I'm a 2nd year and we're in the process of selecting 3rd year rotation spots. The problem is that my school has several affiliated hospitals that are required to be filled by a certain number of students and some of these hospitals are up to 2 hours away! I'm not sure what it's like at other schools or if anyone else had this situation, but anyone know how to go about this in the hopes of not getting stuck with a location so far? I'm really dreading the thought of having to live in a temproary "dorm" and leave my husband for several months. Any experiences?

Do you have kids? I would definitely play the kid card on that one. Ask the person in charge if any preference is given to those with families (and "just" a husband is a family too!).

Otherwise, how do they determine who goes where? It is based on preference, class rank, first-come first-serve? Try to do everything you can... Good luck!

Our school uses Matchstix, so it's kind of a lottery. We also had the option of interviewing at regional hospitals, these hospitals have all the rotations there so you can spend the year at one place. That's want I did because I have a husband and didn't want to be hours away from him and didn't want to be paying 2 rents. But I do know people who did the Matchstix and got rotations far away, then had to switch with people or other hospitals that weren't filled. My school kind of gave priority to those with families. It seems like most school will try their hardest to make things work for people with families.

My school sounds different--you basically have to compromise (ie fight it out) with about 20 people all doing the same rotation but in different locations. I don't have any kids now but I'm hoping to become pregnant early in 3rd year so I don't want to have to travel hugely pregnant or with a new baby. But, I don't really feel comfortable announcing my baby plans to these people. On top of that, my husband has a fairly serious medical condition that will require major surgery at some point, but I don't know when that will be (but very possibly may be during 3rd year). I don't want to ask for special treatment, but at the same time these seem like legitimate reasons, especially the surgery. I think I may try to use that if push come to shove.