Transitional and Prelim years are stuff people do before they enter some specialized training or before they apply again for residency if they didn't match. Transitional includes rotaitons in all departments, while prelims can specificy surgery or medicine.
Don't get caught up comparing match lists. I know I don't know how to, unless you know someone who knows a lot about med schools. For example, univ. of cincinnati is supposed to have the best ED, but you wouldn't find that impressive on a match list. Hopkins and Harvard have some departments that aren't too stellar, so you can't just go for big names. On the other hand matching someone at MGH, Hopkins or the like isn't THAT big of a deal. By the time people are residency age (~26) many choose location over name, and certain departments like internal medicine are large enough that you'll even see FMG's. Additionally, if you aren't interested in academia, then a person may not rank a place like harvard highly (which has a reputation of frowning upon private practice).
If you do a search on SDN you'll come up with a thread similar to this. You'll also see a link to match lists on that thread.
Just some things to think about..........
