Prelim year vs. categorical competitiveness?

[RedPeony]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

If a program has an internal medicine prelim year and a categorical year, which will tend to be more competitive? I know that many people tend to favor a transitional year vs. prelim year so I'm trying to gauge if a prelim medicine year is less competitive than categorical or pretty similar. Thanks so much!

 

[Raryn]

If a program has an internal medicine prelim year and a categorical year, which will tend to be more competitive? I know that many people tend to favor a transitional year vs. prelim year so I'm trying to gauge if a prelim medicine year is less competitive than categorical or pretty similar. Thanks so much!

It varies, but what I've seen more often than not is that the prelim is more competitive. Just because it's a different class of applicant.

At large, academic medical centers where the categorical program is very competitive and the prelims might work harder than they would otherwise, it might be a little different.

 

[235009]

Prelim and categorical competitiveness are almost always opposite one another. If the categorical program is competitive the prelim program will be less competitive because they likely won't cater to the prelims. If the program can only attract subpar categorical residents they are more likely to make the prelim year extra cushy to attract interns who were strong med students making it more competitive.

 

[RustBeltOnc]

MeatTornado summarizes the situation very well.