Away Rotations

[MrsSz]

My apologies for my general lack of posting/drive by posting as of late - I'm settling in to life as a mom while job searching and whatnot. This whole being in charge of another being is pretty all consuming I've discovered.

At any rate, DH and I have been talking about away rotations - audition rotations if you will - and his school hasn't been super awesome about letting them know exactly what to do. You all know I'm a crazy researcher, but I can't seem to find anything about how this works and how you apply? Any insight or advice?

[Curegirl]

SO did his before we got together so no words advice there but holy cow, how did I miss the arrival of your little one!?! Congratulations!!!

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Away Rotations

You do audition rotations in the summer/fall before you apply in September of 4th year.

Depending on the difficultly in matching in the speciality and where you want to go, people seem to do 1-3. It's perceived as ideal if you can do one far enough in advance to get a recommendation letter or two out of it (from a big name guy if in competitive speciality) so that means it has to be completed in time for them to write the letter before 9/1 and you have to give them some lead time.

We basically had to find them on our own. Some programs had helpful websites and dates, others we had to email to get those. They're often flexible in terms of start/finish dates because not every Med school calendar is identical but if it's highly competitive, it's good to be in contact with them early so they have a range of choice.

As for where to pick, he needs to think about where he wants to be and how to get the best recs. So if you do an away where they routinely take 4-5 away rotators at a time, it's harder to stand out. It's also good to do them at places where you want to match (or at least the region). Dh purposely rotated down south because he went to med school in the Midwest and we wanted to be down here.

Expect him to be there and working HARD - it's like a 4 week job interview. Plus, you're acting as an intern in that specialty when you haven't really done that before. There's a lot of studying involved. Dh was away and did not come home - I was pregnant and I didn't see him the whole month. It stunk but was worth it for the ultimately successful match.

What I listed above is our experience with a surgical, competitive match. Others may be able to share different experiences.

[MsSassyBaskets]

DH applied for his through a national online system... Forgive me but I can't remember the name of it! Many institutions participate in that, and the ones who don't, you may be able to just call or email and ask. I can ask DH what the system is and when he applied...

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

An online system is new but it's a great idea!!

[MsSassyBaskets]

Yes to what T&S said, and I would add that with the online system, more people are applying for spots and he may need to submit multiple applications per time slot. DH found it difficult because many other institutions didn't align with his time slots, and he wasn't allowed to reschedule BC his school is a bitch, so it was tough to find and apply for enough good options.

[MsSassyBaskets]

VSAS - visiting student application system. I don't remember if he needed to get access through his school though... Probably.

[alotofyarn]

Hubby applied to the two programs directly, I think. Getting the times figured out was a bit of a pain. He did one in August and one in September, I think. Most programs that offer away rotations have information on their website somewhere.

[LynnAlicia]

Thanks for the info!

[OrionGrad]

Back when DH applied, you contacted programs directly. He did three rotations back to back, in July, August, and September. I travelled with him, but but didn't see him that much. He got letters from all 3 places, if I remember correctly.
Some places (in DH's specialty) give interviews to all rotators, and some do not. Depending on how you look at it, that may be something to take into consideration when deciding where to go.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

What specialty?

And yes, there are some programs that almost never match people who don't rotate there. So if that's the case and you have your heart set on that place, you'll need to target that one first and foremost.

[OrionGrad]

For ortho, HSS comes to mind as somewhere that doesn't give interviews to everyone who rotates. Or at least that's what I've always heard.

[Vanquisher]

For Utah, in ortho, they don't give interviews to everyone that rotates.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

And at Wake Forest, they haven't often matched anyone who DOESN'T rotate...

[SoonerTexan]

Away Rotations

What specialty?

DH didn't and it didn't seem to be that big of a deal. Then again he did put a lot of effort into his home program rotation and that is where he wanted to be (and matched at). The one at the other Dallas hospital was the other obvious rotation he could have done for our goals but the timing didn't work out. He still got an interview. This was rads.