How to a get neurology fellowship?

[soulofmpatel]

---

Members don't see this ad.

What should one do as a resident in Neurology do to make himself/herself competitive for fellowship applications.

Is performing well clinically very important, or are all evaluations so inflated as to make them a wash? Is getting good evaluations mostly about becoming friendly with everyone in your program? Is research crucial? Is it important to get to know a fellowship director or two? What are the other factors?

I'm looking for responses from people who have gone through the process. The more cynical you sound, and the more arbitrary the criteria you describe, the more likely I am to believe you.

 

[typhoonegator]

I matched in fellowship without a matching process or anything, but the only things they wanted from me were three letters of recommendation, my board scores, and a CV. Only one program I looked at wanted a medical school transcript. Who I had done research with and what it amounted to were really the only things that were extensively explored during the interview process. Nobody cared how I did on the RITE exam, or if every attending loved me.

That being said, neurology is not that big of a specialty, so they actually knew all my letter writers, and if they wanted to they could easily have just called my program director and asked what kind of a resident I was.

For fellowships, WHO you know can be very important. Getting to know fellowship directors in your choice of subspecialties at your institution is very helpful, even if you don't end up wanting to stay for fellowship. While neurology is not that big of a specialty, academic neurology subspecialties are even smaller worlds where essentially everybody knows everybody else.

Hope this helps a bit.