Pulm/CC Fellowship Application 2009-2010

[souljah1]

My biased opinion on programs that are incredible for both pulmonary and critical care:

East coast: Penn
West coast: U Washington
South: Vanderbilt
The middle: Pitt

Overall impressions:

Penn: solid in every respect. Their clinical training has no gaps. Incredible MICU training, transplant, interventional, ILD, thoracic malignancy, pulmonary HTN, etc. From a research standpoint, best fellowship offers on the east coast. Guaranteed formal research training in translational research or clinical epidemiology or health services research. Home of one of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars programs. Young and fun MICU attendings that are very successful from a research standpoint. Chairman is a clinician so isn't over emphasizing basic science. I'm very biased, but it is an awesome place.

Partner's: Fellowship at all 3 hospitals. Really great faculty at Brigham (Augustine and Tricia Kritek) that are very invested in fellows' scholarship. Clinically seemed pretty strong. Most fellows had to bend their interests to meet those of the faculty. Great track record for training academicians. Great place.

Hopkins: Very strong research emphasis, which is mostly basic science. New MICU tower looks like it will be a great place to work. Weakness includes ICU outcomes and health services research. Don't trust that the program leadership values clinical training as much as some of the other top caliber places.

Vanderbilt: Have a friend there who is a senior fellow. Fantastic ICU training. Solid pulmonary. Has a research track. Not so sure about the track record for M.S. in research possibilities.

Pitt: Fantastic critical care training. Pulmonary is pretty good. Fellows take in house call every so often. One of our attendings who came from there said it was b/c they couldn't trust their housestaff to run the unit by themselves overnight. Solid transplant. Pretty good research opportunities, but not as good as some other programs.

UW: The classic example of a phenomenal program. Have a friend there who's super happy. Busy robust place with a track record of training successful people. Best place on the west coast. Fantastic graduate training in research methodology.

UCSF: Very basic science oriented. Semi-closed ICU shared by anesthesiology is not a plus for me. Great exposure to pulmonary-ID at SFGH. Fellows are awesome, fun, and smart. But, they've had to bend their interests a lot to meet faculty interests. Not a lot of formal training in clinical epidemiology or outcomes research.

Colorado: Fantastic pulm. ICU not as good as pulm.

UCLA: Don't know a lot of details but have heard good things.

Overall, fellowship programs reputations are in the eyes of the beholder. Different things stand out for different people. I was looking for a place that had no weak spots clinically (had interventional, had transplant, had ILD, had MICU where fellows didn't take in house call) as well as opportunities for formal training in research (Master degree). Lots of good programs out there. Have fun everyone.

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[PCCM45]

can anybody please tell me the names of program that sponsor H1B visa.I tried to call programs but unable to connect in most of them.I will really appreciate guys.

 

[ResidentMD]

My biased opinion on programs that are incredible for both pulmonary and critical care:

East coast: Penn
West coast: U Washington
South: Vanderbilt
The middle: Pitt

Overall impressions:

Penn: solid in every respect. Their clinical training has no gaps. Incredible MICU training, transplant, interventional, ILD, thoracic malignancy, pulmonary HTN, etc. From a research standpoint, best fellowship offers on the east coast. Guaranteed formal research training in translational research or clinical epidemiology or health services research. Home of one of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars programs. Young and fun MICU attendings that are very successful from a research standpoint. Chairman is a clinician so isn't over emphasizing basic science. I'm very biased, but it is an awesome place.

Partner's: Fellowship at all 3 hospitals. Really great faculty at Brigham (Augustine and Tricia Kritek) that are very invested in fellows' scholarship. Clinically seemed pretty strong. Most fellows had to bend their interests to meet those of the faculty. Great track record for training academicians. Great place.

Hopkins: Very strong research emphasis, which is mostly basic science. New MICU tower looks like it will be a great place to work. Weakness includes ICU outcomes and health services research. Don't trust that the program leadership values clinical training as much as some of the other top caliber places.

Vanderbilt: Have a friend there who is a senior fellow. Fantastic ICU training. Solid pulmonary. Has a research track. Not so sure about the track record for M.S. in research possibilities.

Pitt: Fantastic critical care training. Pulmonary is pretty good. Fellows take in house call every so often. One of our attendings who came from there said it was b/c they couldn't trust their housestaff to run the unit by themselves overnight. Solid transplant. Pretty good research opportunities, but not as good as some other programs.

UW: The classic example of a phenomenal program. Have a friend there who's super happy. Busy robust place with a track record of training successful people. Best place on the west coast. Fantastic graduate training in research methodology.

UCSF: Very basic science oriented. Semi-closed ICU shared by anesthesiology is not a plus for me. Great exposure to pulmonary-ID at SFGH. Fellows are awesome, fun, and smart. But, they've had to bend their interests a lot to meet faculty interests. Not a lot of formal training in clinical epidemiology or outcomes research.

Colorado: Fantastic pulm. ICU not as good as pulm.

UCLA: Don't know a lot of details but have heard good things.

Overall, fellowship programs reputations are in the eyes of the beholder. Different things stand out for different people. I was looking for a place that had no weak spots clinically (had interventional, had transplant, had ILD, had MICU where fellows didn't take in house call) as well as opportunities for formal training in research (Master degree). Lots of good programs out there. Have fun everyone.

Awesome -awesome stuff. Any one else have additional inputs? This thread can become a good reference point.

Regarding UCSF - they have a Certificate in Clinical Research thing that a lot of residents and fellows (and even attendings) do, that gives them good training in clinical epidemiology and outcomes research. Its called the ACTR program.

I know Vandy has an MPH degree available even for residents - whether the fellowship program pays for it, I dont know.

can anybody please tell me the names of program that sponsor H1B visa.I tried to call programs but unable to connect in most of them.I will really appreciate guys.

Many programs list their requirements on their website. Off the top of my head, I definitely know Baylor takes H1s. Its on their website. Also many programs list a contact person's email ID on their website, so you could write to them. I dont know if you have ERAS for fellowship matches and whether FREIDA can help you out - if not, you may have to draw up a list and start googling.

 

[EBUS]

Questions have been asked about which programs sponsor H1B. As this is a difficult question to answer, I hope to rephrase this in order to get some reasonable info.
Would anybody know for sure which programs DO NOT sponsor H1B visa?
I know for sure Penn, JH, Emory, GW do not offer H1. UW Seattle recently changed their rules and now offer only J1-acc to their website. Colorado not very sure, but only J1 i think.
Please contribute so that soem of us can save some bucks and use for interview expenses instead!
Thanks!

 

[jdh71]

Questions have been asked about which programs sponsor H1B. As this is a difficult question to answer, I hope to rephrase this in order to get some reasonable info.
Would anybody know for sure which programs DO NOT sponsor H1B visa?
I know for sure Penn, JH, Emory, GW do not offer H1. UW Seattle recently changed their rules and now offer only J1-acc to their website. Colorado not very sure, but only J1 i think.
Please contribute so that soem of us can save some bucks and use for interview expenses instead!
Thanks!

I'd love to help, but if you don't know, what makes you think us US citizens/legal residents know? We aren't worried about it, you know?

I think you are going to have to actually call and ask, at least that's what I think I would do if I was in your situation. Call and politely ask if the program sponsors the H1b, I would think they would tell you.

 

[ResidentMD]

Questions have been asked about which programs sponsor H1B. As this is a difficult question to answer, I hope to rephrase this in order to get some reasonable info.
Would anybody know for sure which programs DO NOT sponsor H1B visa?
I know for sure Penn, JH, Emory, GW do not offer H1. UW Seattle recently changed their rules and now offer only J1-acc to their website. Colorado not very sure, but only J1 i think.
Please contribute so that soem of us can save some bucks and use for interview expenses instead!
Thanks!

I think you are going to have to actually call and ask, at least that's what I think I would do if I was in your situation. Call and politely ask if the program sponsors the H1b, I would think they would tell you.

Thats precisely what I said in my previous post, but the question was still repeated, albeit in a different way. I checked out a few websites just to see if its on there or not, and many have listed visa policies on their website. E.g. the UC-system (UCSF, SD, LA, Davis) is only J1.

I had to do the same thing for my residency applications. Many programs will not list it on their website, so you need to first email them, and if they dont reply, then you call.

 

[EBUS]

Thats precisely what I said in my previous post, but the question was still repeated, albeit in a different way. I checked out a few websites just to see if its on there or not, and many have listed visa policies on their website. E.g. the UC-system (UCSF, SD, LA, Davis) is only J1.

I had to do the same thing for my residency applications. Many programs will not list it on their website, so you need to first email them, and if they dont reply, then you call.

Thanks! I did email. Some of them responded and many didnt! I will try calling. I just feel their patience levels this time of the year is a little on the lower side!
Thanks again!

 

[ResidentMD]

Thanks! I did email. Some of them responded and many didnt! I will try calling. I just feel their patience levels this time of the year is a little on the lower side!
Thanks again!

Yes - definitely call. Many dont respond via email.

 

[jdh71]

Submitting tomorrow!!

 

[ResidentMD]

Submitting tomorrow!!

All the best to all of you! Will keep a watch on this thread in particular, while I am on the trail!

 

[EBUS]

Finally submitted the application!!
The ERAS postoffice shows that the USMLE transcripts, medical school transcripts and the MSPE have not yet been uploaded to the postoffice. All the other documents have been uploaded. Is this usual or usually there is a lag time?
Thanks.

 

[jdh71]

Finally submitted the application!!
The ERAS postoffice shows that the USMLE transcripts, medical school transcripts and the MSPE have not yet been uploaded to the postoffice. All the other documents have been uploaded. Is this usual or usually there is a lag time?
Thanks.

They are not "uploaded" until they are scanned. You can see if they have your documents on the link at the EFDO. Before the Holiday they were running 6 days behind with scanning documents that had been marked as having arrived, and were about 4 days behind in marking documents as "arrived" after they had gotten there. As of their phone message this AM they are scanning documents marked as arrived on the 23rd of November. The PD at the pulm/cc program where I train told me to submit early anyway - they understand that most of us will still be getting documents and that many programs may not even dowload your stuff your stuff until after Christmas.

Stay calm and good luck guys.

 

[jdh71]

bombs away!!!

 

[EBUS]

They are not "uploaded" until they are scanned. You can see if they have your documents on the link at the EFDO. Before the Holiday they were running 6 days behind with scanning documents that had been marked as having arrived, and were about 4 days behind in marking documents as "arrived" after they had gotten there. As of their phone message this AM they are scanning documents marked as arrived on the 23rd of November. The PD at the pulm/cc program where I train told me to submit early anyway - they understand that most of us will still be getting documents and that many programs may not even dowload your stuff your stuff until after Christmas.

Stay calm and good luck guys.

Thanks JDH.
Actually thse documents were scanned a while ago! I guess there is a little lag time before MPSE etc are uploaded to the post office.
Good luck to all and we will discuss as we progress!

 

[jdh71]

Thanks JDH.
Actually thse documents were scanned a while ago! I guess there is a little lag time before MPSE etc are uploaded to the post office.
Good luck to all and we will discuss as we progress!

ok, then there must be some sort of lag between scanning and uploading.

hell, i don't know, I'm putting a lot trust in strangers to do what they are supposed to.

 

[EBUS]

hell, i don't know, I'm putting a lot trust in strangers to do what they are supposed to.[/QUOTE]

I am sure you will be fine. Going by last year's posts, the info provided here are pretty accurate and based on personal experiences!
Good luck!

 

[VJWDO]

My entire app is complete and has been downloaded by about 1/3 of the programs I have applied to.

 

[jdh71]

My entire app is complete and has been downloaded by about 1/3 of the programs I have applied to.

I'm still waiting on a few letters that are between here and posted. Some programs have stuff downloaded, others no.

 

[Newbie12]

Hey VJWDO,

Not to change subjects...but I love your picture. You could make some $$$ if you sold it to TMZ.

 

[VJWDO]

True!! Maybe I could get some interview money out of it!!

The funny thing is that the picture is like 4 years old and at the time no one would have looked sideways at it. Now he is up **** creek

 

[New York City]

Submitted my application, but still waiting for my 4th letter writer to finish writing. Almost half of the programs I applied to, have already downloaded the apps. Does that mean, they ll be actually going thru the apps early, before Christmas?
For H1 visas, emailing/ calling is the only way to go. No other options. Good luck everyone!

 

[jdh71]

Look, Pulm/CC folks are busy, we all know this. Your app will most likely get looked at around Christmas time, when the holiday schedule affords PDs some time to do so. Invites in January.

Plenty of time to get letters in. Deep breaths.

 

[EBUS]

Look, Pulm/CC folks are busy, we all know this. Your app will most likely get looked at around Christmas time, when the holiday schedule affords PDs some time to do so. Invites in January.

Plenty of time to get letters in. Deep breaths.

Do you know when the peak interview period is? Need too arrange for some time-off! Thanks!

 

[jdh71]

Do you know when the peak interview period is? Need too arrange for some time-off! Thanks!

The PD at my home program said February-March

 

[VJWDO]

A fellow resident in my program is applying for pulm CC and she got a rejection from MUSC so apparently there is either some reviewing going on or they have a screening process set up with automatic rejection based on their pre-determined criteria. All I know is I am glad I didn't get rejected!! At least not yet.

 

[kpchal2]

Even I got rejected. seems like a standard score thing. in the 80s i guess it is bad for them

 

[PCCM2011]

A fellow resident in my program is applying for pulm CC and she got a rejection from MUSC so apparently there is either some reviewing going on or they have a screening process set up with automatic rejection based on their pre-determined criteria. All I know is I am glad I didn't get rejected!! At least not yet.

Even I got rejected. seems like a standard score thing. in the 80s i guess it is bad for them

Which track was rejected? The clinical or the research?

 

[kpchal2]

hmm i did not notice until pccm2011 pointed out that there are 2 options. i am wondering how we can differentiate between the both. one says just fellowship and the other says clinical, clinical research fellowship. what is the difference between both - i went with the fellowship option and was rejected

 

[EBUS]

I received a message from Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center saying the ERAS downloaded the application by mistake and that they are not participating in the match....and are not interviewing for 2011.
Did anybody else get such a message!
Would ERAS then give us the application fee as credit for future applications!
Thanks.

 

[New York City]

Havent received any messages. Sorry you got this. But ERAS wont really refund the app fee. It says that everytime you apply to some program.

 

[PCCM2011]

hmm i did not notice until pccm2011 pointed out that there are 2 options. i am wondering how we can differentiate between the both. one says just fellowship and the other says clinical, clinical research fellowship. what is the difference between both - i went with the fellowship option and was rejected

The clinical option is your standard 3 year fellowship and the clinical researcher is a special track for people interested in research and academic medicine - 4, maybe 5 years - giving you an extra year to do research.

 

[PCCM2011]

I received a message from Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center saying the ERAS downloaded the application by mistake and that they are not participating in the match....and are not interviewing for 2011.
Did anybody else get such a message!
Would ERAS then give us the application fee as credit for future applications!
Thanks.

It clearly states when you submit your application that the applicant is responsible for checking on program deadlines and participation in the match, and that ERAS will be refunding nothing. Honest mistake I'm sure, but that money is long gone.

 

[PCCM2011]

Looks like over the last few days there has been more action with the download of my application by many programs, not sure if this coincides with the posting of my "biggest name" letter of rec, or if this means programs may be taking a look at things this weekend?

UW and Mayo still not downloading. I suppose they have the luxury of waiting

 

[VJWDO]

I too got the Dartmouth message from ERAS. At first I thought that was their way of telling me to F off in a nice way. It could be that I am just an idiot and applied without noticing they were not taking apps this year. Oh well. I didn't have a chance in hell anyway!

 

[docvoldemort]

Can someone enlighten us as to how accurate US News and World Report is in terms of the "Best 50 hospitals" for Pulm/CC ?
Do these results translate to best teaching hospitals? What about research?

 

[EBUS]

Looks like over the last few days there has been more action with the download of my application by many programs, not sure if this coincides with the posting of my "biggest name" letter of rec, or if this means programs may be taking a look at things this weekend?

UW and Mayo still not downloading. I suppose they have the luxury of waiting

I think they go through your application after downloading them. Every few days they download applications until they have enough numbers. But I am sure you will get good interviews with the 'big name' LOR!

 

[EBUS]

Can someone enlighten us as to how accurate US News and World Report is in terms of the "Best 50 hospitals" for Pulm/CC ?
Do these results translate to best teaching hospitals? What about research?

They are ranked, as far as I know, from patient care point of view. How this translates into training I am not sure. But you would think if they are good at providing patient care and have lots of grants, they would also take pride in providing good training. My 0.2$!

 

[PCCM2011]

I think they go through your application after downloading them. Every few days they download applications until they have enough numbers.

I'm not sure if they do or not. You'd think if this were the case we'd be seeing more rejections by now, simply because most place will only interview like 10 people per open spot. So, if you're a program with 2 spots and you get 200-400 applications, you HAVE TO reject a lot of people. But then, I'm not sure if some places will even take the time to do a rejection - silence is really for all practical purposes the same as a rejection

But I am sure you will get good interviews with the 'big name' LOR!

Ha! That was said a bit ironically. I put it in quotes for a reason. The "big name" is not necessarily huge in PCCM, but probably the guy most known outside of my institution by other academic PCCM docs. Which is good, because if people you know can vouch for someone you don't know, then you may give them a chance.

 

[EBUS]

I'm not sure if they do or not. You'd think if this were the case we'd be seeing more rejections by now, simply because most place will only interview like 10 people per open spot. So, if you're a program with 2 spots and you get 200-400 applications, you HAVE TO reject a lot of people. But then, I'm not sure if some places will even take the time to do a rejection - silence is really for all practical purposes the same as a rejection



Ha! That was said a bit ironically. I put it in quotes for a reason. The "big name" is not necessarily huge in PCCM, but probably the guy most known outside of my institution by other academic PCCM docs. Which is good, because if people you know can vouch for someone you don't know, then you may give them a chance.

Sorry, I didnt mean to sound ironical. But if the LOR writer is known to other PDs, then you are pretty much sure to get an interview. This is what I gathered from my attendings.
In terms of rejections- I have had a few aleady!

 

[EBUS]

Does anybody know if Sloan Kettering are filling their Pulm only positions through ERAS this time?
Thanks!

 

[PCCM2011]

Sorry, I didnt mean to sound ironical. But if the LOR writer is known to other PDs, then you are pretty much sure to get an interview. This is what I gathered from my attendings.
In terms of rejections- I have had a few aleady!

No! I mean I meant my original statement a bit ironically.

I guess we shall see if you attendings are correct in my case. But then, I don't really know exactly who knows this guy, merely that he's probably the most well known at my institution outside of my institution.

Sorry to hear about the rejections - we will all get more rejections than interviews just based on the numbers right?

And I have no clue about sloan kettering - call and ask.

 

[New York City]

Does the silence here mean silence on ERAS or has anyone got any sort of responses yet? Just wondering!

 

[VJWDO]

Still nothing. I am not holding my breath though. According to previous years threads the interviews did not really start until january. A couple programs started offering interview invites in the middle of December but that was like literally 2 programs. I have had to limit myself to 1 email check per day or I would go ***** crazy!

 

[PCCM2011]

I've not heard yes or no from anyone either, and I have complete applications at probably half of the places I sent my app (different letter writers for different locations, so I'm still waiting for one more letter to pop up). I really don't think we have anything to worry about just yet.

 

[EBUS]

Nerve wracking!!

 

[kpchal2]

hi everyone
i know it is very painful waiting for programs to download (yeah - i am surprised that some programs still did not download my app) our applications. Seems like most of the programs will start looking at the applications post new year. very sad that the application season is during the winter break when people have the least patience to work. hopefully things will pick up steam post new year (without any delays for any other holidays :-( ). completely unfair for us but i guess they are kind of telling us who the boss is

 

[PCCDoc2011]

Hey guys,
I'm new to this forum, but I've been reading the past logs of prior threads. Seems like this year there is a lot less activity (in terms of MEMBER activity) on this thread compared to prior years. I doubt its a "poor prognostic sign", but I'm just wondering what is going on with people? If you guys have any updates as to new interviews & rejections keep the rest of us posted. If anybody has made any calls to any programs for additional information, that would be helpful as well. From my perspective I've only heard from one place so far which was MUSC, which seemed like an automated rejection. Other than that, I've received that generic email from Johns Hopkins "thanking me for my interest in their program". Anyhow, I'll keep you guys posted to my activity, but I hope you guys do the same. And if you need to, take an extra dose of synthroid to get these posts rolling.

 

[EBUS]

Hey guys,
I'm new to this forum, but I've been reading the past logs of prior threads. Seems like this year there is a lot less activity (in terms of MEMBER activity) on this thread compared to prior years. I doubt its a "poor prognostic sign", but I'm just wondering what is going on with people? If you guys have any updates as to new interviews & rejections keep the rest of us posted. If anybody has made any calls to any programs for additional information, that would be helpful as well. From my perspective I've only heard from one place so far which was MUSC, which seemed like an automated rejection. Other than that, I've received that generic email from Johns Hopkins "thanking me for my interest in their program". Anyhow, I'll keep you guys posted to my activity, but I hope you guys do the same. And if you need to, take an extra dose of synthroid to get these posts rolling.

There are a decent number of contributors here. But there's no news from the programs and hence the inactivity!
The impatience and tension was palpable this time last year as well. Once the interviews started rolling in, things were a bit better.
MUSC rejection and JH letter and also Dartmouth letter and a couple of H1 visa based rejections for me.
Otherwise the wait continues... Good luck to all.

 

[kpchal2]

hi ebus
sorry to hear about the rejections. care to share those rejections. not to bother u but it would definitely help others with regards to where to app.
thanks

 

[kpchal2]

last year by this time there were atleast 4 or 5 programs on the roll. this year i am surprised that there are none. i am really wondering if the programs are silent or if we are too less here to know what is going on. last year there was activity from colorado, yale, henry ford, musc and some other programs. i applied to some of them and only heard from musc (rejected). wondering what happened to these other programs,