^^^^ Son took this into consideration (COL) when ranking his programs. He knew Miami was going to be outrageous rent versus here in NC/SC. Philadelphia was high in not so great areas, Boston was so so high, DC, NYC…
He is able to pay all his bills and pay down his student loans with no help from me (not like I could) other than selling his old toys on eBay! At least I can do that.
However, he did the same for med school and his MBA. Location and scholarships/fellowships. His current residency program picks up the costs for travel and hotels for his conferences and research presentation. He is given a nice food allowance from the hospital, lots of free food/drinks in residence lounge, no parking fees, and he resides less than a half mile from the hospital, so a quick walk to work. It is literally across the street from the hospital. It just takes a while (at least 5 whole minutes!) once you reach the hospital.
His roommate from med school is at Emory which serves 5 hospitals and he spends a good part of his day driving in Atlanta traffic. Not fun.
So different for all our kiddos.
The extra benefit is he is local enough to attend the BEST college basketball games!! He has been to 3 so far this season PGY2 and 3+ last season during his intern year. And he doesn’t pay stub hub prices but rather student/alumni prices.
He (and I) are both hoping so! Sweet sixteen starts tomorrow!!
And good luck to your youngest in her med school app season…it an be stressful but with a great reward. Son made a spreadsheet at the beginning to help him weigh his options and what started out as #1, #2 choices (before interviews) ended up not being those at the end of his app season.
D will be applying this fall. She has a couple of away rotations scheduled before the fall. S is finishing his undergrad and will be looking for jobs this fall - yes, wine will surely be needed come fall!
My D has started her residency applications. I have not paid as close attention to it as I did for med school apps, primarily because she is also in the middle of planning a wedding reception (very small wedding was in California in December, bigger reception in Chicago in a couple of weeks).
I have been more focused on the reception and how to get H, S, and myself there from California. Once July hits I think it will be all about the residency apps.
We are done done done. Dropped off D and decided to take a vacation, water is blue, sand is pink, nice to know we stayed out of the heat wave in CA. Life is good.
some specialties (like EM) require a letter of evaluation/recommendation from a program that is NOT the student’s home program as part of an candidate’s residency application packet
to explore a specialty that is NOT offered at one’s home program (like neurosurgery or ophthalmology)
to audition for a residency interview slot at a particular program a student want to do their residency at (Aways are often referred to as audition rotations)
to broaden one’s appeal during the residency application process by having letters of recommendation from a variety of programs in different geographic areas or from programs that have a national reputation
There is no cost if you attend a US medical school. All ACGME programs (which now includes DO programs) have signed what’s basically a reciprocity agreement to accept students from another ACGME program at no cost as a courtesy.
The where is an very personal choice–and aways are not guaranteed. It’s a competitive process. Med students need to apply for away slots at various programs through VSAS (Visiting Student Application Service). Residency program directors review the applications and choose usually a small number of non-home students (1-5 is typical, but it depends on the program size, the specialty and the demand from home program students) for each available rotation date. Popular programs may receive several thousand applications for their away slots. Away slots are in the highest demand during the summer months before ERAS opens (Sept 15). VSAS opens in March, but most programs don’t list their available rotation dates until May or June, after the students from the home program have all been scheduled & accommodated.
With the exceptions of few, most DO schools have no school affiliated teaching hospitals. As a result, most of the rotations from DO students are “away”. Normally, the school will assign a “base” hospital that takes the third year student for rotations, but for the fourth year rotations, the student is on its own to find rotation sites. That is normally not a problem as opportunities are plentiful. Whether you can find some thing that will be helpful in your residency application is all up to the student.
There is no cost for the rotations itself, as explained by WOWM above. You pay the tuition and that is including the rotation cost, however, the student has to pay for the living and traveling expenses. D signed a year lease that is closed to her “base” hospital to do her third year rotations, but for two or three of her assigned rotations she still have to leave her “base” hospital. In the fourth year, she just travel from location to location for the rotations on a monthly basis.
Wow, the 4th year rotations for DO students seem very much like Caribbean med schools that you have to move from one location to another…another downside for DO. MD schools are lucky in this aspect they just stay at home program for most rotations.