Aways/letters during pandemic

[Guest]

My biggest concern is with respect to the sheer surge of rotators that will flood the sub-I scene this fall if they happen to open things back up. To accommodate this, programs will have to allow more students than usual each month which, as we’ve all experienced in crowded third year rotations, really diminishes the experience for both us and residents/attendings trying to get to know the applicants. Also, home programs have to prioritize their own by giving them the earlier slots once we’re allowed back on the wards, further delaying external applicant hosting...

[Guest]

(04-15-2020, 11:13 AM)Guest Wrote: My biggest concern is with respect to the sheer surge of rotators that will flood the sub-I scene this fall if they happen to open things back up. To accommodate this, programs will have to allow more students than usual each month which, as we’ve all experienced in crowded third year rotations, really diminishes the experience for both us and residents/attendings trying to get to know the applicants. Also, home programs have to prioritize their own by giving them the earlier slots once we’re allowed back on the wards, further delaying external applicant hosting...

Not only would programs have to allow more students, there will be less programs hosting depending on geographic impact which would bottleneck things even more. For example, I can't see any of the NY programs (~10 neurosurgery programs) hosting visiting students this cycle. That's a pretty big loss considering how few nsgy programs there are to begin with.

I don't know if AAMC has the authority to do this but I imagine the push will be to cancel all aways.

From a broader perspective, only a small minority of specialties truly "require" aways to successful match.

[Guest]

(04-15-2020, 10:22 AM)Guest Wrote: Where did you see that? It wasn’t on my email

From an email forwarded to us from our school's administration. I do believe it was slightly different than the one students received directly from VSAS but that was really the only notable difference.

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If aways do completely get cancelled, that clearly hurts both applicants and programs. Most programs have home applicants that they would consider but it also is beneficial for home programs to see the talent applying from outside institutions.

From the VSLO letter that was sent out, it really seems they want to avoid completely cancelling aways, and instead want to leave it up to individual institutions as to if they will host rotating students this cycle. We already see that the progression of COVID-19 is substantially different between states. Sure, states like NY have several neurosurgery programs. But, it would be more beneficial for the field as a whole to permit aways where feasible, instead of outright cancelling them.

I think students from programs without any neurosurgery whatsoever, DOs, and IMGs will very likely have a substantially more difficult match cycle this year.

[Guest]

VSAS closed until May 11th