I understand that there are options for "transitional years" or "research years" and reapplying, but for those that never do end up matching in ophthalmology (or any of their chosen specialties) what ends up happening? What do most of these people end up doing?
As I see it, if one finds out they did not match in Ophthalmology the options would be:
1. Proceed with Preliminary Year match and hope that a position opens up during next year. A candidate then can apply directly to that program and, if accepted, the candidate wastes no time and starts residency following July. Few have done that.
2. If scenario #1 does not work out, a candidate can still go through a preliminary year (hopefully an easy one) and possibly publish a few abstracts, etc., etc. to beef up their application for the next cycle. If this works, a candidate wastes 1 year between end of prelim and start of ophthalmology residency.
3. A candidate forgoes prelim match, takes a year off to beef up his/her resume (research, pubs, presentations, getting letters from "big wigs"). A year immidiately following the "non-match" is sacrificed.
4. A candidate tries to scramble into an Ophthalmology spot after a "non-match", but chances are extremely small as Ophthalmology spots are almost never open.
5. A candidate says "screw Ophthalmology" and either applies late or scrambles into another ( usually less competative ) speciality in March. Although I do know a guy who did not match in Ophtho and scrambles into a Derm spot in CA a few years back
.
Am I forgetting any other pathways?
