Allergy/Immunology fellowship application 2010-2011

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anybody have a good idea how many programs you'll need to match this year? is there a target # of programs or spots you are being told you'll need to match?
 
Anyone know what Texas AI programs are like? UTSW? UTSA? Baylor?
 
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I personally don't think there is a magic number. I've heard fellows tell me that they interviewed at as few as 2 programs and some as many as 18. In the end, the deciding factor is how competitive of an applicant you are and how much the program ends up liking you on your interview. If you're bad at interviews, I think the more you go on the better you get. Some people know for sure that only a handful of programs are right for them and thats whay they probably exude during intervieiws so will end up matching at one of those programs. I personally do not like interviews and don't like the idea of it being such a game! But I do love AI!


anybody have a good idea how many programs you'll need to match this year? is there a target # of programs or spots you are being told you'll need to match?
 
I personally applied to 5, and interviewed at 4. That's not ideal, I'm sure, but I'm going to see how things go and if necessary, reapply next year. It would be nice to know the average mean contiguously ranked programs by matched applicants, however, I haven't found that statistic on the NRMP. Is anyone else aware of where this information may be found. I feel like that information was readily accessible for the residency match.
 
Does anyone know about the possibility of doing an A/I fellowship coming from a AOA rather than ACGME program? I believe it is doable but am uncertain about it. If anyone has any experience I would love to hear it. Thanks. And good luck to you all matching.
 
Hi all. I really need some help because I am going through a difficult period of confusion. I am starting allergy fellowship this year. Prior to choosing allergy, I always wanted to do Heme/Onc and finally decided againht it because I did not feel like I could handle a very busy and stressful lifestyle. I thought the science of immunology was similar and I would enjoy it. However, every day now I regret not applying to heme/onc and am nervous to start allergy fellowship because I feel like I will not be fulfilled. What should I do? I feel like immunology will be very difficult in terms of unfamiliar subject matter and will not have anything to do with the current knowledge that I have an internist. Can those of you in allergy fellowship comment on your experiences. Are you happy in fellowship, do you feel a sense of accomplishment in this speciality, and what is the job market and compensation. I have to support a family, and am stressed that I may end up in a career path that I may not feel satisfied in, and not have good future potential. I really would be thankful for some advice, since I am having second thoughts. I would appreciate input.
 
Hi all. I really need some help because I am going through a difficult period of confusion. I am starting allergy fellowship this year. Prior to choosing allergy, I always wanted to do Heme/Onc and finally decided againht it because I did not feel like I could handle a very busy and stressful lifestyle. I thought the science of immunology was similar and I would enjoy it. However, every day now I regret not applying to heme/onc and am nervous to start allergy fellowship because I feel like I will not be fulfilled. What should I do? I feel like immunology will be very difficult in terms of unfamiliar subject matter and will not have anything to do with the current knowledge that I have an internist. Can those of you in allergy fellowship comment on your experiences. Are you happy in fellowship, do you feel a sense of accomplishment in this speciality, and what is the job market and compensation. I have to support a family, and am stressed that I may end up in a career path that I may not feel satisfied in, and not have good future potential. I really would be thankful for some advice, since I am having second thoughts. I would appreciate input.

Although I will be starting my fellowship this July (actually June 28th!) after my one year as a General Internist, I might be able to provide some info to you.

1. I think you should pursue what you really enjoy, otherwise you can be miserable (for example, if I had to do general medicine as a career path). Do you find Heme/Onc or Immunology inherently more interesting? Whatever advice you get, I think that the bottom line is to do whatever makes you happy regardless of income.

2. Regarding salaries: check out the following article: "Physician Wages Across Specialties". Arch Int Med. Vol 170, Oct 25 2010, pages 1728-1734. The reported salaries (represented as hourly wages) are grossly underestimated by 2011 standards (data shown are from 2004-2005), but I believe that the relative compensation is correct, i.e., if you normalize all values to the highest paid specialty (Neurosurg). I was surprised to see that Allergy/Clinical Immunology did as well with certain surgical subspecialties when compared on an hourly basis. I can personally share with you anecdotes from private Allergists that I hung out with during the San Francisco meeting who NET (not earn) 400K to their households AFTER taxes and overhead.

3. Heme/Onc pays handsomely as well, and I can tell you they have a pretty good life when you're hooked into a hospital system that employs hospitalists (apparently house staff to some) to handle all of the "benign" Heme and Heme/Onc heavy duty admissions/complications (neutropenic fevers, cancer associated PE's, veno-occlusive crises, etc). The relative compensation for Heme/Onc was equally impressive in the journal article I quoted above.

4. I say volunteer some of your time now in an AI clinic and Heme/Onc clinic and see what you like more before fully committing yourself to additional training.

Good luck!! The above are just my opinions...:)
 
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Hi all. I really need some help because I am going through a difficult period of confusion. I am starting allergy fellowship this year. Prior to choosing allergy, I always wanted to do Heme/Onc and finally decided againht it because I did not feel like I could handle a very busy and stressful lifestyle. I thought the science of immunology was similar and I would enjoy it. However, every day now I regret not applying to heme/onc and am nervous to start allergy fellowship because I feel like I will not be fulfilled. What should I do? I feel like immunology will be very difficult in terms of unfamiliar subject matter and will not have anything to do with the current knowledge that I have an internist. Can those of you in allergy fellowship comment on your experiences. Are you happy in fellowship, do you feel a sense of accomplishment in this speciality, and what is the job market and compensation. I have to support a family, and am stressed that I may end up in a career path that I may not feel satisfied in, and not have good future potential. I really would be thankful for some advice, since I am having second thoughts. I would appreciate input.

I suspect that your initial impression regarding the similarities between A/I and Heme/Onc may actually be correct. I may be mistaken, but I believe that some Bone Marrow Transplant programs are run by Allergy/Immunology rather than Heme/Onc. Transplant Immunology in particular overlaps greatly with Heme/Onc. That being said, I think that your interest in Heme/Onc will serve you well in Immunology. I have similar interests myself!
 
has anyone heard from programs after the interview, or gotten any feedback that a program was going to rank them highly? Do they do that in fellowship like they did for residency?
 
has anyone heard from programs after the interview, or gotten any feedback that a program was going to rank them highly? Do they do that in fellowship like they did for residency?


outside of an occasional reply following a thank you email, I have not had any unsolicited feedback. A few programs mentioned that they will call applicants in the next few weeks to see if we have any additional questions.
 
Thanks so much uncmdphd and microman for your replies. It really means alot, especially going through a period of such confusion. Thank you for your input. I sometimes feel however that it is too late to change my career path and go through the agony of the whole interview process and incertainty again. UNCMDPHD , did the private allergists you met with tell you about their lifestyle..how many patients they see each day, structure of practice etc? Thanks
 
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Thanks so much uncmdphd and microman for your replies. It really means alot, especially going through a period of such confusion. Thank you for your input. I sometimes feel however that it is too late to change my career path and go through the agony of the whole interview process and incertainty again. UNCMDPHD , did the private allergists you met with tell you about their lifestyle..how many patients they see each day, structure of practice etc? Thanks

Allergyconfused, I empathize, I was in a similar situation when I had a GI fellowship lined up thinking I would enjoy the immunology behind inflammatory bowel. Then functional bowel and the smell of stool brought me back to reality. I'm glad I took the time to think about my career choice and made a conscience decision to switch paths.

Regarding your post, those are great questions. I did not ask how many patients they saw daily or what the practice structures were. It seemed that a lot of Allergists I ran into were forming partnerships with Rheum and Derm. I got the impression that the busier (maybe that's a good thing for business) Allergists were located a bit more regionally, such as around the Gulf Coast where dust mites go for vacation and there's essentially one year long season.

Regarding career paths, I think the lifestyles between an Allergist and Heme/Onc will be pretty similar in terms of having a life outside of work, probably a lot less call with Allergy than with Heme/Onc. Fellowship wise, you could probably pursue research with Heme/Onc during your training as they're always researching the latest monoclonal antibody du jour.
 
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Thank you uncmdphd!!! I really enjoyed reading your post; I couldn't agree with you more! The "smell of the stool" part was really funny and SO true Haha!!That is actually THE reason I could never pursue GI. It is reassuring to know that others have gone through something similar. I can imagine that it was probably not an easy choice for you to to decide between GI and A/I. I am glad that everything worked out for you. Thats a great suggestion about the research part.
I must say that your posts have been so reassuring that its probably the first time in weeks that I have felt a sense of optimism, since I think I spent an unnecessarily long period of time in the recent past worrying that I had somehow made the "wrong" decision. I felt that I could no longer enjoy medicine because I was constantly doubting myself. Pressure from family didnt help. I am so glad I found this forum, and that I feel reassured that there is much to look forward to. Thanks again.
 
Thank you uncmdphd!!! I really enjoyed reading your post; I couldn't agree with you more! The "smell of the stool" part was really funny and SO true Haha!!That is actually THE reason I could never pursue GI. It is reassuring to know that others have gone through something similar. I can imagine that it was probably not an easy choice for you to to decide between GI and A/I. I am glad that everything worked out for you. Thats a great suggestion about the research part.
I must say that your posts have been so reassuring that its probably the first time in weeks that I have felt a sense of optimism, since I think I spent an unnecessarily long period of time in the recent past worrying that I had somehow made the "wrong" decision. I felt that I could no longer enjoy medicine because I was constantly doubting myself. Pressure from family didnt help. I am so glad I found this forum, and that I feel reassured that there is much to look forward to. Thanks again.

No worries, I have to say that I'm pretty happy switching camps from GI --> AI, it cost me a year of working as a hospitalist rather than starting after residency, but I'll be happier in the long run for it. Looking forward to starting fellowship soon!
 
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hi allergy confused... i will try to give my 2 cents as well.. i was pretty confused between rheum and allergy, and at one point thought i would do a combined fellowship... i had this eutopia in my mind that i would be able to tie in all mechanisms of disease under the umbrella of being an immunologist, and thus better treat my patients... the reality of it, as it turns out, is quite different... a couple people i spoke with who were in fellowships in a combined program were having tough times finding good jobs as prospective practices wanted them to chose to see either rheum patients or allergy patients, not both... apparently, the office setup these specialities are quite different... so i didn't want that to be a limiting factor... then came a point where i was like, i can't deal with all this chronic pain stuff... i couldn't be happier with my choice for pursuing allergy....

my personal litmus test is to ask yourself, if you are called at 3am for a consult what type of patient would you love to see with enthusiasm... if that is a cancer patient with neutropenic fever and a cord compression, then your answer is heme/onc... if you don't want to get called at 3am, then your answer is allergy :p no seriously, i agree completely with uncphdmd, nothing should take priority to your happiness... and being happy on the job is a big part of being happy in life.....
 
hi allergy confused... i will try to give my 2 cents as well.. i was pretty confused between rheum and allergy, and at one point thought i would do a combined fellowship... i had this eutopia in my mind that i would be able to tie in all mechanisms of disease under the umbrella of being an immunologist, and thus better treat my patients... the reality of it, as it turns out, is quite different... a couple people i spoke with who were in fellowships in a combined program were having tough times finding good jobs as prospective practices wanted them to chose to see either rheum patients or allergy patients, not both... apparently, the office setup these specialities are quite different... so i didn't want that to be a limiting factor... then came a point where i was like, i can't deal with all this chronic pain stuff... i couldn't be happier with my choice for pursuing allergy....

my personal litmus test is to ask yourself, if you are called at 3am for a consult what type of patient would you love to see with enthusiasm... if that is a cancer patient with neutropenic fever and a cord compression, then your answer is heme/onc... if you don't want to get called at 3am, then your answer is allergy :p no seriously, i agree completely with uncphdmd, nothing should take priority to your happiness... and being happy on the job is a big part of being happy in life.....


Allergy confused; you should also ask yourself if you want make a difference in pts life span by giving them targeted agent or chemo or an allergy shot which will not make a difference in most cases........Biased opinionnnsssss...lol
 
Allergy confused; you should also ask yourself if you want make a difference in pts life span by giving them targeted agent or chemo or an allergy shot which will not make a difference in most cases........Biased opinionnnsssss...lol

agreed, wouldn't you rather give chemo or a targeted agent to a 85 year old with PMH of DM, ESRD on HD, HTN, CHF, PVD and hypothyroidism and new dx of Ca (pick one of your choosing) than see and participate in research focused on pediatric primary immunodeficiencies? i know i would. lol
 
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agreed, wouldn't you rather give chemo or a targeted agent to a 85 year old with PMH of DM, ESRD on HD, HTN, CHF, PVD and hypothyroidism and new dx of Ca (pick one of your choosing) than see and participate in research focused on pediatric primary immunodeficiencies? i know i would. lol


In hemonc, AllergyConfused May get satisfaction if above mentioned 85 yr old grand-pa get to see his grand-daughters wedding next yr after getting Tarceva pill a day for her EGFR-mutant stage 4 Adenocarcinoma of lung cancer or by taking Rituxin single agent for follicular lymphoma or Gleevec for his CML...On the other hand Allergy-confused will waste his and that young girl's family time by running expensive useless test in lab and then give prednisone 1mg/kg to help her emperically or give a allergy shot to help her immunity which have 5% chance of work...........Lol
 
In hemonc, AllergyConfused May get satisfaction if above mentioned 85 yr old grand-pa get to see his grand-daughters wedding next yr after getting Tarceva pill a day for her EGFR-mutant stage 4 Adenocarcinoma of lung cancer or by taking Rituxin single agent for follicular lymphoma or Gleevec for his CML...On the other hand Allergy-confused will waste his and that young girl's family time by running expensive useless test in lab and then give prednisone 1mg/kg to help her emperically or give a allergy shot to help her immunity which have 5% chance of work...........Lol

...i.e. i disklike oncology

regardless, both professions both have ridiculous stories...

I was thinking more of HSCTs which both PID and Onc pts get btw
 
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anyway, enough of that nonsense... anyone wanna start posting reviews of allergy programs?
i'll start with one and if others post will continue to add to review list

...
 
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National Jewish (peds): hardest working clinical program barnone....
Thanks for that review Johnnywalker. Did the Peds fellows feel like they got enough adult experience & vice versa?
 
Oh the anticipation. I can barely keep down my boba.:xf:
 
Thanks for that review Johnnywalker. Did the Peds fellows feel like they got enough adult experience & vice versa?

i'd didnt ask about that specific question, but i think so.....
 
Does anyone know if fellowship is like residency match-- meaning they let you know beforehand in an email whether or not you matched? And if so, anyone know when that date is?
 
Does anyone know if fellowship is like residency match-- meaning they let you know beforehand in an email whether or not you matched? And if so, anyone know when that date is?

i believe not
 
I have to ask- is there research opportunities for M3 students in AI or would the lowest rung go for residents?
 
Hi all,

I wanted to let all the applicants know that I went through the match in 2010 and it can be very nerve racking. I was still interviewing in March and April so don't get too nervous if you're not getting anything just yet.

I found this site extremely helpful when I was going through the process. I interviewed all over the country and would be happy to answer questions programs if anyone has any.

Hang in there everyone.
 
Hi all,

I went through the match in the 2010-2011 year and wanted to let all of you know that I was still interviewing in March and April. Don't worry about not getting a lot of interviews now because they will start coming in January.

Good luck everyone. Hang in there.
 
I wanted to let all the applicants know that I went through the match in 2010 and it can be very nerve racking. I was still interviewing in March and April so don't get too nervous if you're not getting anything just yet.

Of course, there isn't a match this year with the change in the ABIM fellowship match calendar. So not only has nobody gotten any interviews, ERAS isn't even open yet.
 
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