Question...

[drpapaya]

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Under what circumstances would one choose to do a surgical prelim year as opposed to a categorical year?

Ex. If a M4 wanted to do orthopaedics but instead matched to surgical prelim, what does that mean?

 

[2050vlsb]

Under what circumstances would one choose to do a surgical prelim year as opposed to a categorical year?

Ex. If a M4 wanted to do orthopaedics but instead matched to surgical prelim, what does that mean?

I think you might get a better response posting in the allopathic or residency forums than here, since most of the people on here are PRE-med

 

[gravitywave]

I think you might get a better response posting in the allopathic or residency forums than here, since most of the people on here are PRE-med

.... except that those forums are expressly for those communities, and not for pre-medical students' questions. this thread would likely get bumped back here if OP tried posting it there.

i'm not super knowledgeable about this, but usually if someone was shooting for ortho and ended up with a prelim year, it means that they failed to match ortho. what many will do is rank all their categorical slots first and then rank the prelim slots as backups. if they got the prelim year it means that they'll either have to try to find a categorical slot outside the match (increasingly uncommon) or enter the match again next year.

the only people i can think of who really want prelim surg are those who are matching into advanced programs and need a prelim surg year to go along with it. gas, urology, optho, EM, and rads are examples of residencies for which at least some programs might require you to do a prelim year first.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Under what circumstances would one choose to do a surgical prelim year as opposed to a categorical year?

Ex. If a M4 wanted to do orthopaedics but instead matched to surgical prelim, what does that mean?

Most ortho programs are categorical (meaning they include the intern year) as opposed to advanced (meaning they are years 2..., and you have to find a separate intern year (prelim or transitional).

If an MS4 was applying to ortho and wound up instead with a surgical prelim - the most likely scenario is they did not match at all. They applied Ortho and on the third Monday of March discovered they did not match. On Tuesday they scrambled into a preliminary surgery position.

During the next year they have to figure out the best way to get into a full residency. They can try to reapply for Ortho (either Categorical and repeat their first year or advanced if there are any) or they can try to apply for a different specialty. Its difficult to do while completing an intern year and is NOT an ideal situation.