Hi everyone, hoping to get some advice.
So I have applied Heme/Onc and honestly don't have the best stats, low board scores. Went to a community program for residency. Have few publications (3 accepted, 3 submitted) and some oral/poster presentations. Have not received any interviews yet and I am being told to start having backup plans.
Is anyone aware of fellowships that I can do to boost up the CV and potentially reapply heme/onc next year. I have heard transfusion medicine and palliative care....are there any others that I don't know about?
Thanks!
I had friends that did both geriatrics and pall care before applying for heme onc, and I think in the grand scope of things doing another fellowship to "boost up the CV" doesn't make that much of a difference.
Having good quality research does though, and your efforts should be focused on figuring out how to make your research profile more attractive to different programs. Something important not to overlook is the significance and influence of connections. Having a great connection with a local oncologist who has the ear of an APD at a local program is more important if you are seeking just to match than to do research at MD Anderson (unless you come out of it with a major paper, which you likely won't).
As for type of research, I think it should be something you are genuinely interested in and some area where you can be meaningfully productive. Working at famous lab but not getting assigned major research roles and just cleaning test tubes or raw data sets all day is not going to help your application. Getting on a paper as 4th-5th-6th-7th author is not going to help much either. This is easier said than done, but figuring out how you can meaningfully engage in research and churn out a decent 1st-2nd author paper (even in a smaller journal) is better than a name in a sea of authors in a mid-level journal. However, if you don't think you can find a meaningful research opportunity, then perhaps you might as well just do a clinical fellowship because that is still better than toiling away at a useless research position for one year and having nothing to show for it.
Personally, I didn't apply as a 3rd year because I had a lot of research projects that were being wrapped up in residency. I did a hospitalist year to make $$ and pay off loans while waiting for my residency projects to be published late 3rd year and into the summer. By the time I applied, I had several first author manuscripts. This made up for my dismal step scores and helped me secure competitive interviews that I know I wouldn't have had if I didn't have strong research to fill in the rest of my profile.
There is no one size fits all solution; the most important thing is that you show some coherence and direction in your overall application package. Randomly signing up for things because you think it would make you more competitive would often lead to nowhere in the end.
