Away Rotations

Does anyone have any information on away rotations? My husband has been talking about doing one during the coming year. I'm not sure what the benefits are. I've heard some people say they did an away rotation to get out of a cold climate for a while, and others because they needed a great letter of rec. Are the reasons really that varied?

And a completely unrelated question: How much can we expect to spend on the resident interviewing process? I'm sure much depends on where the interviews are, but I've heard of people applying to 50 places. Is this normal? Do you have any control over when your interview takes place?

We're not quite at the stage where I should be really considering these things, but since it seems to be what my husband is talking about lately, I'm curious.

Away rotations have the benefit of a change of scenery, exposure to a different atmosphere, and the chance to get letters of recommendation. It's also an avenue to getting an interview offer from that site -- especially if that's where you want to end up. The downside of away rotations can be that it feels like a month long interview.

What speciality is he interested in? That can have a lot of influence on how the away rotation feels and also how much the interview process will cost. When DH interviewed for internal medicine it was fairly laid back. I don't even remember how much the whole process cost -- under $1,000. Things to include in the cost: a suit to interview in (if needed), about $300 or so for applications, and about $300-$700 per trip for away interviews. In less competitive specialties you can apply to and interview with fewer programs. I think DH did 8 or so for IM, was offered interviews for all, and did about 5 interviews. When he applied to dermatology it was an entirely different situation. I think we spent around $4K. He applied to 25 or 30 programs and interviewed at 10-12 (don't remember). For dermatology and other competitive programs, a lot of applicants apply to 50 or more programs (I think ERAS lets you apply to 25 or so for a flat cost with each additional program costing more).

The number of interview dates depends on how many positions a program has to fill. The more positions to fill, the more interviews given and dates available. You usually get a letter or email inviting you to interview with the date or dates available to select from. The interview season for the regular match (not early match) runs from late November to early February, give or take a few weeks.

[SuzySunshine]

I think Nellie pretty much covered it but I can give you our take on it too. My husband could not fit an away rotation into his schedule but he was very interested in spending some time with the program that we thought would be his first choice. He worked it out with them that he was able to spend a week on their service. I think if you are VERY serious about a program an away rotation is a great way to see if you fit in and show them what you can do. Most of our friends did away rotations at prgrams they ended up matching at and are glad they did.

As for the interview cost - it very much depends on how many you do. I would guesstimate that ours averaged $400-$800/interview depending on how cheap of an airfare we could find. My DH applied to 20 was granted interviews at 18 and only interviewed at 12. Some placed paid for one night hotel stay but most didn't pay for anything except meals while you were at sponsored functions.

It is a long process and it doesn't seem like it will ever end, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

Good Luck!

[twinsmom]

Shella -
I don't know if I should give you our experience - it might scare you a little ...
But, first - as for away rotations - for my hubby, we feel like it is what opened the door for the interview, and ultimately the match. He went and worked his butt off and got to know all of the faculty really well. He applied to Dermatology, so it was a little bit different then some of the other specialties (very cut/throat, etc). His grades helped him to make the cut off of the appicant pool, but he was just average for the derm applicants with his scores. I think it was his hard work and making the effort to do an away rotation that really helped him get the interview there... I have heard others things from other people, however, so just take our experience for what it's worth .
Okay, for the interview - we went a little overboard. DH applied to 92.. yes that is NINETY TWO schools, just for residency - PLUS he had to apply to a bunch for his preliminary year. One word would describe our interview season... INSANE. It was so out of control - he seriously criss-crossed the country interviewing. I stopped count at 30 interviews. He only had 13 for the actual residency and the rest were for preliminary programs. Our cost was 5K-7K with everything together 8O . I still look back and wonder how we got through it.
But, being on the other side of it (for a whole THREE WEEKS now!!), for us it completely paid off. We got our top choice for residency and our 2nd choice for preliminary. It was definitely a dream come true for dh. I must admit, I wasn't too enthusiastic about forking out all of the doe for the interviews - I though dh was being just a WEE bit anal (to say the LEAST!!), but opening the letter on match day and seeing the results in writing made all fo the stress and money worth it.
I know that other specialties aren't quite that extreme, so I think it all depends on what he wants to go into and where you would like to end up. It's good that you are looking at it now, though because the earlier you can start with getting experience for letters, research, etc, the better off you will be come application time (My hubby didn't decide on Derm until 6 weeks before ERAS opened up so we were completely scrambling for EVERYTHING over the whole first half of his 4th year - as a result we haven't gotten to enjoy the "4th year haven" that everyone raves about ). My advice is right when he decides, get involved in everything he can with that specialty and get things done EARLY!!
Take care and have a wonderful day!
Jen B.

[DCJenn]

Here's my take on it-

Loved it! It was a change of pace for him, and for me- but here's why it worked for us:

1) we weren't married yet

2) he was military and therefore all the travel was paid. In addition he was able to go to military bases other than Army bases- like San Diego and Portsmouth, Va.

3) because he was military and had decided to do peds and went to USUHS, we knew that there would be no civilian residency so he HAD to interview at the four providers of peds residencies in the Army. (Hawaii, Seattle, San Antonio or DC- we ended up in San Antonio)

4) He was gone on rotations for 9 of the 14 months that we dated.

5) I had a stressful job and an insane (in the let's go out to the Irish Bar across the street kind of insane) boss.

6) I was able to work out for two hours every day at my gym that was 4 blocks away from my condo- I was deeply afraid of being sent to Hawaii with flabby arms.

We had no problems at all with the distance or the separation. I had all of my long distance go to Southwest Airlines Frequent Flyer points and managed to get 2 free flights out of the whole process as well. As a matter of fact, MY job now requires weekly travel so we're totally used to it.

Jenn

My husband did a 3 minth rotation and his entire 4th year at away. It did work for his advantage. He was able to confirm that this was the place his wanted his residency and in turn they were able to see what he had to offer. We were living in Kansas City at the time and the rotations were in Phoenix. It was a great time for some networking to go on. He was also able to get a feel for the city and he had a great sales pitch when I decide to come out for a visit. In fact his residency has a 6 mos away rotation for 3rd year-I can not even think about that one yet!!

As far as the interview selection, it is a fun/stressfull time. My little overconfident (he learned a lesson girls) only applied to 5 program!!! We had made a list and checked it twice and he had narrowed it down on his own. It did work out like we planned but there was a moment when I saw a scared man. He said he had a "good feeling" all along- that was what I like to refer to as M-day!!

I think we better start saving for the interviewing expenses right now. If my husband decides to apply to 92(!) schools, I don't know what I will do, that really is insane! But, really its nice to know that all the time/money/effort is worth it in the end. I don't know exactly what he will do, if it will be closer to 92 or 5, but I'm hoping for 5.

I'm also not sure what will come of the away rotations. He's interested in optho and the school he is at right now actually has a really good program, and many of the older students didn't do away rotations because of that. But he definately is a 'change of scenery' guy.

Thanks a lot for all your experiences. Its so helpful to get info from those who have been there/done that.

I agree with everything that's been said... my boyfriend really regretted not doing an away rotation at UCLA when he ended up NOT getting an interview there. He had heard that no impression is better than a bad impression, but at competitive schools, you've just got to get some face time there.

Definitely the number of interviews depends on his specialty. I would just warn against doing too many interviews if he doesn't have to... I saw people get burned out pretty fast, and as a result, they had a harder time distinguishing between the programs (it all started to blur together) and said that maybe they didn't perform as well as they could have in a couple interviews.

He might want to schedule some easy interviews (in your home city to avoid travel expenses) for warm up/practice, then hit his top choices, and save some back-ups for last so he can cancel if he wants.