Out of curiosity, why were so many spots unmatched for AOA Derm this year?
All AOA derm positions are either in the process of transitioning to ACGME and NRMP or closing. Wouldn't count on this route, though it's worth a shot for what few programs remain I guess.
Also, will they ever switch to a categorical type of thing? It's ridiculous we have to be forced into AOA internship because we can't apply AOA derm in 4th yr.
Are you sure about that? I was under the impression that they let MD folks know in 4th year. Still though, it's worse for us. Imagine you took step 1 and do well enough to maybe get a decent ACGME IM residency. However, you'd rather do AOA derm. We have to go into an AOA internship, then apply derm. What happens if we dont get in then? Other than missing out on that ACGME IM spot that would then be lost. lol. It's a risky move. I'm at wits end about what to do about that.Same is true for 95% of ACGME Derm positions too...
Are you sure about that? I was under the impression that they let MD folks know in 4th year. Still though, it's worse for us. Imagine you took step 1 and do well enough to maybe get a decent ACGME IM residency. However, you'd rather do AOA derm. We have to go into an AOA internship, then apply derm. What happens if we dont get in then? Other than missing out on that ACGME IM spot that would then be lost. lol. It's a risky move. I'm at wits end about what to do about that.
The hard thing about is..if you dont match (DO) and you need to do something else as a backup, youre only an intern at a program for 1 year, right? So, most IM programs you apply to are 3 years. You apply and your first year is as an intern, but you're already in those last two years. In our situation, we aren't guaranteed a freely open 2nd year IM spot, just because we are interns..so where does that take us? Do have to scramble to get into a 2nd yr IM spot, or do we have to reapply completely and do intern year again...very confusing and difficult, TBH..there's no real reason they can't just make all the programs categorical and allow us to know in 4th year..it would make everything logistically so much more practical.Hmm... you might be right about that because I've seen on many MD listing Preliminary year then Derm for the place they matched (maybe that's what a pre-match is?). And i'm not sure, but my follow-up question for that is what do the MD students who do preliminary year end up doing too if they don't match? Can't you just apply again for ACGME IM? Worst case scenario being that you have to repeat your preliminary year? Not sure.