|
If you don't match, you find out on Monday via e-mail. On Tuesday at noon, all the open spots and unmatched students are released online - so that everyone knows what's available - and the Scramble begins. From there, students and programs are free to make offers and deals - the goal being to figure it out before Thursday so you can announce with the rest of your class.
Transitional years are years spent either in general surgery, internal medicine, family medicine or specific transitional year programs which give exposure to a lot of different aspects of medicine. This is basically aimed at giving almost all first year house officers a lot of exposure to patient care. First year surgery residents even in the surgical sub-specialties (urology, ENT, Ortho, and neurosurg for example) have almost zero time in the OR. The point is to train them to be able to manage patients and handle the complications that arise. HO1's in Derm, Neuro, Anesthesia, Psych, ophtho, physiatry and radiology do the same thing, but can do any one of the one year programs while the surgical subspecialties will do General surgery years.
You're only going to be matched to one program in one field (with the exception of the transitional year...so at most 2 in 2). If you don't know what you want to do, then you can certainly apply to multiple fields, but it's a hassle as you often need letters of rec, and have to apply to a lot more places and such. And in general, you have some inkling that one field is the one you prefer, so by about half way through the process you start figuring that out and it becomes hard to go through with the process in the fields you're no longer interested.
|