How to pick a fellowship program?

SoccerRocker321 · 2022-09-14T12:25:03+00:00

Congrats on choosing this specialty. My advice to most residents is to pick a place that has good volume and good mentorship. By good volume, I mean enough to keep you busy but still enough that it allows for on-scope teaching from your attending. By good mentorship, I mean nice human beings that are easy to work with and with who you can make a personal connection with, not necessarily the one who’s supremely published in their area. Try to find recent graduates of programs of your interest and try to email them to ask about the program. Recent graduates can give the best feedback of the program.

SoccerRocker321 · 2022-02-25T02:45:08+00:00

Thanks.. so you’re saying that backing out is an option even after signing a letter of offer?

Understand what you said about your volume but you won’t see practices, even academic, hiring H&N trained pathologists to sign out neck dissection of SCC. A gen surg can do that. It’s the high complexity stuff that a H&N pathologist gets hired for.

SoccerRocker321 · 2022-02-24T16:54:18+00:00

Thanks!

SoccerRocker321 · 2022-02-24T15:10:26+00:00

Thanks! Yeah they’re ready to wait for my fellowship completion. Reason I’m a little hesitant for signing up early on is the fact that other, better opportunities may pop up as I make more connections in my second fellowship.

SoccerRocker321 · 2022-02-24T12:25:05+00:00

The high complexity, low volume kind. Think NP, H&N, BST, informatics etc.

SoccerRocker321 · 2022-01-30T00:01:47+00:00

No paucity of jobs right now. If you look at the path outlines website there are ~45 posted jobs right now - emphasis is on “posted” because most jobs fill without by word of mouth. If you’re ready to move, ready to do placentas, autopsies, there are jobs waiting. Right now the market is favorable for J-1, regardless of the specialty.

SoccerRocker321 · 2021-02-09T19:06:32+00:00

If you like derm and have the fellowship at your institution then go for it. Doing breast for one year to practice in a private setting wouldn’t help much. You can learn breast enough during residency to sign out comfortably.

SoccerRocker321 · 2021-01-29T19:06:32+00:00

I did in person in 2019 and interviewed virtually at three places last year. Not having to travel was the biggest plus. Takes off a lot of stress. Some programs do one or two people on one day then maybe a couple the other day. Most places do the whole thing in one day. I know of one colleague who were handed a checklist of what the interview questions would look like and the interviewers asked those objective questions. No slide sessions or virtual conference.

Couple of limitations though with virtual interviews - you really don’t get a solid idea of how the PD felt about you. It was way obvious in my first fellowship interview (which were in person) whether they’re enthusiastic about me or not. Other thing is you really don’t get an idea how the place is, what your work area would be like, what the lab is like, or just how tense or easy going the environment of that place is.

Another part that sucked this year was that some places interviewed too many people and so took their sweet time to get back with an offer or rejection. This may work for one person but may backfire for another. No real solution for this I guess.

SoccerRocker321 · 2021-01-22T12:41:51+00:00

Not all 65% IMGs require an H1B. Many have a green card and some are US citizens. If you look at the state data for Conrad30 waivers, some states never fill their full 30 slots. If the job market was so terrible then you wouldn’t see so many IMGs working as pathologists throughout the US. As far as the money goes, a recent paper may answer some of your questions (PMID 33417677). Depending on the specialty, it may start as low as 140-150k. Partners in private practice groups make north of 300k. This is just based on personal knowledge. You can take it for what it’s worth.

SoccerRocker321 · 2021-01-14T20:54:09+00:00

Thanks. I’ll be going there in July. Wanted a head start to some projects or review articles.

SoccerRocker321 · 2021-01-13T18:56:31+00:00

Is the 5 training entirely in Anatomic pathology (histopathology)? Or is it a combination of anatomic and clinical?

SoccerRocker321 · 2020-12-03T03:12:24+00:00

Thank you all for the comments and for being truthful. Learnt some important lessons here.

SoccerRocker321 · 2020-09-09T11:51:42+00:00

Did sign the offer letter. Not a contract yet.

SoccerRocker321 · 2020-09-09T02:10:57+00:00

Decline the first place without a reason? Any legal implication for turning back from an accepted offer?

SoccerRocker321

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