Fellowship and med school performance

[maleus]

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Sooo ended up matching fairly low on my match list although luckily it's not a Program I'm disappointed to be at. My only hesitation is the fellowship match list isn't quite as pretty as I'd like. So my question is does my having done well on step 1 & 2 and being aoa and such help for fellowship match or is it all residency and med school performance is forgotten about?

 

[gutonc]

Sooo ended up matching fairly low on my match list although luckily it's not a Program I'm disappointed to be at. My only hesitation is the fellowship match list isn't quite as pretty as I'd like. So my question is does my having done well on step 1 & 2 and being aoa and such help for fellowship match or is it all residency and med school performance is forgotten about?

It will vary by program but, in general, yes, your med school/Step performance will be considered in fellowship applications. How much weight it is given at any particular program is impossible to predict. But getting AOA and having good Step scores will at least help you get an interview.

But one thing to keep in mind is that your personal residency performance is given a lot of weight in the process. Not that the program name doesn't matter, but your performance (as evidenced by your LORs) are pretty important.

 

[doobiedoobah]

It will vary by program but, in general, yes, your med school/Step performance will be considered in fellowship applications. How much weight it is given at any particular program is impossible to predict. But getting AOA and having good Step scores will at least help you get an interview.

But one thing to keep in mind is that your personal residency performance is given a lot of weight in the process. Not that the program name doesn't matter, but your performance (as evidenced by your LORs) are pretty important.

Do they look at your med school grades for fellowship, or just steps taken during med school and activities/organizations? I'm wondering because some of the doctors I rotated with have yet to return my evals. I'm wondering if it's worth it to keep on harassing them about it.

 

[gutonc]

Do they look at your med school grades for fellowship, or just steps taken during med school and activities/organizations? I'm wondering because some of the doctors I rotated with have yet to return my evals. I'm wondering if it's worth it to keep on harassing them about it.

Yes, we see the transcript. It's not really a major issue unless it's somehow incongruous to the rest of the app. But yes, we look.

As to whether you should bug folks for evals...will your med school graduate you without grades in all of your rotations? Mine wouldn't.

 

[wally22]

In the most competitive sub-specialties (i.e. cards, GI), many programs use step scores as a cutoff to consider you for an interview. AOA helps a bit too. Much more important, however, is 1) residency performance 2) LORs and 3) research.

 

[ArcGurren]

In the most competitive sub-specialties (i.e. cards, GI), many programs use step scores as a cutoff to consider you for an interview. AOA helps a bit too. Much more important, however, is 1) residency performance 2) LORs and 3) research.

Does that include Step 3 scores?

 

[gutonc]

Does that include Step 3 scores?

Depends on the trend. If you rock a 220/230/240, nobody will care. A 250/230/210 on the other hand is probably going to be an issue.

 

[maleus]

Thanks for all the feedback! I notice you keep mentioning residency performance, and I'm happy you say that because it motivates me to keep on trying my hardest and not letting my match experience discourage me. It also make me happy to see all my hard work and success in med school may still get me to where I'm hoping to end up, but when looking at fellowship match lists (interested in cards), it seems to me the name of the program plays a very large role. Now that may be a selection bias bc the top programs also tend to have the higher step scores and more aoa, but some solid IM programs haven't sent a resident to top teir cards programs in years and I'd imagine many of them were chiefs and great residents. I guess my worry is that unlike coming out of med school where u can go basically anywhere given the right numbers regardless of ur institution (even though my experience didn't yield that lol), fellowship 'looks' like more of a name game, am I wrong?

 

[HoldTheCoffee]

Thanks for all the feedback! I notice you keep mentioning residency performance, and I'm happy you say that because it motivates me to keep on trying my hardest and not letting my match experience discourage me. It also make me happy to see all my hard work and success in med school may still get me to where I'm hoping to end up, but when looking at fellowship match lists (interested in cards), it seems to me the name of the program plays a very large role. Now that may be a selection bias bc the top programs also tend to have the higher step scores and more aoa, but some solid IM programs haven't sent a resident to top teir cards programs in years and I'd imagine many of them were chiefs and great residents. I guess my worry is that unlike coming out of med school where u can go basically anywhere given the right numbers regardless of ur institution (even though my experience didn't yield that lol), fellowship 'looks' like more of a name game, am I wrong?

From what I could tell from this year's application cycle, school tier / AOA / PhD were the major things that really helped for getting residency interviews. So even if fellowships involve something of a "name game", this was kinda sorta already happening when we were all applying for residency.

Of course, there are always exceptions (the person who went to a "low" tier school, avg boards, and no AOA getting MGH, etc. and people who had all of these things getting rejected). I really think the only thing you can do is work your best during residency and see what happens.

 

[ArcGurren]

Depends on the trend. If you rock a 220/230/240, nobody will care. A 250/230/210 on the other hand is probably going to be an issue.

Thank you! I'm aiming for a pretty competitive fellowship, so I guess I'll put in the hard work for Step 3.