Residency Question

[Ice-1]

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I'm trying to figure out the exact differences between categorical and preliminary residency slots. I think that categorical means that you've been accepted to do the entire residency program (internship plus other required years) at that institutional and preliminary means that they'll keep you for the internship year but you better find another place to finish up. But I could definitely be wrong because I've seen no real definitions. So if anyone else out there knows for sure about this then spread the word!

 

[DOtobe]

You are correct. Categorical means you will complete your entire residency at that hospital. Preliminary means that you are only at the hospital for your internship year, and need to reapply for residency.

 

[KidDr]

You are correct. Categorical means you will complete your entire residency at that hospital. Preliminary means that you are only at the hospital for your internship year, and need to reapply for residency.

Just to clarify--people often apply for a preliminary/transitional year at the same time they apply for the remainder of their residency (some programs in derm, anesthesia, rads, and EM are examples). They interview for prelim spots as well as PGY-2 spots during 4th year and do 2 separate rank lists and (hopefully) end up with 2 matches--one for prelim year and one for the rest of their training. Like DOtobe said, though, some people do end up matching only into a prelim spot (med, surg, or transitional) because there are more of them to go around, and others scramble into a prelim spot if they don't match in anything, and these people have to hunt around for a PGY-2 spot to finish residency.