Hashmi said:
Does a prelim year (med) help in applying to eye? How can one make himself a strong candidate in that year?
also, suppose one matches into a categorical IM program. if he then starts that program, can he after a year go directly to a PGY-2 placement in eye (if he matches into an eye program after that year of course? can you even leave a categorical IM program before the 3 years are up??
and thank you for your earlier help. but i really don't want to be getting into a research gig with no guarantee that i'll get an optho placement by the time the research stint ends.
A Prelim year is unlikely to help you at all. I have matched into ophtho and am starting my prelim in July. I am only expecting to be used as cheap labor. I will be admitting patients all hours of the night on call q4 for over 6 months. This is not the ideal way to get to know people in ophtho. Generally faculty members in ophtho ONLY know of other faculty members in ophtho and even then they usually only know of the big names (like chairs, PDs, and big names in research at major institutions like Wilmer, Wills, Bascom Palmer, UCLA, etc.) I think that you are wasting more of your time doing the prelim year and applying for ophtho than if you do the year of research.
Actually, to be brutally honest since it sounds like you aren't quite ready to commit to the research year because of fear that you may not land a spot, I would recommend that before you do anything take USMLE Step I if you have not already done so. I am only saying this, because if you don't do well on this you will probably have trouble getting interviews even with the year of research. The average score of matched applicants is 230. It is sad to say this but to be competetive for ophtho as a foreign grad try to get at least a few points higher than this. I think even if you only get a 230 if you make the right contacts while doing research here you can land a spot. However, if you get less than a 220, then it may not be worth doing the year of research at all.
To answer your question on the categorical position, it will really depend on your IM program, I think they might be willing to let you drop out if they know that you love eye and won't be happy continuing on, however when you sign up for the match you are basically signing a contract to be with them for three years, and your program may be VERY angry that you are quitting after the first year. However, at my home program a guy was basically thrown out of his family practice residency in December of his first year largely because he was taking time off to interview for general surgery (they were also upset that he was trying to leave so you may lose your categorical posiiton anyway , because the IM program would almost rather fire you and get a jump on looking for a new resident). You won't be getting time off to be interviewing for ophtho while participating in a residency, this is another plus to the research year approach you will probably be just continuing your research during interview season and people won't mind that you are gone. Your IM program will be really upset when you are gone during the admission heavy cold months in the states. (Nobody wants to round on all of your pneumonias while you are flying down to sunny Florida)
I hope this advice helps, I know some of it is hard to accept, but it hurts me more when people find all this stuff out a few years later and wish they never even signed up for their categorical medicine program. Selling yourself short like that isn't fair to you or your patients (who always hope to have a doctor that is doing what he loves).
