Survey Question: Did you do one? Where? Recommended places?
11 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I did an away rotation at the University of Florida (Gainesville). It was a great experience. Doing an away rotation appears to be an important way of expressing your dedication to urology.
Seattle, UW. I don't know if my away rotation helped or hurt me. It was a great educational experience though, and I'd still do it again. There were definitely some personality conflicts. I will say that it affected my rank list because it made me think more about the people. Remember, you will be working with the same people every day, 12 hours a day, for 4+ years. It doesn't matter how much you like the chief, and only a small amount what you think of the upper level residents. You will not be working with them. You will mostly be working with the current mid to lower level residents, and the attendings.
I rotated at Emory. Unfortunately, Fray Marshall (chairman) was traveling half the time I was there, so I had minimal exposure to him. In general, try to rotate at the program where you would like to match. A program will probably rank you higher if they know you personally and like you.
Rotated at Vanderbilt. I would rotate at a program you thought would be one of your top choices. Treat it as a sub-I and work your butt off. Meet the faculty, especially the chair, and ask for a letter face-to-face before you leave. Be prepared to work with some cut-throat students who may look at you as unfriendly competition from a foreign institution.
I did an away rotation at university of chicago. It was a great experience simply because it was a different experience. My advice would be to rotate somewhere that has a different sort of program from IU. I thought that it really helped me sort out what I was looking in a program by comparing and contrasting the two.
Some people will tell you that you only need 1 away rotation, but in my perception the vast majority of people do 2 now. It is a good way to demonstrate you're a good student/applicant to multiple programs.
My mistake was doing 2 aways in the same geographical region. So then it looked like I was a mid-westerner unwilling to go anywhere else. I did not know if would get more away offers so I took the second one offered, I should have waited.
I did an away at University of Wisconsin, it was a great experience. Highly recommend. They do not participate in VSAS so go to their website.
Many aways require a LOR, I was too timid to ask for one so I shorted myself from a lot of the "top tier" programs. Do not be afraid to ask Dr. Sundaram or another faculty member for a little to help get your foot in the door at some top tier places.
Start the process early, it was way more time consuming that I anticipated. Vaccinations were a huge pain.
I would highly recommend doing 1-2 aways, either at a program you are really interested in or at a program in a different geographic location. I felt limited in interview offers from areas I had no "connection" such as the coasts.
2 away rotations I think is the best. I would go out of the area for them. I did one in the midwest (Michigan) and one at Vanderbilt which is considered part of the South East. I think that definitely opened up interviews in the South and South East. Coming out of Indiana, it is definitely difficult to break into the coasts, and you definitely feel out of place because most of the other interviewers will be coast people. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen though!
I would advise really paying attention to where you would actually like to go rather than just looking for a letter. Your best chances of matching will be at your away places because they know you and like you, so if you fall into their criteria in a candidate, then you have a great shot. If you go somewhere and unfortunately hate it, it does feel like a wasted month.
This isn't always easy, but try to start the process of applying to aways as early as possible. Spots fill up quickly because they have rolling acceptance, so if you have someplace specific in mind you want to go to, start as early as possible in your third year.
11 comments:
I did an away rotation at the University of Florida (Gainesville). It was a great experience. Doing an away rotation appears to be an important way of expressing your dedication to urology.
Seattle, UW. I don't know if my away rotation helped or hurt me. It was a great educational experience though, and I'd still do it again. There were definitely some personality conflicts. I will say that it affected my rank list because it made me think more about the people. Remember, you will be working with the same people every day, 12 hours a day, for 4+ years. It doesn't matter how much you like the chief, and only a small amount what you think of the upper level residents. You will not be working with them. You will mostly be working with the current mid to lower level residents, and the attendings.
I rotated at Emory. Unfortunately, Fray Marshall (chairman) was traveling half the time I was there, so I had minimal exposure to him. In general, try to rotate at the program where you would like to match. A program will probably rank you higher if they know you personally and like you.
Rotated at Vanderbilt. I would rotate at a program you thought would be one of your top choices. Treat it as a sub-I and work your butt off. Meet the faculty, especially the chair, and ask for a letter face-to-face before you leave. Be prepared to work with some cut-throat students who may look at you as unfriendly competition from a foreign institution.
I did an away rotation at university of chicago. It was a great experience simply because it was a different experience. My advice would be to rotate somewhere that has a different sort of program from IU. I thought that it really helped me sort out what I was looking in a program by comparing and contrasting the two.
Some people will tell you that you only need 1 away rotation, but in my perception the vast majority of people do 2 now. It is a good way to demonstrate you're a good student/applicant to multiple programs.
My mistake was doing 2 aways in the same geographical region. So then it looked like I was a mid-westerner unwilling to go anywhere else. I did not know if would get more away offers so I took the second one offered, I should have waited.
I did an away at University of Wisconsin, it was a great experience. Highly recommend. They do not participate in VSAS so go to their website.
Many aways require a LOR, I was too timid to ask for one so I shorted myself from a lot of the "top tier" programs. Do not be afraid to ask Dr. Sundaram or another faculty member for a little to help get your foot in the door at some top tier places.
Start the process early, it was way more time consuming that I anticipated. Vaccinations were a huge pain.
I would highly recommend doing 1-2 aways, either at a program you are really interested in or at a program in a different geographic location. I felt limited in interview offers from areas I had no "connection" such as the coasts.
2 away rotations I think is the best. I would go out of the area for them. I did one in the midwest (Michigan) and one at Vanderbilt which is considered part of the South East. I think that definitely opened up interviews in the South and South East. Coming out of Indiana, it is definitely difficult to break into the coasts, and you definitely feel out of place because most of the other interviewers will be coast people. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen though!
I would advise really paying attention to where you would actually like to go rather than just looking for a letter. Your best chances of matching will be at your away places because they know you and like you, so if you fall into their criteria in a candidate, then you have a great shot. If you go somewhere and unfortunately hate it, it does feel like a wasted month.
I did 2, MCW and U of Minnesota. I talked with my advisor and he recommended realistic aways to do. I picked those two because I like the midwest.
This isn't always easy, but try to start the process of applying to aways as early as possible. Spots fill up quickly because they have rolling acceptance, so if you have someplace specific in mind you want to go to, start as early as possible in your third year.
When you know where you want to go, tell Dr. Koch or Dr. Sundaram. They usually know someone there and will help you get a spot.
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