when is the best time to do audition rotation?

[PTOSIS]

what do i do if i am intested in 2 specialties? shold i do electives in them at the very beginning of fourth year? i am interested in PM&R and Rheumatology. do your audition rotations have to be scheduled around oct/nov for them to remmember you for interviews? any help would be appreciated. p

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[14022]

neither are early matches, so theres not a huge rush to get pm&r and rheum done right away, but if youre planning on doing away rotations you should get them done earlier than later

luckily, rheum and pm&r can have some overlap so both electives will be useful for either field...keep in mind that IM and pm&r are both fairly non-competitive so an away rotation is not necessary...you should do it for you to get a better look at other programs rather than feeling it necessary to impress them...

i did away electives in october and november...i think this is a great time to do them for many reasons

first, you have july-september to prepare for your away electives with a sub-i or to get some other things done...i took step 2 ck and cs in july and then finished eras in august so i wouldnt have to worry about it while i was doing my away electives...i also got my letters of rec squared away while i was still at my home school...i would not want to be worrying about getting these while i was out of town...getting all these things done allowed me to spend my time reading during my elective instead of worrying about other things

second, it is close enough to interview season allowing you to make an impact when they are deciding to offer you an interview...but if you decide to do away rotations earlier than this, it probably will not hurt you...

thirdly, it is not during the interview season when you may have to miss days from your away elective to interview elsewhere...it may look bad if you do an away rotation in january and have to miss 3 or 4 days to interview

in terms of applying for away rotations, it can be a huge pain at some places and require a bunch of vaccines and health records and transcripts and sometimes letters of rec...so if i were you i would start emailing the programs you think you may want to do an away rotation and find out their requirements...i did not do this and i found myself going to the doctor for the vaccines required for a program...then i looked at a different program and realized i needed a different set of vaccines and lab tests for that program so i had to go back to the doctor and of course you cant get an appt for a month or so....it was very inconvenient so try to avoid this if possible...

good luck!

 

[PTOSIS]

thank you for your reply,
the reason i was thinking of doing PM&R earlier is that i have no exposure to the field till 4th year. thanx again for your advice!

 

[DrRobert]

August and September are the best months in my opinion.

July can be bad because the entire hospital is adjusting to a new intern class.

When rotating in August and September, you still have plenty of time for your letter writers to get their LORs written and turned in by November 1st.

The #1 or #2 reason med students do away rotations is to get stellar LORs.

During these months you are also fresh in the minds of the faculty, so they will remember you come interview time.

The problem with October and November is that you cannot get LORs from these rotations, which defeats the whole purpose of doing an away rotation.

 

[Von Hohenheim]

Remember that when you "audition" you're just as likely to lower your chaces as you are to raise them. But if you got the mula and feel like doin' some travelin' go ahead. 👍

 

[sophiejane]

Remember that when you "audition" you're just as likely to lower your chaces as you are to raise them. But if you got the mula and feel like doin' some travelin' go ahead. 👍

I disagree with this. I think if you are motivated and really make an effort at a site where you are interested in matching, you have a very good chance of impressing them, unless you are just a really awful person or don't try, or if you have totally overshot your goals, like deciding last minute you want to do something you little experience in it until you do your audition (like surgery, etc).

Our dean told me that the #1 way to match at your top choices is to rotate there. A PD from a large county hospital in my area told me that what most PDs want to see is that you are competent, trainable, and play well with others, and the best way to show this is to rotate with them.

I've spent a lot of time over my 3rd year Christmas break researching programs on the internet, comparing what they offer, looking at their stats, etc. so that I will have plenty of time to make sure I can rotate at my top choices. This may be too anal for some of you, but it has really helped me make some decisions about next year.

 

[cyanocobalamin]

Remember that when you "audition" you're just as likely to lower your chaces as you are to raise them. But if you got the mula and feel like doin' some travelin' go ahead. 👍

As I always say, you can impress but you could also distress.

I know one guy who looked awesome on paper 240+ bs. Went to Ivy league institution to do an away in ob/gyn. Really screwed up - told people there he'd really not do the pelvics for uninteresting cases because he had done 'em already. So, if you look great on paper and have some axis II or higher disorders, you might not want to do an away. I would think doing an away at a 'reach' program that you would love to be at but would also be ok with not matching at would be ideal (in case you screw up).

August and September are the best months in my opinion.

July can be bad because the entire hospital is adjusting to a new intern class.

When rotating in August and September, you still have plenty of time for your letter writers to get their LORs written and turned in by November 1st.

The #1 or #2 reason med students do away rotations is to get stellar LORs.

During these months you are also fresh in the minds of the faculty, so they will remember you come interview time.

The problem with October and November is that you cannot get LORs from these rotations, which defeats the whole purpose of doing an away rotation.

I agree with this. I am going into PM&R which is becoming a little more competitive each year with only ~300 spots (there are 20 NYCOM students applying this year I have heard). Anyway did my away rotations in August and late Sept. in time to get letters for eras. In a small field letters are important because they all know each other. And externships in December or Jan as mentioned would interfere with interviews. Good luck!

 

[FACS]

I know one guy who looked awesome on paper 240+ bs. Went to Ivy league institution to do an away in ob/gyn. Really screwed up - told people there he'd really not do the pelvics for uninteresting cases because he had done 'em already.

Ok, that guy was just incredibly dumb. 😱

So, if you look great on paper and have some axis II or higher disorders, you might not want to do an away.

Wait a minute. That includes almost every medstudent in the country. Don't you mean "axis II disorderes that are different than those of most of the doctors"??

 

[Wednesday]

Not sure if you're asking two different questions or if you've confused "elective" with "audition". If you have no idea what you want to do (ie IM vs PM&R) you probably want to schedule an elective in each (in this case Rheum) as early as possible. This will take two months out of the beginning of the year, so you want to do this probably July and August (or earlier if you can). This should yield a letter. Then you can do a second rotation in the specialty you decide on later to get another letter. It might be hard to set up an early away rotation if you haven't yet decided what you are going into yet.

 

[PTOSIS]

Thank You all for your replys.