Oncology residency and general question

[claudette737]

My question is generally about those specialties which require a transitional year in IM: I know that most FMGs end up in internal medicine or family practice residencies. In my case, Oncolgy requires a 3-year residency in IM anyways, followed by a 3 year fellowship in Oncology.

I wonder if the bias against being an FMG will somewhat lessen come fellowship time, since at that point, I will be coming directly from an IM residency in the USA. Or will I still have a hard time getting a fellowship since I graduated from a caribbean school

I hope that what school I attended doesn't factor heavily. I think that as long as one does very well in their IM residency (in the USA), that should be more important....?

[tryintobeadoc]

Steph from Johns Hopkins would be the person to talk to. She can answer your questions as she is now Chief Resident and she too came through a Caribbean school

[Nimitt]

From what I have gathered talking to alot of my school's grads is that once you have your foot in the IM program fellowships will look at your performance in residency on your in service exams, research during residency and publications, and LOR. At this point what medical school you attended is not really an issue.

Nimitt
3rd year
SGU SOM

[gasdr]

I am not sure what you are asking? You said " My question is generally about those specialties which require a transitional year in IM"

First of all you have two types of prelim years confused and combined.

There is a transitional year prelim which is usually the most competitive prelim year because they are usually less demanding. They consist of rotations similiar to your 4th year in med school. There is usually a mix of IM floors, Peds, OB, outpatient clinics, Surgery and some elective time.

Another type of prelim year is a year of preliminary IM. That consists of IM floors and IM electives, maybe some ICU and/or ER time. These are slightly less competitive but more competitive than preliminary surgery.

Preliminary surgery is another type of prelim. Yikes. It is a year of surgery and it's subspecialties plus ER/ICU and I am not sure if there is any IM floors. Basically it consists of a year of sleep deprivation and lots of scut. (At least that is what I hear)

Field requiring a prelim include are: Anesthesia, Dermatology, Radiology, Opthamology and EM (some programs). This is mostl of them, I am not sure of any others.

As far as your second question, Nimitt is correct. It becomes less important where you went to school when it comes to fellowship applications. If you are an excellent resident, that is what will get you a fellowship. You need great letters and in service exams are also probably important. Good performance in your IM residency is more important than research so don't try to do research instead of doing a lot of reading and impressing your residency faculty.

If you are going for a competittive fellowship they use everything to distinguish between the applicants, may even board scores and med schools.

Good luck.