Need Urgent Advice Before Submitting ROL!

[Lethal]

I need advice on whether to submit a rank list or not. I am fourth year Carib with 90+ on both boards and CS passed. Due to reasons, I did not apply for anesthesia in this years match. However, now I want to do anesthesia!! My options are to either rank a prelim spot for tomorrow OR not. I know scrambling into anesthesia is difficult and will be possibly even more so for me b/c I am an FMG and do NOT have an anesthesia LOR. I have been to many prelim interviews and am pretty sure that I will land a prelim spot if I sumbit a ROL tonight. Would it better to take a year off to do research and then re-apply to anesthesia all over again next year? Or would it better to do a prelim year and then re-apply? I am thinking it may be better to do a research year initially to boost my app and possibly get into a solid program. Otherwise, the year that I chance to loose will not really be used to strengthen my application. I am also aware that people do drop out of anesthesia and spots open up but I do not want to chance it on this alone. Also, I have heard of people applying for CA-1 spots but people have stated that these are difficult to land b/c there are few and usually at top programs. What do you guys recommend I do? Also, is there a way to see which programs offer or will offer CA-1 spots in 2009? TIA!

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[nociceptor]

I vote rank the prelim. If you don't scramble, spend the next year looking into a CA1. Plenty of programs reserve CA1 spots for people similar to you. e.g. FLORIDA. They reserve these spots outside the match.

best of luck

 

[amyl]

not sure which is better but wanted to share some info about some programs I interviewed at that you might be interested in.
miami usually has some people doing research and they are fmg-friendly.
virginia commonwealth has two spots through the match for CA ones. there was a carib grad at the interview day.
cleveland clinic takes ten people in january that are typically fmgs. not sure if they are matching those people now or if they will still accept applications for those spots.