Away Rotation Dilemma

Having gone through this process, my main advice would be that you can't rely on getting an interview anywhere that you don't rotate... no matter what. There are no guarantees. If you know you are interested in a program, rotate there.

Otherwise, you're leaving it up to chance. And chance is not rooting for you.

Of course, you could help yourself out by finding out more about those two programs.

Also, I don't know what your personal situation is, but I would strongly advise that you don't just do one away unless you're truly stuck.

I only did 1 away rotation and I managed to get interview offers from most of the 'top' programs including many places that are rumored to heavily favor rotators. I'm sharing my own personal experience which may not be generalizable, but if you aren't able to do more than 1 you can at least take solace in the fact that at least somebody else did alright with only 1 away.

That being said, if you are truly set on a certain program (or highly favoring one) then I think it is extremely helpful to do a rotation there as it will 1)let you know if that program is actually a good fit for you 2)help you get an interview 3)[potentially] give you a leg up on the other interviewees.

In my opinion, having extra time to study for Step 2 is not much of a plus unless you are very interested in one of the handful of scores that require Step 2 pre-interview/match. I still haven't taken Step 2 and it didn't hold me back from getting interview offers (fingers crossed it didn't affect my match either, but I've been reassured that it shouldn't)