I'm looking to apply next year 2014-2015 for Heme/Onc and for a variety of reasons will be focusing on the New England area. Can anyone comment on the reputation of the various programs in NE (i.e. Umass, Tufts, Brown, Dartmouth, etc), Strengths in malignant heme vs solids, fellowship experiences (incl. word of mouth from former fellows) ?
New England Heme/Onc reputation...
- Thread starter Eriane
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I went to all these place for interviews, actually if you search carefully for thread you would find other comments regarding these programs from fellowship application thread.. These are all good programs. TUFTs could be very academic and research oriented if you prefer and it has very strong hem(both malignant and benign hem), its oncology part is not that strong.. Downside of Tufts --- at Boston where the Farber and other harvard affiliated institute would attract and take lots of patients populations . Umass maybe lower in reputation compared with other three but it has a great diversity as clinic base. Some person said Brown is over ranked, because it does not have its own transplant program and also in next town providence. but I liked it very much although I did not go there. You have to rotate through different hospital including VA and other small community hospitals--if you want good life style during fellowships....
Thanks NEMC, I will take your comments under consideration---very much appreciated. I was beginning to wonder if anyone on the forum would make a comment. I am not sure though, but were you going to continue a statement at the end?
Umass has a good clinical program from what I heard and also has transplants. The only downside is location- Worcester. It is also close enough to Boston that there may be competition for patients.
Another NE program in Boston is Boston University. I went to BU for an interview and think it is a great program. They rotate at the Boston Medical Center, and the Boston VA hospitals. Despite being in the same city as the Harvard programs and Tufts, they do not have to compete for the same type of patients as BMC serve mostly the underserved population. There is good clinical exposure and opportunity for clinical and basic science research. They also have an interesting Geri Onc track (one of the first geri onc programs in the country. I think it is 3 years to be double boarded in geri and oncology and 4 years to be boarded in heme as well). BMC is also an international referral center for Amyloidosis (one of 2 in the country, the other being Mayo) and the hem onc program does a lot of bone marrow transplantation and chemotherapy to treat this condition (which I did not know you could before). The faculty seem supportive and fellows happy to be there.
Another NE program in Boston is Boston University. I went to BU for an interview and think it is a great program. They rotate at the Boston Medical Center, and the Boston VA hospitals. Despite being in the same city as the Harvard programs and Tufts, they do not have to compete for the same type of patients as BMC serve mostly the underserved population. There is good clinical exposure and opportunity for clinical and basic science research. They also have an interesting Geri Onc track (one of the first geri onc programs in the country. I think it is 3 years to be double boarded in geri and oncology and 4 years to be boarded in heme as well). BMC is also an international referral center for Amyloidosis (one of 2 in the country, the other being Mayo) and the hem onc program does a lot of bone marrow transplantation and chemotherapy to treat this condition (which I did not know you could before). The faculty seem supportive and fellows happy to be there.
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I echo this sentiment. I actually REALLY enjoyed my BU interview. The PD is a nice guy and fellows liked it there. VA shared with Harvard including faculty.
I interviewed at Brown. I didn't get a overly great feeling there but not a bad one either. They are definitely trying to become more of a research oriented program as that was what they were stressing during the interview day. Most of their graduates in the past went into private practice but over the last few years, more and more have been going into academia. Their strength is in solids. If you want to do liquids, I would avoid here. They do all their transplants at UMASS if I remember correctly. I went to Dartmouth. Really liked it there. Program director and all the faculty I met were incredibly nice. Very research oriented although not 18/18 like the huge academic institutions out there. Small program but lots of resources and they're building more labs for research. The fellows seemed happy. I think you get a good mix of solids and liquids there. Most graduates go into academia. Only drawback of that program is it's located in the middle of nowhere with Boston being 2 hours away.
