Visiting medical students

[iheartmpls]

How common is it for MD students to do clerkships at different schools as visiting students? Do students do multiple rotations as visiting students or just a few? And why do people do it, what's the benefit?

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[psipsina]

How common is it for MD students to do clerkships at different schools as visiting students? Do students do multiple rotations as visiting students or just a few? And why do people do it, what's the benefit?

My school encourages everyone to do away rotations during our 4th year. We are allowed 3 away rotations. They are called "sub-internships" or "acting-internships" because its basically an audition at another program where you are interested in doing a residency. You get to show off your skills and they get to see if you fit in personality wise. Its also a way to get more letters of recommendation from big names which are important parts of your application.

 

[chessknt]

Isnt an audition rotation sort of defeating the point of a rotation (ie to learn, not show off)?

 

[psipsina]

Isnt an audition rotation sort of defeating the point of a rotation (ie to learn, not show off)?

You would have already done a rotation in that specialty at your school so this isn't your first exposure. And all rotations are about both learning and showing off (which is usually done by making your resident's life easier) because a good chunk of your grades during 3rd and 4th year are based on subjective evaluations not exam scores.

 

[AnotherDork]

How common is it for MD students to do clerkships at different schools as visiting students? Do students do multiple rotations as visiting students or just a few? And why do people do it, what's the benefit?

I was able to do enough away rotations this year such that I only needed to be at my home school a total of 2 months all year. I did them at a bunch of different places. It takes a fair amount of organization and communication with your student records office, but it's definitely do-able.

I did them as sort of an "audition," but as an added bonus, I learned that I didn't "love" certain aspects of one of the programs while I was there, and as a result I ended up ranking that program lower on my list and matched to a different program. So, although I don't know what it would be like in an alternate reality, I might have saved myself some aggravation by doing an away rotation there. Hope this helps.

 

[BigRedBeta]

We were allowed 3 months off campus. I did an away here in the US and one in Australia.

In my case, the US elective was not to show off, but really just to learn (I was in the PICU) and also hang out with one of my best friends from college/med school who moved to that area for his anesthesia residency. In the end though, I found out a lot about the program and it turned out to be a place that I applied to, interviewed and ranked moderately high (I matched a choice higher up on my list). All for a program that, had I not rotated there, I wouldn't have even applied to. So the benefit can be in going to a place to explore it, but if you completely suck on the rotation it won't ruin your application process (which is always the danger for a true audition rotation).

This is of course specialty dependent though. Pediatrics is certainly very different than say ortho, which places a notoriously high value on audition rotations when it comes to the Match.

My rotation in Australia was much more geared to getting to travel, and see another country. I did learn a lot about the differences in medical education between here and there, but I really wasn't interested in learning too much about adult cardiology...

 

[nacho libre]

For the people that have done is have you found that most schools charge a fee for apps? I'm just looking into it now and have noticed some of that.

And this may be dumb, but if there is no charge for visiting student rotations, where is the money coming from to pay this?

 

[AnotherDork]

For the people that have done is have you found that most schools charge a fee for apps? I'm just looking into it now and have noticed some of that.

And this may be dumb, but if there is no charge for visiting student rotations, where is the money coming from to pay this?

If I recall, they charge some nominal amount, $50-$100 per block or something. The schools on VSAS, last year were only like $10 per school for up to 3 blocks at each school (or something similar)

My thought about your second question (and I have absolutely no data to back this up) is that there's already a system in place, so a few extra visiting med students on a few random services in the hospital isn't really going to break the bank. There also isn't much formal education during these electives, so there aren't too many resources tied up in your education, it's mostly just helping out with the clinical work and if you're lucky enough, you'll get an attending interested in teaching as well. Hope this helps.