I was wondering if anyone could elaborate on the criteria for matching in a strong hem/onc fellowship. I undestand the importance of the LORs and IM residency training program, but I also was wondering about board scores, aoa status and med school honors-will these still be looked at? Will the place were one went to medical school be influential, i.e. if it is a state school? Besides MSKCC and DFCI what are some other strong fellowship programs in the east coast? Can you comment on their competitiveness/how tough are they to get in?
On a different note regarding the fast track: if I understand correcty, one must apply for fellowship durng November of PGY1. This precludes taking step 3, and limits the amount of clinical experience to make an impression on the program director and important faculty for LORs. Can anyone elaborate on their experience applying to fellowship after fast tracking?
Any help with these questions would be appreciated... Thank you in advance!
There are roughly hojiggety million posts dealing with your first set of questions in the Hem/Onc section of this forum so I'll ignore them here.
As for the Research Pathway (don't call it a fast track, it takes longer than the traditional pathway), there are 2 ways to get into it.
First is to apply as an intern to a place that has it combined IM/Fellowship. There are many of these (I applied to about a dozen) and you can find info on the programs websites.
The second is as you described above. Rather than applying as a PGY2, you apply during your intern year. If this is something that you're interested in doing, you need to make sure that the place you match (assuming you don't match into a combined program) knows this on Match Day or ASAP afterwards. Make sure that you have easy (outpt or consult) rotations scheduled for October (so you can get your app done and submitted on 11/1) and Feb or March so that you can interview. Also make sure that you have at least one Onc rotation (inpt/consult/ambulatory) in the first 3 months of your intern year, 2 if you can swing it. This will allow you to get 1 or 2 letters for fellowship apps.
Yes, it's a pain in the a$$ to apply as an intern. You have next to no time off to travel for interviews and if feels like you just finished doing all of that (actually, you did). You need to make sure that your PD and the PD of the fellowship at your home program are on board with you doing it and are supportive. You also need to totally rock your first 4 or 5 rotations as an intern b/c you will need a letter from your PD and this is all s/he will have to go on. Slack off later in the year but not until your application is complete.
As far as the logistics go, you just apply as if you're a PGY2 but be sure to mention in your PS that you're applying for the Research Pathway. Depending on the programs where you interview, you may have to explain what this means to many of your interviewers and be able to defend why you want to do it. In a world where even good candidates are having to do chief years in order to get fellowships, there's a natural bias against people who are seen (however incorrectly) as trying to game the system and get away with something by only doing 2 IM years. Just get used to it.
As far as Step 3, you are certainly welcome to take it before Nov of your PGY1 year (I don't think there are any states that prohibit taking it if you're an intern but I may be wrong) but logistically it is kind of a nightmare. And, assuming you have good Step 1/2 scores, Step 3 can only hurt you. Nobody cares that you did 5 pts better on it than Step 2, but if you do 5 pts worse, it will be noticed. Step 3 is less important than a lot of people think it is, and as a Research Pathway applicant, it won't be expected that you've taken it.
Having said all that, if you don't have the research chops and desire, don't apply to the research pathway just to get out of a year of IM. They'll see right through you. If you really want an academic research/onc career though, go for it.
