Electives in other locations for matching?

[MEDSTUDENT123]

Clerkship is set up for us (at my school) so that we have around 12-13 weeks between the end of core rotations and start of carms interviewing... i was thinking of applying to other places for residencey and was wondering how much time i'd need to spend in a location to give the people a chance to know me... the issue is i feel i should put in a fair bit of elective time at my own school, but still want to do electives at other places and am not sure how many places to try in 13 weeks and how much at each place?

[bay]

2 weeks minimum, 3 weeks maximum. Optimize your time by trying to rotate through various clinics, and doing some call, etc. Just be sure and spend a good chunk with whoever your preceptor is to be sure you get a decent letter.

[Kirsteen]

Clerkship is set up for us (at my school) so that we have around 12-13 weeks between the end of core rotations and start of carms interviewing... i was thinking of applying to other places for residencey and was wondering how much time i'd need to spend in a location to give the people a chance to know me... the issue is i feel i should put in a fair bit of elective time at my own school, but still want to do electives at other places and am not sure how many places to try in 13 weeks and how much at each place?

Hi there;

 

I'd echo the above. If there's a location that's higher on your list, then go for the 3 weeks. Four weeks, in my opinion, is a bit much. As one faculty member has said, it's a balance between spending enough time that they get to know you but not too much time that they get to hate you. Also, don't forget that during your core rotations at your home school, you'll have a good amount of time to spend in certain specialties, so if you're considering applying to any of those specialties, it might be a bit of a waste to spend any extra elective time there. (I speak from experience as I completed 10 weeks of Gen Surg electives at other centres and although I applied and interviewed at UofC for Gen Surg, I did not complete any electives here. I relied on the 4 weeks of Gen Surg exposure that I had during my core rotations to snag me an interview.)

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen