Transitional Year

Competitiveness: Low

The transitional year provides a well-balanced specialty of multiple clinical disciplines designed to facilitate the choice of and preparation for a specific specialty, including specialties requiring a year of fundamental clinical education as a prerequisite. Transitional year programs also provide clinical education for those medical school graduates planning to serve in public health organizations or on active duty in the military as general medical officers or primary flight/undersea medicine physicians, or those who desire or need one year of fundamental clinical education before entering administrative medicine or non-clinical research.

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IMG Profile

Average Stats for a Matched US IMG in 2022:

  • No data for 2022

Average Stats for a Matched Non-US IMG in 2022:

  • No data for 2022

Specialty Factors

Every specialty has unique factors they want each candidate to have in their residency application. NRMP conducts regular Program Director surveys to identify which parts of the residency application are most important in differing specialties. Among the information gathered, Program Directors were asked to cite factors they used to select candidates for interviews. They were also asked to rate each factor on a scale from 1 (least important) to 5 (most important).

The Top 5 Most Important Transitional Year Application Factors

Percentage of Programs Citing Each Factor

  1. USMLE Step 2CK score (97%)
  2. USMLE Step 1 score (94%)
  3. Any failed attempt in USMLE (90%)
  4. MSPE (81%)
  5. Class ranking/quartile (68%)

Average Importance Rating for Each Factor (scale of 1 to 5)

  1. NRMP flag for match violation (4.8)
  2. Professionalism and ethics (4.4)
  3. Visa status (4.3)
  4. Leadership qualities (4.3)
  5. Perceived commitment to specialty (4.3)

Fast Facts
  • Average resident/fellow compensation $56,400.49
  • All Transitional Year programs must have: 1 month ICU, 1 month ED, 1 month outpatient, and 2 months general medicine. Beyond that, programs vary.
  • More spots are reserved for US medical graduates. The specialty is not as IMG friendly as Preliminary Internal Medicine or General Surgery.
  • Fulfills prelim training for many specialties such as Radiology, Neurology, Anesthesiology, Ophthalmology, Radiation Oncology, or Dermatology.
  • Transitional Year is one of the least understood specialties.

Match Statistics

Main Residency Match and Post-Match Stats

124

IMGs Matched

195 /
1,616

Number of Programs/Positions

212

Post-Match SOAP Unfilled Positions

Main Residency Match

PGY-1
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Post-Match SOAP

Program Track PGY-1
Participating Programs 44
Filled Programs 33
Positions Available 218
Filled Positions 199

Subspecialties

  • None