Official 2018-2019 Hematology/Oncology fellowship application season

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First time post but long time lurker. I want to thank everyone for posting throughout the years, this forum has been a wonderful source of information throughout the season, even if some of the info was anxiety inducing. I matched yesterday at my first choice. I am a US IMG. I wanted to share information for future applicants about some of the places that I interviewed because there has been little posted on this forum about most of them. Hopefully this will help our future colleagues.

Syracuse - Overall excellent program. Mostly a clinical program but research opportunities were readily available with the right motivation. The city was charming as well. The fellows seemed very happy. One of the odd things was that fellows had to pay for parking, which I found a little weird.

Lehigh Valley - Wonderful program. Great clinical program with research opportunity available for those that are motivated. Faculty was awesome, we had great conversations. Fellows do BMT at Penn State. Didn't really get to see much of the area but it seemed like a nice place for raising a family with low cost of living.

Nassau University Medical Center - Didn't have a good feeling about this program. The fellows seemed happy but clinical training seemed like it may be lacking and research wasn't really possible. 2 full time faculty members. I got the impression that any complicated case would get transferred. Program structure was continuity clinic every AM and consults every PM, which I am not sure that I would have liked. BMT at SUNY Stony Brook. Cost of living was a big barrier.

SUNY Downstate - Not a bad program but there was a lot of inpatient rotations(~10 months during the second year alone). Starting to increase their research presence but not there yet. Would be great clinical training. Cost of living is an issue and traveling throughout Brooklyn to the 3 hospitals that they serve would be taxing. BMT at MSK.

Drexel University - Clinically oriented program, albeit small. Didn't have any red flags. Increasing the faculty size and trying to grow the research presence. Electives and research possibilities at the competition were easy to come by.

St. Elizabeth - Clinically oriented program but I got the impression that the clinical training might be lacking. It seemed like they only got the bread and butter cases and everything else went to the local competition. New PD seemed very nice and wants to improve the program. Fellows had to pay daily for parking which was a big deterrent for me in a city where cost of living is already an issue. Fellows also had to attend lectures at other hospitals and were expected to pay for their travel and parking(up to 20$ day) at those places as well. Research possibilities were plentiful though as it would be easy to partner up with DFCI on any project.

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How do you prepare to start HemOnch fellowship? any books recommendation? Thanks
 
How do you prepare to start HemOnch fellowship? any books recommendation? Thanks
Study for ABIM boards. Knowing MSKAP (or its ilk) heme and onc sections should be enough. If you are planning on taking 2019, know that July and August are likely going to be busy, and finding time to study will be tough. Even more so if your program has longitudinal clinic starting in the first year.
 
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Thanks a lot

Study for ABIM boards. Knowing MSKAP (or its ilk) heme and onc sections should be enough. If you are planning on taking 2019, know that July and August are likely going to be busy, and finding time to study will be tough. Even more so if your program has longitudinal clinic starting in the first year.
 
Additional unsolicited interview advice (while I still remember):

-Interviews generally were really chill - probably about 2/3 of the interviewers didn't read my file beforehand and were either flipping through it while I was talking or skimmed it right before I went into the room. I didn't get many interrogatory questions about the specifics of certain activities that I put on the application. Most of the time I was free to take the interview direction wherever I wanted. (only "bad" interviewer out of 50+ on the trail literally asked me why the program should take me over the last person he interviewed, who apparently had more papers than I did...)
-In the same vein, I didn't think your "academic performance" in residency or your scores mattered at all for the interviews. Literally no one asked me anything about my clinical performance in residency or my board scores, which confirms my thinking that scores are basically only used as filters to identify candidates to interview.
-The number of interviews at each program ranged from 3-6, most commonly 4. I heard of some programs with as many as 8 interviews. Most interviews lasted 20 minutes.
-The vast majority of interviews focused on my research interests and anticipated direction in the next 5-10 years. Talking to the other applicants, I could see peoples' research directions spanned the gamut of "I want to work on further clarifying the mechanism of this specific drug target in fellowship" to "I think I'm interested in clinical trials."
-Who writes your LORs matter. There were so many interviews where the interviewer flipped through my LORs and started going off on a "oh man, I worked with (this guy/gal) in (fellowship/residency/after fellowship). How is (he/she) doing?!" tangent. I do think "big names" help a bit in terms of boosting "first impressions." Certainly I don't think this makes or breaks anything, but it can't hurt.
-Whether you interview with the PD or an APD doesn't seem to matter in the broad scope of things (based on post-interview vibes and where I ended up matching at). Don't stress out too much if it seems like the PD is interviewing almost everyone else except you.
-Some programs really go out of their way to match interviewers with your expressed (or what they can glean from your PS and application) research interests (on the flip side, some programs seemed to assign interviewers completely randomly). Thus, it's imperative that you review the program's website carefully before the interview. The more you know about the programs' strengths and your interviewers, the better questions you can ask during the interview to see if you'll be a good fit. But don't be a creep about it and start referencing their residency programs or their papers unprompted.
-On the issue of doing website recon before the interview, I found the best way was to try to find a list of faculty somewhere and if they have up-to-date bios just clicking through to each and see if they matched your research interest. If the bio is non-existent, then Pubmed is your friend. Take mental notes on the faculty that share your research interest who you can possibly work with.
-I was surprised by how few pre-interview dinners there were compared to residency. Maybe it's just the programs or the caliber of programs that I interviewed at. I only had 2 out of 12.
-Good questions to ask fellows: call schedule, how to (really) get connected with research (aside from what they mention at the info session), cost of living/environment (if not familiar with area), what rotations fellows are first call (no residents and no PAs), what call is really like
-Good questions to ask interviewers: fellow prospects (although this is usually covered at the info session), grants (make sure you know what you are talking about first), attendings to talk to that works on XYZ (whatever you're interested in)
-Low-yield questions (personally): whether you get to work with med students, "future directions of the fellowship," any major changes to the fellowship in the next N years, do you get to go to conferences as a fellow (seriously....), "what would you improve about the program" (lots of people ask this in various forms but I find people are rarely super forthcoming or they don't have anything directly off the top of their heads (it's actually a red flag lol if people think of negatives too quickly) -- I personally think this question is for you to "read between the lines" and not ask in a direct manner)
-I liked talking to fellow applicants almost as much as the current fellows during the interview season - it was really helpful to swap impressions about different programs that you have interviewed at. I ran into this guy 3 different times and several other people twice at different programs. Share the wealth and don't be all dodgy and mysterious when people ask you about what other programs you interviewed at. Hey, you probably will learn something from them too :)
 
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Additional unsolicited interview advice (while I still remember):

-Interviews generally were really chill - probably about 2/3 of the interviewers didn't read my file beforehand and were either flipping through it while I was talking or skimmed it right before I went into the room. I didn't get many interrogatory questions about the specifics of certain activities that I put on the application. Most of the time I was free to take the interview direction wherever I wanted. (only "bad" interviewer out of 50+ on the trail literally asked me why the program should take me over the last person he interviewed, who apparently had more papers than I did...)
-In the same vein, I didn't think your "academic performance" in residency or your scores mattered at all for the interviews. Literally no one asked me anything about my clinical performance in residency or my board scores, which confirms my thinking that scores are basically only used as filters to identify candidates to interview.
-The number of interviews at each program ranged from 3-6, most commonly 4. I heard of some programs with as many as 8 interviews. Most interviews lasted 20 minutes.
-The vast majority of interviews focused on my research interests and anticipated direction in the next 5-10 years. Talking to the other applicants, I could see peoples' research directions spanned the gamut of "I want to work on further clarifying the mechanism of this specific drug target in fellowship" to "I think I'm interested in clinical trials."
-Who writes your LORs matter. There were so many interviews where the interviewer flipped through my LORs and started going off on a "oh man, I worked with (this guy/gal) in (fellowship/residency/after fellowship). How is (he/she) doing?!" tangent. I do think "big names" help a bit in terms of boosting "first impressions." Certainly I don't think this makes or breaks anything, but it can't hurt.
-Whether you interview with the PD or an APD doesn't seem to matter in the broad scope of things (based on post-interview vibes and where I ended up matching at). Don't stress out too much if it seems like the PD is interviewing almost everyone else except you.
-Some programs really go out of their way to match interviewers with your expressed (or what they can glean from your PS and application) research interests (on the flip side, some programs seemed to assign interviewers completely randomly). Thus, it's imperative that you review the program's website carefully before the interview. The more you know about the programs' strengths and your interviewers, the better questions you can ask during the interview to see if you'll be a good fit. But don't be a creep about it and start referencing their residency programs or their papers unprompted.
-On the issue of doing website recon before the interview, I found the best way was to try to find a list of faculty somewhere and if they have up-to-date bios just clicking through to each and see if they matched your research interest. If the bio is non-existent, then Pubmed is your friend. Take mental notes on the faculty that share your research interest who you can possibly work with.
-I was surprised by how few pre-interview dinners there were compared to residency. Maybe it's just the programs or the caliber of programs that I interviewed at. I only had 2 out of 12.
-Good questions to ask fellows: call schedule, how to (really) get connected with research (aside from what they mention at the info session), cost of living/environment (if not familiar with area), what rotations fellows are first call (no residents and no PAs), what call is really like
-Good questions to ask interviewers: fellow prospects (although this is usually covered at the info session), grants (make sure you know what you are talking about first), attendings to talk to that works on XYZ (whatever you're interested in)
-Low-yield questions (personally): whether you get to work with med students, "future directions of the fellowship," any major changes to the fellowship in the next N years, do you get to go to conferences as a fellow (seriously....), "what would you improve about the program" (lots of people ask this in various forms but I find people are rarely super forthcoming or they don't have anything directly off the top of their heads (it's actually a red flag lol if people think of negatives too quickly) -- I personally think this question is for you to "read between the lines" and not ask in a direct manner)
-I liked talking to fellow applicants almost as much as the current fellows during the interview season - it was really helpful to swap impressions about different programs that you have interviewed at. I ran into this guy 3 different times and several other people twice at different programs. Share the wealth and don't be all dodgy and mysterious when people ask you about what other programs you interviewed at. Hey, you probably will learn something from them too :)
I didn’t match, but will definitely return to this post next year. Thanks for this. Now trying to figure out next step.
 
Additional unsolicited interview advice (while I still remember):

-Interviews generally were really chill - probably about 2/3 of the interviewers didn't read my file beforehand and were either flipping through it while I was talking or skimmed it right before I went into the room. I didn't get many interrogatory questions about the specifics of certain activities that I put on the application. Most of the time I was free to take the interview direction wherever I wanted. (only "bad" interviewer out of 50+ on the trail literally asked me why the program should take me over the last person he interviewed, who apparently had more papers than I did...)
-In the same vein, I didn't think your "academic performance" in residency or your scores mattered at all for the interviews. Literally no one asked me anything about my clinical performance in residency or my board scores, which confirms my thinking that scores are basically only used as filters to identify candidates to interview.
-The number of interviews at each program ranged from 3-6, most commonly 4. I heard of some programs with as many as 8 interviews. Most interviews lasted 20 minutes.
-The vast majority of interviews focused on my research interests and anticipated direction in the next 5-10 years. Talking to the other applicants, I could see peoples' research directions spanned the gamut of "I want to work on further clarifying the mechanism of this specific drug target in fellowship" to "I think I'm interested in clinical trials."
-Who writes your LORs matter. There were so many interviews where the interviewer flipped through my LORs and started going off on a "oh man, I worked with (this guy/gal) in (fellowship/residency/after fellowship). How is (he/she) doing?!" tangent. I do think "big names" help a bit in terms of boosting "first impressions." Certainly I don't think this makes or breaks anything, but it can't hurt.
-Whether you interview with the PD or an APD doesn't seem to matter in the broad scope of things (based on post-interview vibes and where I ended up matching at). Don't stress out too much if it seems like the PD is interviewing almost everyone else except you.
-Some programs really go out of their way to match interviewers with your expressed (or what they can glean from your PS and application) research interests (on the flip side, some programs seemed to assign interviewers completely randomly). Thus, it's imperative that you review the program's website carefully before the interview. The more you know about the programs' strengths and your interviewers, the better questions you can ask during the interview to see if you'll be a good fit. But don't be a creep about it and start referencing their residency programs or their papers unprompted.
-On the issue of doing website recon before the interview, I found the best way was to try to find a list of faculty somewhere and if they have up-to-date bios just clicking through to each and see if they matched your research interest. If the bio is non-existent, then Pubmed is your friend. Take mental notes on the faculty that share your research interest who you can possibly work with.
-I was surprised by how few pre-interview dinners there were compared to residency. Maybe it's just the programs or the caliber of programs that I interviewed at. I only had 2 out of 12.
-Good questions to ask fellows: call schedule, how to (really) get connected with research (aside from what they mention at the info session), cost of living/environment (if not familiar with area), what rotations fellows are first call (no residents and no PAs), what call is really like
-Good questions to ask interviewers: fellow prospects (although this is usually covered at the info session), grants (make sure you know what you are talking about first), attendings to talk to that works on XYZ (whatever you're interested in)
-Low-yield questions (personally): whether you get to work with med students, "future directions of the fellowship," any major changes to the fellowship in the next N years, do you get to go to conferences as a fellow (seriously....), "what would you improve about the program" (lots of people ask this in various forms but I find people are rarely super forthcoming or they don't have anything directly off the top of their heads (it's actually a red flag lol if people think of negatives too quickly) -- I personally think this question is for you to "read between the lines" and not ask in a direct manner)
-I liked talking to fellow applicants almost as much as the current fellows during the interview season - it was really helpful to swap impressions about different programs that you have interviewed at. I ran into this guy 3 different times and several other people twice at different programs. Share the wealth and don't be all dodgy and mysterious when people ask you about what other programs you interviewed at. Hey, you probably will learn something from them too :)
Great summary! Your posts are thorough and on point.
 
Sorry for the delayed response! Still trying to wrap my head around match day results. I matched at my #1 program, but for reasons already listed above will not be posting the name.

I think of myself as an average applicant. Step 1 223, step 2 252. AMG from an upper/mid-tier program in the Northeast but family in the Midwest so focused almost solely on interviewing there. Research is so-so: wrote an LOI for a clinical trial, 1st author on a case series and case report, presented posters at two national meetings but not Hem-Onc focused. I did do a chief residency year, however, which I think helped bolster my application.

I couldn't possibly do as good or as thorough of a job as lulu09 did, but I do have a few other thoughts and tips:
--If you trust your program director or any of your letter writers, it doesn't hurt to have them reach out to your top programs if you haven't received an invitation. I didn't initially receive an invitation from the program where I ultimately matched, but after a phone call they reviewed my application and sent me an invite that week.
--Like lulu09 said, I don't think scores matter once you get an interview. Yes, my scores aren't the worst by any means. But they certainly don't make me stand out. I think that if your scores are average or slightly below, you definitely need to have something else to help with your application (chief year for me, research for others). Once you get an interview though, I think it's all you.
--One of the program coordinators reminded us all to ask questions and seem interested on interview day. At first I thought that was silly, but then one of my friends fell to his very last program on his rank list and I was shocked. Turns out that his 'shyness' was perceived as disinterest. I'm not saying to totally change your personality for interviews, but definitely engage with the fellows and ask questions when applicable!
--MAKE FRIENDS WITH YOUR CO-APPLICANTS. Like seriously guys, try to have fun. I loved making applicant "buddies" on the trail and was constantly amazed by the talent around me.
--I sent follow-up thank you e-mails and was discouraged about my #1 program because they sent a one-line e-mail in response. This is proof that post-interview communication is bull**** and you should believe nothing you read on SDN that says otherwise.
--The actual interviews were pretty fun. 4 of the 7 places I interviewed had dinners the night before and 2 of the 7 actually paid for hotel rooms! Most interviewers were pretty chills. I had panel interviews at 2 of the 7 places but even those weren't terrible.
--Have a prepared answer for where you see the direction of your career in the next 5 to 10 years. Gutonc is probably right that none of us know what we will actually do, but you will definitely be asked!

Good luck to everyone reading this in the future! I'm not going to lie, applying and waiting for interviews was exhausting. Try not to get too down on yourself; Hem-Onc is really competitive now so you might not get as many interviews as you expect, but just go into every interview with a good attitude and showcase all the badass talent you will bring to a program! Message me if you have any more questions about my experiences.
 
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USIMG. From a community program with its own in house fellowship. Good scores and lots of research. My perspective

1) Coming from a community program hurt me when it came to getting interviews at some big research places (and obviously being an IMG)

2) I applied to 90 programs and got about 18 interviews. I only applied to programs with 3+ fellows and only a handful of smaller programs

3) I went on 15 interviews and it was grueling. I wish I cancelled a lot more but I was worried.

If I could do it again I would cancel

buffalo (too cold, and some of the faculty would be tough to work with, one in particular)

Rochester (PD is a great guy, could not see myself getting along with aPD, way too outpatient heavy and no fellows clinic)

Methodist Houston (way too community oriented despite its research potential. No fellows clinic and you have to staff with multiple attendings in an afternoon crazy and not for me)

university of Cincinnati (has potential but BMT/ Leuk program is very weak there was some breakup or something)

university of Arizona (I liked it but they did a horrible job of selling themselves and Tucson isn’t the best place on earth)

MUSC ( they did a horrible job matching up candidates with potential mentors and the program director does not seem engaged in the her program, Charleston felt isolated great place to vacation but nowhere I’d want to live)

Places that I surprisingly liked were UAB (great program wonderful research opportunities fellows clinic but it’s Alabama)

Karmanos (great program great clinical research opportunities fellows clinic and faculty I would enjoy working with but it’s Detroit)

MCW (one of my favorites, strong heme and especially benign heme, fellows seemed happy, fellows clinic at the VA. great program but it’s wisocnsin)

Miami ( it’s miami but seemed like a good place to train and if you wanted to pursue research the opportunities where there. I think they don’t have a continuity clinic at the VA anymore)

I sent 0 thank you notes. I sent one love letter and matched at my #1.

Again, know your audience if it’s a community program don’t tell them you want academics and if it’s academics tell them what you want to do and where u see yourself.
 
I applied to two programs, interviewed at both and matched at my first option.

I felt the interview process was a lot more relaxed than IM. In both interviews I sat with all the attendings of the programs and they shot off questions while reading my CV which they had printed. I have to agree with previous advice, who writes the LORs matter. It certainly helped to break the ice, along the lines of “hey how is Dr so and so doing?”

One thing I found odd is that I ended up talking about my IM program a lot at both interviews. I did not expect having to answer those questions but I know my program well enough. The ammount of residents, on call schedule, board passing rate. I am guessing that they wanted to know how much work I could handle etc.

They also asked if I was intereated in fellowship afterwards, another question I did not expect. Luckily I had been reading up on them beforehand.
 
My perspective as a FMG (not Caribbean) pursuing residency in a university program.
Average scores in 240's
No visa requirement
Lots of research,literally did not sleep in residency .Multiple grant funding as PI including federal funding. Also had Masters prior to residency.

Applied to 100 programs, did not apply to community programs.Got 46 interviews ,personally went to 24. Phone interviewed at a few. Was very tiring ,expensive,however I am not the kind of person who takes risks. Ended up going to programs which either had a name or had >3 fellows per year. Also interviews clash a lot ,so please choose wisely.
Ranked 25 programs , matched at my no. 1, program is ranked among top 5 in the country. It was in no way the best program that I interviewed at ,but the family connection was a make or break deal for me.
Already committed to a career in clinical/translational research ,therefore the programs that were just awesome and could take anybody's research career to success,were the ones that I liked.
1)Cleveland clinic ( extremely clinical research focused ,you can do any clinical research there and everything is available to make that happen, call schedule the best , ample time to study for boards ,just the most wonderful program -it was no.2 on my list ),
2)Johns Hopkins,(everything good except they really want you to single board),
3)UC Denver -Again huge research funding ,big names ,absolutely the best in thoracic oncology ,however very heavy first year call schedule-q 4 calls . I wish the program would change their call schedule and it would be the dream program for any applicant.
4)Mayo Rochester- Clinical in the first 3 years. Strong emphasis on 4th year of fellowship.Also city too cold for me.
5)OHSU-Every faculty is from big name program. Research opportunities were just immense,however it appeared very unlikely that the fellow would be retained as a faculty. There is a also a non competing clause that I have heard of at OHSU ,which makes practicing in Portland difficult if not at OHSU.
6)Roswell Park-Program well rounded , however 2 months at Rochester for benign hematology was not desirable.
7)Mayo Arizona-Only downside 2 fellows per year.
8)Emory-Very clinical program. Need to cover 5 hospitals ,with 5 fellows every year. There are days when fellows are expected to be at 2/3 institutions in a single day ,considering traffic of Atlanta.
9)Iowa- Strong research program , however Iowa is just not the city you can think of settling.
10)City of Hope- Good program but a lot of structuring needs to be done.They appeared to have an air of pride ,which was off. Has one of the finest researchers in breast Oncology that I have heard of. Meeting him made my day at city of Hope.
11)Case Western-Great program but clinically busy. I believe it needs some structuring in terms of getting more faculty.
12)Dartmouth-Absolutely marvelous program. Extremely friendly faculty. Great research opportunities. The weather was a deal breaker.

I cannot talk about all programs that I went to ,I just tried to put my 2 cents for the oncoming applicants in 2019-2020.
The place where I matched ,I do not even know what the call schedule is like,what the research opportunities are. I knew it was my no.1 even before I started residency (yes I mean residency) and nothing mattered. Family life was only possible at my no.1.
I only interviewed and spent so much in case my no.1 did not work out. Again the other rankings were also based on family connections (siblings) as I wanted to settle down wherever I did my fellowship and close to family was a deal breaker.

I hope this helps.
 
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I feel you wasted your money by applying for >100 :)
With this stellar profile, u went ahead because u r an FMG? I feel that we are getting alienated with amount of AMG's.

I worked in multiple outside electives at top places in Chicago, and majority of them don't have enormous research but still end up getting fellowship. Its just my perspective that, it's getting more competetive because of increasing no of AMG's down the years.

I mean, you don't need to speculate if we have solid numbers. I've posted this before but it's from ERAS: ERAS Statistics - ERAS - Services - AAMC.

If you look at the 2019 excel sheet you'll see that the number of USG (American+Canadian) apps were stable for basically 5 years from 2013-2017, followed with a sharp spike in 2018, which eased off a bit again this year but remained high. If you look at IMGs, you'll see that if anything the IMG app number is going steadily downhill since 2013 -- this year had the fewest number of IMGs applying into heme-onc in the last seven cycles! Therefore, I think the two effects should balance out since it's not like the number of AMG apps are going up while IMG apps are staying constant (therefore theoretically decreasing the chances of IMG matching).

You can also trend back NRMP's public data of % AMGs matching heme-onc the last few years. I'm too lazy to cite the numbers here, but I'll tell you that although there was an increase in the % AMGs matched last year (commensurate with the increased AMG # of apps), the cycles before that has been very constant year-to-year.

Basically, yes, the number of AMGs applying to heme-onc has increased, but I think you have a great app you have a great app and it doesn't matter whether you are AMG or IMG (provided the institution sponsors visa...etc.). This is especially true at the top heme-onc programs from the experiences of people I know.
 
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5)OHSU-Every faculty is from big name program. Research opportunities were just immense,however it appeared very unlikely that the fellow would be retained as a faculty. There is a also a non competing clause that I have heard of at OHSU ,which makes practicing in Portland difficult if not at OHSU.
Just to clarify. There is a non-compete for faculty (that is variably enforced) but not for residents/fellows. Plenty of fellows stay in Portland outside of OHSU.
 
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Anybody knows if there are any hospitalist/oncologist positions available in NY state? I did 1 y palliative care fellowship to increase my chances in this year match - unfortunately didn't work out. Trying to get hospitalist/oncologist position in NY state ... I did 2-3 years research, I have 8 articles and I am going to continue to publish more (pls do not recommend me to publish more), I also prefer to stay in NY- family reasons.
Any other suggestions besides hospitalist/oncology to increase my chances next year?

Thank you all.
 
Anybody knows if there are any hospitalist/oncologist positions available in NY state? I did 1 y palliative care fellowship to increase my chances in this year match - unfortunately didn't work out. Trying to get hospitalist/oncologist position in NY state ... I did 2-3 years research, I have 8 articles and I am going to continue to publish more (pls do not recommend me to publish more), I also prefer to stay in NY- family reasons.
Any other suggestions besides hospitalist/oncology to increase my chances next year?

Thank you all.
I think Yale has a nocturnist position that allows you to work on the oncology service. I know it’s not NY state but it’s close. Have you considered MSKCC?
 
Study for ABIM boards. Knowing MSKAP (or its ilk) heme and onc sections should be enough. If you are planning on taking 2019, know that July and August are likely going to be busy, and finding time to study will be tough. Even more so if your program has longitudinal clinic starting in the first year.

So since I'm doing a gap year I've already passed the boards. I've never been great with standardized testing so although I always passed my exams, I've never really been above average and I really need to study beforehand. When I don't study it leads to pretty dismal results (basically my ITEs in residency). I didn't really have time to go through the MKSAP books in detail before the boards so I'm reading the heme/onc book now and it's actually been pretty helpful in consolidating knowledge.

I'd like to get the best consolidated heme/onc knowledge that I can before fellowship since I know I'll have to hit the ground running with my weaker knowledge base in general. I'm doing a hospitalist year and have lot of free time. ASCO-SEP or ASH-SAP would definitely be information overload at this time I think especially without the fellowship training context, but I wonder if there's intermediate sources that would work well so I can start at least thinking about heme/onc topics from a more fellow level rather than a resident level. Appreciate any thoughts you (or anyone else) might have!
 
Anybody knows if there are any hospitalist/oncologist positions available in NY state? I did 1 y palliative care fellowship to increase my chances in this year match - unfortunately didn't work out. Trying to get hospitalist/oncologist position in NY state ... I did 2-3 years research, I have 8 articles and I am going to continue to publish more (pls do not recommend me to publish more), I also prefer to stay in NY- family reasons.
Any other suggestions besides hospitalist/oncology to increase my chances next year?

Thank you all.
I would say please try to secure grant funding. I think as an applicant getting things which nobody gets you noticed.
 
So since I'm doing a gap year I've already passed the boards. I've never been great with standardized testing so although I always passed my exams, I've never really been above average and I really need to study beforehand. When I don't study it leads to pretty dismal results (basically my ITEs in residency). I didn't really have time to go through the MKSAP books in detail before the boards so I'm reading the heme/onc book now and it's actually been pretty helpful in consolidating knowledge.

I'd like to get the best consolidated heme/onc knowledge that I can before fellowship since I know I'll have to hit the ground running with my weaker knowledge base in general. I'm doing a hospitalist year and have lot of free time. ASCO-SEP or ASH-SAP would definitely be information overload at this time I think especially without the fellowship training context, but I wonder if there's intermediate sources that would work well so I can start at least thinking about heme/onc topics from a more fellow level rather than a resident level. Appreciate any thoughts you (or anyone else) might have!


Similar situation and would like to hear some suggestions!
 
Similar situation and would like to hear some suggestions!

@lulu09 I did a Chief year after residency and didn’t specifically use any source besides reading up on topics to teach the interns and residents during morning seminar or intern/res report or on rounds. Given the steep learning curve I don’t think there’s much that would be that helpful in the gap year but that’s just my two cents
 
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@lulu09 I did a Chief year after residency and didn’t specifically use any source besides reading up on topics to teach the interns and residents during morning seminar or intern/res report or on rounds. Given the steep learning curve I don’t think there’s much that would be that helpful in the gap year but that’s just my two cents
Agree. ASCO SEP ASH SAP are most useful in the context of my actual patients. Maintain internal medicine I guess. Maybe closer to July if you are itching to review things go over onc and heme emergencies when you’re on call.
 
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The pocket guide to onc is also very helpful but as above in the context of seeing patients. Good overviews of the workup and treatment of lots of onc stuff. Malignant heme is ok, benign is skimpy. Wouldn’t do before starting fellowship but if you were looking for an overview of the stuff you are going to be doing next year can be useful
 
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Hang in there, it will come being on J-1 is a hurdle for the application. Hope you are not from Canada since Canada does not sponsor J-1 for fellowship anymore for applicants who started residency 2016 and after.

Best wishes for you, I am sure you will get some more by end of Sept.

Hi,
I need J1 Visa. When should I start worrying if I don't get any interviews? Thanks.
 
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