Categorical vs Advanced programs and ranking.

[TRED1400]

A few questions....

If I apply to a categorical and an advanced position at the same program, do they inform me which I will be interviewing for, or am I essentially interviewing for both and it will be unknown to me in which slot they put me in (that is, if they put me in).

I also had another question for ranking. Would my rank list essentially look like this: ???

1) University Blue - Categorical
2) University Yellow - Categorical
3) University Blue - Advanced
....ETC

Honestly I'm an average candidate, so would it be worth my time to apply to both cat/adv programs? I really, really don't want to move so I almost want to but all my eggs in the categorical basket.

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[DrZzZz]

You're interviewing for both. They will have 2 identical rank lists. You will be in the same position on their rank list for both cat/adv. And yes, you also rank them separately. So if you really want a particular program, you can rank both the cat and adv positions ahead of other programs. Or if you really insist on categorical, you can rank all (or several) of the categorical programs ahead of the advanced positions. Totally up to you.

 

[epicnephrine]

One important thing to keep in mind is that if you rank both the Advanced and Categorical programs at a certain institution, those count as TWO programs in the rank list system. You're allowed up to 20 unique programs before they start charging $20-30 per additional program, if I remember, so keep that in mind when you're deciding how many interviews to do. They also count as two programs/ranks for the Charting the Outcomes data which projects your odds of matching by number of ranked programs in a certain specialty.

 

[redraider88]

As a small Public Service Announcement, I’d be wary of ranking prelim/TY programs as solo backups. Last year there were only 15 advanced positions available, across all specialties, for the SOAP. And if you match to a PGY1 position, you can’t soap into a categorical program. So, going completely unmatched and having more options in the SOAP might be a better option for you

 

[Psai]

As a small Public Service Announcement, I’d be wary of ranking prelim/TY programs as solo backups. Last year there were only 15 advanced positions available, across all specialties, for the SOAP. And if you match to a PGY1 position, you can’t soap into a categorical program. So, going completely unmatched and having more options in the SOAP might be a better option for you

If you're soaping, you have to take any position you can without trying to distinguish between prelim and categorical. Going completely unmatched is just a waste of your life.