hem/onc friends!

[palliate]

With residency ROL being all set, it is time to begin agonizing about the fellowship Hem/onc – my one true love is getting more and more competitive and I am getting worried… I have a few months till residency starts and I cannot decide whether I should devote this time to a research project (I have done research in undergrad, but nothing since and nothing in hem/onc) or to study for Step 3 to get it out of the way. My concern is that if I take Step 3 now without any US clinical experience (I went to med school in Europe) I will not be able to do well and will undermine my strong Step 1 and 2 scores, thus hurting my fellowship application. I would much rather wait and take Step 3 AFTER I apply for fellowship during PGY2 at which point the score shouldn’t matter (and if I don’t pass by that time then, well, maybe I am not ready to practice medicine ) Taking the test while doing PGY1 seems like a bad idea – I am one of those people who will study day and night during the three weeks of vacation and I want to make sure that doesn’t happen! I guess this boils down to three questions:
1. The ultimate “does the score matter???” – specifically, for hem/onc
2. Is it true that some hem/onc programs require Step 3 at some point before they decide to offer you a slot?
3. Does it make sense to spend this relatively short time doing research (potentially fruitful project with potentially prominent guy)

I know I am being very… particular about this…. but a bad college experience (“told you take this course AFTER med school applications are in” is still haunting me…)

Please help!

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[yesh]

xanax please

 

[astro-pilot]

With residency ROL being all set, it is time to begin agonizing about the fellowship Hem/onc – my one true love is getting more and more competitive and I am getting worried… I have a few months till residency starts and I cannot decide whether I should devote this time to a research project (I have done research in undergrad, but nothing since and nothing in hem/onc) or to study for Step 3 to get it out of the way. My concern is that if I take Step 3 now without any US clinical experience (I went to med school in Europe) I will not be able to do well and will undermine my strong Step 1 and 2 scores, thus hurting my fellowship application. I would much rather wait and take Step 3 AFTER I apply for fellowship during PGY2 at which point the score shouldn’t matter (and if I don’t pass by that time then, well, maybe I am not ready to practice medicine ) Taking the test while doing PGY1 seems like a bad idea – I am one of those people who will study day and night during the three weeks of vacation and I want to make sure that doesn’t happen! I guess this boils down to three questions:
1. The ultimate “does the score matter???” – specifically, for hem/onc
2. Is it true that some hem/onc programs require Step 3 at some point before they decide to offer you a slot?
3. Does it make sense to spend this relatively short time doing research (potentially fruitful project with potentially prominent guy)

I know I am being very… particular about this…. but a bad college experience (“told you take this course AFTER med school applications are in” is still haunting me…)

Please help!

The weight of research is institution dependent. The fellowship dir at UofL told me that if people are not active in research, he'll pass over them. I would think more of the "big" fellowships weigh research heavily.

just fyi

 

[fun8stuff]

The weight of research is institution dependent. The fellowship dir at UofL told me that if people are not active in research, he'll pass over them. I would think more of the "big" fellowships weigh research heavily.

just fyi

when do people do research in residency? Do you get time to do this or is this something you do on top of everything elsE?

 

[gutonc]

when do people do research in residency? Do you get time to do this or is this something you do on top of everything elsE?

ABIM allows 3 (or 4, I forget exactly) months of research electives during a standard 3 year IM residency. While this is not enough time to do a real bench project, you can certainly get something started or do a simple clinical project (or join a project in progress) and get an abstract out of it. More than actual completed research, I think fellowship PDs want to know that you're interested in research and having a couple of months of it under your belt and something to talk about with them when they ask will be a huge help.

BE