Colorado and Chicago Aways

[gordec]

I am thinking about places to apply for externships. I really want to be in Denver and Chicago. Can anyone who has done rotations there answer some questions for me.

For CU:
1. How competitive is the program?
2. How much interactions do you get with the faculties?

For Chicago, I will only pick one school to do a rotation:
1. What's a good, mid-tier program there that has good faculty interactions?

Please let me know about any additional information that much be important to know. Thanks for the help.

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[CRAZYTERP]

I am not saying this to be a jerk but only because I actually spoke with a friend about Colorado last week.

He told me a mutual friend of ours interviewed at Colorado and on interview day the Residency coordinator said, and I quote, "Everyone in this room got at least a 240 on their Step1."

I had a hard time believing him but I know his source and I believe him to be pretty reliable (and a baller too). This is not to dissuade you from applying there but we all have to be realistic of where we decide to spend 4 important weeks of away rotations if we choose to do so.

That being said, I was told by multiple faculty at Miami that externships are not necessarily advantageous bc the first week (or two) are usually spent learning the lay of the land and students tend to slip up more often than impress. Unless you can be assured of working your ass off non-stop I would be weary of doing one unless there are circumstances that require you to attend that program (i.e. husband/wife, fiance already at that program or in that city).

Hope that helps, though I am in the same boat as you (applying next year) so it might help to hear from some of the experts who are already on the trail.

-fear the turtle

 

[chirurgino]

I'm currently on the ENT interview trail...though I don't know if that qualifies me as one of the "experts." haha

I didn't do any aways, applied widely, and I'm getting decent interviews in different parts of the country. My feeling about aways is that if you absolutely have to be in one city (spouse, you like the city, whatever), then do an away at one program there. Otherwise, I really think it can backfire--since you're in the middle of 3rd year you can see how just one bad interaction on a small team can potentially sabotage your evaluation and your chance of matching at that program. You will also potentially have to tell other programs on interviews why you did an away rotation at another place besides theirs. Remember that your home institution has an obligation to educate you and stand behind you (to a certain extent), and so evaluations by your home rotation will likely be helped a little by this "home-field advantage." (it follows, obviously, that if you choose to do an away you will have to work outstandingly hard to overcome this advantage by other sub-Is already at that institution)

That being said, an away does help in some instances--one of the top programs in the west had a significant number of people on their interview day who had done/were doing aways there. Overall though, I don't think the risk justifies the potential reward. If you're a great candidate, you'll get the interview anyway; if you're a marginal candidate, you may end up shooting yourself in the foot with your performance on the rotation, since there's no evidence to suggest that you will perform that much more brilliantly on an away than you have during the rest of your med school career.

 

[resxn]

I am thinking about places to apply for externships. I really want to be in Denver and Chicago. Can anyone who has done rotations there answer some questions for me.

For CU:
1. How competitive is the program?
2. How much interactions do you get with the faculties?

For Chicago, I will only pick one school to do a rotation:
1. What's a good, mid-tier program there that has good faculty interactions?

Please let me know about any additional information that much be important to know. Thanks for the help.

I trained in Colorado and sat on the admissions committee for each of my years of ENT training in one fashion or another.

The program is competitive to get in to, but not as great as some. It is true that Dr. Jenkins, the Chair, is a big fan of high USMLE scores. However, there is no absolute requirement to get an interview. Once you do interview, everyone at that point is essentially a wash. The nice part of our program is that you really don't need to try to sell yourself that much, the program tries to sell itself. I know that sounds odd, but it's true. Jenkins, Abaza, and any other attendings who routinely sit on the admissions committee (Chan, Allen, Kelley, Kingdom, Song) are really just looking for a personality match after you've been invited.

In the program the interaction with the faculty is top-notch. There are only two members of the faculty (of 29) which some people would try to avoid. One person everyone avoids and one of them about 50% of people love and 50% of people hate. Neither of these guys account for a significant portion of your training so if you'd prefer to avoid them it's relatively easy.


I can't speak about Chicago.