I don't know how hard it is to get into this program. I can tell you that some of the worst residents I've seen get interviews at Columbia and Johns Hopkins and that someone in my general residency program (not the place I'm at now) that was seen as a bad resident got into Columbia. Columbia even called the department because they heard bad things about the resident, but she still got in.
What was going on there I don't know. Most programs won't take anyone where they hear something bad. I do know that she was friends with some people there and maybe this was one of those things where a friend already in was pushing to get her in and the people that were actually thinking with their brains were thinking, "hey hey hey hey, wait a minute, let's call up her department and find out cause we're hearing bad things." Whatever.
My point is when people I know, a handful, and they were terrible can get into a fellowship, as if there was nothing holding them back, no matter how good the rep is, don't think it's impossible to get in.
One of my friends, I even talked him out of going to a prestigious fellowship because he was so freaking lazy. I had a heart to heart as a friend and told him we both know he sucked (nicely), and his little game of bull$hit could've worked where we did residency, don't expect it to do so in fellowship. Had the guy been single I don't think I would've done this because as much as I loved the guy he was terrible, but I was more worried about his family, fearing he could've been fired from fellowship with only three years of general psych residency and therefore not be able to work as an attending if fired before his first year of fellowship ended.
