<p>^many students do go somewhere different for their prelim year. Most usually end up in the same city at least but prelim year programs are a great way for lower tier hospitals to snag high caliber students for a year.</p>
<p>You have to rank the prelim years as sub categories of the advanced program such that the algorithm first places you into an advanced program and then into a prelim year so the only way one ends up in a prelim year only is if they gave that as an option. If you were aiming for a competitive specialty, I do not know how you would realistically improve yourself to get a spot the following year. Those people are probably best off SOAPing into a less competitive specialty or reapplying to one the following year.</p>