best prelim surgery programs

[Dire Straits]

are there prelim surgery residencies that have a good reputation of either placing their prelim residents into categorical positions at other programs or keeping them on as categorical residents in their own program?

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[njbmd]

are there prelim surgery residencies that have a good reputation of either placing their prelim residents into categorical positions at other programs or keeping them on as categorical residents in their own program?

Hi there,
There really are no "good" preliminary residencies that will "place" you into a categorical position. If you do well as a prelim, whether or not you are able to get into a categorical slot depends on whether or not there is an available slot for you. Since General Surgery did a great job of filling this year, open categorical slots are going to be pretty scarce. Some programs will take non-designated prelims and have no intentions of keeping them even if there are slots open feeling that they can pick up an outside candidate or someone will transfer in.

If you are currently in a non-designated preliminary slot, you need to do a good job and ace ABSITE, keep in close contact with your program director so that you can get a good letter and keep your contacts open at other programs that have openings. Openings sometime happen when residents elect to stay in the research lab an extra year or (rarely) someone decides that surgery is not for them. Your program director is NOT going to FIND a position for you but should help you once you have found a position unless you have done a poor job. Your residency coordinator is also a good resource in that job openings come up all the time and they can make these available for you.

Try very hard to match into a categorical position outright but if the worst happens, get into a preliminary slot where you can learn and work very hard. Once there, be very proactive about getting a new position.

njbmd

 

[Dire Straits]

i've heard there are prelim programs that will keep you but they will make you repeat PGY1 (in other words you don't get to move into a PGY2 position but have to start all over even though you've completed PGY1). i've heard they usually do this if they think you are competent enough so they don't have to "risk" a categorical PGY1 spot the next year on a person fresh out of med school who they know less about. so i was wondering if there are any programs out there that are known to do this?

 

[hans19]

UCSF surgical prelim has an excellent track record...
I know 2 surg prelims from the same year. Both had tried to match ortho originally. The next year one was offered an ortho spot at UCSF but opted for a rads spot outside the match at a middle tier university program and the other found an spot in ortho at U Miami. Both were pretty strong candidates to begin with, however.

 

[Winged Scapula]

i've heard there are prelim programs that will keep you but they will make you repeat PGY1 (in other words you don't get to move into a PGY2 position but have to start all over even though you've completed PGY1). i've heard they usually do this if they think you are competent enough so they don't have to "risk" a categorical PGY1 spot the next year on a person fresh out of med school who they know less about. so i was wondering if there are any programs out there that are known to do this?

Mine does...it may also offer a PGY2 Prelim spot to those (ie, not repeating your intern year) and move you into a Categorical spot once someone goes into the lab.