How does the prelim year work?

[Captain DO]

My understanding is you need 1 IM prelim year before the 3 Neuro years.

For the programs that don't offer an IM spot...Do you apply to regular 3yr IM residencies or are there special prelim IM residencies?


If you apply to a regular 3 yr IM residency, are you supposed to act like its a regular IM interview? or do you say its a prelim year interview?

If you say its for prelim, wouldn't that work against you? PDs don't want someone for only 1 year then be 1 short PGY-2 and 3?

If you're not supposed to say anything, isn't that lying/bad for IM applicants, creating problems when you break the news after PGY-1?

I'm just having trouble processing that not only are there residencies that dont offer an entire year of the requirements, but that also don't have a solid plan for its residents for that year...

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[s5260205]

You apply to 1 year preliminary IM, not the full 3 year IM residency.

 

[NeuroAppl2016]

This is one of the biggest headaches of neurology because you have to have to apply for prelim and interview for many more programs (neurology+prelim). The prelim interviews are really hard to get. I highly recommend to anyone that is applying for neurology that you at onset apply to a ton prelims along with neurology (probably more for prelim than neurology). Look at charting the outcomes data and look at prelims that have a ton of spots. I made the dumb mistake of applying to a bunch of prelims that had 2 spots and if you look on their website they always just take internals. Was big waste of money.

 

[kchan99]

There are quite a few neuro applicants who only apply to categorical programs to avoid the hassle of interviewing for prelims. If I remember correctly, you can do a transitional year instead of prelim medicine. If you do a transitional year, just make sure you meet ABPN requirements for the minimum number of medicine months and also do a month of psychiatry. However, there are many transitional year programs that are "cush" and will not prepare you well for managing medically-complicated neurology patients.