Fourth-Year Medical Student with Questions about Cardiology Fellowships

[Pre-Medguy1995]

Hey y'all,

I am a fourth-year DO medical student with some questions about applying to cardiology fellowships. I only took COMLEX and scored okay (45th percentile) and have some aways lined up for some decent IM programs all with their own cardiology fellowships.

What do I need to be doing to be considered a competitive applicant?
Do board scores matter or is it more the performance in residency/research that you do in residency?
What kind of chance do I have having taken only COMLEX/should I go back and try and take STEP now?

I tried looking up the fellowship match data but the evidence is not super conclusive and even less strong as it pertains to DO students.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[AussieAg]

Hey y'all,

I am a fourth-year DO medical student with some questions about applying to cardiology fellowships. I only took COMLEX and scored okay (45th percentile) and have some aways lined up for some decent IM programs all with their own cardiology fellowships.

What do I need to be doing to be considered a competitive applicant?
Do board scores matter or is it more the performance in residency/research that you do in residency?
What kind of chance do I have having taken only COMLEX/should I go back and try and take STEP now?

I tried looking up the fellowship match data but the evidence is not super conclusive and even less strong as it pertains to DO students.

Board scores matter. Fellowship programs still screen-out applicants based on USMLE scores. There are people who match with only having taken COMLEX but they are in the minority. Step 1 is useless now being pass/fail. You may benefit from taking Step 2 CS, but then you may have to explain why you only took one of the three USMLEs.

Fellowship is also predicated on who you know, so the right phone call from the right person can make a program director overlook certain details.

 

[Ivabradine]

Out of all the people I know who applied for cardiology fellowship, board scores mattered more than research for the amount of interviews they got. E.g. A guy with 240-250s and a handful of pubs got more interviews than a guy with 220s and 10-15 pubs. I'm sure its not clear cut but it gives me the idea that board scores are still #1, just like for residency.

 

[EPmed2022]

Hey y'all,

I am a fourth-year DO medical student with some questions about applying to cardiology fellowships. I only took COMLEX and scored okay (45th percentile) and have some aways lined up for some decent IM programs all with their own cardiology fellowships.

What do I need to be doing to be considered a competitive applicant?
Do board scores matter or is it more the performance in residency/research that you do in residency?
What kind of chance do I have having taken only COMLEX/should I go back and try and take STEP now?

I tried looking up the fellowship match data but the evidence is not super conclusive and even less strong as it pertains to DO students.

A lot of top tier cardiology programs will filter based on step scores, where you did residency (which is sort of dictated to some degree by how well you did in medical school overall + boards) and then number of research etc...

 

[Pre-Medguy1995]

A lot of top tier cardiology programs will filter based on step scores, where you did residency (which is sort of dictated to some degree by how well you did in medical school overall + boards) and then number of research etc...

What about the not top-tier ones? I'm not saying I don't want to aim for the highest tier (I do), but at the same time I know that there's quite a few programs that are not "top tier" but still provide a decent cardio education

 

[EPmed2022]

What about the not top-tier ones? I'm not saying I don't want to aim for the highest tier (I do), but at the same time I know that there's quite a few programs that are not "top tier" but still provide a decent cardio education

I think any decent place you will have to take step 1 and at least do better than average. My understanding is step 1 is now pass and fail so I guess at this point with the new system you just need to pass?