fellowships...

[stonewall22]

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So, I haven't started medical school yet, haven't decided yes or no on HPSP yet, and don't know what I want to be when I grow up. But I do have a question about fellowships. From what I've read, most fellowships are sponsored civilian fellowships. Just curious how interviewing for these works. Typically interviews would be happening in the fall months (this is an assumption, please correct me if I'm wrong) and the military match in December. So, if the military match isn't until December, how do you know whether or not to interview? So, could you potentially interview for a bunch of positions, and then not match in the military match? Or, does matching in the military match give you a slot to for the following civilian cycle (match in military Decemer 2008, interview civilan fall 2009, match/start civilan 2010)?

 

[colbgw02]

This issue exists in my branch and my specialty, where nearly all of the fellowships are civilian-sponsored. In this case, the specialty consultant gives applicants a WARNO about their chances of being selected, which gives you an idea how far to go with applications before the board meets. This works fairly well because the number of fellowship slots is known well in advance and the point system is relatively rigid, which makes predicting who will and won't be selected relatively simple. I agree though, like so many things in military medicine, it's a less than ideal system.