Fellowship money

[Oftalmologo]

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Does anyone out there have any good suggestions for funding or loans to help with the pathetic salaries we get as fellows? It's tough to move across the country with a family, settle down in areas with rent of $1500/month, and only bring in $35,000 pre-tax.

 

[PDT4CNV]

Sign up for lots of good credit cards. Some fellowships you just have to plan on graduating with big balances on your credit cards. Start paying it off while in practice. Hope you don't have student loans too.

 

[NDirish]

$1500 sounds like a steal. I paid $2,000/month with a fellow salary of $35,000 (pre tax).

 

[Andrew_Doan]

The Heed Fellowship is a nice supplement. I received the award last year. You can also plan to do a little moonlighting if your program allows it. For example, you can work at Kaiser as an ophthalmologist.

Otherwise, set a budget and live cheaply for a year. Good luck!

 

[Oftalmologo]

Any advice on formulating the fellowship plan part of the Heed application? Having just matched, it doesn't yet feel like there is much variability in how the year proceeds, but I know this is an important part of the application.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

What the Heed is looking for is a research plan. Discuss with your mentor a research project that you can write about in the Heed application and indicate the percentage of effort dedicated towards research. Good luck!

 

[Visionary]

Another route to consider is an unsecured line of credit (LOC). There are a number of banks that will offer unsecured LOC of up to $10K/yr for residents/fellows. The rates are generally better than those of credit cards, and as with credit cards, you only accumulate interest on what you draw out. You do have to make payments as you go, but you can just cover those by slightly increasing your draws. One such bank that I ran across on the internet is Stillwater National out of Oklahoma. They specifically cater to residents/fellows. Here's a testimonial:

http://www.banksnb.com/Asset/iu_files/Rob_German_case_study_final.pdf

Not all banks will do this, but those that do clearly understand our plight and see it as good marketing for the future. Something to think about.