nrmp categorical vs advanced

[afugazzi]

I have a question about ranking programs that have a certain number of categorical positions (say 6/8 categorical and the remaining 2/8 advanced). For family reasons it is very important to me to spend my prelim year at the same place as my neuro program (or at least at the same place as my med school), so important that I would rather match at my 2nd favorite neuro program if it meant having my prelim year in the same place.

When it comes to ranking these programs that have 6/8 spots categorical and 2/8 advanced, does NRMP allow you to separately rank the categorical and advanced spots or do you rank them together as one program? For instance, I would like to make a ranking like this:
1) My favorite neuro program - categorical spots
2) My second favorite neuro program - categorical spots
3) My favorite neuro program - advanced spots

Is this how it works? Or would I instead just rank the neuro program and then it's kind of random whether I match into the categorical or advanced spots? (I care this early on because it influences how many prelim spots I decide to interview at).

Thanks!

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[TUGM]

Here's just a hypothetical example:

1. Partners - categorical (You wish, right?)
2. Partners - advanced
- a. MGH - preliminary medicine
- b. Boston University - preliminary medicine
- c. Lahey Clinic - preliminary medicine
3. UCSF - advanced
- a. SFGH preliminary medicine
- b. The surf shop preliminary medicine
4. Columbia
etc., etc..

Make sense?

 

[afugazzi]

Thanks so much - that answers my question perfectly.

 

[maddog2020]

Yes, it is very nice if the program has both categorical and advanced slots. You can even decide to only put the categorical on your rank list and not rank the advanced program. The problem comes when a program has all advanced slots and tells you that they have a certain number of preliminary medicine slot reserved for neurology residents.
As an example, 5 advanced neurology positions and 3 guaranteed preliminary medicine slots. In this case, you have to apply to neurology and prelim medicine both. Rank advanced neurology and link to the prelim program. There is a 3/5 (60%) chance that a prelim slot is guaranteed for you. But there is no way for the NRMP to let you say - if I don't get that prelim spot then I want to match to a different neuro program..... 🙁