Fellowship

[Gwendolyn]

As that light is beginning to twinkle, I am on to the next step...fellowship. I don't know if there is a gauge, or if it shifts depending on specialty, but....for those of you who have done or are planning on doing fellowship, how many interviews are we looking at? The airfare costs are freaking me out, but I know he needs to pursue what is available.

[Malpka]

For DH's fellowship, I think he interviewed at 10 programs. I am sure there is a wide variation in different specialties as for number of interviews, but for his specialty it was important to go to as many as possible. Squeezing them in around a work schedule was difficult, and made shopping for "bargain" airline fares nearly impossible. In some areas I was able to priceline hotels for him, and having him fly out late at night after an interview saved another night of hotel fees. Our CC took a beating, but the end result was good in that he got a spot. Total tally was proabably around the 5k mark, but luckily we were able to pay it off when we sold our home for fellowship move.

We are doing 2 fellowships...we were really lucky with the first one in that DH did an elective spot there and they offered him the position a year ago...right place at the right time as it's the competitive one. the second one (which will actually be the first spot starting this June) we STILL haven't decided on yet....he has 3 offers, but different problems with each one....no interview costs, we lucked in that there was a group of travelling fellows (ABC fellows) and they came here and DH was asked to host them...again right place at the right time!

[migirl]

We are looking at fellowship as well, but I guess I should consider ourselves lucky in that DH is only interviewing at one program (our current location)? DH is applying for a clinical research fellowship in health services, and there are only four sites in the country that offer it. Our current location is one of them, so he's only interviewing here.

I guess it depends on the specialty and type of fellowship.

[houseelf]

This COMPLETELY depends on the fellowship. Our dear friend did an Ortho fellowship which he got through a few influential phone calls.
On the other end of the spectrum is my DH's chosen sub-specialty. Last year only 44% of candidates matched anywhere AT ALL. Additionally, candidates are not taken seriously if they don't interview at every possible opening. Peds surgery is a super tiny world. Everyone talks. Allegedly the top programs call each other and deal for the top candidates. (I'm not quite sure that I believe that it gets that mafioso, but who knows).

Anyhow, we did 22 interviews in three months. We cut all corners possible and it still cost us $7,000 (and our sanity).

All is well that ends well, however. We are both pleased with our match and the subspecialty promises to be more family friendly and pay more $.

Best of luck. I hope that your chosen subspecialty is one of the "phone call" type matches.

Kelly

For dh's subspeciality he ended up interviewing at only one. He got the offer on the eve (literally) of an interview at another institution - but since the offer was for the one we wanted, he backed out of the other interview. (He was going to drive to Chicago, pay for a hotel, etc. --- too much to go through if you have no interest in taking it). We were lucky that choice #1 offered early enough that we didn't need to waste $ traveling to other interviews.

Just be sure that the sub-speciality WILL make your life better / more marketable / better $. Had I realized that dh's choice would strap us into the tiniest job market possible & trap him in academics (less $), I would have had more to say about it.

DH did four interviews for his fellowship. He got two offers right after he interviewed (at spots #2 and #3) so he didn't interview at the rest of the places.