Official 2015-2016 ID Fellowship Application Cycle

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Boston University for me today, too! Congrats, C86, maybe I'll see you there =)

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Anyone heard from MGH or Hopkins ?!
 
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Hey All,

Congrats to all those whom have received interview invites - exciting times!! For those who haven't, keep hope alive. They'll come.

Anyone know anything about the RWMC/BU ID program in Providence, RI? I know they only take 1 (ONE) fellow per year (the PD's email stated it straight up as does the website) but I'm wondering if it's worth the gamble to interview for a place that offers one spot? Is it that great a program? Do they really churn out top notch people? On top of that: 2 fellows for 3 locations?? I'm imagining a **** TON of work! Don't get me wrong, I have ZERO issues with working my behind off but I just don't want to end up crying myself to sleep at night or wanting to shoot my foot off because I'm drowning in work with no end in sight for 2 years. And I'm imagining ID fellowship is a crap load of work at baseline so to add on the fact that the program is 2 people...

I'm just trying to get an idea so I can make a decent decision, you know? I'm not from the area, I have no way of finding out the "pedigree" of the prior fellows to see how I compare - I mean do they take people who have ties to RI? People who went to BU? What exactly is their deal? Anyone with any inside information/know where I can get inside info on this place?

Thanks!!
 
Just a heads up for anyone still waiting...I just spoke with Emory, and apparently their interview dates through the end of October are completely booked. If you haven't heard from them yet regarding an interview invitation, it is apparnetly unlikely that you are going to be invited this season.
 
Hey All,

Congrats to all those whom have received interview invites - exciting times!! For those who haven't, keep hope alive. They'll come.

Anyone know anything about the RWMC/BU ID program in Providence, RI? I know they only take 1 (ONE) fellow per year (the PD's email stated it straight up as does the website) but I'm wondering if it's worth the gamble to interview for a place that offers one spot? Is it that great a program? Do they really churn out top notch people? On top of that: 2 fellows for 3 locations?? I'm imagining a **** TON of work! Don't get me wrong, I have ZERO issues with working my behind off but I just don't want to end up crying myself to sleep at night or wanting to shoot my foot off because I'm drowning in work with no end in sight for 2 years. And I'm imagining ID fellowship is a crap load of work at baseline so to add on the fact that the program is 2 people...

I'm just trying to get an idea so I can make a decent decision, you know? I'm not from the area, I have no way of finding out the "pedigree" of the prior fellows to see how I compare - I mean do they take people who have ties to RI? People who went to BU? What exactly is their deal? Anyone with any inside information/know where I can get inside info on this place?

Thanks!!
RWMC/BU seems to be a small university affiliated community hospital. Personally, I'd prefer not to go to a fellowship program that has only one fellow per year. Learning and training is a process better done in a group. However it depends on how many interviews you have. If you dont have a lot of interview invites, something is better than nothing.
 
Is there still hope to get interviews from New York City programs? I have interviews at St Luke's Roosevelt, Beth Israel NYC, Stonybrook, Beth Israel NJ and Presbyterian Queens. Haven't heard from anywhere else. Has anybody heard from Mt Sinai main, Montefiore, or rest of the NYC area programs?
 
Is there still hope to get interviews from New York City programs? I have interviews at St Luke's Roosevelt, Beth Israel NYC, Stonybrook, Beth Israel NJ and Presbyterian Queens. Haven't heard from anywhere else. Has anybody heard from Mt Sinai main, Montefiore, or rest of the NYC area programs?

Montefiore, Sinai, and NYU have sent out interviews already. Not sure if they are done for the season though
 
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Anyone has any idea about brown univ? How big is the program ? Strengths ? ....
 
Is there still hope to get interviews from New York City programs? I have interviews at St Luke's Roosevelt, Beth Israel NYC, Stonybrook, Beth Israel NJ and Presbyterian Queens. Haven't heard from anywhere else. Has anybody heard from Mt Sinai main, Montefiore, or rest of the NYC area programs?
Memorial Sloan Kettering has sent out invites already
 
RWMC/BU seems to be a small university affiliated community hospital. Personally, I'd prefer not to go to a fellowship program that has only one fellow per year. Learning and training is a process better done in a group. However it depends on how many interviews you have. If you dont have a lot of interview invites, something is better than nothing.

You make good points. It does definitely appear to be a small program. Thanks for responding Optimist A.
 
Guys, how would you compare U Wisconsin (Madison) and Wayne State, any idea which one is better? Also any thoughts about U Iowa? The Iowa program seems to be fairly busy clinical program with not much resident involvement in research. I was wondering if anybody has any insight into that.
 
Guys, how would you compare U Wisconsin (Madison) and Wayne State, any idea which one is better? Also any thoughts about U Iowa? The Iowa program seems to be fairly busy clinical program with not much resident involvement in research. I was wondering if anybody has any insight into that.

Madison > Wayne State.

Can't comment about UIowa but probably lower than Madison and equivalent to Wayne State.
 
Soooo hello mislukita! See you again on the interview trail!
 
Good luck everyone with your interviews. I'll be applying next cycle. Based on your experiences this season, I want to know what you think my chances are for matching at top 20 ID programs. Money will be tight and I don't want to apply to places where I will have a very slim chance at interviewing and matching. Credentials: IMG, mid range community uni affiliated residency, US Citizen, above average USMLE scores, 8 abstracts at different conferences - not first author, zero manuscripts in sight, so what do you think?
 
Good luck everyone with your interviews. I'll be applying next cycle. Based on your experiences this season, I want to know what you think my chances are for matching at top 20 ID programs. Money will be tight and I don't want to apply to places where I will have a very slim chance at interviewing and matching. Credentials: IMG, mid range community uni affiliated residency, US Citizen, above average USMLE scores, 8 abstracts at different conferences - not first author, zero manuscripts in sight, so what do you think?

Similar credentials as above, and I will be applying next year as well. Will be chief resident however, and have 4 first author manuscripts right now (three case reports in PubMed referenced journals and one review article). Similar credentials in terms of training and US IMG. From my search and seeing these threads the top 5-10 are likely out given the US IMG status. Usually these are reserved for US MD's some of which with PHD's who want to do heavy research. Anywhere from the 15-30 spots I think are fair game.

If you look at this post from a while ago (not sure of the validity just seems to be pretty close to spot on in terms of ranking:

Partners
Hopkins
UWash
Penn
UCSF

UCSD
UNC
Baylor
Duke
Cornell

Case
Emory
Vanderbilt
Sinai
Columbia

Yale
Northwestern
UAB
Einstein
Stanford

Colorado
WashU
UCLA
Virginia
Wisconsin

When you look at the lower to columns there many of the programs have IMG's; (UAB, Einstein, Colorado, WashU, Virginia, Wisconsin, etc.). I think the first two columns would be reach; but the latter 3 and especially latter 2 probably likely to be competitive. Would appreciate applicants this year and their credentials to comment further however.
 
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Thank you for the response, thierryhenry.
 
Seems like 5-6 would be plenty for most AMGs. I am going on more just because I'm not sure where I want to settle but otherwise I think you're fine.

Anyone heard from Chicago programs yet?

For ID nowadays even 1 iv would be fine depending on where you go and how well you do on the iv.
They want you, if they call you for an iv.
Remember that guys!
 
Similar credentials as above, and I will be applying next year as well. Will be chief resident however, and have 4 first author manuscripts right now (three case reports in PubMed referenced journals and one review article). Similar credentials in terms of training and US IMG. From my search and seeing these threads the top 5-10 are likely out given the US IMG status. Usually these are reserved for US MD's some of which with PHD's who want to do heavy research. Anywhere from the 15-30 spots I think are fair game.

If you look at this post from a while ago (not sure of the validity just seems to be pretty close to spot on in terms of ranking:

Partners
Hopkins
UWash
Penn
UCSF

UCSD
UNC
Baylor
Duke
Cornell

Case
Emory
Vanderbilt
Sinai
Columbia

Yale
Northwestern
UAB
Einstein
Stanford

Colorado
WashU
UCLA
Virginia
Wisconsin

When you look at the lower to columns there many of the programs have IMG's; (UAB, Einstein, Colorado, WashU, Virginia, Wisconsin, etc.). I think the first two columns would be reach; but the latter 3 and especially latter 2 probably likely to be competitive. Would appreciate applicants this year and their credentials to comment further however.

How about Mayo, U of M, UPMC, BU, Tufts and Rush? How would you stratify them in your list above?
 
How about Mayo, U of M, UPMC, BU, Tufts and Rush? How would you stratify them in your list above?

Would want some fellows or attendings to comment; and update my above post.
 
Hello everyone I just discovered this page and thought about posting here with a qiestion of my own! looks like i missed out on everyone's posts. I'm also applying for ID fellowship. I'm an IMG with a fair amount of research having worked as a post-doc before residency. I also have a masters . Research is 4 manuscripts, 10 posters at IDSA, SHEA... anyways USMLE scores were average.

I got a lot of interviews to be honest but I will only actually got to 12 of them (four down). This really proves that this is buyer's market for ID. My interviews have been going well because i have a lot to talk about. But now i have a serious problem in that I havent even done step 3 yet. Its scheduled for October 19 and 22 but i feel like I need more time with it. I plan to push it back by 2 weeks and therefore the result wont be out before the Match result in December. Do you think this will hurt my chances in some places? or do you think that since I got interviews at those places that it wont factor in the decision making? its a tough question. Either way I gotta have it before i start fellowship but this is about how soon i take it and if it will factor in the decisions.

Appreciate your input and happy to answer other questions
 
one other question, do you rate the colorado program highly? i really dont know much about it although i have an invite there. I should probably look better into it
 
Hello everyone I just discovered this page and thought about posting here with a qiestion of my own! looks like i missed out on everyone's posts. I'm also applying for ID fellowship. I'm an IMG with a fair amount of research having worked as a post-doc before residency. I also have a masters . Research is 4 manuscripts, 10 posters at IDSA, SHEA... anyways USMLE scores were average.

I got a lot of interviews to be honest but I will only actually got to 12 of them (four down). This really proves that this is buyer's market for ID. My interviews have been going well because i have a lot to talk about. But now i have a serious problem in that I havent even done step 3 yet. Its scheduled for October 19 and 22 but i feel like I need more time with it. I plan to push it back by 2 weeks and therefore the result wont be out before the Match result in December. Do you think this will hurt my chances in some places? or do you think that since I got interviews at those places that it wont factor in the decision making? its a tough question. Either way I gotta have it before i start fellowship but this is about how soon i take it and if it will factor in the decisions.

Appreciate your input and happy to answer other questions

Ummm are you in residency? how can you graduate from residency as a whole without taking step 3? most programs require it to go to pgy-2, and by the least pgy-3...

Im pretty sure if you dont have a result on step 3 for fellowship it is probably a red flag, but i guess others coudl chime in too
 
Ummm are you in residency? how can you graduate from residency as a whole without taking step 3? most programs require it to go to pgy-2, and by the least pgy-3...

Im pretty sure if you dont have a result on step 3 for fellowship it is probably a red flag, but i guess others coudl chime in too

Actually, many residencies (including mine and some friends I've spoken with at other places) do not require it to be done until ~December of PGY-3 year. Seems to vary from place to place.

Hello everyone I just discovered this page and thought about posting here with a qiestion of my own! looks like i missed out on everyone's posts. I'm also applying for ID fellowship. I'm an IMG with a fair amount of research having worked as a post-doc before residency. I also have a masters . Research is 4 manuscripts, 10 posters at IDSA, SHEA... anyways USMLE scores were average.

I got a lot of interviews to be honest but I will only actually got to 12 of them (four down). This really proves that this is buyer's market for ID. My interviews have been going well because i have a lot to talk about. But now i have a serious problem in that I havent even done step 3 yet. Its scheduled for October 19 and 22 but i feel like I need more time with it. I plan to push it back by 2 weeks and therefore the result wont be out before the Match result in December. Do you think this will hurt my chances in some places? or do you think that since I got interviews at those places that it wont factor in the decision making? its a tough question. Either way I gotta have it before i start fellowship but this is about how soon i take it and if it will factor in the decisions.

Appreciate your input and happy to answer other questions

As far as not taking Step 3, I don't think it will be a red flag. You have plenty of research, an advanced degree, and more importantly plenty of interviews. As you said, it's a buyer's market, and I don't think any place will drop their assessment of you based off of a missing step 3 score.

Good luck to everyone - I hope interviews are going well!
 
Some residencies only require step 3 prior to graduation, not to progress to pgy2 or pgy3. The poster mentioned that they were applying for ID fellowship so they are likely a pgy3.
 
Ummm are you in residency? how can you graduate from residency as a whole without taking step 3? most programs require it to go to pgy-2, and by the least pgy-3...

Im pretty sure if you dont have a result on step 3 for fellowship it is probably a red flag, but i guess others coudl chime in too

Well of course I'm in residency doc. Programs are different in their requirements. Mine requires a pass before I graduate... That's it.

My question was more about the timeline at this stage given that I have many interviews even without the exam. Should I hurry up and do it in the next 20 days? Or can I tuck it in mid November knowing that it's result won't be out by Dec 4.

Thank you for trying to address my concern :)
 
Some residencies only require step 3 prior to graduation, not to progress to pgy2 or pgy3. The poster mentioned that they were applying for ID fellowship so they are likely a pgy3.

Yeah.. I'm pgy3 right now in the fellowship match. But I guess my question is kind of specific and I won't get a clear answer. I invested heavily in research during pgy1 and 2. That's why I'm late on step 3
 
Actually, many residencies (including mine and some friends I've spoken with at other places) do not require it to be done until ~December of PGY-3 year. Seems to vary from place to place.



As far as not taking Step 3, I don't think it will be a red flag. You have plenty of research, an advanced degree, and more importantly plenty of interviews. As you said, it's a buyer's market, and I don't think any place will drop their assessment of you based off of a missing step 3 score.

Good luck to everyone - I hope interviews are going well!

Best of luck to you too! Appreciate the comments and I hope you're right. I'm gonna try to take it as soon as I can and postpone only if absolutely necessary. The issue is not the studying but more so in the days lost flying around for interviews ironically.
 
Well of course I'm in residency doc. Programs are different in their requirements. Mine requires a pass before I graduate... That's it.

My question was more about the timeline at this stage given that I have many interviews even without the exam. Should I hurry up and do it in the next 20 days? Or can I tuck it in mid November knowing that it's result won't be out by Dec 4.

Thank you for trying to address my concern :)

It doesn't matter when you take step 3( not what score you get) as long as you pass it by June 30 2016.
If you don't feel sure postpone it and study more for it, but to be honest, uworld questions and what you've learned so far are more than enough to pass...

Good luck on IV trails!
 
It doesn't matter when you take step 3( not what score you get) as long as you pass it by June 30 2016.
If you don't feel sure postpone it and study more for it, but to be honest, uworld questions and what you've learned so far are more than enough to pass...

Good luck on IV trails!

Thanks Tartesos, I agree with you that passing it shouldn't be tough. It's all the flying around that disrupted my plans and I don't want to underestimate it. At least go through the non-internal med parts and practice questions.

Best of luck to you and everyone.
 
Got an invitation from University of Chicago. I know it's a big school. But have not heard much of the ID program. Can anyone give a little bit of information about the fellowship program? Thank you.
 
Madison > Wayne State.

Can't comment about UIowa but probably lower than Madison and equivalent to Wayne State.
Guys, how would you compare U Wisconsin (Madison) and Wayne State, any idea which one is better? Also any thoughts about U Iowa? The Iowa program seems to be fairly busy clinical program with not much resident involvement in research. I was wondering if anybody has any insight into that.
Sorry too chime in so late. I don't know what "not much Resident involvement" means and particularly for a fellow, but Iowa has always been my favorite of the mid-tier midwestern programs; it's roughly equivalent in quality to Wisconsin/Madison or Minnesota. Madison seems to be the SD.N consensus favorite among this group, though.

For ID, I see Wisconsin and Iowa as very similar programs. As far as I can tell, they're both pretty great. Both are quite busy clinically - only four fellows in a major local referral center - but Wisconsin in particular has a reputation of working its fellows to the bone. Iowa has one of the biggest gaps I've seen between the workload when "on service" and "not on service" (the latter is halfway towards vacation). Both offer both two- and three-year enrollment and take a mix of clinically and reasearch oriented fellows depending on the ebb and flow. Both are centers of both clinical and basic sicence research, and are weaker than the more urban programs on HIV. For me as a basic science person, Iowa had the pretty clear edge between the two for two reasons: a stable "core" of inflammation-based research that involves much of the ID department, and the fact that an okay-sized chunk of the second year can be used as research time; you do not get that kind of continuous protected time at all at Wisconsin until year 3. Wisconsin is the bigger academic institution overall with slightly more USN&WR-type prestige, a few extra training grants, a better kept physical facility, and is set in the college town that more closely resembles a "real" city.

Wayne State is definitely less academically prestigious and research intensive than the other two (as far as I know, they don't even offer a three-year ID fellowship), and I don't know that much about it, but my impression is that it's reasonably well regarded.
 
Can anyone comment on some factors that we could use to better rank the programs? I have asked some people and they usually say location and gut feeling but I feel hat's not enough. I want to pursue an academic/ clinician educator track and I am interested in transplant / immunocompromised host.
Some things that I am considering are:
- Transplant exposure
- Number of faculty
- Research funding
- Possibility for third-year
- Location (yea, it matters)
- Number of fellows
- Prestige of the program (how do you measure this?)
- Mentor in my area of interest

Any other thoughts? Thank you!
 
Can anyone comment on some factors that we could use to better rank the programs? I have asked some people and they usually say location and gut feeling but I feel hat's not enough. I want to pursue an academic/ clinician educator track and I am interested in transplant / immunocompromised host.
Some things that I am considering are:
- Transplant exposure
- Number of faculty
- Research funding
- Possibility for third-year
- Location (yea, it matters)
- Number of fellows
- Prestige of the program (how do you measure this?)
- Mentor in my area of interest

Any other thoughts? Thank you!

All good things to consider. I'm also looking at:
- Whether or not there's a formal micro rotation
- Where fellows go after residency
- Is the department growing enough to hire their own fellows?
- Are the fellows able to get academic appointments at other places (i.e., is there enough research opportunities done in real life to get funding & appointments)?
- How do they balance seeing enough to be adequately trained vs. being overworked (i.e., do they have an NP/PA/hospitalist ID team to offload the less interesting cases)?
 
Can anyone comment on some factors that we could use to better rank the programs? I have asked some people and they usually say location and gut feeling but I feel hat's not enough. I want to pursue an academic/ clinician educator track and I am interested in transplant / immunocompromised host.
Some things that I am considering are:
- Transplant exposure
- Number of faculty
- Research funding
- Possibility for third-year
- Location (yea, it matters)
- Number of fellows
- Prestige of the program (how do you measure this?)
- Mentor in my area of interest

Any other thoughts? Thank you!

I think you have to ask yourself what your level of interest in transplant ID is. If you want to do a third year in transplant ID (Note that all transplant ID fellowships are non accredited) then of course it is best to go to a place that has a transplant ID fellowship. That is what I am hoping to do. Transplant ID job would quite likely get you an academic appointment as well. Location is a matter of preference, to me it doesn't matter. Research funding is directly proportional to prestige. Hope that helps.
 
Guys I have a question. I can only attend one of the two interviews. Which one should I choose, Case Western or MD Anderson/U Texas ? My career goals : transplant ID. Location doesnt matter to me. Also how do they compare to Washington University St Louis ? Thank you for your help.
 
Correction: My career goals are clinical research, transplant ID, seeking an academic appointment down the road. Thanks
 
Guys I have a question. I can only attend one of the two interviews. Which one should I choose, Case Western or MD Anderson/U Texas ? My career goals : transplant ID. Location doesnt matter to me. Also how do they compare to Washington University St Louis ? Thank you for your help.

WashU much better than either
 
Something i've been wondering about. Why is the ID program at DHMC (Dartmouth) rated poorly? Its the general opinion i've been hearing consistently. Is there a lack of exposure or patients? or is it something else
 
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