Is there a TY or prelim spreadsheet? Or a list of the easy vs hard ones? or a spreadhseet that says how much elective time they give?
dont think so but there's a tab here that lists some and reddit has them too. I would say that don't just go by TY or prelim, you need to go by the schedule since some TYs have worse schedules than prelims. Generally though, prelims are harder but not always. You want somewhere that gives you 5-6 months elective ideally, which actually multiple prelims do. The major difference though is the rest of the year for prelims likely is mostly something IM related, whereas in some TYs the rest of the year may be broken into IM/surgery/EM/OB/etc. You want to AVOID any prelim/TYs that have you in 8-9 months of inpatient/required blocks with minimal elective.
< Thanks! But how/where can i find this information out about programs?
Usually websites do a good job, but many of them are not updated. Some programs are basically categorical medicine years masquerading as prelims (BIDMC for example).
Yea the BIDMC schedule looks terrible
if they say they treat their prelims the same as categorical RUN
eh idk, some programs say that because they don't want you to feel like you'll be left out socially from the categoricals. In reality, you just need to look at the schedule and make sure they dont give you the same exact or worse schedule as the categoricals
Just cause this gets asked here every year, of the 3 main Harvard prelims, BIDMC is definetely the worst. Only 3 - 4 weeks of elective time that has to be done in internal Medicine rotations mostly and can only take 1 week at a time! I have friends who did this program and they finished the year with 8+ months of wards/inpatient services which included at least 4 weeks of VERY intense ICUs. Run if you can..., I did another prelim in Boston and I was not nearly as burned out as my friends at BI were.