transitional year vs prelim med year vs prelim surg year

Started by suniku
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suniku

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For those going into radiation oncology, does it matter how / where you do you PGY-1? (e.g. preliminary med, preliminary surg, transitional year; and type of institution, e.g. community hospital, school with a well known name)

From some of the rad onc residents i spoke to, a transitional year seems to be favored because there is more elective time to focus on preparing for radiation and doing rotations similar to your specialty.

however, I have heard from PGY-1s at a preliminary medicine year that it is more "prestigious" to do a preliminary year because it is more rigorous training in medicine. moreover, the PGY-1 said that if you can do it at an ivy-league (or similar) institution, it would be even better because your degree would be from that institution.

i am wondering about your opinions on this issue. obviously i would want to be a well trained physician, but it doesnt make sense to me to just go to a preliminary year program because it has more medicine or the name of the program (after all, i am going into rad onc, and i know there are some excellent community hospitals that provide TY and preliminary programs). moreover, some transitional year programs provide the same training and better benefits. so is one choice better than the others?
 
There is no universal best choice for everyone.

In my opinion, the choice your internship is utterly irrelevant to a practicing Rad Onc. Others may have different experiences, but I'd say do whatever you want.

From your post, you appear to favor a TY year. Go for it!
 
I think one of the major advantages of doing internship at a community TY or prelim is that they tend to be much more flexible. I am a PGY-1 at a community prelim medicine program, and my PD gave me free reign in designing my schedule so that I am able to have trade certain rotations that are not as useful for a rad-onc (ie ICU) for oncology rotations (ie med-onc and rad-onc.) He was also very cool about giving me days off for ASTRO. This is very different from friends of mine who are in large academic institutions where they seem to be much more rigid about curriculum, and not as willing to allow leave for conferences and research.
 
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Yeah, irrelevant.

Go to a city you like to a program you like.

Flexible is good. Extended vacation time (i.e. radiology rotation) is good. No need to worry about doing a radonc rotation. You will do 36 months of those in due time.

I did a prelim year b/c I hadn't matched. Was pretty hard. And now, I don't know what is first line antibiotic for community acquired pneumonia. Guess I could look it up.

S
 
Plan A: Cush TY (if you match) in a desirable location
Plan B: Prelim year (if you don't match)

I see no reason to choose plan B unless IM or Surgery interests you. I was lucky enough to match on my first go-round, but my back-up plan was actually to go unmatched for my intern year. I figured I would scramble into a prelim year if I did not match into radonc. Thus, I avoided having to interview at both TY and prelim years. There are usually plenty of "good" prelim years that do not fill, at least that was the landscape when I was applying, but do your own homework b/c things may have changed with more IMG's filling those spots..
 
napoleondynamite said:
Plan A: Cush TY (if you match) in a desirable location
Plan B: Prelim year (if you don't match)

I see no reason to choose plan B unless IM or Surgery interests you. I was lucky enough to match on my first go-round, but my back-up plan was actually to go unmatched for my intern year. I figured I would scramble into a prelim year if I did not match into radonc. Thus, I avoided having to interview at both TY and prelim years. There are usually plenty of "good" prelim years that do not fill, at least that was the landscape when I was applying, but do your own homework b/c things may have changed with more IMG's filling those spots..
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could you tell me why your plan would be to scramble into a prelim year if you didnt match into rad onc? what would your other options be?
 
It is admittedly rolling the dice a bit..but for me it came down to a question of resources. I didn't think it was worth it to pay a few thousand bucks to fly all over and interview for my "plan B," especially when there are typically a wide geographical array of open prelim spots. So I put all my eggs in the TY basket. It worked out for me, but if it would stress you out to have the uncertainty of a possible scramble, maybe you should interview for prelims. I just didn't think it was worth it and would have felt fine scrambling.

Oh, and I also wanted to leave the option open of investigating a possible research year, that was the other reason. You can't really commit to one of those until you find out you didn't match..but if you match into an intern year, you are committed to that and won't have the option of even looking into a research year. FYI, at Drexel, we typically have funding for an unmatched research fellow as a one year position. Match rate after doing something like that has been very high. The downside of the research year is that it obviously sets you back a year, and you won't have the option of sneaking into any of those PGY2 spots that tend to open up..a lot of folks seem to luck out with that lately b/c programs are expanding/opening.
 
napoleondynamite said:
It is admittedly rolling the dice a bit..but for me it came down to a question of resources. I didn't think it was worth it to pay a few thousand bucks to fly all over and interview for my "plan B," especially when there are typically a wide geographical array of open prelim spots. So I put all my eggs in the TY basket. It worked out for me, but if it would stress you out to have the uncertainty of a possible scramble, maybe you should interview for prelims. I just didn't think it was worth it and would have felt fine scrambling.

Oh, and I also wanted to leave the option open of investigating a possible research year, that was the other reason. You can't really commit to one of those until you find out you didn't match..but if you match into an intern year, you are committed to that and won't have the option of even looking into a research year. FYI, at Drexel, we typically have funding for an unmatched research fellow as a one year position. Match rate after doing something like that has been very high. The downside of the research year is that it obviously sets you back a year, and you won't have the option of sneaking into any of those PGY2 spots that tend to open up..a lot of folks seem to luck out with that lately b/c programs are expanding/opening.
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I actually did just that, I didn't rank my prelim interviews because I considered doing a research year at a program I interviewed with during the match. After not matching into a rad onc position, I ended up scrambling into an internal medicine position at my home institution.

I personally think it is better to get the intern year out of the way first so that you can be ready to apply and be accepted into programs that have unfilled/open positions. Unfortunately I am still on the outside looking in but I have had my chances interviewing at places I never thought would be possible during the match season. Just my 2 cents coming from a 2 time match reject... 🙁
 
I apologize for my ignorance - I'm an MS0 with an interest in radonc (I know, way early) and I don't exactly understand how the match for this specialty works. I know you have to to have a "pre-residency" year before actually doing radonc. Does this mean you enter the match and rank prelim/transitional years, and then enter the match again for a PGY-2 radonc program? Or do you match a radonc program as an MS4 and then look for a prelim if you match?

Thanks in advance
 
Phil Dunphy said:
I apologize for my ignorance - I'm an MS0 with an interest in radonc (I know, way early) and I don't exactly understand how the match for this specialty works. I know you have to to have a "pre-residency" year before actually doing radonc. Does this mean you enter the match and rank prelim/transitional years, and then enter the match again for a PGY-2 radonc program? Or do you match a radonc program as an MS4 and then look for a prelim if you match?

Thanks in advance
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As a MS4 you apply for both advanced (PGY-2) rad onc spots and preliminary/transitional (PGY-1) spots using the Match. The advanced programs comprise you main rank list and each spot on the main rank list will have a supplemental rank list for the preliminary programs. Since rad onc is a competitive specialty some applicants decide to include a preliminary spot in their main rank list to avoid having to scramble.

Ex rank list
1. Rad Onc Program X
A. TY program A
B. Prelim program B

​
2. Rad Onc Program Y
A. Prelim program B
B. TY program A

​
3. Prelim program B.
 
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IMO no need to go to a "prestigious" program for your intern year. I don't think anyone will care. Here are some things that I think you can get out of the intern year.

1. Networking. Perhaps you would eventually like to practice in a city without a radonc residency program. By doing your intern year in that city you could meet local radoncs and it might help you in the job hunt down the road.

2. Electives applicable to radonc. I did pathology (useful), radiology (could have been useful, but wasn't at my Transitional year program). Things I wish I had done-Surg Onc and ENT (if you're somewhere with enough H/N cancer that this rotation is not just tonsil and adenoids)

3. While I don't think prelim is necessary, I would avoid the ultra cush TY years. I have seen residents who come to radonc as PGY2's and they have never dictated an H/P and seem to not know how to perform an H/P either. This may not sound like a big deal, but if you're stumbling through dictations for the first couple of months its going to slow you down in clinic and add stress to the beginning of radonc residency which many residents find stressful already.
 
2012mdc said:
As a MS4 you apply for both advanced (PGY-2) rad onc spots and preliminary/transitional (PGY-1) spots using the Match. The advanced programs comprise you main rank list and each spot on the main rank list will have a supplemental rank list for the preliminary programs. Since rad onc is a competitive specialty some applicants decide to include a preliminary spot in their main rank list to avoid having to scramble.

Ex rank list
1. Rad Onc Program X
A. TY program A
B. Prelim program B

​
2. Rad Onc Program Y
A. Prelim program B
B. TY program A

​
3. Prelim program B.
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That makes sense. Thanks!
 
I just started my intern year in medicine at an academic center. For the love of god, please do a TY with some good electives. This is painful.
 
Knucklehead said:
I just started my intern year in medicine at an academic center. For the love of god, please do a TY with some good electives. This is painful.
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Ouch, July 5th. Well it doesn't take long to come to that realization though! Even though I did a TY, the IM months were soooo painful. I can remember crying (real tears, actually crying) my first night on call - the pressure and responsibility is a lot coming at you overnight.

However, it does get significantly better after a month or two on the floors picking up the basics and also learning little tricks to be more efficient. Don't ever be afraid to page your senior in the first month or two - even if they are grumpy and it is something stupid, it's better than harming a patient. You're only there for a year - so it's ok and expected that you do not know everything.

Best of luck and this will make your transition to radonc that much sweeter!
 
I strongly encourage everyone to do a prelim year. A transitional year sounds great on paper but in reality the training is not nearly as good. You have one year to learn how to take care of patients. In a prelim year you will have the opportunity to take care of many more patients with more variety of disease. Additionally, when you apply for jobs, especially for faculty positions, a prelim year carries more weight. With the new duty hour regulations a prelim medicine year is not that much more work than a TY. The quality of training is higher. You also will have the opportunity to learn from experts in the field. In the end you will be glad you did it.
 
memberBlue said:
I strongly encourage everyone to do a prelim year. A transitional year sounds great on paper but in reality the training is not nearly as good. You have one year to learn how to take care of patients. In a prelim year you will have the opportunity to take care of many more patients with more variety of disease. Additionally, when you apply for jobs, especially for faculty positions, a prelim year carries more weight. With the new duty hour regulations a prelim medicine year is not that much more work than a TY. The quality of training is higher. You also will have the opportunity to learn from experts in the field. In the end you will be glad you did it.
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Current transitional year...and I beg to differ. I think the quality of training I'm receiving is superior to the majority of prelim years, and it's really not possible to generalize.
I had a month to work on Rad Onc research, and I'm looking forward to time spent in surgery, radiology, and pathology, rotations which will help prepare me for tumor boards.
I'd be pretty surprised if future employers put much weight on where a prospective employees did his/her internship unless it was at their own institution.
I have some incredible co-interns, including other future rad onc people.
👍 Very enthusiastic two thumbs up, fine family fun! 👍
 
memberBlue said:
I strongly encourage everyone to do a prelim year. A transitional year sounds great on paper but in reality the training is not nearly as good. You have one year to learn how to take care of patients. In a prelim year you will have the opportunity to take care of many more patients with more variety of disease.
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And then you forget it all 1 year later, leveling the playing field.

memberBlue said:
Additionally, when you apply for jobs, especially for faculty positions, a prelim year carries more weight.
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I have a very hard time believing this. And if they do, that's not the institution I want to be at.

memberBlue said:
With the new duty hour regulations a prelim medicine year is not that much more work than a TY. The quality of training is higher. You also will have the opportunity to learn from experts in the field.
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The same could be said for most TY programs. Considering TYs tend to be at community hospitals and see the common diseases all day, one could argue that the training is more beneficial. How often is a radonc asked to manage Takayasu's arteritis?
 
memberBlue said:
I strongly encourage everyone to do a prelim year. A transitional year sounds great on paper but in reality the training is not nearly as good. You have one year to learn how to take care of patients. In a prelim year you will have the opportunity to take care of many more patients with more variety of disease. Additionally, when you apply for jobs, especially for faculty positions, a prelim year carries more weight. With the new duty hour regulations a prelim medicine year is not that much more work than a TY. The quality of training is higher. You also will have the opportunity to learn from experts in the field. In the end you will be glad you did it.
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Out of curiosity are you speaking from personal experience because I'm also going to disagree with you on a few points. I'm a TY resident right now. I don't get as much experience with floor patients as a prelim will, but how relevant is that to my future career? I do get time for electives that (I hope) are a bit more relevant to radiation oncology as well as research which might produce something to add to my CV.

As was expressed above I highly doubt that your intern year is going to have an impact on career prospects. As for the quality of training, I suspect where you go is a bigger factor than if it is a TY program or prelim.

The downside is that every month you are something new which can be a bit annoying as I am always learning how each department runs and once I get the hang of things it is something different.

I think either is a fine a choice and in the long run will have little bearing on your future competency or marketability as radiation oncologist
 
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I don't mean to pile on excessively, but I'll have to agree with the above three posters.

I did a hardcore medicine prelim year at a major academic institution (I tried for a TY but no dice). Way, way too many months of general medicine wards. You only need about three months or so of gen med to come away with a good appreciation. Seeing endless wave after wave of CHF exacerbation doesn't do much for your education.

I also felt that I lost the opportunity to gain a valuable surgical perspective. I would have loved to scrub in for some prostatectomies, neck dissections, craniotomies, etc. You can never gain that surgical perspective from an operative note.

Finally, with regard to jobs, I can only say that I've never heard of a situation where anyone cared whether one did a PY or TY. I know that it is ingrained in Rad Onc lore that a hardcore PY is the only way to go, but I've found it to be untrue.
 
I did my sub-I at a prelim medicine program affiliated with a big name medical school. It was hell. The interns always had full services. They constantly worked. Their days were endless notes and scut. There were no rounds. The attendings simply told them what to do. They couldn't go to lecture because they were too busy to attend. Even in skipping these things, they were still often violating work hour rules.

Thus, the whole idea of learning more in a prelim med program is laughable to me. After that I knew to go to a TY program. I feel that I'm learning much more in my TY than I would have learned in that perlim medicine program.
 
One more vote here for TY (I did apply for both TY and prelim IM in a variety of settings).

As Gfunk said, getting to spend time on surgical services can be very helpful, and this was one of my main reasons for favoring the TY approach.

Granted, as a PGY-1, don't expect to be first assisting on neck dissections or radical prostatectomies (especially if you're at a bigger hospital with residencies for these respective specialties), and do expect to spend some (or, sadly, a lot of) time doing floor scut depending on your program, but I think it's still useful to understand the surgical work-up and approach that these patients (ENT, Uro, etc.) get before being referred for XRT.

I think in the end that this helps us better understand our surgical colleagues, and perhaps hone our future skills a little bit (indirect laryngoscopy for ENT comes to mind) before we pursue rad onc training.

All this said, yes, the med prelim years tend to be more work than TYs by virtue of more floor months and less (often easier) elective months. But all in all, I think this year is what you put into it. There's not a lot of external pressure to perform beyond expectations as long as the work gets done and you're generally competent, especially if your rad onc training will be at another institution.

One more thing: I think there's something to be said, especially for those of us more academically minded, to spend a year in a more community-like setting, just to get a flavor for the huge differences.
 
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I'd vote TY hands down. The luxury of TYs is that they can be as easy OR as difficult as you want them to be. Yes, many people opt for the cush electives like rads, derm, anesthesia, etc., but as a TY you can absolutely choose to do rotations in head and neck surg, neurosurg, Gsurg, and other rigorous services that can be relevant to a career in rad onc. And at least in the program I matched at, you could potentially be first assistant in these surgeries because there weren't true residencies for these particular services. Heck, even on my GSurg rotation, I had 3rd year residents offer me choles and appys...no lie.

TYs are often very flexible and if you really want it, you can devise a schedule that is even more rigorous than a typical prelim year. You won't miss out on anything. My PD told me that he once had an anesthesia guy who did 4 ICU rotations as his elective rotations.
 
I did a prelim year and really enjoyed the experience. It was very educational and allowed me to feel comfortable managing patients on treatment. I looked at TY programs and felt the quality of medical eduation was not at the same level. There are chairs who prefer their residents or faculty to have completed a prelim year. Some programs feel strongly enough about this to require a prelim year (Penn). Harvard also strongly prefers their residents to do a prelim year. In terms of applying for a faculty position, I am not saying this is a make or break factor, but it goes on your CV for the rest of your career.
 
memberBlue said:
I did a prelim year and really enjoyed the experience. It was very educational and allowed me to feel comfortable managing patients on treatment. I looked at TY programs and felt the quality of medical eduation was not at the same level. There are chairs who prefer their residents or faculty to have completed a prelim year. Some programs feel strongly enough about this to require a prelim year (Penn). Harvard also strongly prefers their residents to do a prelim year. In terms of applying for a faculty position, I am not saying this is a make or break factor, but it goes on your CV for the rest of your career.
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I have heard that saying you are applying for a prelim medicine year is the "safe" answer if asked about your plans for intern year. I have no idea if this is true or how much residency directors care; no one asked me during my interviews

A handful of radiation oncology programs are categorical; some have a built in TY and others are prelim medicine (haven't heard of any prelim surgery). For most applicants you will match your intern year and radiation oncology at the same time so the programs can't use your intern year as a criteria for the rank list (and if you match at a categorical program you can't avoid their intern year).

For the current applicants, I would say do whatever intern year you want without worrying about career. You are going to be hired for your radiation oncology abilities.
 
memberBlue said:
I did a prelim year and really enjoyed the experience. It was very educational and allowed me to feel comfortable managing patients on treatment. I looked at TY programs and felt the quality of medical eduation was not at the same level.
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You absolutely cannot generalize. 4.5 months into my intern year I feel very, very, comfortable managing a broad range of patients (maybe not the Takayasu pts... :laugh:) I would pit the quality of medical education at my TY against any prelim medicine program in the country. Some places (Penn, Emory) may require a medicine year at their institution, but you really can't extrapolate that to other programs.

Maybe you didn't look at the right TYs when you applied!
 
ibeamon said:
You absolutely cannot generalize. 4.5 months into my intern year I feel very, very, comfortable managing a broad range of patients (maybe not the Takayasu pts... :laugh:) I would pit the quality of medical education at my TY against any prelim medicine program in the country. Some places (Penn, Emory) may require a medicine year at their institution, but you really can't extrapolate that to other programs.

Maybe you didn't look at the right TYs when you applied!
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Or maybe since memberBlue created an account just to post on this topic alone, he/she is really a ROAD applicant hoping to dissuade other applicants from pursuing a TY?
 
I agree some TYs are better than others and you can obtain a good education at a TY program. I interviewed at four or five TY programs and they were very lucrative. One offered a free country club membership, another would pay for all of my meals (even when I was not working) and had housing available for something like $25 per month.

The purpose of the prelim year is to learn medicine. The best way to learn is by doing. In most prelim programs you will see more patients (likely up tp 50% more) than in most TY programs. I see no advantage in doing a rad onc rotation during your intern year, you have 4 years to make up that time. If you are in a good prelim program you will have plenty of exposure to radiology and pathology. I personally do not have anything angainst TYs, I just believe a prelim year offers a better education. I would recommend trying to match at one at your home institution or if you can manage it, where you will end up for rad onc residency.
 
memberBlue said:
I interviewed at four or five TY programs and they were very lucrative. One offered a free country club membership, another would pay for all of my meals (even when I was not working) and had housing available for something like $25 per month.
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Carillion discontinued their transitional year. For the curious, the second program sounds like Reading Hospital TY (Reading, PA). The one I landed at has similar levels of benefits, though the provided housing is a little more expensive. I don't see why actually providing your residents a little better pay and some nice benefits is a bad thing. I can't speak for every TY, but I'm treated much better by everyone involved in the program, from the administration, to the faculty, to the support staff than I would have been at my medical school's prelim med.

Some programs feel strongly enough about this to require a prelim year (Penn).
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About that, I found the first part of this post humorous: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=10370301&postcount=7

I see no advantage in doing a rad onc rotation during your intern year, you have 4 years to make up that time.
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I thought the rad onc program at my TY program had more equipment than one of my rad onc aways. It's cool to see gammaknife and cyberknife at the same place, so I can really compare the two modalities to each other. It was also very helpful to see general rad oncs practicing in a community setting as opposed to the big name academic settings.

If you are in a good prelim program you will have plenty of exposure to radiology and pathology.
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FWIW, several programs, including the program I matched to, have required radiology and pathology rotations during residency. Since I had formal path and rads rotations as a TY, I get excused from those requirements and get two extra months of research. IMO, that extra research time is what will really help me land that academic position. I also wrote and submitted a manuscript during my TY rad onc month.



PS: Re: Simul's post following, the surgery rotation here is almost entirely spent in the OR seeing whatever cases you want. Though that is quite variable among the TY programs.
 
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Prelim medicine was so stinking hard and not very rewarding ... Had I matched the first time around, I would have definitely done a cushy TY in Phoenix or Miami or something like that. Couple of surgical rotations sound nice in theory ... but better would be anesthesia or radiology rotation and then ask the surgeons if you could scrub in on cases. I would hate pre-rounding on 50 general surgery patients for a month.

No way would that come up in a job interview, are you kidding?? Makes absolutely no sense. If I lost a job opportunity because I did 4 medicine months instead of 7, I think that's probably a practice not worth joining.

-S
 
Sorry to nudge this to the top, but if one were to not match the first try and gets a prelim spot do you repeat the match the next season or do you hope for an opening somewhere? (MS3 trying to get a feel for this before the next cycle). TIA
 
nuetronium said:
Sorry to nudge this to the top, but if one were to not match the first try and gets a prelim spot do you repeat the match the next season or do you hope for an opening somewhere? (MS3 trying to get a feel for this before the next cycle). TIA
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If you match into a PGY-1 (internship) but not a Rad Onc residency then you should try to get into an opening during your internship year. This is really the ideal situation so you will not waste a year.

If that doesn't work out, your other options are:
1. Go through the Match again
2. Do a research year
3. Choose another specialty

If you match through the NRMP match the second time around, you'll still have a year of dead time you must fill.
 
Gfunk6 said:
If you match through the NRMP match the second time around, you'll still have a year of dead time you must fill.
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What do people usually do during this gap year if they match the second time around? Do they do a second transitional year or can they "moon-light" full time for a year?
 
echod said:
What do people usually do during this gap year if they match the second time around? Do they do a second transitional year or can they "moon-light" full time for a year?
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It varies. I know a couple of people who "repeated" an internship 😱 (not something I would recommend if you can help it).

I'd say the majority get a research position somewhere where they can at least get a nominal salary ($35K or so). Moon-lighting full-time can be tough but it really depends on where you are living. Most residents I know who moon-light do so as seniors [in medicine or surgery] when they have a bit more knowledge under their belt and feel comfortable managing clinical emergencies.
 
I recently had a friend who had to go through this. Since he couldn't find a spot outside the match during his intern year, he re-applied through the match and ended up matching. For that extra year, he decided to do some Adjunct teaching at a couple of universities - he's really enjoyed the experience so far, but he said that it wasn't easy to land one of teaching spots.
 
Sheldor said:
How many TY programs did you guys in this last crop of applicants apply to?
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Applied to 25 total TYs and prelim meds (mostly TY), invited to 15, interviewed at 12, 3 of which were combined prelim med/TY interviews. Ended up ranking the prelim meds at the bottom of the list or not at all. Matched at #3. Probably overkill but at least I got a good sense of what I was looking for.

I know a few people who applied to only 1-3 local programs. For some this was successful, and for others they got horribly burned. I wouldn't recommend this. I'd say interview at at least 6 places. Depending on your location and application, this is probably ~10-12 applications.
 
For people getting ready to apply, make sure to talk to interns at prelim programs that you might be interested in. Some prelims are malignant but some are very good and do follow the work hour restrictions (especially if the GME is watching them). A lot of med interns do get to go to noon conference every day and get to learn a ton without killing themselves. There is no method to which ones are good, so just get out and ask. But don't ask senior residents. They were interns before the new ACGME rules were established so their experience won't really reflect what you are going to go through if the hospital actually follows those regulations.

Other than that, this thread has hit the major point...It doesn't matter what you do the first year. Networking is the only real thing you can accomplish to really help you with rad onc in the long run. You can accomplish that in TY, med, or sry.
 
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Assuming many/most internships are equivalent in terms of the training you need for radiation oncology (which this thread seems to suggest), I think the number of prelim/TY's you apply to should depend on the (i) where you want to be geographically, and (ii) your strength as an applicant. Having just gone through the process this previous cycle, I found that I had more credibility (and as a result, got more interviews) at the internships in my home state (which was where I went to college and where my permanent address is) and at the internships near my medical school. So geographic connections are important. I also spoke with several program directors during interviews, including the president of the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine, who all whom suggested that most places are very interested in radiation oncology preliminary/TY interns because they are the most likely students to publish during internship, and they're typically very good across a broad range of situations. However, the APDIM president also mentioned to me that just because you're going into radiation oncology doesn't make it a slam dunk; they're still going look at the strengths/weaknesses on your application. So, by extension, the better you're feeling about your chances in radiation oncology, the better you should feel about your chances as an applicant to internships.

I applied to a total of 15 internships in essentially 2 geographic regions. I got 9 interviews in the place I really wanted to end up, and cancelled everything else. I would have been perfectly happy at 4 of those 9 places, and ended up matching at one of those 4.
 
Can anyone provide me with the typical dates or weeks of the year that prelim medicine and transition year interviews are offered? Are they commonly offered in October or are most interview dates in November and December? Thanks in advance
 
Totem said:
Can anyone provide me with the typical dates or weeks of the year that prelim medicine and transition year interviews are offered? Are they commonly offered in October or are most interview dates in November and December? Thanks in advance
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Depends, but usually PGY-1 interviews go between November through January, and some extent into February.
 
Like DrAwesome said, it depends. Most of mine were in November, with a few scattered through Dec and Jan. I suggest getting your application submitted ASAP (like day 1) of ERAS opening for AT LEAST your prelim/TY programs. Getting your application in early for these programs can help you get your interview offer earlier, while there are maximal amount of interview dates still open. In my case, I submitted my application for the prelim/TY programs on the first day of ERAS and then submitted my applications to my Rad Onc programs a few days later (when I finished my personal statement, etc).
 
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