I’m one of probably many competitive and qualified applicants that did not match this year. Any tips or advice as far as what to do next year would be appreciated. As posted in another thread, as of now all neurosurgery positions are full- no open positions. Any thoughts on pros/cons of a year of research vs. a gen surg prelim year? Thanks in advance.
if anyone else who is scrambling wants to post their info or thoughts:
Research
At this point it seems difficult to obtain a position prior to the scramble unless someone in your department has approached you. I’ve made calls, sent unreturned e-mail messages to labs. Feel free to post any leads. Waiting it out could prove worthwhile, then again maybe not.
Prelim Surgery
Where to choose? Obviously a program with an NS program. What’s available, we’ll find out tomorrow?
Edit - Post was removed because of misuse of the username “ranklist09”. This is the final warning regarding misuse of this username. One more instance will result in deletion of this username.
I would suggest you work in a neuroscience lab for the year and try reapplying. I would pick a “real” lab meaning one run by a basic scientist who can devote time teaching you science and getting to know you so that the letter you get from him in 6 months or so says something meaningful about you. Also stick close to the chairman at your dept and go to the OR with him.
I think research is the way to go. Good luck and don’t give up!
I would disagree with this. Unless you are going to take multiple years off, it would be hard to accomplish a ton in a lab in the next 6 months. And you would still have the disadvantage of applying for first year positions through the match again next year.
On the other hand, if you do a prelim gen surg year at a place with a solid program and a friendly chairman, you can be in the mix for second year positions if some open up, but still can apply for first year positions through the match. Just make sure to write some clinical papers and get along well with the department to accumulate some letters. I’ve known a few people who have taken this route and snagged advanced positions at programs that lose a resident. Also, if you decide to change your mind and go anesthesia/gen surg/radiology, you would already have your intern year behind you.
I think research is the way to go. Good luck and don’t give up!
I would disagree with this. Unless you are going to take multiple years off, it would be hard to accomplish a ton in a lab in the next 6 months. And you would still have the disadvantage of applying for first year positions through the match again next year.
On the other hand, if you do a prelim gen surg year at a place with a solid program and a friendly chairman, you can be in the mix for second year positions if some open up, but still can apply for first year positions through the match. Just make sure to write some clinical papers and get along well with the department to accumulate some letters. I’ve known a few people who have taken this route and snagged advanced positions at programs that lose a resident. Also, if you decide to change your mind and go anesthesia/gen surg/radiology, you would already have your intern year behind you.
Best of luck going forward!
After talking with my chair, he seemed to think that great research may be most helpful but is often unrealistic and neither rout guarantees anything. What no one tells you is that many if not most of the good prelim surg years go within the first few hours of the scramble. If you’re a solid candidate, you can snatch one of those spots and my chair pushed for me to find a prelim year and if I couldn’t find anything then look for other options. And as macabre mentioned, it also has more versatility without necessarily losing time. There isn’t a right or wrong here. Some will have different openings than others.
I met with our program director and was advised to do a prelim surg year with the intention of looking for open positions-good prelim surg spots went very fast yesterday as stated above and I feel lucky to have landed a great prelim spot.
I agree that full-time “research” is not the way to go. I would be more impressed with someone who put there feet on the ground and did one of the following:
A prelim gen surg may allow you to slide into a PGY2 slot if there are any. The downsides are
1) you may have to repeat the intern year
2) you may have to learn a new hospital your PGY2 year--this is double-stress
3) for our conversations at the rank list meeting, a letter from a gen surg chairman doesn’t carry much weight. They can just vouch that you are not incompetent.
If it were me I would want to know more about life as a “pre-residency” fellow along with the pros and cons.
Someone who knows more about “pre-residency” fellowships should chime in.
Luckily I nabbed one of them fine gen surg prelims at a school with a great gen surg program as well as a tremendous neurosurg program. It’s my hope that I can get some connections with the neurosurg program and strengthen my resume. Like scrambling09 my chair advised the prelim and mentioned the research/preresidency positions if I didn’t find anything satisfactory.
I’d also love to hear about any other preresidency fellowships offered and if anyone did one and then found a spot. As I found out the hard way, no one seems to know how to go about scrambling. More info out there the better.
Hopefully you all won’t need this next year, but there is good scramble advice on SDN in this thread. Maybe people who scrambled this year could post their specific experiences and outcomes as well
Preresidency fellowships are basically a one year position. It’s sort of like a prelim year in that you do not have a full categorical spot and at the end of the year, you’re not guranteed a spot. The pre residency fellowship is designed to help candidates demonstrate their clinical skills and hardwork.
