Does Transitional Year Count Towards Categorical Medicine Residency?

[amphatoast21]

I am an M4 applying into radiology, but in case radiology doesn't work out, I'd like to keep my options open and pursue an internal medicine residency. For my intern year, I have the option of ranking preliminary-medicine and transitional years. Anyone know if doing a prelim-medicine year (versus a TY year) makes switching into a categorical medicine residency easier (e.g. so that I wouldn't need to repeat intern year)?

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[xoggyux]

The short answer is yes you can.
Long answer:
If you do this, be aware that there is a non-zero chance that they will ask you to repeat the "first year" and do a full 3 year old residency. I have seen it happen way too often.
I have seen people just going the TY to 2nd-year route as well. Both are possible.
Applying to the 2nd year is not as straightforward (if you can call it that) as applying to residency through the match. Obviously there are far less PGY2 spots out there, usually, it requires a non-insignificant deal of networking and acrobatics by the applicant. The problems are compounded in the event that you needed a VISA.
Whatever you do, make sure your TY program has the absolute highest impression from your work ethic and your commitment to medicine since you will need letters of recommendation.

 

[amphatoast21]

Thanks for the reply - I guess if both routes are possible, I should opt to rank the TY higher than the prelim-medicine program if I would need to repeat an intern year regardless of whether I do a TY or prelim-medicine intern year.

 

[collegestud2013]

If that's the case I would rank the Prelim IM spots higher (even if the IM prelim year may be more work than a TY year).

Very few IM programs that have a PGY-2 opening will accept someone to transfer in as a PGY-2 who did a TY as their PGY-1 year (which includes rotations in multiple specialty areas in IM as well as Surgical specialties), while most will accept someone who did a PGY-1 prelim year. PGY-2 IM positions are not through the Match and usually open when a PGY-1 categorical leaves the program for some reason or if a program is expanding, so your options will be more limited. Also, if you are doing IM residency to pursue a competitive fellowship (Eg cardiology, GI, heme/onc, pulm/crit), coming from a "no name" IM program will severely limit your chances of matching.

The main difference between a PGY-1 categorical year vs a Prelim year at most programs is that the prelim year does not have outpatient (ambulatory) continuity clinic, so most people who transition from prelim to categorical only end up doing 2 years of