Clinical Rotation Sites and Future Residency Options

[PuffBlueCat]

I’ll try to keep this brief and somewhat vague -

Current second year at one of the original 5 schools in the midwest. We recently received our 3rd year rotation site assignments, and I ended up matching at a site way, way out west. This site is community/preceptor based and I’ll be doing a number of my rotations all over the greater metro area of the city I will be in.

I am aware some DO schools have some less-than-ideal sites. Given my schools ”OG 5” status, and the fact this is one of our “established“ sites, I am not really worried about this. Additionally, I understand a large component of my clinical education will be a result of how much effort I put in.

What I AM worried about, however, is matching back in my home state (WI) for residency. Currently, my top interest (by far) is psychiatry. IM and PMR are probably tied for second.

I am worried that I have placed myself in a MORE disadvantaged position by doing my rotations so far away from home. Obviously it isn’t ideal, but just how negatively can I expect this to affect my chances at interviewing with programs in (or close to??) Wisconsin? Have I completely messed up? Or am I overthinking this?

I guess this is the bottom line:
1. What must I do to maximize the chances of matching in my home state?
2. How can I overcome the fact that I am doing my clinical rotations 20+hrs away?

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[Dr. Anonymouss]

I’ll try to keep this brief and somewhat vague -

Current second year at one of the original 5 schools in the midwest. We recently received our 3rd year rotation site assignments, and I ended up matching at a site way, way out west. This site is community/preceptor based and I’ll be doing a number of my rotations all over the greater metro area of the city I will be in.

I am aware some DO schools have some less-than-ideal sites. Given my schools ”OG 5” status, and the fact this is one of our “established“ sites, I am not really worried about this. Additionally, I understand a large component of my clinical education will be a result of how much effort I put in.

What I AM worried about, however, is matching back in my home state (WI) for residency. Currently, my top interest (by far) is psychiatry. IM and PMR are probably tied for second.

I am worried that I have placed myself in a MORE disadvantaged position by doing my rotations so far away from home. Obviously it isn’t ideal, but just how negatively can I expect this to affect my chances at interviewing with programs in (or close to??) Wisconsin? Have I completely messed up? Or am I overthinking this?

I guess this is the bottom line:
1. What must I do to maximize the chances of matching in my home state?
2. How can I overcome the fact that I am doing my clinical rotations 20+hrs away?

Yeah you’re over thinking it. Depending on what specialty you’re applying to it won’t matter where you do your clinical rotations. Just do well on your steps and try to honor your rotations. It’s all you have control over

 

[Ho0v-man]

You typically have the option to do 4th year rotations wherever and can set that up in the Midwest if you so choose. But when you apply to residency, programs will see the name/location of your school and hometown so I don’t think you’d lose any home field advantage.

 

[PuffBlueCat]

Yeah you’re over thinking it. Depending on what specialty you’re applying to it won’t matter where you do your clinical rotations. Just do well on your steps and try to honor your rotations. It’s all you have control over

Good to know I am likely over thinking this - that was my suspicion. Thank you for the input!

 

[PuffBlueCat]

You typically have the option to do 4th year rotations wherever and can set that up in the Midwest if you so choose. But when you apply to residency, programs will see the name/location of your school and hometown so I don’t think you’d lose any home field advantage.

So it sounds like the fact that I am originally from the area will vastly outweigh the actual physical location of where I conduct my rotations?

4th year is still a bit of a mystery to me - I know students set up away/elective/audition rotations, and I know to schedule auditions in the weeks prior to ERAS submission, but that is about the extent of my knowledge. Could I spend most of my fourth year bouncing around different hospitals in/around Wisconsin? Is this something students do in general?

Thank you for the input!

 

[Ho0v-man]

So it sounds like the fact that I am originally from the area will vastly outweigh the actual physical location of where I conduct my rotations?

4th year is still a bit of a mystery to me - I know students set up away/elective/audition rotations, and I know to schedule auditions in the weeks prior to ERAS submission, but that is about the extent of my knowledge. Could I spend most of my fourth year bouncing around different hospitals in/around Wisconsin? Is this something students do in general?

Thank you for the input!

My school was pushing us to start looking into places in like January of third year. I forget when vslo opens.

I actually think that location of my school played more into my invites than my rotation site. My rotation site was literally 1,000 miles away from my school and my invites were regional to my school.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

If your 3rd year clerkships are preceptor based, I would try to get an early 4th year rotation that involves residents at a GME program if possible. If you can't do this, it's not the end of the world. But having an LOR talking about your work nd performance on a resident team can be very helpful.

 

[PuffBlueCat]

My school was pushing us to start looking into places in like January of third year. I forget when vslo opens.

I actually think that location of my school played more into my invites than my rotation site. My rotation site was literally 1,000 miles away from my school and my invites were regional to my school.

Gotcha. I'll make sure to be ahead of the game when that time comes.

I'm glad to hear you had that experience with your interviews. Hopefully that's how mine go also!

 

[PuffBlueCat]

If your 3rd year clerkships are preceptor based, I would try to get an early 4th year rotation that involves residents at a GME program if possible. If you can't do this, it's not the end of the world. But having an LOR talking about your work nd performance on a resident team can be very helpful.

Gotcha. I will try my best to do so. Thank you for the tip!

 

[PandaBaer]

You'll be required to have a rotation with residents per COCA, but it's not guaranteed to be in the specialty of your choice.

You should ask for the specialties you're most interested in to rotate through early, probably not 1st. This will get you early exposure and letters.

Then apply to auditions in your region of interest early. Programs can open audition (sub-I) applications as early as Jan, but most open in Mar/Apr.

You can do as many auditions as allowed by your school in 4th yr, though post Dec ones tend to be less useful since interviews are over by then.

The best thing to do is ask an upperclassmen who applied your specialty this year what you should do to be successful.

 

[PorkChopsOG]

a few things. After interviewing applicants this year for our IM program and having a few audition students, I'll tell you that where you go for 3rd year does and does not matter. Your application will not show what 3rd year site you were at. HOWEVER, the students who never worked with residents, and then came and worked with us, took a week or so to get into the groove of things. We did not hold that against them. And some of them had exceptional experiences with just a preceptor. Work hard and do multiple aways at different hospitals in the area you deisre to match in, get a LoR from each one, and you'll be golden.