Preclinical grades and fellowship

[MikMik6]

I was wondering how much does preclinical grades factor into attaining a fellowship. Do strong research credentials, USMLE scores (240+), strong letters mitigate red flags such as 2 preclinical failures and a low class rank. Any advice helps, no matter how brutal.

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[tartesos]

No one cares about that for fellowship. Do your best in residency and work hard for what you want.


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[deleted547339]

No one cares about that for fellowship. Do your best in residency and work hard for what you want.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN

This.

 

[spacegun]

I was wondering how much does preclinical grades factor into attaining a fellowship. Do strong research credentials, USMLE scores (240+), strong letters mitigate red flags such as 2 preclinical failures and a low class rank. Any advice helps, no matter how brutal.

What @tartesos said!

Are you an IM resident now? If not, matching into IM would be the more immediate worry. I'm not sure if IM programs might care about 2 preclinical failures.

 

[the argus]

If you look at the 2016 NRMP PD survey for Pulm/Crit, grades from medical school were of minimal importance. Only 30% of PDs said they use them when deciding who to interview, and they had the lowest ranking of importance on the list (3.4). When deciding who to rank, only 14% considered medical school grades and those that did ranked them of similar unimportance.

The most important things for fellowship are grad status (USMD vs DO vs IMG, as well as tiers within that), prestige of residency program, performance during residency (i.e. PD letter), other LORs (and phone calls, etc), and research. According to the PD survery, ~50% of programs also use USMLE filters.

And once you get an interview, personality fit and specific interest in the program seem to also be extremely important.

https://mk0nrmpcikgb8jxyd19h.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/2016-PD-Survey-Report-SMS.pdf

 

[spacegun]

If you look at the 2016 NRMP PD survey for Pulm/Crit, grades from medical school were of minimal importance. Only 30% of PDs said they use them when deciding who to interview, and they had the lowest ranking of importance on the list (3.4). When deciding who to rank, only 14% considered medical school grades and those that did ranked them of similar unimportance.

The most important things for fellowship are grad status (USMD vs DO vs IMG, as well as tiers within that), prestige of residency program, performance during residency (i.e. PD letter), other LORs (and phone calls, etc), and research. According to the PD survery, ~50% of programs also use USMLE filters.

And once you get an interview, personality fit and specific interest in the program seem to also be extremely important.

https://mk0nrmpcikgb8jxyd19h.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/2016-PD-Survey-Report-SMS.pdf

There's also US IMG's or IMG's who are US citizens, Americans who went to med school in the Carib, Europe, etc., but I'm not sure where they would fit in (for fellowship consideration).

 

[the argus]

There's also US IMG's or IMG's who are US citizens, Americans who went to med school in the Carib, Europe, etc., but I'm not sure where they would fit in (for fellowship consideration).

I'm one of those US-IMGs (caribbean)!

Generalizations for fellowship are hard, because a well-placed LOR (or phone call) from someone the PD knows, either personally or by reputation, I think can play a huge role. Also prior knowledge of the applicant can be important, and those 2 things are pretty subjective.

That said, from my experience, USMD >> DO=US-IMG > IMG. I went to a low-mid tier university program with a mix of USMDs, DOs, US-IMGs and foreign-IMGs. All other things being equal (USMLE scores, research, etc), the USMDs tend to get interviews at more prestigious fellowship programs than everyone else. But I also know that the US-IMGs from my program get better interviews than DOs from surrounding community IM programs. Foreign-IMGs tend to do worse, and I think that largely has to do with some fellowship programs not wanting to deal with visa issues.

So both graduation status and prestige of residency program are very important. For US-IMGs in particular, those coming from a university program tend to do very well, but those coming from smaller community programs might have more trouble. This is what I've found from personal experience and people I know at least.

 

[MikMik6]

I'm one of those US-IMGs (caribbean)!

Generalizations for fellowship are hard, because a well-placed LOR (or phone call) from someone the PD knows, either personally or by reputation, I think can play a huge role. Also prior knowledge of the applicant can be important, and those 2 things are pretty subjective.

That said, from my experience, USMD >> DO=US-IMG > IMG. I went to a low-mid tier university program with a mix of USMDs, DOs, US-IMGs and foreign-IMGs. All other things being equal (USMLE scores, research, etc), the USMDs tend to get interviews at more prestigious fellowship programs than everyone else. But I also know that the US-IMGs from my program get better interviews than DOs from surrounding community IM programs. Foreign-IMGs tend to do worse, and I think that largely has to do with some fellowship programs not wanting to deal with visa issues.

So both graduation status and prestige of residency program are very important. For US-IMGs in particular, those coming from a university program tend to do very well, but those coming from smaller community programs might have more trouble. This is what I've found from personal experience and people I know at least.

I wonder what the experience would be like for those at community hospitals but with strong research credentials.