So I don't know if anyone else has run across this particular issue, but as interview offers begin to come in I am realizing that I am going to have to make chioces about going to interviews while doing an away rotation. Of course I want to make the best impression possible while at my away, but I also don't want to pass up a potentially productive interview either. How are other people handling this same issue? Any thoughts would be useful.
You'd have to hope that they would understand your situation. I would say, if it's one of your top choices or even towards the top of your list, it would be acceptable to leave for a day to do an interview. If you're going to get 15 other interviews anyways and the one is not really all that appealing to you, then it may be better to just decline the interview. It's a matter of balancing your priorities.
One thing that I realized on my away was that nobody really misses you when you're gone... you explain to the residents what you have to do, ask the program director, and none of the attendings will even know you're gone.
Best of luck.
That's a good way of putting it into perspective. We tend to think we're invaluable resources to our teams; but yah, nobody would likely notice us being gone. That being said, at my school if we miss more than 4 days on any away for any reason, we don't get credit. It would be worth checking out your school's policy on absences.
I'm hoping to have this be a problem myself...
At least from a residents standpoint, we would be happy for you as long as you don't schedule all your interviews while you're with us! Look, people understand the match and this is a tough business to get in to (toot, toot), so I think evening faculty won't get irked if you a 1-2, maybe even 3, interviews during an away. Away = you're already interested in the program, so I think they'd be pretty petty to not cut you some slack for interviews while you're already spending a month away from home just to get to know a place and have a better shot at matching, right? Good luck guys/girls.