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PGY-1 looking to transfer programs. Made a stupid error on my match list and ended up in a program that isn't right for me for a variety of reasons (geography & clinical/research interests). I know that the general advice is to stick it out but I know deep down this isn't the right place for me, even though I have a great team, and I will struggle here immensely. Neurosurgery residency is brutal enough as is and I want to be upfront with my PD/program about where I'm at and hopefully find the right fit (for both the program and myself) without it being excessively disruptive to the day-to-day operations of the service.
Has anyone been through the transfer process successfully? Any advice on how to navigate the conversation with your home program PD in terms of the process? Happy to provide more details over DM. Have had some mentors that have provided great insight and are willing to go to bat for me but would love some resident perspective for anyone who's been through it or has any thoughts.
Are you meaning by PGY1 that you’re less than a month in? If so, without knowing you, I would take a really really hard look at yourself, why you want to transfer, and why you believe another program would make those issues go away. If you find NSG isn’t for you there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But don’t waste the next couple of years floundering thinking the grass is greener if you just do X,Y,Z.
I have seen people transfer in the first year or two and in all accounts it was because they were married and their spouse was across the country. But if it’s anything other than that I imagine you have a bit uphill battle convincing another PD why you aren’t a risk to bring in
You should stick it out for the next couple of months (or maybe half of the year) and see if things get better. Starting residency and being a doctor (for the first time) can be a lot and it can take time before you get the hang of things and start to feel comfortable. If you tell your current PD you want to leave, then you better have another PD/program who is already ready to take you. Especially because if you tell your PD you want to leave, you’re instantly in hot water with your current program and depending how your PD reacts, there may be repercussions that you don’t anticipate. Understand that most people who leave their matched neurosurgery residency end up in a different specialty or out of medicine entirely. It is much less common to transfer between neurosurgery programs once you’ve matched, and only if there is a receiving neurosurgery program already lined up.
How do you "make a stupid error" on your match list aka the most important list of your life? Do you realize what swapping programs after literally 2 weeks in means for you and your program?
I often wonder how we let people like this into the field.
I wouldn't want to work with someone who gives up and becomes dejected so easily.
Whatever you do, don't drop out of your program if you still want to be a neurosurgeon. It is unlikely that you will ever match again. The reasons that you are giving will not be received well by your home program. Agree that you can likely only do this on the basis of syncing up geography for a relationship and only if there is another program all lined up to take you. Could it be that neurosurgery is not right for you?
Trying to switch programs after only being an intern for less than two weeks will raise huge red flags for you. I would strongly recommend against it. Other program directors will first of all not be looking for new residents only days after a new academic year has started, and second of all will be extremely suspicious and skeptical of a brand new resident trying to change programs so quickly. Personally, I would rather take my chances with a new applicant next year than a recycled applicant who arbitrarily changed their mind after being a doctor for only ten work days. I would view you as a bad investment for my program.
The inevitable question is why would u rank that program if you didn’t want to be there. Obviously you would answer that you discovered some detail of the program that you didn’t like, and that you did not find out until you started. But myself and many other interviewers would be highly skeptical that it wouldn’t simply be flakiness, personality conflicts, or some other negative trait that led to you trying to get out of ur commitment. Even if that’s not the case, it will be hard to convince us without talking quite a bit of $h!¥ about the program that you’ve only been at for a few days, which is unlikely to happen without also making you look terrible as well.
The other posters are correct in saying you have a higher chance of simply leaving the field and going into another specialty than you do of finding another program at this stage of the game. At least stick out the year, and see how you adapt over the course of the next 11.5 months
if you look at the Baylor intern class...one of their new interns matched the previous year and then left that program to be eligible to re-enter the match. ended up matching at a better place the second time around. that is another option when you realize that where you matched will not work for you. Very risky and may not pan out. You have to be miserable enough to take the risk of not being a neurosurgeon. However, sometimes in the months since you interviewed...the program can change drastically (new chair, faculty left, now on probation). The reasons you mention like geography and research are not enough to move programs if it fundamentally it is a good place to train imo. Has to be a more drastic reason.
