General Q&A

[wolfvgang22]

Originally Posted by livelaughlove

Okay, I see. Great info. How about this: even if one does his/her elective rotations from the same sites as core rotations, do you think that it prepares him/her well for the residency match (more specifically, what does it take to get into a specialized field)? What factors during rotations can affect where one matches, besides considering LORs, networking, USMLE scores? If you can, let us know of any advice/info. you found useful before starting rotations.

Congrats on your promotion!

This is the kind of thing I've recently been asking alumni myself as I am beginning 4th year clinicals.

From what they are telling me, you should focus on getting good teaching first, then consider doing 1 to 2 rotations, no more, in your area of interest. It doesn't matter if they are where you did cores or not. You may want to rotate in the same area of the country or do one rotation at a place that you want to match at. Of course rotations at famous places are nice, but not if the teaching is bad. Don't waste your time doing rotations that have the reputation among students for having bad teaching or reticence in writing good LORs for students, neither should you do multiple rotations in your specialty of interest. You want to obtain a well-rounded education, and see things you may never get to see in residency rather than appear to look like you are just fishing for a residency postion. The board sites of different specialties often have a small section for med students that will tell you what rotations they recommend for electives. If not, ask docs in the field, and alumni from your school what they did. Saba has email addresses of alumni that are willing to help Saba students on it's website.
Good luck!