This is a great question. I certainly don't know the answer. I would be interested in hearing people's replies. My question/concern would be that we have such little time to do aways. Would it be more advantageous to have the opportunity to see/be seen by another program entirely?

Good luck.

I would recommend you not put all your eggs in one basket. If you do well on your away, you will impress them in one month and a second just means you have 4 extra weeks to do something stupid and screw that up. Furthermore, being there for 1 month already puts you ahead of 98% of applicants as far as proving interest in that program.

I would highly recommend you spend the second month at a seperate program in the same region.

I agree with bbones. You have a much higher chance of screwing up in that additional month than you have in proving in more that you want to be there. Also, as competitive as ortho is, its better to use a broad approach and improve your chance of matching at multiple places, so it would probably be better to rotate at an additional program. I've actually heard from some PDs that usually even just a 2 week rotation can give the program all the info they need to know about u.

. . . a second just means you have 4 extra weeks to do something stupid and screw that up. . .

Good point

I love the play-not-to-lose attitude. Anyway, they won't let you do two rotations because you'll be taking away one of their chances to see another student.

You'll seem like a desperate tool.

I'd definitely recommend going to more than one place. Doing 4 weeks at a residency will answer all the committment and compatibility questions a residency could have about an applicant. They will know that you're a good candidate by then.

By taking a look at another residency, you'd have 3 programs to compare (Home, Away1, and Away2). That way you could be very confident in what you like and don't like about programs you see on the interview trail. The more you rotate around the country (if you do your aways outside of your home region), the easier it is to get interviews outside your home region too.

I've heard of people doing another elective, like MSK Radiology, at the same place & try to stay involved with the Ortho guys (like conferences, grand rounds, etc.)

Theoretical advice below - choose to ignore

You probably won't enhance your match at that program that much...the entire gamment has been done IE people that did not rotate that a particular program will get a phone call after interviews saying they will match at the program if they "rank accordingly" or people that rotated at programs didn't get offered interviews. Bottom line is what people are saying, any perceieved benefit of spending an extra month is probably outweighted by getting your feet wet at another program. Ortho is a tough enough match that having another externship at a different program is worth it. At my home school (4 per year), they generally take one person from the home school, and 2-3 externs. A lot of programs are similar. They are going to look at their collection of 20 or so externs and pick out their top 5 or whatnot and those will be at the top of their rank list. You are doing yourself a major disservice by not going to another program to potentially be that guy at the top of another program's rank list.

I second the comment that having another 4 weeks is a good amount of time to add to your chances of screwing up.

Remember, any little thing you do will be scrutinized.. You could have an 'off' day, or just be unlucky.. why risk that?