point that I think pre meds should definitely consider when choosing a school. It seems to me that a lot of people don't read into clinical or enjoy the idea of 'being able to go anywhere' for clinical years which seems to be viewed as a negative thing by most of the older members on the board.

 

[RySerr21]

There is a lot of talk on these boards about choosing between X-COM vs Y-COM. Here is something that has come up for me as a 3rd year that I wish I would have researched more. Perhaps it would have influenced my decision and maybe will help with someone here.

When choosing between schools...find out what rotation requirements in the clinical years are like. Don't assume they are all the same. I go to a school that is big on family medicine with a push towards the rural underserved. This is in no way a bad thing. However, it has not been a good fit for me. I have been required to do 3 months of FM and a full month of OMM in my 3rd year. One of the FM months was in a rural town 2+ hours away from where I live. In the 4th year I will be required to do 2 more months in a rural hospital. Being from a large city I dislike being required to live in a rural town away from my wife for 3 months of rotations when I have no interest in rural FM. In addition, two of my electives are required to be in "primary care". This year I will only have 2 months for electives to see things outside of FM and primary care that I may want to do as a career. This is tough because I have to start setting up "audition rotations" for residencies Im interested in. It has been hard to see a whole lot when Im booked with so much FM. I guess what Im trying to say is that if a school has a mission statement and is set on training primary care physicians, and you want to specialize, you might not have as much liberty to create a schedule that will allow the time to explore.

where do you go to school?

 

[PistolPete]

I think this is a very important point that is being raised by the OP, and it should be looked at very seriously by all applicants. Personally, I think that any school can prepare you for Step 1 and give you a good basic science education in the first two years of medical school. If YOU work hard enough, and study enough, you can do very well on the boards. This is not the case for clinical years, in my opinion.

Learning medicine really is an apprenticeship, and third year is all about learning from residents and other physicians. You can't learn everything from a book. That's why I think THIRD YEAR is the most important year in medical school, and applicants should thoroughly investigate how many rotations they will be doing that year and in which specialties (is family medicine 3 months, with only 1 month of IM, for example??). The number of TRUE electives in fourth year is also important (and if you can do electives third year, even better). Applicants should find out how many electives they can do in fields other than primary care, because you never know what specialty you will end up liking and will want to pursue. If it's something competitive, and you only have 2 non-primary care electives that you can do fourth year, then you will be in a tough situation for audition rotations.

Anyway, just my $0.02.

 

[ThisIsYourLife]

can I ask what school you are at?

 

[DrMidlife]

...I have been required to do 3 months of FM and a full month of OMM in my 3rd year. One of the FM months was in a rural town 2+ hours away from where I live. In the 4th year I will be required to do 2 more months in a rural hospital. Being from a large city I dislike being required to live in a rural town away from my wife for 3 months of rotations when I have no interest in rural FM. In addition, two of my electives are required to be in "primary care". This year I will only have 2 months for electives to see things outside of FM and primary care that I may want to do as a career. This is tough because I have to start setting up "audition rotations" for residencies Im interested in...

Hang on, are you saying that you're a 3rd year, that you have 2 months of electives for audition rotations during 3rd year, that you haven't started setting any of these up yet, and that you're upset with your school for lack of opportunity?

I'm three years behind you, so I'm nobody, but I'm not convinced that you're being deprived of something here.

I looked up the school I'm going to, as advised. Nova's 3rd year curriculum shows no electives, and no fluff. You have to push some 3rd year rotations to 4th year if you want elective time 3rd year. There's a minimum of 2 months lead time to get the form in for an away rotation. (Away sites look to require more time than this.) Nova requires 3 months of rural/underserved during 4th year. http://medicine.nova.edu/academics/clinical/forms/clinmanual.pdf. Nova matches surg residents into allo programs, so one would think auditions happen.

Sounds like Nova's less providential than your school, and I'm able to see how to make auditions happen there. Am I on crack with this?

Is the actual problem here that you didn't KNOW you were going to need to do auditions, until now? I'm not trying to be a dick, don't even have one, just trying to find out what hell you're trying to help us avoid.

 

[scpod]

....I looked up the school I'm going to, as advised. Nova's 3rd year curriculum shows no electives, and no fluff. You have to push some 3rd year rotations to 4th year if you want elective time 3rd year. There's a minimum of 2 months lead time to get the form in for an away rotation. (Away sites look to require more time than this.) Nova requires 3 months of rural/underserved during 4th year. http://medicine.nova.edu/academics/clinical/forms/clinmanual.pdf. Nova matches surg residents into allo programs, so one would think auditions happen.....

You should still talk to some current Nova students about it. I've talked to a few of them and they told me that the "electives" weren't always true electives. What I mean is that they are limited to how many electives they can do in a certain field. I've been told that some students have had to "lie" to the clinical ed office about what they were doing to get more than two surgery electives in fourth year, for example. I know that I can do my electives in any field I want where I'm going, but you should check that out first, wherever you go.

I also only have to do one rural/underserved rotation in fourth year. Three seems a bit excessive, but I guess you could do them after the match is over if they'll let you. It just seems like that would get in the way of audition rotations. Again, I'd talk to some current students about how they handle that. We also have 6 weeks lead time for away rotations, so the 2 months doesn't sound objectionable. You may want to ask current students what happens if an away rotation falls through at the last minute-- it does happen-- or if you miss the 2 month deadline.

Keep in mind that the 3rd and 4th year students are really your best source of information. None of the admissions office people have ever been through it and they don't know crap about the process usually-- just what they've been told to say. You'll want to find out how they go about picking core rotations and things like that. No one but the students who've been through it can really help you with that. There's just so much that the website can't tell you.

 

[PokerDoc]

the OP sounds like a nova student.. i know they require the rural rotations and leave less time than most schools for specialty rotations

 

[DrMidlife]

the OP sounds like a nova student.. i know they require the rural rotations and leave less time than most schools for specialty rotations

Nope, Nova doesn't have the OP's OMM rotation or 3 months of FP in 3rd year, nor does Nova schedule electives 3rd year.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Guys, listen to the op. My school requires a 1 month rural rotation 4th year, and I'm so happy we don't have more than that. If you have zero interest in rural medicine or primary care, these requirements can make your life pretty miserable.

 

[RySerr21]

Guys, listen to the op. My school requires a 1 month rural rotation 4th year, and I'm so happy we don't have more than that. If you have zero interest in rural medicine or primary care, these requirements can make your life pretty miserable.

what schoooool?

 

[Toohotinvegas33]

If anyone is interested heres what DMU has in the catalog

Year III
Internal Medicine (8 weeks)
Family Medicine (8 weeks)
Psychiatry (4 weeks)
General Pediatrics (4 weeks)
Obstetrics/Gynecology (4 weeks)
General Surgery (4 weeks)
Electives (8 weeks)

Year IV
Family Medicine (4 weeks)
Rural Medicine or Community Medicine (4 weeks)
Electives (28 weeks)

 

[scdocusc]

What's interesting is that Pikeville SOM has a focus on rural osteopathic medicine yet they never really state that rural FP rotations are required. I'm pretty sure it's because most of their sites are in rural areas anyway. However, there are many that arent. I have an idea that the OP might be a student at VCOM. They do require rural FP rotations

 

[scpod]

What's interesting is that Pikeville SOM has a focus on rural osteopathic medicine yet they never really state that rural FP rotations are required. I'm pretty sure it's because most of their sites are in rural areas anyway. However, there are many that arent. I have an idea that the OP might be a student at VCOM. They do require rural FP rotations

Can't be VCOM. They have 4 months of electives fourth year and no OMM rotation requirement. One thing that Pikeville does have in common with the OP is that there are only 2 total months of real "electives". The other months they call "electives" have to be served in specific fields. There are several schools that only give 2 months of real electives, though, so it's not really abnormal. Personally, I'd have to think really hard before choosing one of those schools because it doesn't allow as much flexibility.

 

[MaximusD]

What's interesting is that Pikeville SOM has a focus on rural osteopathic medicine yet they never really state that rural FP rotations are required. I'm pretty sure it's because most of their sites are in rural areas anyway. However, there are many that arent. I have an idea that the OP might be a student at VCOM. They do require rural FP rotations

A better guess would actually be WVSOM.

 

[scpod]

A better guess would actually be WVSOM.

It would be a good guess because they have a total of 20 weeks of FP, although their catalog doesn't say anything about an OMM rotation. The schedule also seems to include just 14 weeks of electives. If I had to guess I would be inclined to agree with you.

 

[scdocusc]

what advantage does additional nonrestrictive electives have? I'm just curious and dont mean to sound aggressive. Why are only 2 free months of electives bad?

 

[scpod]

...Why are only 2 free months of electives bad?

I have six places where I'd like to do EM rotations because that's what I'd like to do. I have two required EM rotations, but I'm also required to do those at an affiliated hospital. With only 2 elective months I couldn't possibly do that.

The same thing applies for other specialties, like surgery or gas...etc. Some schools even limit the number of "electives" you can do in one field. So, when they say you get 20 weeks of electives, it might not mean that you can do 20 weeks of surgery, for instance. If you really have your heart set on a particular field and you want to do "audition" rotations, then the lack of true elective time will definitely hurt you.

 

[DOctorJay]

you may also want to consider time available for studying for boards (not just part 1 by the way, also ask about part 2 - there seems to be huge variability here).