Sub-I's and electives

[socrates89]

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So are away electives and away sub-I's considered the same thing? For example is a trauma/cardiothoracic/pediatric surgery electives the same as a General surgery elective/sub-I in the same away institution, or will the Gen surgery elective be regarded higher than the trauma/cardiothoracic/pediatric surgery electives since you cover more of the surgical field? sorry I'm an IMG and needed that to be cleared

2. Can someone shed light on away institutions that write better LOR's for visiting students compared to others. Some institutions are known for giving generic general LOR's while others do personalize it and make you standout.

I'm looking at

Mayo clinic,
Cleveland Clinic,
Northwestern,
Duke,
Wayne State,
Wake Forest

if someone does have insight on these programs can please do let me know

Thank you

 

[Winged Scapula]

So are away electives and away sub-I's considered the same thing? For example is a trauma/cardiothoracic/pediatric surgery electives the same as a General surgery elective/sub-I in the same away institution, or will the Gen surgery elective be regarded higher than the trauma/cardiothoracic/pediatric surgery electives since you cover more of the surgical field? sorry I'm an IMG and needed that to be cleared

In general, you can expect to have more responsibility during a sub-I. After all, its a "sub-internship". It is expected that anyone doing a sub-I is going into that field of specialty, whereas an elective may be something simply taken to gain more experience in a certain topic (ie, a student doing into surgery would do a surgery sub-I but may do a radiology elective). Some schools require sub-Is to graduate, usually in medicine and surgery. It is a more intensive experience than the typical elective. YMMV.

There will be no difference in terms of value of the sub-I for you (ie, you can do a Gen Surg one, or a CT surgery one). What you don't want to do is to focus *too* much (ie, you don't want to spend all of your time doing Plastic surgery electives for example).

2. Can someone shed light on away institutions that write better LOR's for visiting students compared to others. Some institutions are known for giving generic general LOR's while others do personalize it and make you standout.

Really? I've never heard of that.

Its not the institution that writes you the letter; its the person. You do a good job with someone who is known to take care of his students and you will get a personalized letter. You perform without standing out and rotate with someone who doesn't invest the time with students and you will get a generic letter. Typically you get a generic letter because *you* are generic.

But I've never heard of certain programs having wholesale reputations for generic letters.

 

[socrates89]

thank you for the reply,

So from what you have mentioned above, clerkship's (electives) are different than Sub-I's. I was checking out the Mayo clinic's online site, and only clerkship's are available for IMG's not Sub-I 's. Doesn't that put IMG's at an unfair advantage? how do you schedule sub-I's are they even open to international students?

 

[armybound]

It would seem that the point of the rotation would be to get exposure to that program, let them get to know you, and to try to impress them with your personality, knowledge, and work ethic. It shouldn't matter if it's called a clerkship or a sub-I, either one will accomplish that goal for you.

The most important part is showing up.

 

[Winged Scapula]

thank you for the reply,

So from what you have mentioned above, clerkship's (electives) are different than Sub-I's. I was checking out the Mayo clinic's online site, and only clerkship's are available for IMG's not Sub-I 's. Doesn't that put IMG's at an unfair advantage? how do you schedule sub-I's are they even open to international students?

You are already at a disadvantage, unfair or not. The reason sub-Is are restricted to US students is because they are required for many and the program probably just doesn't have enough slots to accommodate US students and the foreign students who run toward Mayo/Harvard/JHU like lemmings (assuming some sort of magical experience at these programs). You probably haven't noticed but most schools will also restrict foreign trainees to slots left over AFTER all their home students have registered.

It would seem that the point of the rotation would be to get exposure to that program, let them get to know you, and to try to impress them with your personality, knowledge, and work ethic. It shouldn't matter if it's called a clerkship or a sub-I, either one will accomplish that goal for you.

The most important part is showing up.

The most important part is showing up AND doing a stellar job.

It doesn't matter whether its a clerkship, elective, sub-I etc. The point is to do a good job, not what the rotation is called. Honestly. I am not scanning letters to see whether this was a sub-I or elective and awarding more "points" to someone for the former. What matters to me is whether you were fully integrated into the team (ie, not just standing around), what kind of work you did and the reputation of the letter writer.