Advice Needed for Radiology Backup Options

[Justaman14]

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Hello everyone!

I need some advice in regards to match options in Radiology. So I have 4 Catergorical Radiology Interviews; all of which I will rank. After this I have about 8 Catergorical IM options; all which I've admittedly worked very hard for. However, I am certain, not because of the money, though of course that helps, that intellectually and socially radiology is best for me. My questions are as follows

In the case that I did not match into these Catergorical Radiology programs; and I were to do a Intern year and scramble into an (advanced) MD radiology spot (with a potential for reapplying next year for Radiology if Scramble doesn't work out - with the benefit of a great Step 3 Grade accumulated in the meantime) ; is this more or less risky than simply scrambling into a (categorical.)

Option 1. Drop IM &
A) Solo Scramble into -Categorical- Rads (without Traditional Year)
B) Traditional Year with Scramble into -Advanced- Rads with a potential re-application next year if that scramble does not work out?
Option 2. Hold onto IM and place the Traditional Option Last; as backup.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

You've written your question in a terribly confusing manner.

If I understand the situation, you have 4 Rads interviews. You also have 8 IM interviews, although it's not clear from your question whether you have Categorical or Prelim interviews. You also mention "Traditional Year", which is incorrect, it's a "Transitional Year", and that's completely different from IM. I can't tell if you have Transitional Year interviews, or you're calling Prelim IM a "Traditional Year". I'm guessing these are Prelim IM spots.

Anyhow, you're going to rank your four radiology programs, and presumably a prelim year / transitional year supplemental list for those 4 spots. If you match there, you're all set.

The question is what to do after those 4 ranks. Your options are to rank the prelim spots on your main match list, and then try to SOAP into an advanced radiology position, or you could not rank the prelims, be completely unmatched, and then try to scramble into either a categorical radiology spot or an advanced spot AND a prelim position.

If that's your question, then there are many more PGY-2 radiology positions available in SOAP. Last year there were 13 PGY-1 categorical radiology positions in SOAP, and 131 PGY-2 Advanced positions. Therefore, statistically you're better off matching to a PGY-1 and then just trying for PGY-2 positions. Of note, there was a huge jump in open positions last year -- programs are likely to interview and rank many more people this year to try to mitigate that.

It's also possible that your question is that you have interviewed at categorical IM programs, and you want to know if you should rank those on your rank list, or not rank them and hope for the best in SOAP. That's an unanswerable question, it all depends on your tolerance of risk. The safest thing to do would be to rank the IM programs, match there (if you don't match to radiology), and train in IM. But if you hate it, probably not a good idea. If you don't rank the IM programs, there is some chance that you will never get a radiology spot, and then might have trouble getting an IM spot in a later match. So no easy answers.

 

[Justaman14]

I very much apologize. I should have been more specific. As I am a DO; the language is somewhat different.

I have 4 Radiology Categoricals
I have 8 IM Catergoricals
I have 1 Transitional/Traditional(DOspeak) Intern Year

I may not match into Radiology on a catergorical level but I know I will very likely rank into the Intern Year or into the IM Programs. I suppose my question is, how likely is one to scramble into an Advanced Radiology Position after securing the Intern year; and as to whether this is a valid or foolish endeavor; forsaking the IM's that I have worked hard to achieve.

Your answer makes it seem like the Intern Year with a SOAP acquired PGY-2 Radiology Position is the better choice. Thank you so much for your input.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Thanks for the clarification. This changes everything.

First of all, all of the data above was for the NRMP match. If you're applying to a TRI, I assume we're talking about the AOA match. That's a totally different game.

In the AOA match, there were 8 open DR spots after last year's match. I can't tell if these are PGY-1 or PGY-2 positions. If PGY-1, you won't qualify for them at all.

With a TRI, you will NOT currently qualify for an ACGME Rads PGY-2 position. This is complicated, as the rules MIGHT change if the merger is completed. But they might not, and programs are probably unwilling to risk it.

 

[Justaman14]

That's interesting. I've spoken to programs and asked if they accept transfer PGY-2 from a completed AOA PGY-1 Internship (TRI) and quite a few of them have said yes.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

That's interesting. I've spoken to programs and asked if they accept transfer PGY-2 from a completed AOA PGY-1 Internship (TRI) and quite a few of them have said yes.

I could be wrong. I was looking at the American Board of Radiology website, and it seemed to suggest they only accepted ACGME training. But, I remember that one of my Rads prelims took a 3 month maternity leave several years ago. When I asked when she was going to make up the time, the answer was "never", as apparently the ABR didn't care. The ABIM tends to be a huge stickler about things like this.

If ACGME PGY-2's are an option then my advice probably flops back, with over 100 spots likely open (although if these are advanced spots, you'll be waiting a year to start)

 

[fluoresceindrop]

That's interesting. I've spoken to programs and asked if they accept transfer PGY-2 from a completed AOA PGY-1 Internship (TRI) and quite a few of them have said yes.

Which programs accept pgy-2 transfer after AOA pgy-1 internship? Also, even if a program accepts you, I think you need to meet ABR's criteria to be board eligible. I'm not aware of any updates with the merger.

 

[j4pac]

Did you apply AOA Rads? With only 4 invites to ACGME Radiology programs, it would have been wise to apply AOA. I know that this is a bit of hindsight, but if it's not too late you at least need to consider it as an option, especially if there are unfilled AOA Radiology spots.