How competitive are fellowships?

[mmedw]

I was wondering how competitive it is to find a fellowship? According to the data from Freida in 2004, over 70% of path residents went on for more training after residency while around 10% went into academics and around 10% went into practice (and some of those weren't even in the same specialty). With so many going on for a fellowship, will it be hard to find one if you're not a competitive applicant? And how neccessary is it to have a fellowship to get a job?

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[yaah]

Most programs will keep you for an extra year to do a fellowship of some sort, it seems like. I am not sure about the small programs. But as far as I can tell it doesn't seem to be hard to get a lot of fellowships - particularly general surg path and cytopath fellowships.

 

[pathdawg]

I think that, with the elimination of the 5th credentialing year, the fellowship market may change somewhat, especially for those coming out in 2006 and 2007. For example, now that a 5th year of training is no longer required, surgical pathology fellowships may really open up. Conversely, other (particularly board-granting) fellowships, such as derm, heme, and cyto, will probably become more competitive.

My feeling is that now that only 4 years of residency is required, even more will be going on and doing a fellowship of some kind. I think that going out and practicing now after only 4 years of residency would be pretty tough, especially when you consider that market forces have dictated that community hospital pathologists are working more independently now than ever before.

 

[LADoc00]

I think that, with the elimination of the 5th credentialing year, the fellowship market may change somewhat, especially for those coming out in 2006 and 2007. For example, now that a 5th year of training is no longer required, surgical pathology fellowships may really open up. Conversely, other (particularly board-granting) fellowships, such as derm, heme, and cyto, will probably become more competitive.

My feeling is that now that only 4 years of residency is required, even more will be going on and doing a fellowship of some kind. I think that going out and practicing now after only 4 years of residency would be pretty tough, especially when you consider that market forces have dictated that community hospital pathologists are working more independently now than ever before.

Yep, I can confirm board granting fellowship apps are WAY up. I know that at least one prestigious program the number of apps for surg path dropped by 75% while the apps for derm/heme both went up over 5x as soon as the cred year was dropped (2 years ago??). I assume the same thing has occurred with cyto but Im less familiar with that field.

 

[mmedw]

So if the apps are way up, will it be pretty tough to get a fellowship now (except in surg path)? If you did a surg path fellowship, would you then have any trouble findind a job? It kinda sounds like it you wouldn't be able to find a job without a board certified subspecialty, so what is there to do for a graduating path resident who can't get a job or a fellowship?

 

[AngryTesticle]

Yep, I can confirm board granting fellowship apps are WAY up. I know that at least one prestigious program the number of apps for surg path dropped by 75% while the apps for derm/heme both went up over 5x as soon as the cred year was dropped (2 years ago??). I assume the same thing has occurred with cyto but Im less familiar with that field.

I can attest to this as well. At my program, it seems that the interest in Heme has increased markedly over the past few years. Plus, it seems that many of the applicants I have met are interested in the AP/CP/Heme or AP/Heme track.

As for derm, my institution doesn't have an exclusive Derm fellowship. This fellowship is a joint fellowship involving the 3 Harvard affiliated hospitals and they only have 3 spots per year. Applications are open to applicants all over the country and derm residents and path residents can apply for this. Makes for pretty tight competition.

 

[miko2005]

I can attest to this as well. At my program, it seems that the interest in Heme has increased markedly over the past few years. Plus, it seems that many of the applicants I have met are interested in the AP/CP/Heme or AP/Heme track.

As for derm, my institution doesn't have an exclusive Derm fellowship. This fellowship is a joint fellowship involving the 3 Harvard affiliated hospitals and they only have 3 spots per year. Applications are open to applicants all over the country and derm residents and path residents can apply for this. Makes for pretty tight competition.

Does this mean that heme will be very competitive now? I am definitely interested in heme. I thought about AP/Heme track but I was told that I would need surg path fellowship if I wanted to be able to sign out general stuff.

 

[AngryTesticle]

Does this mean that heme will be very competitive now? I am definitely interested in heme. I thought about AP/Heme track but I was told that I would need surg path fellowship if I wanted to be able to sign out general stuff.

Perhaps...not exactly sure. See, here, lots of people are interested in AP/Heme because they want to do research in the long run. Heme apparently has interesting research. Furthermore, because Heme is pretty big here (in terms of # of folks who sign out cases), those who go on to do postdocs can have minimal signout responsibilities. This allows them to devote almost all their time to research but at the same time keep their feet wet with respect to clinical stuff.