Are you able to do your intern year of a categorical program in a separate program?

[BoneWizard]

I'm couples matching with my wife and it's important that we end up at the same city at least until halfway through our intern year.

I am am planning on applying Anesthesiology and she's going into IM.

Our question is, if I were to match into a categorical Anesthesiology position and the couples match places us in different locations, could I request to do my intern year at a different program before continuing my CA1 year at the categorical program?

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[sunshinefl]

No. If you are matched categorical, you are bound by the match to go there.

 

[gutonc]

A Match commitment is binding. Plan your rank lists accordingly.

Also...a little weird that you only need to be in the same place for half of your intern year. But whatever works for you two is fine.

 

[BoneWizard]

A Match commitment is binding. Plan your rank lists accordingly.

Also...a little weird that you only need to be in the same place for half of your intern year. But whatever works for you two is fine.

Is this something that could be negotiated with the program? As in if the program was okay with it and I had a prelim lined up, is there anything stopping me from being able to? I basically just want to know if it'd even be worth asking.

My wife has a medical problem that requires help a few times a week. It'd only be until half of intern year because her father is retiring at the end of the year and can move in to help care for her.

 

[sunshinefl]

Is this something that could be negotiated with the program? As in if the program was okay with it and I had a prelim lined up, is there anything stopping me from being able to? I basically just want to know if it'd even be worth asking.

My wife has a medical problem that requires help a few times a week. It'd only be until half of intern year because her father is retiring at the end of the year and can move in to help care for her.

If it’s a categorical spot, no. You have to go there. Plan your match list accordingly. Rank places that you can either do a prelim year (and then advanced wherever) or categorical near her over categorical programs away from her.

 

[Smurfette]

You just need to rank things accordingly with your wife.
You can more or less "mix and match" prelim spots with advanced spots. So if you are looking to match in, say, the Chicago area, you can pair an advanced program with any number of prelim programs. And you can do it in the couples match as well, but you'll have a longer match list to pair with your wife's (as you list each prelim program to pair with a program on her list). However, a categorical spot will include your intern year and thus those programs are not able to be mixed and matched. Targeting big cities with lots of programs for both of you optimizes your chance of matching in the same place.