Away Rotations

i'm an idiot ms1 so take anything i say with a grain of salt, but i am a student at san antonio and an ortho hopeful. as far as i can see the program is great. all of the residents that i have had interactions with are laid back and really want to teach. i have been told that students don't get alot of attention from attendings, but even if that is the case in the end its the residents opinion of you that sticks. san antonio has some huge ortho names (green, rockwood, williams, etc) although i'm sure getting a rec from one of them would be a longshot. the PD, Dr. Daniel Carlisle, is a really nice guy and very approachable. hope any of this was helpful

bonicusMaximus

It's definitely not too late to be applying for aways. Most programs that I know of don't even start considering visiting students until after their own students have had first choice, and those deadlines tend to be in May/June. Some of the more "competitive" places with fewer spots may have filled, but I'm sure there are a ton of good places out there still, many of whom are very friendly to rotators. Sounds like you may be interested in the South, but I did a rotation at Loyola in Chicago and found them to be very rotator friendly (upside is that it's easy to get a spot, downside is that they get 30-40 rotators per year). Another option is to do a rotation a little later in the fall, since the most popular times are July-September. I already had enough letters, so I did a rotation at a big-name program in November and was one of only 2 rotators at that time. Upside is that you have more one-on-one time to make a good impression and will be the last rotators they see before interviews, downside is that it's too late to get letters usually. Anyway, don't panic because there are a lot of great places to rotate and even if you don't get the exact place you want you can still get one in that geographic region which will still help a lot. Also, it doesn't hurt to call the places that have filled occasionally, because people always cancel their rotations and spots may open up. Good luck!

I interviewed at San Antonio and was impressed with their program. I came there not really considering it as a place for me, but when I formed my ROL I was surprised at how it had crept up my list. I liked the residents, the town, and all of the staff I interviewed with. As stated previously, it's nice to have big names to train under, but the best part of the program is Dr. Carlisle. He seemed like a genuine guy who is working hard to improve the program and would be a real resident advocate. Probably one of my three favorite people on the trail last year along with Dr. Bray in Greenville and Dr. Dirschl at UNC.

sa is a great program (i am totally biased);
you won't get a letter from dr. rockwood (rarely works with students) or williams (no longer writes letters), but if you work hard you can totally get letters from drs. wirth, corley, chang, dutta, etc. the attendings are awesome. they may not go looking for the student in the case, but if you are interested and prepared, you can get a letter and some cool experience.

cheers.
fg