Likelihood of SOAPing into Preliminary Surgery spot?

[insertgenericusername]

I noticed that in the Post-Match NRMP data, there are nearly 100s of spots left over in the Pre-liminary Surgery positions all across the US. Is it reliable enough for me to expect that I will be able to secure a Prelim Surg spot since there are so many openings available across the US? I am most interested in pursuing Anesthesia for my PGY-2 after finishing a Pre-lim surg year btw. How realistic is this approach as a multiple board failure student? Thank you in advance for your thoughts and advice

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[evilbooyaa]

Most of those spots end up in the hands of people who have advanced residency spots waiting for them. If you're a weak candidate, it's something to consider trying, but realistically you should apply to Anesthesia at the same time. If you don't have an advanced residency spot, it seems like quite a bit of especcially the non-academic centers will use prelims as cheap labor and throw them away without trying to get them into a surgical residency (or any residency, FWIW).

 

[bqhealer]

@evilbooyaa can you describe what a weak candidate is? What kind of metrics are required to SOAP into a prelim surgery spot?

 

[evilbooyaa]

In regards to OP, somebody trying to match anesthesia but nervous about matching (especially if they don't match) in a field like that (which is generally not considered competitive at this point), that's what I'd consider a weak candidate. OP, as a multiple board failure student, unfortunately falls into the above category.
As long as OP applied appropriately broadly, got documents in on time, etc. etc. and is still having issues securing a spot in anesthesia.

There are no real metrics from what I can tell. While it's more organized than what the scramble seemed to be, it still seems like a crap-shoot on what open programs in the SOAP are looking for. I figured they would prioritize people who have an advanced position locked in, and they likely generally favor that, but from n=1, the one spot we filled post-match and post-soap was by an undesignated prelim over multiple candidates that had advanced positions locked in.

 

[Goro]

Some people want to hear what they want to hear, not what they need to hear.

You asked basically the same question already, but you've given even fewer details about yourself this time:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/pre-lim-surg-vs-pre-lim-med-vs-tri-from-do-match.1178443/

Not sure what more advice you are going to get than what you've received so far.