Matching as a PGY-3 or 5

[crazy4kids]

Is there an official match as a PGY-3, and how competitive is this compared to the one as a medical student? What about as a fellowship after general surgery, as a PGY-5? Is plastics research during gen surg years as important as it is for the PGY-1 spot?

BTW, droliver, thanks for your comment to my question on the surgery website. I needed someone to spell it out for me. I definitely need more time to decide. Can't predict what I am going to want 3-5 years from now, and plastics right now is too much of a commitment. It's just hard to let go of now, after jumping through all the hoops for plastics interviews all year.

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[droliver]

Those attempting to match after the pgy-3 year are competing thru the SFmatch with everyone else. Since the increase in #'s of the integrated programs to ~50% of the spots, VERY,VERY few people match anymore without doing a full residency in gerneral surgery, ENT, or the other fields. That avenue is pretty much gone. If you think about it, why would a program director want someone who is incompletely trained prior to arrival if they have the choice- it almost certainly makes their job harder. If I remember correctly, more then 90% of all the spots were matched to pgy5 or pgy6+ general surgery applicants this past year. Most applicants did not do a lab time, but everyone does have some publications & usually has good inservice exam scores. Coming from a better training program or having done a year in the lab certainly would increase your chances of matching @ the more competative programs