Whats the Skinny on Away electives

[IzzyMD09]

So I was wondering since MS III is almost underway ( i know...we grow up so quick )

How is it possible to get information on away electives?
How does one who wants to be a dermatologist (say me for example) choose these away electives?

Are there some factors that are more important than others (big named Dermatologists vs. smaller centers where you get more attention)?

Is an NIH elective in Derm a good idea?

If one was to have a whole year of electives in dermatology August 08 to October 09 where would one go?

Thanks

Izzy

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[IzzyMD09]

geez

what great advice

 

[thedelicatessen]

I know a med student who did a rheumatology rotation at NIH, and she said it was really good for career development, so I would assume the dermatology rotation there would also be beneficial. Good luck!

 

[IzzyMD09]

i dont know what happened to the advice department here on the dermatology forum

cause dermboard sucks no one uses it except for spammers

sooooooooo SDN is kinda all there is

I was expecting more from the people that frequent this post

izzy

 

[alpin0]

I dont' have much experience yet with this sort of thing (just starting school in August), but I found out that many school websites have information for "externships" or "visiting clerkships" at their school. It may take a little searching, but many school pages have them. For example:

http://www.uchsc.edu/extern/

http://med.stanford.edu/md/clerkships/

Etc.

Good luck!

 

[LurkNoMore]

How is it possible to get information on away electives? easiest way is to ask an advisor in the derm department, otherwise, do a google search for dermatology and the name of a program and try to find it on their site or ask your deans office if they have links to such sites

How does one who wants to be a dermatologist (say me for example) choose these away electives? Not an easy question, the best thing for your app is a big named Derm letter, however there is an advantage to going to a small program (that is, if you want to match there, I doubt a letter from a person without a lot of clout from a small program would help you as much as a letter from a big name)

Is an NIH elective in Derm a good idea? sure, why not, get research and letters

If one was to have a whole year of electives in dermatology August 08 to October 09 where would one go? I don't understand this possibility, dont you have other requirements for graduation?? I have heard derm programs dont want you to do too much derm stuff as an MS4 b/c they feel this may be to the detriment of your medical knowledge base as it would detract from the other portions of your learning during your final year as a student. Hope this helps, get involved, go to grand rounds, ask the residents/attendings if you can get involved in a project, shadow in clinic, show interest, but dont be annoying.... do well in everything (clerkship evals, shelf tests, extracurriculars, your local bowling league, whatever) b/c in derm, they look at everything and you never know what will be the make/break point at a respective program. Hope that helps



Izzy[/quote]

 

[IzzyMD09]

thanks for the reply
helped but didnt answers some of the questions

probably I wasnt so clear in what i was asking

1. If you were to choose your electives based on the assistance you would definately get in terms of letter writing (from these "Dermgods" or whatever), places that guarantee you interviews if you rotate through, or whatever other factor might help, where would you go...like which hospitals are more likely to take students that rotate through as opposed to which hospitals take only students from their own program

2. To answer the how is it possible to have electives from August 08 - October 09
I have the opportunity to do a 6 month clinical research elective with one of these so called dermgods, and I will probably accept. It would start after I finish my clinical electives, so august to december I would have your basic 1 month clinicals, January to June the 6 month clinical research elective, and then July to December to do who knows what. (I would not be graduating on time and would be taking a half year off of school since my program requires an international elective in a developing country between february and april).
So my question is
how would you schedule your electives given so much time to do them, and if you wouldnt do all derm electives what else would be best

thanks for the advice

izzy

 

[LurkNoMore]

end of story, that is the answer to your question, who cares about aways (unless the rest of your resume is really lacking, or you really want to go to a particular place, otherwise just go somewhere cool).... this is a great opportunity, take it, work your butt off, impress people, get some pubs and an LOR with this derm guy, and rock out your MS3 year as well, provided you have done well to this point you should be in great shape (in the long run time spent doing this and waiting a year for residency will mean very little).

p.s. I haven't matched yet, so take what I say with that in mind

 

[IzzyMD09]

end of story, that is the answer to your question, who cares about aways (unless the rest of your resume is really lacking, or you really want to go to a particular place, otherwise just go somewhere cool).... this is a great opportunity, take it, work your butt off, impress people, get some pubs and an LOR with this derm guy, and rock out your MS3 year as well, provided you have done well to this point you should be in great shape (in the long run time spent doing this and waiting a year for residency will mean very little).

p.s. I haven't matched yet, so take what I say with that in mind

thanks so much for the advice and the confidence and not to sound reverse sexist (and considering some would call me somewhat of a chavinist....at times.....when its funny) but when I said dermgod it doesnt mean derm guy....it actually means derm woman.....which I am very happy about

in fact i think one of the great things about Derm is that deans and faculty and professors are pretty balanced in the men and women ratio

i just thought i would bring it up

I once considered surgery....but its to macho....even for me...

and this lady ill be working with is amazing....I walk into her office during vacation and am all like I wanna do a research elective with you and she's all like thats great "Im the jewish mother of psoriasis" is exactly what she said....I thought that was hilarious, not that i need another jewish mother

anyways

again thanks for posting
back to studying for step I

and going slightly crazy

 

[Long Dong]

thanks so much for the advice and the confidence and not to sound reverse sexist (and considering some would call me somewhat of a chavinist....at times.....when its funny) but when I said dermgod it doesnt mean derm guy....it actually means derm woman.....which I am very happy about

in fact i think one of the great things about Derm is that deans and faculty and professors are pretty balanced in the men and women ratio

i just thought i would bring it up

I once considered surgery....but its to macho....even for me...

and this lady ill be working with is amazing....I walk into her office during vacation and am all like I wanna do a research elective with you and she's all like thats great "Im the jewish mother of psoriasis" is exactly what she said....I thought that was hilarious, not that i need another jewish mother

anyways

again thanks for posting
back to studying for step I

and going slightly crazy

My 2 cents.

1. You can ask around the upperclassmen who matched about which ones they thought were helpful. You could also just go to the particulars schools derm department website to get more info. One thing to keep in mind is spots for rotations go like hot cakes and usualy the school reserves spots for its' own students first and wont let outside students register until after their students do. But you can call ahead of time and ask the secretary to put you on like a waitlist if you know when you want to rotate at their program.

2. You might want to choose a program that has a history of taking rotaters. Some programs are notorious for inbreeding and only taking their own students, so I've heard. Also some programs have to many rotaters so getting face time with an attending is hard. And other programs have you working with a different attending every morning and afternoon, so getting to know people to write your LOR may be difficult. You might wanna check with the secretary about what the schedule would be like.

3. Other factors as mentioned in #2, but like you said a big name would be great, but fighting for face time is not. IMHO it is more important to get to know someone well then work with a big name who only works with you one half day a week. A good LOR stating they worked with you daily for X amount of months I would think has more impact then a big name saying they worked with you 4 half days during a one month rotation. Another factor is location, do aways at places that you could see yourself living, since most people match at their home program or places they rotated.

4. Don't know anything about NIH elective.

5. A year of derm elective, wow, how'd you swing that? Well if you have 2 months this is what I did. I worked with Dr. John Koo at ucsf. He is a big name in psoriasis, you get plenty of face time (worked with him 3-4 days/week w/o other rotaters), and submitted 2 papers in that time (both eventually got published after the match though). The rotation it self is only 4-6 weeks (that I got credit for), I taged on an extra 2 weeks of vacation time to get my papers out.

Hope that helps.

 

[goodies]

i'm a third year right now. when is the best time to call the secretaries to schedule away rotations?? is it too early?

 

[Long Dong]

i'm a third year right now. when is the best time to call the secretaries to schedule away rotations?? is it too early?

Man you are sure on the ball goodies. Yes it would be too early for a third year now to schedule 4th year rotations. I started feeling them out around Jan of 3rd year by sending emails and asking the secretary to tenatively pencil me in for my desired dates. I think it was around april when they eventually confirmed me for the spot.

An added note, do all your aways before Nov 4th year. Don't be like me and get rejected for an interview in Nov when I was scheduled to rotate there a few weeks later. Felt pretty useless rotating at place that already rejected me.