Question About Match

[sykosomatik]

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I just saw my school's match results for this year. Some people matched into two areas - for example, it'll say surg-preliminary and anesthesiology.

Can you apply to different programs, like surgery and anesthesiology? How does that work - you have to go on seperate interview for both programs.

And can someone tell me what a preliminary is? Is is the same as a transitional year? Why do people have to do a preliminary?

Questions, question....too lazy to look it up.

 

[randomedstudent]

I just saw my school's match results for this year. Some people matched into two areas - for example, it'll say surg-preliminary and anesthesiology.

Can you apply to different programs, like surgery and anesthesiology? How does that work - you have to go on seperate interview for both programs.

And can someone tell me what a preliminary is? Is is the same as a transitional year? Why do people have to do a preliminary?

Questions, question....too lazy to look it up.

Several specialties require a prelim year before starting with specialty training, eg. anesthesiology, radiology, ophtho, derm. Usually this can be prelim medicine, prelim surgery, or in some cases transitional year. Prelim medicine is usually no different than a regular medicine internship, and same with prelim surgery in theory (should be same as regular general surgery internship, although at some programs this is not the case). Transitional year is highly variable and can usually be tailored to what you want, but is essentially a redo of 3rd year except now you are actually a doctor. Hope that clears things up. Oh and yes, for the above specialties that require a prelim year you have to apply to them separately.

 

[sykosomatik]

Several specialties require a prelim year before starting with specialty training, eg. anesthesiology, radiology, ophtho, derm. Usually this can be prelim medicine, prelim surgery, or in some cases transitional year. Prelim medicine is usually no different than a regular medicine internship, and same with prelim surgery in theory (should be same as regular general surgery internship, although at some programs this is not the case). Transitional year is highly variable and can usually be tailored to what you want, but is essentially a redo of 3rd year except now you are actually a doctor. Hope that clears things up. Oh and yes, for the above specialties that require a prelim year you have to apply to them separately.

Thanks rms. But why would anyone do a transitional year? If it's like third year, it just seems a waste. Why not go directly into whatever it is youre going to do?

And can you apply to two different programs? Say you apply to radiology and ENT or whatever...is that possible?

 

[werewethere]

1) Yes, you can apply to as many specialties as you want, but there is a point of diminishing returns. The more you apply to various specialties, the less you are able to demonstrate a committment to that specialty, making you a weaker candidate. Additionally, if people from different programs in the same hospital find out you are applying to both their specialty and someone else's, they will have good reason to not chose you. Finally, there are only so many interviews you can go on based on time, energy, and money. Chose wisely and focus on one specialty with a back up.
2) TY programs are, in general, more comfortable than prelims, with better call schedules, a wider variety of activities you can engage in, and often better perks and benefits. However, if you are choosing between a prelim at a good academic institution and TY, you may have to decide between all these TY perks and exposure to more diverse cases with likely better and more in depth didactics. Once again choose carefully.

 

[Duckie24]

But why would anyone do a transitional year? If it's like third year, it just seems a waste. Why not go directly into whatever it is youre going to do?

Why would anyone do it? Because it is a requirement of the residency training program. For example, anesthesiology is a 4 year training program, but only the last 3 of those years are in clinical anesthesiology. A clinical base year is required before starting the PGY-2 year, and that base year can be done in prelim-medicine, prelim-surgery, or transitional year.

So, someone planning on doing derm, rads, or any of the other specialities mentioned, doesn't really WANT to do this extra year and delay entry into their training specialty of choice, they just have to. Well, at least I don't want to do it, but I'll be doing the medicine thing next year just counting down the months until anesthesiology training really begins.

 

[excalibur]

aaaahhh! i noticed a little tar heel acion on the duckie avatar. nice touch. way to represent. maybe i find the excalibur sword buried into a razorback. hmm...