Prelim vs transitional year

[WaylonS]

While I know the prelim vs TY issue has been discussed before, I was curious why prelim years are looked upon more favorably. Wouldn't PDs want their new residents to have had several months of rheum and AI electives during their TY than to have done several extra months on the wards managing COPD exacerbations and pneumonia? In my head, the benefits of doing a TY seem obvious, I just don't understand why PDs prefer prelim years.

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[asmallchild]

Old-fashioned thinking, PDs like to think the crop of residents they've selected are the toughest/best and prelim years have been historically more difficult to slog through than TYs. PDs are also so far removed from their intern year I suspect most of them have no idea about electives (although truth be told, TY electives are more for relaxation, it would be hard for me to believe that elective months during a TY truly prepare you better for a derm residency.)

 

[Hoser]

There is also some bias towards internal medicine amongst some PDs. Some of the older ones might even have trained in medicine first. And some of them do see the TY as more cushy, which certainly is the case for some of them. One PD (a medicine person) told me they prefer medicine years because they felt it was more relevant to derm (medicine bias). Also said that if someone didn't match the first time, they would rather see a prelim year on the application vs TY (cush bias)

 

[upairman]

When you are trying to decide on a prelim or transitional year try looking for a program that will make you a better doctor in the end. Dont worry avout what your potential future program director would like to see. I chose a transitional year and the broad exposure to all fields made the transition into Dermatology very easy. In Derm we treat kids do surgery and do medicine so I found it beneficial to rotate in all of those. In terms of applying though remember that you can choose a transitional year as a first choice if you match. You can also choose a prestigious prelim year on eras if you dont match derm. As said above if you need to reapply having a prelim year at a big name institution will look better. Good luck!

 

[Hoser]

I agree. I picked a prelim year that had a nice mix of medicine as well as elective time. I was able to get good exposure to rheum, allergy, ID that have helped during my dermatology residency. I would have had no qualms about picking a TY if I hadn't matched where I did. Once you are matched, it really doesn't matter if you did TY vs prelim medicine.

 

[DermApp13]

When you are trying to decide on a prelim or transitional year try looking for a program that will make you a better doctor in the end. Dont worry avout what your potential future program director would like to see. I chose a transitional year and the broad exposure to all fields made the transition into Dermatology very easy. In Derm we treat kids do surgery and do medicine so I found it beneficial to rotate in all of those. In terms of applying though remember that you can choose a transitional year as a first choice if you match. You can also choose a prestigious prelim year on eras if you dont match derm. As said above if you need to reapply having a prelim year at a big name institution will look better. Good luck!

Glad to hear that one can rank Prelim separately in case they don't match into derm