Clerkships and Externships
Hi all,
Clerkships and externships are substantively the same. Clerkships are done before you graduate, externships after. These are hands-on clinical rotations where you work with patients under supervision.
Many hospital medical education programs will accept you for clerkships (while you are a student) but you will find very few that accept you for externships after you have graduated.
There are many placement companies out there who help graduates with externships because it is a little trickier to find these opportunities after you have graduated. We believe that Chicago Clerkships is the best, of course! But you must shop around for the package that meets your needs. We suggest you evaluate pricing, but also look at the reviews and consider honesty and transparency in choosing your placement company.
As far as "more valued," we cannot say that clerkships are more valued than externships. There is absolutely no data available on this question at all. There is no data available for hospital-based vs outpatient rotations either. So all of this is just speculation in the USMLE echo chambers. For the data that can actually help you make your decisions in an informed way, check out the nrmp.org website.
The strategy we recommend is this: make some thoughtful decisions about where your passion lies. Choose a specialty and perhaps a back up specialty (something that is not too far removed from your preferred specialty) and research how those fields are practiced in the US. Then plan your rotations so that they reflect your understanding of the specialty.
For more advice and information, feel free to contact us through our website.
Lori