I only went to one conference before my 4th year…and that was an AMSA conference in my second year before I knew what was going on. If you have an idea of what you want to do *early* you are uniquely lucky. GO TO THOSE CONFERENCES! I am going into family medicine and recently came back from my first family medicine conference that included a residency fair. I was able to visit each of the program tables and ask as many questions as I wanted, without worrying too much about appearing stupid and ignorant. It wasn't the interview. Not really. Yet. If I felt comfortable with the representative and felt we were having a good conversation, I'd introduce myself more thoroughly as a 4th year medical student who was interviewing with their program in (insert month here) and they would exclaim with delight that they needed to write my name down to tell their program they had met me at the fair. This is also an opportunity for you to approach a table and tell them you've applied but not yet heard back. One of my friends did this and the next day received a personal call from the residency director — to her HOME — profusely apologizing and inviting her for an immediate interview. It seems that a 4th year enthusiastic enough to attend a specialty conference and approach a residency table with confidence and charm is more than enough to win over a program's curiosity to get to know you better! And they do love it if you ask about "away electives" and observerships. While our school does not have as many students pursuing away rotations, many other schools highly recommend it. Many residency programs also highly recommend it if they have room. If there is a program that you are strongly interested in, do an away elective there! Face time is just as important as your ERAS application. I don't think UB stresses this enough, and some students are under the impression that doing an away could actually hurt them. But really — if you feel that you have something to hide and therefore don't want to do an away elective with them for fear you might "mess up," maybe it's not the best fitted program for you. You should find a residency where you feel that it's a natural fit. The program needs to know you'll work well with their team, that you're inquisitive and receptive to their philosophies of training, and able to fluorish in their training environment.
p.s. - Any residency program whose resident representative takes you aside to tell you "all of these programs are pretty much the same anyway" is NOT a good source of information in my opinion. At this residency fair I found DISTINCT differences between the residency programs I was interested in. One stressed complementary medicine and appeared more osteopathic, one stressed sports medicine and seemed like a "jock program", one had a great rural medicine program but with ties to urban clinics, one boasted a new model of physician training and seemed more academic and public health oriented, one seemed proud of its program but also seemed to have a subtle inferiority complex when it referenced other programs, one had residents who seemed like former gunners who were very capable but very stressed out and the nervous type. And one cheerfully gave out ice scrapers to promote their climate difference (Guess which program that was! HAha).
