Blacklisted for not accepting away AI's?

I think most advice will be anecdotal, but the folks at my school said that they didn't get interviews at any of the programs that they were accepted for an away and turned down.

I believe that most residency coordinators are pretty detached from the interview invite process.. but they still have the veto power, usually.

I would say that as long as you do it in a reputable manor (ie with sufficient notice, versus the day of the rotation, or the thursday before) most people won't be peeved about it.

Remember,you're 1 of 600 applicants.. so usually you blow away in the wind, especially at a place that gets a lot of rotators..

I got an interview at a place that I turned down. I just called to make sure that my app was complete and let them know that I was unable to do the away but that I was still very interested in interviewing with their program.

So I got accepted to an away on VSAS, giving me 2 weeks to accept/decline. I'm still waiting to hear back from a program which I'd rather go to.

I'm guessing it looks equally bad just to not accept this after two weeks, compared to accepting it now, then writing them an email saying I can't actually come?

I'm already a weak candidate, and I hate getting myself blacklisted. I panicked that I had no aways and applied to like 4, now I have too many!

I got interviews from places I turned down.

I did not get interviews at places I turned down.

Just came across this post... Here's some more anecdotal information to add to the conspiracy theories...

In addition to the 2 aways that I actually went on, I had communication with the residency coordinator at about 6 other programs regarding an away rotation. All of those programs have offered interviews and I have gone 0-for-6. A couple of those places may have been 'out of my reach', regardless. The other 4 are local and/or 'less competitive' programs that have alumni from my school already in their residency.

For anybody that cares about the details: No, I didn't initially take a shotgun approach to AI applications. I originally applied to just 2 places for away rotations, and did so quite early in the process. One of the programs (a big name in ortho that will remain anonymous) jerked me around until mid-to-late April: told me I should be able to rotate, then only rarely responded to follow-up emails; then subsequently claimed that I didn't turn in a portion of the information that they needed, even though I collected everything myself and sent it in one single envelope; then realized that, oh, I did turn everything in, and forwarded the info 'immediately to the program director' for 'a decision in next couple days to a week'; then kept me in suspense for a couple more weeks before I finally sent another email, which was answered a few days later with a very brief 'thanks but no thanks'.

I panicked a little and sent emails to 7 programs in mid-to-late April to inquire about away rotation availability. None of that communication went so far as to accept any spots, but I did submit all of the necessary application information to each program. I eventually accepted a rotation at the first program that was able to offer me a rotation during the necessary dates, and politely informed the others that I would be rotating elsewhere.

Maybe I got blacklisted at the other 6 program for the above, or maybe it's just coincidence. I'm going to guess it's the latter, and that this entire process just causes us to overthink everything.

Of the 2 schools I was accepted for aways and subsequently declined, I received rejection letters from both already.

I only applied to three places for away rotations. Two I went on, the other I withdrew my app before they said yes or no. We'll see what happens with that one.