Scrambling Prelim

[DocEspana]

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So no one has really addressed this in a year (and really... no one has addressed it at length in almost 3 years).

I am looking to do a surgical subspecialty (urology) and didn't plan that well ahead so I didnt have surgery prelims lined up as a backup. Or more accurately I applied through ERAS so late for those prelims that I had very few interviews and all of them were "the last interview" of the season.

I hear that prelim surgery is rather easy to scramble into and I just wanted to confirm it here. Plus as a DO student I'm always a little hesitant because of the "surgery is hard to get into" bias you hear about. Though idk how much it applies to prelims. Anyway, just tell me if you think its a relatively safe move to not rank a transitional year program and instead just rank the surgical prelims i interviewed at and be "relatively okay" with scrambing if it comes to that.

DO student
Top 1/3 of class (highest ranking school designates)
GPA: 3.5
USMLE I: 232/99
USMLE II: 222/?
Comlex I: 585
Comlex II: 535
Tons of surgical and uro electives and LoRs
One non-clinical research in abstract and poster form, won awards at national level
One surgical research project currently being undertaken
EXTREMELY good extracurriculars

I prefer anything in the eastern time zone (or Illinois), especially northeast, but I won't be picky at all or unhappy if I end up somewhere far from the ocean for a year.

 

[45408]

Why not rank TY programs?

 

[DocEspana]

Cause it would be osteopathic ty programs. Which I have no issue with from a training point of view, but they don't count towards training requirements for the most part. I hear the TY for acgme is more rewarding, but something i didnt apply to until too late. I could pull off some low level research in a ty, but surgery could let me plug myself straight into a uro program.

And to be honest, I had a good amount of uro interviews, but not enough to feel comfortable without a clearly defined plan B.

 

[filter07]

Does ty count for urology? Might want to look into that

 

[DocEspana]

Does ty count for urology? Might want to look into that

The ones I've asked have either said "no but we will appreciate if you can do research during it" or "we may be able to count part of it towards your first year". The latter amounts to no fewer years, but a first year with more elective time over pure surgery

I forget this isn't the urology sub board. Urology is all surgery before the uro years.

 

[Golding]

So no one has really addressed this in a year (and really... no one has addressed it at length in almost 3 years).

I am looking to do a surgical subspecialty (urology) and didn't plan that well ahead so I didnt have surgery prelims lined up as a backup. Or more accurately I applied through ERAS so late for those prelims that I had very few interviews and all of them were "the last interview" of the season.

I hear that prelim surgery is rather easy to scramble into and I just wanted to confirm it here. Plus as a DO student I'm always a little hesitant because of the "surgery is hard to get into" bias you hear about. Though idk how much it applies to prelims. Anyway, just tell me if you think its a relatively safe move to not rank a transitional year program and instead just rank the surgical prelims i interviewed at and be "relatively okay" with scrambing if it comes to that.

DO student
Top 1/3 of class (highest ranking school designates)
GPA: 3.5
USMLE I: 232/99
USMLE II: 222/?
Comlex I: 585
Comlex II: 535
Tons of surgical and uro electives and LoRs
One non-clinical research in abstract and poster form, won awards at national level
One surgical research project currently being undertaken
EXTREMELY good extracurriculars

I prefer anything in the eastern time zone (or Illinois), especially northeast, but I won't be picky at all or unhappy if I end up somewhere far from the ocean for a year.

To answer your question, preliminary surgery spots are easy to pick up. Hundreds of spots go unfilled each year. That doesn't guarantee that you will be able to second-match into one, but the odds are more favorable than second-matching into a more long-term residency.

 

[ACSurgeon]

It's my impression that it's rather difficult to match into urology from a prelim surgery spot, and even more difficult to find a PGY-2 spot. SO you most likely won't save any time by doing the surgery prelim year. You should talk to people in the urology, though.

 

[mimelim]

Surgery prelim spots are (comparatively) easy to pick up.

Surgery prelim spots at a decent program that will actually try and help your career prospects, rather than use you as cannon fodder for a year...not so much.

There are programs that help their pre-lims?

 

[Buzz Me]

There are programs that help their pre-lims?

Yes.

 

[Dr.LeoSpaceman]

There are programs that help their pre-lims?

Indeed. Not all prelim spots are created equal.

If you're stuck with that route, look for places that only take a few (i.e. 1-2) prelims, have a history of keeping them when categorical spots open up and have had success in placing prelims in categorical spots. Also important is scheduling--do they use you as a grunt on the less desirable services or does your track resemble that of a categorical resident? All that information you should be able to get from current residents/prelims.