Away Electives

Sign up as asson as possible for these rotations, some places fill up.
Try to rotate at the "flagship" hospital for each institution, and try to work with someone who is influential. Find out from graduates from your program what the ins and outs are at different places. Use connections who have graduated from your program and who will help you out.

Deciding where is huge. Try for one "dream" program and one more realistic" (whatever all of them are hard) program. Maybe one more. Decide for yourself. Think about where you will stay and costs. Bring your A game and do it after you rotate at your own home program. Try to shine. Study. Hope this helps.

Thanks, that does help. I know where my dream program is, and will do 1 elective there. But I am lost after that. I will be doing a rotation at my home institution during 3rd year so will not have to waste 4th year time doing a month here, but where do I even begin in narrowing down programs to rotate at.

Is it purely location? And how do you know how 'competitive' these programs are? I don't want to rotate at places that are as competitive as my dream spot-- I want a mixed bag. Any ideas?

It's tough to pick places to do aways, especially if you have no real driving reason to go to a place (ie you're from the area, wife wants to be near family, etc). It's even tougher to find out what "competitive" programs are, because as we all know, ortho is a very competitive field. When I was picking aways, I had one definite in mind, which was closer to home, and then I almost randomly picked the other based on their "reputation" and by eliminating other places that were in areas of the country that I just really didn't want to be in. In the end, the place that I definitely had in mind ended up pretty far down on my rank list, while the random place that I roatated at was at the top of my rank list, and is where I ended up matching.

Like I said, I think all ortho programs are competitive. Just because you do an away doesn't mean that you're in. But, if you don't have a real geographic preference, I would consider doing aways at places that are known to heavliy favor their rotators. Examples would be UTSW and Northwestern where 5/6 or 7/9 of their residents in each class were rotators. There have been previous posts that discuss which porgrams heavily favor their rotators.

My other piece of advice would be to try and do that 3rd year ortho rotation at the very end of 3rd year. Also make sure that they know you want to go into ortho and that this is your ortho sub-i, especially if there are other students doing ortho who have no interest in going into it. Almost all the people who went into ortho from my school did 2 weeks of ortho as a third yeard during our surgery rotation as well as a bunch of other people because they didn't want to do 2 weeks of urology, but then we all did another month as a 4th years, which was what counted as our ortho rotation. So just think about things and also ask people at your school for advice.

Thanks for the thoughts!

Although my surg sub-I is late in 3rd year, it is BEFORE my surgery clerkship (but after OBGYN). So my surgery experience will be limited... I emailed one of our ortho docs and asked if this would be a problem, but he says no... so not sure if I should make a big out of it. I am thinking about emailing our PD and asking him what he thinks...

All the programs I applied to for aways had specific dates for applying, and any applications sent in before then would be returned. So I would call the specific programs and ask first. Some of the programs have info on their website, but the best bet is just to call and ask the secretary.

I think these programs instituted these rules because it was just getting ridiculous in terms of how early people were applying. All of the programs I applied to started accepting applications in the spring of third year, so you may not need to worry about it just yet.

Last post is absolutely right. I'm just now starting my 4th year and I am still in the process of setting up my aways. Of all the programs I applied to for electives, none accepted applications from visiting students earlier than April 1 and some have still not made decisions about visiting students. I don't know if that is true everywhere, but most programs make sure they fill their spots with their own students before they offer positions to visitors.

You have already found the best resource for program info other than each program's website. Just do searches in this forum for any program or city that you are interested in and you are sure to get back good info from previous rotators and residents.

Is there a selection process for choosing which students get visiting electives at a particular institution, or is it generally first come first serve? And, there isn't some long, drawn out application we must fill out-- is there? Don't tell me we need LOR for these things!!

Northwestern is the only one that I know of that requires a letter of reccomendation. Most just want you to turn in some forms, have your immunization records, and pay an application fee. I think most places are first come first serve for rotations so get those forms in at the earliest date that they will accept them.

Thanks for all the info on this everyone, this site has already proven to be an invaluable resource and I am confident it will further aid my pursuit of ortho in the future, thanks again!

i would agree with most of what was said.......i think the most important factor in choosing an away is picking a place that you could see yourself being a resident at for the next 5 years......although it is definitely a difficult thing to predict, it is important not to waste your aways at places you really don't want to be at....some factors that you need to include in that decision are academics v. community, geographic considerations, and i think finding out your schools match history shoudl also be considered (i know certain programs are strong rivals within the same city).......

i don't really agree with picking one dream program.....since most schools only allow 2 aways plus your one home, wasting a month at some place where you may not have a good chance at matching but just dream of matching at could cost you a chance at matching at another realistic program that you could have rotated at......

with that said, doing your research early is important....don't wait......try to pick a handful of places you are considering and then narrow that down to places you would like to rotate at................

my best advice......do your research and don't waste your away rotations at some institution you would never consider doing your residcency at..........................