Matched! I applied everywhere and only got ONE interview from my home program. I've been working as a hospitalist for 4 years now and didn't match 3 times. I thought it's over and was debating if I should apply again. I gave it a shot and finally matched this year. My only advice to people out of training is to build as much connections as you can and do research with the department at the hospital you work at. Doing nothing and just moonlighting won't get you GI. It was painful and required a lot of effort. Good luck and congrats to those who matched.
Official 2017-2018 GI Fellowship Application Cycle
- Thread starter ShiShiMD
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If people are up for it, I was going to post a public google sheet that we can fill out with our post match data to help future applicants. Names will be hidden so it will all be anonymous. Will try to post it in the next couple days, hope people feel inspired to fill it out!
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Few matched. In numbers, for every matched applicant, there are at least 3 who didn't match
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Most match happens by contacts. Who knows you and who you know. Develop contacts as much as you can. Where you do residency plays a significant role in matching
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Being hospitalist and applying GI is worse than being a resident or chief and doing it. Really admire the fire and perseverance and getting the spot. Way to go. Good luck
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I think that's a really big generalization. I am in my second year as a hospitalist and applied for the first time this cycle (my husband is a surgical resident with a longer residency). I worked on my research as a resident and hospitalist and had solid interviews. There were a lot of programs who thought the hospitalist experience was very valuable, especially with regard to medical decision making and time management. If hospitalist is appealing to you and you think you can have productive research come out of your time as well, go for it.
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I hope you don't need visa. Ppl who need visas are at a big disadvantage doing these hospitalists.as you mentioned, being productive hospitalist is good overall. Hospitalist can be done only for h1 year and that will limit options down the lineI think that's a really big generalization. I am in my second year as a hospitalist and applied for the first time this cycle (my husband is a surgical resident with a longer residency). I worked on my research as a resident and hospitalist and had solid interviews. There were a lot of programs who thought the hospitalist experience was very valuable, especially with regard to medical decision making and time management. If hospitalist is appealing to you and you think you can have productive research come out of your time as well, go for it.
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I'm an AMG so I'm speaking from that perspective. For an IMG, I guess my experience may not be as applicable.
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Hospitalist here..would like to utilize the next 6 months in finishing some research projects but also want to refresh my clinical knowledge. Any recommendations for a source/review book to read before fellowship? Thanks!!
Matched.
1st attempt: Did not match.
2nd attempt: Applied to EVERY SINGLE Program.
-low step 1.
-good step 2/3
-Hep year.
-some research.
-strong letters from people I worked/researched with.
Got 5 interviews.
Matched at my 3rd choice.
Note to future applicants:
There's no one way to get to your destination. Most programs had written me off based on low board scores, both for residency and fellowship. Stay positive, work hard, try to get letters from well known people.
Most of all....GET LUCKY!
Thanks to all on SDN. I started here on pre-med threads and now finally here with fellowship match, hopefully this will be the LAST stop. Will donate to SDN once I start making $.
1st attempt: Did not match.
2nd attempt: Applied to EVERY SINGLE Program.
-low step 1.
-good step 2/3
-Hep year.
-some research.
-strong letters from people I worked/researched with.
Got 5 interviews.
Matched at my 3rd choice.
Note to future applicants:
There's no one way to get to your destination. Most programs had written me off based on low board scores, both for residency and fellowship. Stay positive, work hard, try to get letters from well known people.
Most of all....GET LUCKY!
Thanks to all on SDN. I started here on pre-med threads and now finally here with fellowship match, hopefully this will be the LAST stop. Will donate to SDN once I start making $.
PS guys! I matched at the place where I felt i gave my worst interview. I was getting asked absurd clinical questions during the interview from one weird attending. I told them they were my number 1 and I got a very generic response back. Anything can happen. Always stay positive.
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Which programs offer hepatology fellowship after IM?
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Congrats to everyone who matched. The euphoria and excitement should take days to settle. When it does, one important piece of advice:
If you are PGY 3 and matched, START PREPARING FOR IM BOARDS RIGHT AWAY.
You are not gonna have enough time once u start running in fellowship.
And most importantly pass your boards. Heard some stories of fellows given hard time when they fail ABIM and makes programs anxious if you will make it in subspecialty boards.
If you are PGY 3 and matched, START PREPARING FOR IM BOARDS RIGHT AWAY.
You are not gonna have enough time once u start running in fellowship.
And most importantly pass your boards. Heard some stories of fellows given hard time when they fail ABIM and makes programs anxious if you will make it in subspecialty boards.
Look up non-accredited Hepatology fellowships on ACG's website. You can also look up any transplant center. Chances are they will have a fellowship spot out of match that they haven't advertised. Be careful though, though this seems like a good track; it's not without its drawbacks.
For your first question, I don't think there was much regional bias (of course a little exists, more so in the MidWest?!), even as an IMG requiring visa from a community hospital. I applied to about 120 programs and ended up getting 21 interviews from all over the country (NY, NJ, CT, PA, MA, DC, NH, FL, NM, GA, MD, AZ, CA, TX, MN, etc) and a lot from top-tier institutions. I matched at my #2.
For your second question, I was an underdog to begin with, so I wasn't particularly picky when I was applying, but when I was ranking, I was very cautious. During the interviews, I realized fellowship programs are very similar but also very different. Research curriculum (# of months, Master's degree, mentor availability, basic vs clinical, database, etc), strength in subspecialties (IBD, hep, advanced, etc), clinical training (scope volume, scutwork, patient populations, call schedule, etc) and overall vibe of the program (cutting throat vs friendly, facility, location, etc) were all very different.
So, it really comes down to your personal choice of what you value the most in your life. For ex, if you like IBD research, go to UChicago, Mt Sinai, if you like hep research, go to Yale, if you like transplant, go to UCSF, if you like everything, go to UPenn, Harvard, UCLA, etc (don't quote me on this, just from personal bias). If you want to do solely private practice and zero research, going to a big academic center might be a torture for you, since you'll have to produce some research. If you go to Mayo, you'll get amazing clinical research training but you may not get as much scope volume compared to other city hospitals. My friend who wants to do private practice ranked a great community program with huge scope volume in a city center higher than a decent rural state university.
Another note is that if you are really looking for an academic career, whether an institution has a great mentor to do research with might be more important than a superficial "reputation" of the program. For ex, Baylor COM has Dr. El-Sarag, Yale has Dr. Garcia-Tsao, etc and might be better than other amazing places if you want to do hep research (also don't quote me on this).
Call schedule is tricky, as it is determined by not just a size of the program (# of fellow) but also how many hospitals you have to cover. Many big institutions actually have bad call schedules (famous UCLA q2 schedule despite 7 fellows, I don't know if it is still true). But, more importantly, I honestly don't think that call schedule really matters, as you will be busy as a first year fellow anyways wherever you go, so I would rather go to a good institution I want to go to than meh program with loose call.
Last advice is that when you apply, where you did your residency, where you went to med school (IMG vs AMG), visa status, quality of research and LOR ALL matter, but different programs look at different things, and you'll never know before you apply, so please apply broadly. If you are an underdog like me and cannot change your residency program, IMG status and visa, devote your time in research (a couple of first author, real research is better than 10 second+ author case reports) and try to get the best possible letter from the biggest name possible. During many interviews, so many PDs told me that they really want to take me despite that I am from community hospital, because "those worldly renown people" wrote me "one of the best letters they have ever seen, that you should be thankful to them" AND I can actually do research independently from top to bottom (study design, statistics, manuscript development, oral presentations), and that's what they're looking for.
Also, please be aggressive during your application season and send them an email (best through connection) if you didn't get an interview. I got interviews from Stanford, UChicago, Dartmouth and Baylor after I sent them an email. UPenn and Mayo didn't give me an interview, but PD replied to me personally that they will re-read my application (at least a response). One PD told me that I was initially "filtered out" due to visa. Again, personal opinion, and don't criticize me! Just trying to help! haha
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My take - IMG J1 visa, good step scores (250 in step 1/2) and 240 step 3. Good research - 4 PubMed (2 first author, 2 studies in gastro, one in hepatology and one in CGH - all big) and 32 abstract, 2 oral 1 ddw and 1 aasld ( an award), applied for 98 program mostly northeast, got 12 invites Matched at #7 (its a university program with 4th years spots - so I am not that sad). The truth - its hard for IMG, so know it! the statistics shows <20% IMG match! The mistake I did was - that I did not ask my attendings/research mentor for email/ call as I was scared that that would decrease my chances in my home institution. I thought good score and publication would help, they do but to a small extent! There is an inherent bias, big program love AMG as it makes their program look good! you have to brown nose big people and suck up really hard to match - Important - do it! I did not which shifted me really down on the list during match. That being said, I matched - 3/6 residents in my program (community-based program with>90% AMG) did not match! They deserved too! GI is very competitive, do research, publish papers - All case report, study, meta-analysis! Pray to god and use connections as much as you can, quality >>>>>>>>>>>>numbers!. Its really hard if you are IMG on a visa, I am honest. Good luck! I will be happy to guide more people and tell what I did or not, send me a message. Last, I would like to thank this forum for real-time updates during the season!
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Wanting someone to vouch from your home program to other specific programs while also wanting them to understand that you would be really happy staying is a difficult balance that I wish I had the answer for. The whole process is a bit awkward in this regard. But if you do find a way to work it out, I completely agree that this would help a lot.
I did not ask any of my attendings at my program to write LOR or to call the programs (except for mandatory IM PD letter). I asked my 3 GI mentors at the university that I'm affiliated with to write me a letter and call the programs. Because they understood my shortcomings, they were ok with me asking them to call other programs. I guess if you're at a community hospital, that's one way to do it...
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As long as you're not logged into Google when you edit this spreadsheet, it's completely anonymous.
Please fill it out for the future GI docs among us!
I'm waiting for someone else to enter their data and then I'll enter mine too so it's not obvious what my stats are lol
EDIT: it's not letting me post this link, mods help?
Please fill it out for the future GI docs among us!
I'm waiting for someone else to enter their data and then I'll enter mine too so it's not obvious what my stats are lol
EDIT: it's not letting me post this link, mods help?
AMG
average step scores
applied to 70 programs
5 interview invites
0 pubmed, but multiple case reports at various national and local poster competetions
matched at #5 spot (a liver transplant powerhouse)
I think there is a very high regional bias, but then again I am MidWestern so I think MidWesterners are totally guilty of wanting to keep their own. Every program is very different, there's no recipe to this.
average step scores
applied to 70 programs
5 interview invites
0 pubmed, but multiple case reports at various national and local poster competetions
matched at #5 spot (a liver transplant powerhouse)
I think there is a very high regional bias, but then again I am MidWestern so I think MidWesterners are totally guilty of wanting to keep their own. Every program is very different, there's no recipe to this.
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geez by the skin of your teeth, congrats.
Congratulations! I agree, I interviewed at 2 of the midwest programs and it was immediately evident how there prefer to keep midwest applicants. I can totally understand, I think midwesterners are amazingly polite people but the winters are rough for outsiders to get used to. So I can imagine that coastal applicants probably don't stick around after fellowship (I am obviously hugely generalizing).
Your profile also reflects how AMG vs. IMGs are assessed with a different measuring stick. And IMG will most probably not match without multiple papers and heavy letters. This is not to say that you haven't worked hard (you obviously did); but the process is incredibly difficult for IMGs (I myself being an IMG).
I'm a DO who trained at good University program (with strong GI fellowship program) with solid research, excellent LoRs, and above average COMLEX scores. However, I did not take USMLE in med school. As a result I was filtered out (per GI PD here) at most ACGME GI programs despite having an otherwise solid application (per matched fellows at this GI program, better research and LoRs than they did!). Ultimately, I interviewed all over the country with DO programs and just a few ACGME programs due to lack of USMLE. Since the DO programs do not participate in the Match yet until the fellowships merge in the next few years, the DO programs were offering spots once they completed their respective interviews. I received an offer from a DO program 48 hrs before rank list was due for Match which I accepted and withdrew my rank list.
Any DO med students out there who want to consider applying to more academic/university GI (or any competitive fellowship like Cards, Heme/Onc) programs, you MUST take USMLE or else you will be pretty much automatically disqualified from entering the bigger GI programs no matter what research, LoRs, etc. unless of course you have an "in" with a PD (then anything is possible).
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I'm a DO and matched into an ACGME (university) gastroenterology fellowship. I scored well on my USMLE Step 1 and 2, and was fortunate to match into a strong academic ACGME internal medicine program which set things in motion.
The best advice I can offer is to try to match in the strongest, most competitive, academic internal medicine program you can land. This will hopefully open a lot of doors, and help you match into a GI fellowship down the road.
For those already in GI fellowship, what are your recommendations for preparing for first year of fellowship. I assume time will be limited so I'm hoping to read up ahead of time. Outside of ACG guidelines and one of the board prep books, anything else you found helpful?
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Yes, take both usmle steps!
How important a factor is USMLE Step 3? Is it recommended as well? (I did already take Steps 1 and 2, figured mine as well take 3...)
I'd say step 3 is important. PD at my program looks at them to weed out people who "got lazy". I don't think this is the standard across the country. But better be safe....
yes. looking for answer for this too. Which Board Prep book is the norm to use for GI fellowship?
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Boards are a worthless test with nothing but random garbage on it. I would not spend any time studying for it until you need to actually take it. Spend your time learning to be a good doctor. Boards are more about diagnosing somatostatinomas than knowing how to take care of real problems.
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Not sure if you are DO. If not, then yes take it. If DO then I'm pretty sure you can't take step 3 if you haven't taken usmle cs, that would be awful flying cross country and dropping over a grand to take a another extra CS, just thinking of that makes me shudder, and the amount it would help is probably very little if at all
I am a D.O. Ahh okay, I didn't know that USMLE CS was also required in order to take Step 3. Definitely changes that aspect up a bit, and at the very least I would save some money
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I was hoping for a real answer as well since I have a light schedule, finished my IM boards, and I just want to hit the ground running in July. I get what you're saying about not studying for boards before you start but I also can't see how that would hurt. Just like reading MKSAP or a Harrison's before residency may seem unnecessary, so does doing nothing during the post-match time.
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This very much was a real answer. You can buy DDSEP and do questions if you really want to, but it is mostly a waste of your time. The "acing GI boards" series is well regarded and very readable.
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I went to the ASGE first year fellows course. A lot of programs will pay for you to go. It was fun and good bonding but not critical if you can't go.
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If you could have done 1 thing to help facilitate your transition leading up to fellowship, what do you wish you would have done, or what did you in fact do that you found most helpful?
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Bump. Anyone?
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If you are hell bent on doing something, going through and reading guidelines is probably the most reasonable thing to do. AGA has an ios guideline app, AASLD has a nice website with lots of guidelines, ASGE has high yield guidelines.
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If you haven't passed IM boards, make that the focus of the next 6 months. Get to fellowship needing exactly 2 days of review for biostats or whatever, then prepare the weekend before.
Exercise.
Exercise.
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yes
Hi everyone,
I want to apply to GI fellowship 2019 in coming July. What do you think is my chance of matching?
IMG
IM residency program - University affiliated community hospital in 2013
MPH degree Univ of Washongton
Green card holder
Working as academic hospitalist
publications: 1 paper as third author, 1 paper as first author at CGH, 1 paper as second author
publications submitted: 1 paper first author, 1 paper as co-author
oral presentation: 1 (not Gi related)
posters and abstracts in conferences around 10
Thank you
I want to apply to GI fellowship 2019 in coming July. What do you think is my chance of matching?
IMG
IM residency program - University affiliated community hospital in 2013
MPH degree Univ of Washongton
Green card holder
Working as academic hospitalist
publications: 1 paper as third author, 1 paper as first author at CGH, 1 paper as second author
publications submitted: 1 paper first author, 1 paper as co-author
oral presentation: 1 (not Gi related)
posters and abstracts in conferences around 10
Thank you
