it's a hard month, but still fun. don't even bother doing an away there unless you are from a very top tier medical school as reputation of your medical school seems to play a very important part in final selection. i worked my arse off and was constantly told about how i would really fit into the program. then i got shafted by them when it came to match time! overall, they were still my number 1 choice because their program rocks (except for sat. conferences) and i had a very enjoyable month there.

i agree about the prestige of your medical school. They are very much into the whole prestige and awards. During the presentation dr yamaguchi gives he goes out of his way to mention all the awards and grants all the faculty has recieved and who is editor/president of this or that journal/society. they basically think they are the @$%& (which they arguably are) and are not ashamed to say it. Dont get me wrong i was very impressed and ranked it highly, but i was suprised to even get an interview there (i hardly had any research and came from a mid-tier school). The only thing i can guess is that two of their faculty used to be faculty at my med school. Good luck. Ohh, and if you do an away there, you will be busy seeing as how they just built a HUGE new ER/Trauma center there.