Just wondering...I know some people who apply for neurosurg also apply for general as a backup. Can you do so at the same university? Also, do you know if it is possible to match as a categorical in general and then switch later to neuro?

Thanks,
G

I believe neurosurgery is an early match, so you can actually apply for just NSG, be rejected all around, and still have time to apply for general surgery in the regular match.

Just wondering...I know some people who apply for neurosurg also apply for general as a backup. Can you do so at the same university? Also, do you know if it is possible to match as a categorical in general and then switch later to neuro?

Thanks,
G

Some people who don't match NSG on their first attempt try to get into a PGY-1 general surgical internship, then reapply for NSG residencies during that year. It's possible, but looking at the data from past years only ~22% of those people match.

I believe neurosurgery is an early match, so you can actually apply for just NSG, be rejected all around, and still have time to apply for general surgery in the regular match.

Even though neurosurgery is early match you can't really do this. You'll have to apply concurrently. It looks a bit suspect if you are applying to two different fields at the same institution as both will feel a bit slighted.

You can start general surgery and try to switch to neurosurgery after the first year but it is likely more difficult and is a pretty crappy thing to do to your general surgery program.

If you apply to both programs, since one is early match and the other is regular match - they won't know unless you tell them. Apply to both, interview for both. If neuroSx rejects you, you have backup. If they don't reject you, then don't turn in your match list for GenSurg.

NeuroSx knows it's competitive therefore they almost expect everyone to have some backup.