Fellowship questions

[Coastalrads]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi all,
I'm starting to think about fellowship choices for next year (Chest or MSK probably), but I have a few questions.
Are chest fellowships fairly competitive? What about other types of fellowships?
How do you find out which programs are good? Do the top tier schools generally have strong fellowship programs, or is it variable?
Do programs present cases during interviews?

Thanks for any insight!

 

[shark2000]

Hi all,
I'm starting to think about fellowship choices for next year (Chest or MSK probably), but I have a few questions.
Are chest fellowships fairly competitive? What about other types of fellowships?
How do you find out which programs are good? Do the top tier schools generally have strong fellowship programs, or is it variable?
Do programs present cases during interviews?

Thanks for any insight!

***Overall, radiology fellowships are not competitive except for IR.

- Chest fellowships: There is a shortage of chest fellowship trained radiologists for academic jobs at least for now. Nevertheless, chest fellowships are not competitive. On the flip side, not many programs offer chest fellowship. If you apply broadly, you can end up in a big name. However, if you are looking for a specific city, you may not get it since other than NY and Boston, probably each city has one program offering 1-2 spots.

- Neuro: slightly competitive. You can end up in a top program if apply broadly.

- MSK: slightly competitive. Some of the big names are relatively difficult.

- Body: Not competitive. You can go to big names.

- IR: the most competitive one. Still most end up finding a spot. Top programs are difficult to get.

*** STRONG PROGRAMS:

- Chest: Univ of Colorado probably is the best in the nation.

- Neuro: UCSF, MGH, Hopkins, BWH, UPenn and many others. Barrow program in Arizona is considered one of the Top ones despite not having a brand name.

-MSK: MGH and Univ of Wiscon are unique as they are very procedural based. In addition UCSD, Stoller, Duke, UVA, U Mich and probably Univ of Wash are top ones. Stoller and UCSD are great places for sports MRI. Jefferson and Univ of Michigan are Powerhouses of MSK Ultrasound, an evolving field at least in academics.

-Body: MGH, BWH, Univ of Wisconsin, UCLA and some others are very procedural based (u do most non vascular procedures including drains, percut ablations, percut nephro, percut cholecystostomy, biopsies). NW, NYU and Thomas Jefferson are doing crazy number of body MRs (like more than 100). Other good programs are UCSF, Hopkins, UPenn, ...

IR: Some of the big names are not really good programs. For example MGH, UCSF, BWH, Hopkins and UPenn are considered second tier IR programs. The best IR program is probably Miami Vascular. Top tire IR programs are the ones that do a good mixture of everything. Good ones are Brown, UVA, Peoria, UCLA, Emory and Univ of Colorado.

For sure there are many other strong programs in each category.

Good Luck.

 

[yoyoniner]

I would take such a question to Aunt Minnie and make sure you take every post here and there with a grain of salt because there are a lot of opinions and no formal rankings exist.

The only way to know what are the "good" fellowships are to interview at them because things change fast and faculty turnover is the only sure thing at many of these places. For instance Duke MSK no longer has Helms which is what they were known for--that's just one example. And no one knows how competitive each year will be, and in what location. For instance, everyone I know who wanted to go into IR that I met at AIRP this year was able to match, whereas I personally know several people who wanted to do MSK but couldn't find a spot and ended up doing Body instead. I have a feeling Chest will also be big this year because of the new USPTF guidelines, so don't take anything for granted.

The only thing I can say has been consistent since I started residency years ago is that each year Body and Neuro have NOT been competitive. The other consistent thing is that location, location, location is just about the most important thing as to predicting where you will practice. It is extremely difficult to compete with local fellows for jobs in a city where you are currently not doing your fellowship, for instance.

 

[Coastalrads]

Thank you!