To away or not to away...

[badgas]

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I need some help with 4th year scheduling. Unfortunately I have no money to do an away elective in gas since I'm saving every penny for the application/interview process. If I do gas at my home institution but no away rotations in it, will this hurt me? I am an osteopathic student with a 228 USMLE I, 570 Comlex I, H in Surg/IM/Peds/FP, awesome surgery/IM letters. I am only applying to allopathic programs. Any help is appreciated!

 

[smgilles]

I need some help with 4th year scheduling. Unfortunately I have no money to do an away elective in gas since I'm saving every penny for the application/interview process. If I do gas at my home institution but no away rotations in it, will this hurt me? I am an osteopathic student with a 228 USMLE I, 570 Comlex I, H in Surg/IM/Peds/FP, awesome surgery/IM letters. I am only applying to allopathic programs. Any help is appreciated!

I think you will be at a disadvantage when applying to allopathic centers if you: 1.) never rotated at an allopathic university-based program; and 2.) have no letters from university-based allopathic programs.

You home institution is osteopathic, so how is that going to help you when you are only applying to allopathic programs? I too have just started 4th year and am a DO student and this is what was reiterated to me on my rotations by 2 allopathic anesthesia PDs.

I definitely think you will be better served by doing an away at a program you are interested in and securing a strong letter, which will increase your chances of interviewing/matching there. Some places give automatic interviews if you just rotate there no matter what your board scores are (i.e., Cleveland Clinic).

I personally feel the more aways you can do the better. I know money is tight, but what good does it do to save money for interviews when you don't know how many or where you will get interviews from. Does that make sense?

Just my 2 cents. Hopefully some other allopathic matched DO's will chime in.
Idio? Vent?

 

[badgas]

Even though it is not an away rotation, our home rotations are at an allopathic hospital and taught by allopathic physicians. We are only allowed to do one away in a certain specialty... so the most I would have is one letter from them. I don't really care where I match as long as it has good training... which happens to include a LOT of programs. Any other help???

 

[stephend7799]

I need some help with 4th year scheduling. Unfortunately I have no money to do an away elective in gas since I'm saving every penny for the application/interview process. If I do gas at my home institution but no away rotations in it, will this hurt me? I am an osteopathic student with a 228 USMLE I, 570 Comlex I, H in Surg/IM/Peds/FP, awesome surgery/IM letters. I am only applying to allopathic programs. Any help is appreciated!

I never even did an anesthesia rotation in medical school.. and im done with anesthesia residency

 

[InductionAgent]

I never even did an anesthesia rotation in medical school.. and im done with anesthesia residency[/QUOTE

As a general rule I would not recommend this approach in the competitive environment of anesthesia today.

As for the OP, if you can work it in at this late stage, an away rotation in anesthesia would help secure MD letters as previously mentioned, as well as help you better evaluate programs in which you're interested. Most med schools have a list of people who rent rooms pretty cheap for the month. Some programs even provide housing to visiting students (like Cleveland Clinic, but you have to apply 6 months in advance)

 

[avanb803]

bump... any other help for us w/ scheduling issues??

 

[SleepIsGood]

Just remember it's a double edged sword. It can work both ways....

If you look better on paper, then choose to defer the rotation. Vice versa for the other way around. 👍

 

[badgas]

Well I need to make the final decision by tomorrow. I'm strongly leaning towards no away rotations and training at my homing institution (which is allopathic). If anyone thinks this is a bad idea please help me out and let me know soon! Do my numbers look strong enough to land somewhere... being that I'm a DO and all? Thanks a lot!

 

[Sugar72]

Well I need to make the final decision by tomorrow. I'm strongly leaning towards no away rotations and training at my homing institution (which is allopathic). If anyone thinks this is a bad idea please help me out and let me know soon! Do my numbers look strong enough to land somewhere... being that I'm a DO and all? Thanks a lot!

Take a deep breath, don't do an away rotation if you are going to stress out about it. Your numbers are fine. Apply broadly and go to a lot of interviews and make sure to rank a lot of programs. As long as you have done an anesthesia rotation somewhere when you interview it will be fine.