Parallel match in prelim year & residency

[dvsr]

Hello, I am applying to a pretty competitive specialty and at the same time to prelim IM/transitional year programs. Much to my dismay, I have only gotten a handful of IM prelim interviews and plenty of categorical spots. I may have underestimated the number of applications that I needed to send for a prelim year, even though I am a competitive applicant for top specialties.
So my question is, if I match into a residency spot but fail to match into a prelim spot, is my residency match cancelled or do I have the option to scramble into a prelim spot?

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[koan]

If you're that competitive and a US grad you should have no trouble scrambling into some prelim year, somewhere, on the off chance that you match advanced only.

 

[Raryn]

If you're that competitive and a US grad you should have no trouble scrambling into some prelim year, somewhere, on the off chance that you match advanced only.

That said, that prelim year may very well be surgery. There's not so many medicine/transitional years left for the SOAP most recent years.

 

[Law2Doc]

That said, that prelim year may very well be surgery. There's not so many medicine/transitional years left for the SOAP most recent years.

Yes -- prelim surgery years love "designated" (ie already categorically matched) people because they won't have to help you with lining up a residency or scheduling for interviews, and it decreases their reputation as "dead end". Also the fact that another residency wanted you makes you "better" than the unmatched person nobody else was willing to take a gamble on. And the categorical seniors like to have more people who aren't going to complain about not getting into the cool cases and are fine with extra floor work and carrying the pagers instead.