You have to keep in mind that many hospitals throughout the nation require a 14 day quarantine for anyone who traveled outside of the city or state, prior to being allowed into the hospital. That would mean that if you wanted to do 3 aways, you'd have to travel to a city, wait 2 weeks, rotate for 4 weeks, then do that again for the other two cities. It would take 18 weeks to do 3 aways. It would be very impractical.
You gotta admit you could not come up with a more effective way to spread a virus than to send 20 thousand med students to 10-20 cities each, interacting with people involved in active patient care at every stop.
Many of us were clamoring for more cost-effective, virtual interviews. Save 10-15k and further our public health interests? Sign me up
And sign up for 7 years of your life at a hospital system you've never seen and with people you've never met? I get that it sucks to spend a few thousand dollars, but its a small price to pay for such a massive commitment
With few exceptions, I thought physically visiting these hospitals was not all that helpful
Physically visiting the hospital doesn't change much. Plus I am sure all programs will think of this and have presentations showing their facilities, that is very easy to overcome. I think not being able to spend in person time with the residents and faculty is a bigger obstacle, but even though, everyone has their best face on for interview day. My advice to the applicants is trust your mentors and your friends that are a few years ahead of you. What you think is your top choice right now, even if you did get to sub I and interview, will likely change. Wherever you match will become your top choice going forward, you'll be happy. Look at the bright side of things as others have mentioned, saving ~$20k for interviews and subIs and avoiding all of the headache is a blessing in disguise. Use that cash to do life stuff. You'll have 20k for a downpayment on a house if you match to where thats feasible, wedding payments, baller vacations, you name it. This can be a good thing too. Good luck with it all.
