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<p>I have been talking to a lot of people and the general consensus seems to be that a transitional year will prepare you less than a prelim for any type of residency. The effect on your CV may be negligible, however, everyone who sees it will know that you did it because it was just cushier.</p>
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<p>Its also useful as your last chance to get a residency if you didn’t match.</p>
<p>For people who didn’t match in the normal match (for whatever reason), SOAP is the newly implimented process by which they can compete for any unfilled residency spots. It used to be that if you didn’t match, you frantically called programs with unfilled spots, hoping to secure an offer before any of the thousands of others who didn’t match. SOAP makes it so that you make your app available to programs with unfilled spots and then wait for them to call for an interview or extend an offer (which is done through ERAS/NRMP now). I’m interested to see how it works out…</p>
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<p>Some programs will come with a built in prelim year while most programs (at least in radiology) will not come with a prelim year. This means you have to apply to prelim year programs on your own (with its own personal statement, recs, interviews). So, it’s basically like you’re applying to two specialties at once. </p>
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<p>Of course. There’s a reason you see so many Stanford radiology residents do their intern years at the transition year program at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. It’s not for the quality county-hospital experience.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone looks down on you for doing a TY though. In fact, you are usually the envy of other residents. 90% of the radiology residents I talked to encouraged me to do a TY. Not a single program director asked me if I was planning on a TY or a prelim program during an interview.</p>
<p>The one advantage of doing a legit prelim year is that if you change your mind midway through your intern year and switch to neurology or internal medicine from a ROAD specialty (it does happen), you get credit for that first year. If you had done a TY and then switched, then you would have to repeat your intern year all over again.</p>
<p>I have a hard time in knowing the difference between the transitional year and the preliminary year. Could some nice soul here explain this to this newbie? Thanks! (Or, I am really not qualified to learn any of these terms any more. Unlike a typical premed thread, this residency thread is a hard read for me. Maybe it is because DS tells me less about his life/plan/work after college, or it is just because my learning capacity becomes worse as I age. The other day, when he told me about “flash”, I thought he was talking about the flash memory. But he really meant Adobe flash. I guess my hearing is not as good as it used to be either.)</p>
<p>mcat2, post 395 by NCG seems to explain it pretty well.</p>
<p>Thanks! NCG did explain it starting from post 395.</p>
<p>At least his analogy between a premed major and a transition year at a community hospital rings the bell for me: (I did hear many premeds, especially those who are doing premeds exclusively without doing much else, complain that “premed ruins their college life.”)</p>
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<p>Before I read post 395 again more carefully, I had thought a transitional year is like the prepharmacy years at some college that has a 6-year pharmacy program, meaning that being accepted into a prepharmacy does not guarantee that you will be accepted by the affiliated pharmacy program. Ditto for being a premed and being accepted by a med school. It seems that the transitional year is not like the prepharmacy years (often two years.) But is there any program that is like a prepharmacy year that has no guarantee to be accepted to the specialty program? Maybe doing research in some PI’s research lab for a year would be like the “no guarantee whatever to the next step” year?</p>
<p>According to his other posting (quoted below), the fact that the certain specialists enjoy a higher status than those generalists (I mean IM, etc.) already exist even in the intern year.</p>
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<p>Think about it this way:</p>
<p>As a prelim medicine intern, you have the exact same schedule as internal medicine interns as well as the same expectations. This usually means 7-8 months on the wards, 1-2 ICU months, and maybe 1-2 months of outpatient/electives.</p>
<p>As a transition year intern, you are rotating through different departments, like a 3rd year medical student and your expectations are about the same as a medical student haha TY schedules vary substantially but a typical schedule might include: 4 months of wards, 1 month ICU, 1 month surgery, 1 month pediatrics/obgyn, and 5 months electives.</p>
<p>The fewer the # of wards and ICU months, the easier your schedule will be. It’s a given you won’t learn as much clinical medicine in a TY program vs. a prelim med program.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure what you are asking here. Transition year programs are usually separate from advanced programs (like radiology or anesthesiology). You match into them separately. So, it is very possible for someone to match into a transition year or prelim year program but not the advanced program (or even vice-versa). It is very possible to match into a radiology residency and not a prelim/TY year. And usually, you do your main residency at a different hospital than the one you do your transition year program.</p>
<p>mcat2,
“Maybe it is because DS tells me less about his life/plan/work after college, or it is just because my learning capacity becomes worse as I age.”</p>
<p>-I believe that it is just too early for our MS1’s to worry about this. D. just started somewaht thinking about her first rotation choices, she has no idea about specialty or any of the residency routes/choices…, just lives her busy life day by day, I bet your S. is the same…I want to get some of it into my head as it takes time to absorb as I am sure that I am much older than most parents here. Do not worry!</p>
<p>Well, I’m not dramatically more informed as the parent of a MS2. I think it has just gone past my ability to comprehend. As I’ve said before, I sure hope she has good people to talk to about this as I am clueless. For the first time in her life I will be of no help. Kinda sad but bound to happen. Hey. I hung in there longer than most. ;)</p>
<p>^Curm., I feel exactly the same…just started getting into my granddaughter adventures of choosing…middle school, can you believe it? Apparently, NYC is way too different than other places, they are sooo competitive…in 6th grade. Granddaughter had choices of 5 Public middle schools and I thought that we were crazy choosing HS between 3 privates. We are way behind NYC in all kind of “educational” adventures. The 13 y olds are talking about all kind of various public schools and where one can expect to be accepted…or not, that was a big eye openner last December!! Hopefully I can keep up with that, althoug I already feel semi-lost. </p>
<p>Residency adventures are definitely way over my head, but it is worthwhile to read here, very thankful for all taking thier time to explain…</p>
<p>If it gives you any comfort, I have found the availability of people willing to give counsel and their level of interest in D’s process to be much higher during medical school than D experienced in undergrad. If D’s medical school is representative, these schools really want to position their students to do well and make good choices. I don’t know the details of D’s med school life but it has been obvious that she has been given suggestions and advice from every level - from the residents/attendings on her rotations to the heads of departments and Deans. I may not agree with all of her choices but it is clear that they have been thoughtfully made.</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing your knowledge (esp. to NCG.)</p>
<p>I now know why I was confused: I missed the part that you need to match into “TY or preliminary year” and the main residency program separately. It is almost like you need to apply to MS1 and MS2-4 separately, and you may get into MS1 and MS2-4 at different institutes, or get into MS1 but not MS2-4 at all, or get into MS2-4 but not MS1. It is so strange! No wonder the first residency year is called the intern year, as it could be a completely different program. (I also heard that, after the intern year, the MD starts to have the privilege to write prescriptions for patients. I hope I get this part right.) </p>
<p>Like curm, I think I hung in there long enough.</p>
<p>Correct. TY/prelim programs are separate from advanced programs (usually) and you usually match into them separately. I say usually because there are “categorical programs” which are programs where the TY/prelim year comes bundled with the main residency program. So, on Friday, I can either match into a categorical program (which is a radiology program with a built-in TY year) or into two programs (TY program and separately a radiology program).</p>
<p><a href=“I%20also%20heard%20that,%20after%20the%20intern%20year,%20the%20MD%20starts%20to%20have%20the%20privilege%20to%20write%20prescriptions%20for%20patients.%20I%20hope%20I%20get%20this%20part%20right.”>quote</a>
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<p>You can write prescriptions as an intern. You are a MD.</p>
<p>Preliminary year makes ranking residencies more complicated. As i understand it from my son, for every three year program he ranked, there was a linked rank list of preliminary year programs, and that list could vary. For example, if you’ve got 3 year residencies in Boston and New York, you’ll want to rank Boston prelim years first for the Boston residency, and New York prelim years for the New York programs. </p>
<p>As a practical matter, my son only interviewed at about 5 preliminary programs (as opposed to a dozen anesthesiology) and all were in his target city. So if he matches to a 3 year residency in some other city (that would mean mathing at a ranking way way down on his list), he would spend his intern year in one city, and then move to another place for his residency. Unlikely, but it could happen. He didn’t want to interview for prelim years in other cities just for the slim chance he’d match in a three year program in one of those cities.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info on Prelim and Transitional years folks! This thread is soon becoming the most valuable thread for students and parents of MS2s through MS3s. Appreciate all the information you are so kindly posting.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP, You can take it easy at least through another half year. My DS is finishing up 2nd yr in April and starting MS3 in May. I figure the third year will wizz past sooner than the 2nd year. Therefore, the need for us folks to learn about this process. Who knew it would only get more complicated as they progress? I was hoping things would be simpler. Wishful thinking on my part. ;-)</p>
<p>so what happens if you match into lets say a rads residency but dont get into a prelim or ty. you can probably land one through soap?</p>
<p>Yes, you will definitely be able to find one via SOAP but it probably won’t be at a great place (think: slaving away at a county hospital for a year) and may not be at the location you want. That’s why you shouldn’t take the prelim year lightly. I personally ranked 7 prelim/TY programs to at least ensure I match in a location that’s not too inconvenient for me.</p>
<p>Do you need to submit a ranked list for prelim/TY programs as well as submit another ranked list for the main residency programs?</p>
<p>This is becaue, as you posted at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/14015063-post408.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/14015063-post408.html</a>, “you need to match into them separately.”</p>
<p>Yes, separate rank lists for TY/prelim years and for radiology programs.</p>