Official 2023-2024 Nephrology, Nephro+crit Fellowship Application Cycle

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Hey bon22 ! first, Thank you so much for the response. Very useful for the rest of us.

How many questions can we ask from our side? I feel like I want know the answers to almost all the questions you put there from all the programs I am interviewing.
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nephro_ttuhsc said:
Hey bon22 first. Thank you so much for the response. Very useful for the rest of us.

How many questions can we ask from our side? I feel like I want know the answers to almost all the questions you put there from all the programs I am interviewing.
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In general ask the “nuts and bolts “ questions about call schedule , living arrangements , concerns to the fellows . Ask the attendings and PD abkut the research , education, cases , and what they love most about their program .
 
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NewYorkDoctors said:
In general ask the “nuts and bolts “ questions about call schedule , living arrangements , concerns to the fellows . Ask the attendings and PD abkut the research , education, cases , and what they love most about their program .
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Seems like a good plan. Thanks!
 
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dap up the director of nephrology and program director with their research. pubmed them and get an idea of what their most famous or recent research is. nothing an old timer likes more than to hear about his/her own research from back in the day and how you greatly respect his/her glory years lol.

if you want to get to the top best academic nephrology program, you'll want to kiss up on the research side like that
 
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Presbyterian cornell just sent invitation
 
Anybody got invitation from SUNY downstate ,Stony Brook or Westchester,NY?
 
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nephro_ttuhsc said:
So you don’t want to go to westchester or what ?
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The thing is I cannot go on a whole lot of interviews.. 10ish, so I have to reject places that are good but I am not the most keen on going.
 
Dr.RD said:
The thing is I cannot go on a whole lot of interviews.. 10ish, so I have to reject places that are good but I am not the most keen on going.
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You are right. I did 2 interviews, I don’t know for some reason I am all drained at the end of the day. It is stressful.
 
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Yeah I'm planning on looking over all the programs this weekend and getting the list down to 10-12. Not tryna to 20+ interviews
 
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I know everyone here is swamped with interviews and struggling with so many of them. Any info or tips on how your interviews went and how to handle the rest of them ?
 
Interviewing Videos: used them for internal medicine, should work the same here.

Tell me about yourself:


- Additional tip: facilitation maneuver - add a question at the end of the pitch that is related to your interest and that the interviewer will be able to provide.


Group Interview:

It's a little long, but if someone does not have experience in group interviews and dynamics has some insight.

Greatest weakness:
My favorite video because it talks about a weakness of changing fields:

This video is more explicit and gives better examples:


Answering Behavioral Questions: Experience -> Learn-> Grow model


Why this place question:
How To Answer "Why Do You Want This Job?"

Questions for Interviewers:
8 Smart Questions To Ask Hiring Managers In A Job Interview
nephro_ttuhsc said:
I know everyone here is swamped with interviews and struggling with so many of them. Any info or tips on how your interviews went and how to handle the rest of them ?
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Hi all any thoughts about these programs?
trying to fit some of them into my schedule yet not sure which ( criteria is number of fellows, having a transplant program inhouse and city)

Arizona university
Baylor
Toledo
Connecticut
California Davis
Oregon health and science
Cinncinnati

best,
 
Really waiting on MGH, UMich, UCSF, and NW to get their invites out...
 
LOL. thats 4 extra interviews... I thought you are going to downsize on the list.

But anyways, back to your issue. Some programs are planning to send it later, but it would not hurt to reach out to the program. Some programs do respond back and based on that you can plan around.
 
Hi all any thoughts in regard to
UCLA Harbor/ I know for one they don't usually match and don't have in-house renal transplants.
SUNY Downstate/ same problem as above.
UVA:

basically I am trying to see which one I should accept for an interview and withdraw from the rest (to allow others the chance to interview )
 
nephro_ttuhsc said:
I was advised to GIVE higher priority to places with a in house transplant program.

List of Accredited Transplant Nephrology Fellowship Programs | TNFTAP

txnephaccreditation.org txnephaccreditation.org
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indeed if you plan on being an academic nephrologist (even if you were going to work in a place witohut transplant) having that transplant, plasmapheresis, immunology knowledge would be most important.

for fellows who have to do out rotations to a center with transplant, it's just not the same experience since the visiting fellows may or may not be given true fellow responsibilities and may be viewed more as observers at times.
 
nephro_ttuhsc said:
LOL. thats 4 extra interviews... I thought you are going to downsize on the list.

But anyways, back to your issue. Some programs are planning to send it later, but it would not hurt to reach out to the program. Some programs do respond back and based on that you can plan around.
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Even with downsizing there's still some programs I would rather interview than others. Still planning on only going to 12 but the list can change depending on what more interviews I get haha.
 
NewYorkDoctors said:
indeed if you plan on being an academic nephrologist (even if you were going to work in a place witohut transplant) having that transplant, plasmapheresis, immunology knowledge would be most important.

for fellows who have to do out rotations to a center with transplant, it's just not the same experience since the visiting fellows may or may not be given true fellow responsibilities and may be viewed more as observers at times.
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Is it ok to train at a place that does in-house transplants but just doesn't have a fellowship?
 
NickiMe said:
Is it ok to train at a place that does in-house transplants but just doesn't have a fellowship?
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that might be even better since the general fellow gets a lot of hands on exposure with the transplant patient (not to mention overnight call for the transplants) as the primary fellow managing these patients.

usually its inpatient management with variable amounts of clinic time (as the transplant attending is the one who determines the regimen based on the HLA status, etc...). in the large center where I trained and got transplant training done at, transplant clinic for the fellow was more just being a resident level type of scribe almost... present to attending all the details... attending states what regimen to recommend in the note. THe transplant surgeon reviews those notes and recommendations and applies said immunosuppression perioperatively.
 
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wize said:
Hi all any thoughts in regard to
UCLA Harbor/ I know for one they don't usually match and don't have in-house renal transplants.
SUNY Downstate/ same problem as above.
UVA:

basically I am trying to see which one I should accept for an interview and withdraw from the rest (to allow others the chance to interview )
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UCLA Harbor vs SUNY Downstate - Not sure if one is necessarily better than the other. Both go unmatched for some reason. I was told UCLA harbor is a safety net hospital covering a lot of uninsured patients. Not sure if that would affect our training. SUNY Downstate - Lot of driving, work loads is crazy as hell as one of my friends who did fellowship there. There does not seem to be a day where there would be any breathing space at work. 3-4 different hospital to drive around in Brooklyn. I don't even have to mention about rent, you already know the story.

UVA- Faculty seems to be a good mix of age and they are diverse. Transplant faculty is good with a good program. They do good basic science research if you are into that. But Charlottesville is at least 2 hours from away from DC. Very small city compared to the other 2. it all depends on what you want.
 
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nephro_ttuhsc said:
UCLA Harbor vs SUNY Downstate - Not sure if one is necessarily better than the other. Both go unmatched for some reason. I was told UCLA harbor is a safety net hospital covering a lot of uninsured patients. Not sure if that would affect our training. SUNY Downstate - Lot of driving, work loads is crazy as hell as one of my friends who did fellowship there. There does not seem to be a day where there would be any breathing space at work. 3-4 different hospital to drive around in Brooklyn. I don't even have to mention about rent, you already know the story.

UVA- Faculty seems to be a good mix of age and they are diverse. Transplant faculty is good with a good program. They do good basic science research if you are into that. But Charlottesville is at least 2 hours from away from DC. Very small city compared to the other 2. it all depends on what you want.
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thank you very much, it really helps narrow down my choices, as it is more of a buyer's market, I am personally trying to avoid NYC and California for the cost of living and distance. Unless of course, I dont match my first choice.
 
I ‘m really not sure how people in NYC and bigger cities are making ends meet with resident and fellow salary. The traffic, parking, Tolls, commute and I wonder how they are able to study despite all these for boards ,ITE. It must very challenging thing to do.
 
I have finished fellowship recently and now i am in private practice.

I would say having a good transplant experience is important, the practice that i am working at has good relationship with other transplant centers and usually they release their patients to community nephrologist after 1 year. That means, you will be managing cellcept, tacrolimus, diagnosing rejection and opportunistic infections so on so forth. Transplant centers are really busy, so they release their patients to community. Having a good transplant education will set you apart and that way you can also keep your patients even after transplant.

I would also get a good training in home dialysis modalities, PD and home hemo. There is a big trend in home dialysis, it is better for patient, especially young patients. It will set you apart if you get good training in these.

I see a lot of GN in my practice. We got an OK training in GN. Wish i had a better education in it. We had a GN clinic but i did not spend enough time, i also did not get enough onconephrology exprience, wish i had more exprience in it. If they have a structreded training in these, that would be helpful. There is glomcon which is helpful for this, but seeing patients is more important.

I really liked CRRT, but i think my program was overkill in this area. We were trained in citrate and used prismaflex. I wish i had more education on SLED and nextstage. Maybe having an option to get trained in these machines is something you can ask. If you want nephro crit, thats another story.

For fellowship training.
We had a very busy program, i think having a night float is a must. I would look for program that has night float. I would look for a program thats open to change, no program is perfect but i would like to see a program that can change and adopt. I would not go to a program that fellows are placing vascath, that is not needed.I would also not go to a program that kidney bx is being done by fellows. After 10 kidney bx, you just want to get it done.

I would say, future of interventional nephrology seems bright especially with value based care, so if interested in procedures, i would ask about learning these opportunities.

You can pick any program you want, so i would look for the best, first year is busy in each program, but it is what it is. I would also think about area you want to practice, would pick a program where you want to practice.
 
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Also i would avoid a program that did not fill. That usually is not a good sign.
 
Some good programs i know are

Duke and emory pretty good programs.
UNC is very good in GN, ok in transplant.
UAB good in crrt, and PD. they have interventional if interested in this.

I interviewed at Cornell, one of the Columbia and NYU in manhattan. I did not enjoy new york, also they did not have night float. But cornell has a good PD program. I am glad i did not pick new your programs. Would say cornell was the best at the time.

I would avoid maryland, their crrt is being run buy critical care.

Ohio state was really good, good GN, transplant, i really liked it.

Stanford, good GN, good CRRT and HTN. Transplant is ok.

UPENN was really good in everything. They have PD, transplant crrt.

U pitt, this was also very good, transplant, critical care, GN.

I interviewed at bunch of programs since it was virtual, i would not do that, was very tiring. But usually you will interview from the program you applied.
 
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nephro_ttuhsc said:
I ‘m really not sure how people in NYC and bigger cities are making ends meet with resident and fellow salary. The traffic, parking, Tolls, commute and I wonder how they are able to study despite all these for boards ,ITE. It must very challenging thing to do.
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You will need to use the subsidized housing options. Nothing is fully covered but it makes the rent in Manhattan acceptable versus depletes your entire account

If you end up at one of the top renal academic programs (that do not have night float) in Manhattan, you WILL need to live very close to the hospital. You'll definitely be going in every night. If its not for some ICU requesting urgent HD it will be a DDRT is available and you're going to round up the next candidate(s) on the list to call them in, do their H&P, evaluate for any new cancers (and do a nice thorough skin exam to ensure no new melanoma has popped up), etc...

If a program does have night float, you might be able to get away with living in Queens nearby one of the subway lines. that makes the expenses a bit more manageable

The Northwell NSLIJ renal program is in LI just on the boundary of Queens. good public transportation but fairly affordable apartment options around there. A train ride into the city for some recreation.

other than Columbia (the best or maybe second best in the nation depends on your preference), Mt Sinai, NYU, Cornell ... then Montefiore and Northwell main campus... none of the other renal programs deserves any IM resident's attention in the main match. The other ones are scut mills for IMGs who have no other choice.
 
Thank you so much for the detailed answer.
Does where you train matter in regards to salary or places you can get hired? I hope not, But, still wanted to ask for clarification.
 
nephro_ttuhsc said:
Thank you so much for the detailed answer.
Does where you train matter in regards to salary or places you can get hired? I hope not, But, still wanted to ask for clarification.
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kind of but not really.

if you want to enter academia, then you want to go into the best renal training program Top 10. there is always a "trickle down effect" for academic jobs.

Usually the top programs faculty is filled with world renowned researchers and leaders already and you might not get a job there. But you can trickle down so to say to a "lower tiered" academic faculty program.

If you do not care for academics, go for the best renal program with the best set up and geography for your lifestyle.

There is a very specific subset of individuals who love nephrology the discipline, do not want to do academics, and wants to join a somewhat larger employer such as Kaiser out in California or something... get a decent quality of life and not pursue the most money... this group exists but I cannot understand this paradoxical group of individuals. You love nephrology yet do not want academics. You are fine with a subpar job. I guess sometimes it really is all about location (why anyone likes California is beyond me... I mean i find northern california quite beautiful and down south aroudn Big Sur is great also... but politics aside... california cities are absolute S - holes IMO. NYC is not far behind at the current rate of... let's just say "modern changes.")
 
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NewYorkDoctors said:
If you do not care for academics, go for the best renal program with the best set up and geography for your lifestyle.

There is a very specific subset of individuals who love nephrology the discipline, do not want to do academics, and wants to join a somewhat larger employer such as Kaiser out in California or something... get a decent quality of life and not pursue the most money... this group exists but I cannot understand this paradoxical group of individuals. You love nephrology yet do not want academics. You are fine with a subpar job. I guess sometimes it really is all about location (why anyone likes California is beyond me... I mean i find northern california quite beautiful and down south aroudn Big Sur is great also... but politics aside... california cities are absolute S - holes IMO. NYC is not far behind at the current rate of... let's just say "modern changes.")
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I agree with most of that advice.

I personally couldn't imagine anyone wanting to live on the East Coast, though ;)

But, it is a fair point about California. Things have been getting worse and worse over the past couple decades with our current single party rule. The big cities used to be bad in the late 80s, early 90s - then they cracked down on crime and things got much better. Then people forgot how bad it used to be, voted for people I personally wouldn't have voted for... and things are worse... corrupt, unfriendly towards businesses, soft of crime, ignore infrastructure and maintenance, etc. There are better managed coastal cities outside of the big cities that still do a good job limiting crime/drug use/homelessness and are family friendly (same can be said for the better managed suburbs) - but these coastal cities do tend to be obscenely expensive. Just best to stay out of the big cities and downtown areas especially if you have a family.

Still can't beat the weather in coastal California though (especially southern California). Not too many places where you can be outdoors, go to the beach, surf, and swim nearly year round. Plus, we get only about a couple of weeks of light rain per year typically. Generally, max temp is in the low 80s F and min temp is in the 50s at night. Typically in the 70s most of the time.

Despite the crazy cost of living and other issues, it is hard to leave.
 
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Anyone have info on Baylor? Have my interview coming up and just wanted to hear from others what they thought about it
 
How's the early interview season coming along for folks?
 
Interviews are definitely a good learning experience. But overall the interview questions are very friendly from nephrologists. No body or no program looked malignant yet. Probably they will remove all the malignant people out of our sight I guess for the interviews.
 
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nephro_ttuhsc said:
Interviews are definitely a good learning experience. But overall the interview questions are very friendly from nephrologists. No body or no program looked malignant yet. Probably they will remove all the malignant people out of our sight I guess for the interviews.
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in general most nephrologists are the friendliest doctors out there that you may meet.

yes there are non-approachable nephrologists out there. but if those doctors are part of fellowships, you can bet they are not a top program and are always hunting in the scramble every year.
 
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Did anyone get interviews from University of Kentucky,Lexington?
 
Good morning guys, anyone still receiving invitation or should I stop worrying about more?
 
I didn’t get anything for the past 2 weeks. If I don’t match with what I ‘ve got up until now, I ll never match.
 
MEGA-Rayquaza said:
Good morning guys, anyone still receiving invitation or should I stop worrying about more?
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I got an invite from a program this week after sending an email explaining my interest, I'd recommend trying that if it is a place that you are really into
 
How big of a difference is there whether program has a night float system in place, versus not?
 
From my understanding, bigger programs with at least 4 or 4 + fellows in one year "should" have night float system. Smaller programs may not be able to do it because they can't afford to loose fellow for the night. Most Night float fellows are not getting the same load as the day. So it depends if the program can afford to allow someone to do just the nights and manage the load with rest of them.

Smaller programs without night float may not also have the same volume as the bigger hospitals and so you may not necessarily always have to go to the hospital in the night. One is not necessarily bad against the another in regards to training. You just have to find out what works best for you.

Disclaimer: I am also applying like lot of others here, so this is just my perspective after the interviews and discussion with several programs and not training.
 
Pro tip for any future renal fellowship - unless micu is involved for a patient who missed HD , tell them you’ll see the patient first thing in the morning and get in one or two hour earlier than usual to do the consult . The renal attending won’t know what time you got called

Additionally if internal medicine calls you overnight (after a micu reject) recommend what labs to get and based on X-ray do something and promise to see first thing in the morning (then do the consult yourself first thing in AM and don’t turf to your colleague )

Just remember if it’s that big of an emergency then they could have called micu first

often times the night admitting resident wants to help out the morning team by "getting renal on board..."

recommend the urine lytes, give fluids or hold fluids, trend some lab, etc...

if someone has some mild hyponatremia that MICu rejected, get a rough feel for what was done by remotely reviewing the EMR and asking questions to the admitting resident then asking for morning labs with the uric acid, the Posm, Urine lytes, UOsm, TSH, cortisol, etc... done with AM labs
(seriously if MICU rejected for 3%, what are you doing to do in the middle of the night? squeeze for edema? find someone to do orthostatics? have the complain to you about why he/she is still in the ER?)


many older attendings ask you to go in to "figure things out."

that is useless at night... when the remote access EMR gives you what you need and you can have the house doctor give you the scoop on certain contextual details.


but if any ICU is involved (especially CT ICU lol... don't let their cardiac surgeries crap out.. big money involved... you go in for those or else you get complained about) then just go in.

Addendum - if cticu demands HD just do it . There’s too much money at stake . The intensivist usually controls the UF anyway . Place an order , confirm access is packed , call the nurse in , get a little shut eye and synchronize going in the latter half of the hd session . There is very little to be gained going in and squeezing for edema.
 
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Anyone get any late interview invites at this point?
 
Any inputs on how low can we match on our rank order list? for example any record of someone matching below 5th program on ROL?
 
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