fellowship interviews and offers

[freelancewriter]

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Most residencies fill through the Match, which is heavily structured.

How does the world of fellowships work? Is there a Match-like system? Or does it work much like the job world: track down an opening, try to get an interview, hope for an offer?

Is there a generally established timeline when applications are accepted and when offers are made? Or is it a matter of accepting a fellowship position before someone else does?

Can a fellowship make offers to six people for one opening, and whoever accepts first gets it? Or is it, "You can have the position, but you must accept it in one week or we'll offer it to someone else." Or possibly, "We'll let you know in February if you can join our top tier place" making you gamble on whether or not to pass up the average place that offers you a position in October.

With Match there is a Match Day and at least some degree of certainty, but with fellowships it seems like you would have to interview early if offers can be made early.

I find the world of medical education fascinating. I've learned a lot from lurking on these forums, but haven't seen much on the particular topic of how people secure fellowships. Teach me 🙂

 

[AJM]

It completely depends on the specialty. Some specialties, like ID, cardiology, and pulmonary, do the NRMP fellowship match. Others, like GI or Heme/Onc, are more like a job search where it's first-come, first-served.

There are a number of specialties that go through the NRMP fellowship match, which is run in a very similar way to the NRMP residency match. Check out http://www.nrmp.org/fellow/match_name/index.html for the list of the specialties, and for more information on the fellowship match.

As far as the timeline for the non-match specialties, it totally depends on the specialty. I think the most typical way offers are made through this system is for a program to make an offer to an applicant they want (typically just after they interview), and then give them a short amount of time to accept or decline the offer. The applicants have to agree that if they accept the offer, they have to withdraw their application from all other programs.

 

[Retinamark]

Some of the other fellowships are arranged through the SF Match - see www.sfmatch.org. It seems like a very efficient way of doing it. Unfortunately there isn't much on these forums about fellowships.

Maybe there could be a fellowship forum?????

I'm from Australia & have always wanted to do my fellowship in the US, but it is so difficult to find out which hospitals I would have a chance of getting a job at, because even if a hospital would take you, you may not be able to get a license from the state medical board & every state is different. It would be so helpful to talk to other international graduates who have come to the US just for a fellowship. Most discussions are about getting permanent residency. As much as I would love to live in the US, as the Peter Allen song goes "I still call Australia home"🙂 😍