Fellowship question

[Ologist]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Forgive my ignorance, but i was wondering what the major factors were in landing a fellowship. I'm a 2nd year right now and i'm not familiar with what fellowships evaluate IM applicants on. Is it strictly letters of rec.? Step III? STep II? Does just being a IM resident at that particular institution give you a huge advantage in landing a spot? I'm looking at USC's IM program right now, does anyone out there know if they're a good program to be in if you want to go onto a fellowship? (Any fellowship i mean, as i'm not sure what i want to go into). What about UCI, Loma Linda, U. of Hawaii? Thank you in advance.

________________________________________________________
Best blog ever: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=kmd1

 

[Ologist]

Just bumping this one.

 

[argh]

Speaking as an M4 who just finished residency interviews, it looks like the one biggest factor for getting into a given fellowship is being a resident at the same institution, just like being a student at a given school gives you the strongest shot of getting into that school's residency program. When you think about it, that makes the most sense--if you were a fellowship director, you'd probably rather take known quantities, especially considering most programs in any subspecialty have a small number of fellows. There are exceptions to this (I heard Cleveland Clinic cardiology is a notorious example, but I can't verify this one), but I'd say it's a pretty reliable rule. Now, if you're applying to fellowships at institutions outside your residency program, the faculty you worked with at your residency program in clinical and research arenas have a lot of say--where they trained, where they've been able to get past residents in, how important their research is/how well known they are, and so on. And then, of course, there's your own research or potential for research, especially in the really (ridiculously) competitive subspecialties like cards or GI or in the top programs in all the other subspecialties. I think all the other stuff winds up being much less significant, but I could be very wrong. I can't be much more long winded though.