Order of 3rd year rotations?

I was just wondering if people had any advice on what order I should schedule my 3rd year rotations. It turns out that there aren’t that many ways to schedule our 7 required rotations and I’m not sure what to do about a couple of them. Here’s what I’m thinking right now:


Ob-Gyn (6 weeks)


Peds (6 weeks)


Psych (6 weeks)


Primary Care (6 weeks)


3 week mandatory vacation


Surgery (12 weeks)


1 week mandatory vacation


Medicine (12 weeks)


Neuro (4 weeks)


My main concern is scheduling medicine so late. But it only starts every 12 weeks so I have to take it 1st, 3rd, 5th, or 6th and I’m leaning toward taking it 6th. Now, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to go into medicine. I also doubt I’ll go into peds, but more likely peds than medicine, probably. As of now I think I’ve narrowed my interests down to emergency or anesthesiology, possibly surgery, or way out there, maybe psych. But it’s not like I’m sure. I guess one way of looking at it is that medicine is probably going to be a hard rotation for me, so having all that prior experience will help propel me through it. (I think I am saying this because we’re at the end of our 7-month pathophysiology course and I’m drained.)


I also don’t know if it’s a good idea to do medicine and surgery, both 12-week blocks, back to back, although there is 1 week in between. Will 2008 seem like a long year if I do that?


Honestly, my main motive with this schedule is to get the dreaded Ob-Gyn out of the way early on, since that’s the one I’m least interested in. I don’t want to do surgery or pscyh too early, or too late. Everyone says it doesn’t matter, but it’s hard to decide anyway!


Also is it weird that both my main interests, emergency and anesthesiology, will require electives? I wonder if I’ll be able to fit everything in before residency application time.


Does anyone have opinions or personal experience they’d like to share? If you do, thanks!

Personally, I would not put medicine and surgery back to back. Even with that one week of vacation it will still be grueling. Those are the two hardest rotations IMHO. I had IM at the end and regret it and here is my thoughts on why. Although it is a difficult rotation you will learn a TON about physical exam, H&P, etc…that will set you up for the rest of third year. Also, ob/gyn can be enjoyable if you have the right team…I loved most of it except L&D due to the my malignant team…but do not think it will be hell on earth. I loved outpatient gyn and gyn surg…

Thanks for the advice, Efex. I also talked to a 3rd year student at my school who said the exact same thing as you. So I’ll try to move medicine earlier.


I’m pretty psyched to get started with 3rd year, the more I learn about it.