Not matching

I had always been told it would be better to NOT graduate and do a research year vs. starting a prelim. I am not sure why, this is just what I have been told, several times.

If you are deficient in research in any way, I would imagine that a research year could only help (provided you were productive), whereas graduating and finishing a prelim year could potentially hurt your chances.

I'm sorry for you situation. You're AOA and your scores/grades are awesome, so WTF could have happened? Was your ROL too short? Or perhaps you were a bit too cocksure during interviews? There must be a reason, and it probably wasn't lack of research. Good luck bro -

Thanks for the advice. I have zero research to speak of on my resume, which may have been my problem.

I ranked all 15 programs I interviewed at and made sure to approach every interview like it was my only interview. I guess it's time to get some papers under my belt.

The Prelim vs. Research debate goes on every year. If you search through the forums for it you'll find plenty of reasons to do either. I successfully matched after not matching previously with a "non-competitive" application and i fully believe it was because of my research year. My reasons for doing a Research over a Prelim year are outlined in the following post:

Everyone I know (including myself) who did a prelim year was successful the next time. Look at my old post. My numbers were similar to yours and it happened to me as well. Worse thing to ever happen to me. I had an amazing time learning to be a doctor and the next year was much (MUCH) better.

I never got a straight answer from anyone when I didn't match, and while on the interview trail the second time, it was a common question. On one of my last interviews, I finally asked an interviewer at the end of the time session, why I didn't match. His answer was the best I got. There's too many qualified applicants with too few spots, so some people go home empty handed. My numbers, grades, letters, weren't the reasons I didn't match. I doubt the research was why you didn't match, the reason you probably didn't match is because there was 100 other guys with the same application, suit, personality, etc.

I did a prelim year and matched the second time around. I worked my ass off and sacrificed everything to get it. The battle is all uphill and there will be a stigma towards you. If you really want it that bad, you have to persevere.

I agree with Schatzker. At interviews the second time around, I commonly got asked, why should we take you this year. It was nice to say, in the past year, I've learned how to be a doctor and take care of patients. You will be going into orthopedics already knowing how to control pain, preop patients, run a surgical floor, and handle many emergencies in the middle of the night. THIS GIVES YOU A HUGE ADVANTAGE COMPARED TO THE OTHER MED STUDENTS WHO DONT EVEN KNOW HOW TO WRITE FOR BENADRYL YET. The interviewers seemed to really appreciate that fact.

I have no regrets doing a prelim year. It was the hardest Ive ever worked in my life but I loved my job and taking care of patients.

BTW, a guy that matched at our program this year did a prelim last year and was able to get two studies published in ortho during his intern year. It's doable if thats your thing.