Couple's Matching with a Prelim Year

[AmericanoWithCream]

Hi all!

I am attempting to match Rad Onc and my fiancee is attempting Psychiatry. We are wondering if there is a way to link EVERYTHING - the prelim year for me with my Rad Onc residency with his Psych residencies all within the same city.

I'm wondering if this is a masive mistake because it would set me up to not match rad onc at all, unless all the chips fell together in the same city, and unfortunately I don't have a 260 Step 1 for my rad onc application, although otherwise I feel like a solid applicant.

Any advice?

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[coralis]

I am also couple's matching and although not applying to a prelim year, the "linking of everything" you are referring to can be done by the two of you when you submit your couple's rank list. Something like this

Him Her
Prelim Yr Program X
Prelim Yr Program Y
Program X Program Z
Program Y Program Y

As you can see the couple's ROL allows you to list a program multiple times, in multiple combinations. That way you can focus on one geographical area.

 

[gutonc]

Hi all!

I am attempting to match Rad Onc and my fiancee is attempting Psychiatry. We are wondering if there is a way to link EVERYTHING - the prelim year for me with my Rad Onc residency with his Psych residencies all within the same city.

I'm wondering if this is a masive mistake because it would set me up to not match rad onc at all, unless all the chips fell together in the same city, and unfortunately I don't have a 260 Step 1 for my rad onc application, although otherwise I feel like a solid applicant.

Is it possible? Yes, of course it's possible. Both of your lists (including your prelim list) can be linked. I would allow yourselves at least a week to make the list since it's going to be easy to screw up though.

As to whether or not you can match in the same city...that's a different story. There's no point stressing out about it now until you both start getting interview offers and have to figure out where to interview. I assume you're loading your applications with cities/regions that have a large concentration of training programs in order to maximize your chances.

 

[AmericanoWithCream]

I guess what I'm worried about is that if say I get a rad onc program in city X, he gets psych in city X, but my prelim year in city X doesn't pan out...if I link them ALL, it appears that we would be declining the offer alltogether in city X. There are many prelim years within each state, and I'm banking on just applying to many prelims in each city/state combination. This has left me with 65 Rad Onc and 85 Prelim programs... a lot! Plus his programs.... But gutonc you're right -- we just have to wait and see about interviews.

Something else about that - I've been searching through the posts to find out about this and haven't found a great answer - FREIDA lists vey interesting minimum Step 1 scores for various programs. Ex: 211 for MDACC... but a school in Galveston is 259. The most common minimums I found were 200, 220, 235, with Colorado listing 240. How much should we rely on these numbers? My score is on the lower end of this spectrum, and applying to a program where I am one point shy of the minimum is becoming a concern as we end up having to apply to psych and prelim (xMany) in that city.

Any thoughts?
🙁 I'm exhausted reading my own post!!

 

[NotAProgDirector]

The couples match question is more complicated than suggested above.

The couples match can only link two matches -- in this case your RadOnc with her psych.

An in depth, mathematical look at the couples match is here:http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=604622

This lets you have complete control over what is preferable and/or acceptable in your categorical and advanced matches.

The prelim match is NOT couple's linked. You can have a separate prelim rank list for each advanced match you have. But if you and your spouse both matched to Toledo (I made that up) for psych and RadOnc respectively, then your prelim list would favor prelims in Toledo. But if you fail to match at any prelim in Toledo, you can't set up the match to somehow "undo" the rest of the matches. You'd be stuck being separated for a year (or you could not list any prelims outside of Toledo, and you'd be unmatched for your prelim year).

There, of course, is always an exception. You can decide to list prelim positions on your Main match list under all of your Rad Onc options. If you do this, then if you fail to match in rad onc, you then can match in prelim only. In that case (where you're matching to a prelim position from your MAIN match list because you failed to match at ANY advanced program), then your prelim match is couple's linked to her Psych match. Again, the couples link only links 2 matches.

 

[coralis]

Funny enough this guide I found a few weeks back is from Rochoster's Rad Onc department.

 

[Schmee]

.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

You have several options:

1. First, see how many derm interviews she gets. Realistically, it's hard to go on more than 12-15 interviews (because then you have all of those prelim interviews to do also). Hopefully a bunch of derm interviews will all be in the same area -- that will let you focus her prelim choices.

2. Next, advanced programs are well aware of this problem. Some have set up categorical matches (that basically include a prelim year) to address this specific issue. Others have "promised" prelim spots. So, explain to the program your concerns and see what they say.

3. When ranking time comes, and you know what your rank list will look like, you'll be recontacting programs to get a sense of what the prelim situation is like (if they hinted that they had some control / flexibility about it).

4. When you actualy rank, you might decide to only rank prelims in the same geographic area. So, if she interviews only in NYC and LA, then the prelim list might be only NYC prelims for the NYC derm programs, and only LA programs for the LA derm list. This risks her not matching for a prelim -- but if you're matching into an area with a large number of programs, it's likely that someone will help find a slot somewhere for her to train.

5. Don't forget to have her apply to surgical prelim positions. Derm allows either IM or GS. Doing a surgical prelim would suck, but boy are they easy to get, and there will be plenty in SOAP (if it comes to that).

 

[Schmee]

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[NotAProgDirector]

Yes. If she doesn't match prelim and does match derm, then often the derm program will try to help find a prelim locally if possible. No guarantees this will happen, so try not to remain unmatched for prelim.

Again, in this situation, it's unlikely to happen. If your wife doesn't match to a prelim, there will be a bunch of surgical prelims in SOAP. She'll get one of those, hopefully wherever you've matched. Note that the NRMP will tell you what city you matched into for derm, so that you can then focus her SOAP on that area. You'll need to call them to get that information.

 

[Schmee]

Great news, thanks for the information!