How competitive are IM fellowships?

[size_tens]

I'm sure that a guy who graduates out of JHU and does an IM residency at MGH can secure any fellowship he wants. However I'm asking this more for the average med student who goes to an unranked US allopathic school and matches into a solid, but not renowned IM program. How tough would it be for said student to get a fellowship in cards, GI or heme/onc?

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[(nicedream)]

I'm sure that a guy who graduates out of JHU and does an IM residency at MGH can secure any fellowship he wants. However I'm asking this more for the average med student who goes to an unranked US allopathic school and matches into a solid, but not renowned IM program. How tough would it be for said student to get a fellowship in cards, GI or heme/onc?

cards/GI > heme/onc
Your chances increase a lot if the place where you do your IM residency has fellowships you would apply to. Research helps greatly for cards and GI.

 

[ucla2usc]

Ask the program directors you are applying for directly for a list of where their graduates have gone on to in the past five years, also ask for the numbers who didn't get into fellowships...specific programs may have relative strengths and weaknesses in a certain fellowship placement and this can be VERY variable between programs, i.e. some middle tier places might have 90-100% cards placements and another only 10%!

 

[megsMS]

size tens,

I don't have any advice but thank you for asking a question that applies to the majority of med students out there, including me. Not everyone graduates with a 4.0 and a 260 from a top ten school, but everyone seems to become a practicing physician anyway. Some people make it seem hopeless if you're not like that. Good luck!

 

[june015b]

cards/GI > heme/onc
Your chances increase a lot if the place where you do your IM residency has fellowships you would apply to. Research helps greatly for cards and GI.

I disagree. Should be GI>Card>alleg/immmunology. Gi has been more competitive for the past few years. However, things may get changed beginning this year since they just reinstated the match system in GI. With the match system, the applicant have a better chance. At my program, everyone applying to card got matched last year. But only ~50-60% of people got into GI. Likely this figure will change beggining this year given the GI match.

 

[sanfilippo]

If my residency is any microcosm of what the whole fellowship pool is like, I'd go with GI as 25% of my class is pursuing GI, followed cards, followed by A&I.

I agree with the previous posts that the home institution usually tries to have at least one spot for their own residents, but it can't take everyone and that would depreciate the reputation of the program.


More fellowships are joining the NRMP, so things will really change this year with GI and hem/onc alongside rheum, cards, pulmonary and ID.

-S.

 

[Myostatin]

For cardiology last year, 44% of all candidates matched. Just looking at US medical graduates, the number increases to ~75%. So, very competitive- but if you know ahead of time you want to do cards, and you do well in internship year, I don't think the average US grad will have difficulty matching at some program somewhere.