Can You Apply to Fellowship if Your Letter Is Not Uploaded?

Applying for fellowships is a stressful procedure. It not only involves making major decisions that will impact your life but it also requires creating a competitive application and preparing for high-stakes interviews, all while yous are still fulfilling your responsibilities as a resident. NEJM Resident 360 hosted a discussion with a panel of experts on preparing for fellowship to explore many of these problems. In this blog postal service, I share some personal tips and useful advice from our panel experts on how to be a successful fellowship candidate.

Be the Early on Bird

Creating a successful application for fellowship does not starting time ane or two months before applications are due. Starting the process a yr before you apply can ensure that you are ahead of the game.

Here are some things to think most during the year before applying:

• Make up one's mind on your subspecialty:

You may exist someone who knew you lot wanted to exist a cardiologist when you lot applied to medical school or you may however be undecided about specialties. If y'all are in the 2d category, try to discover clinical experiences in the subspecialty during your elective period, ambulatory cake (for outpatient-focused specialties), or inpatient rotations in specialties that you are considering (for specialties with a heavy inpatient load, such as cardiology and oncology). Talk to fellows and faculty in the specialty to learn what their life is like. Discuss your choices with advisors (eastward.g., your residency programme director) or mentors. You lot might also find the NEJM Resident 360 blog post Family Medicine, Rad Onc, or OB? How to Choose a Specialty helpful.

• Invest in at least one rotation in your chosen subspecialty:

Most fellowships want at least i letter from a faculty member in the subspecialty that you are applying for. As y'all gear up your schedule for the year, ensure that you have at to the lowest degree 1 rotation that will give you time with a subspecialty faculty fellow member who can write a letter of recommendation for you lot.

• Take role in research projects to enhance your awarding:

Depending on your subspecialty and career plans, consider working on a project that either has a enquiry or educational focus or on a case study or case series during the yr earlier you use. This is specially important if you plan to have a career that includes nonclinical or nontraditional activities such equally enquiry, medical education, health policy, global health, infirmary administration, and medical writing. Participating in such activities in addition to patient care will demonstrate your commitment and set you autonomously from other applicants.

• Take time out of the training path:

Many residents are interested in taking a twelvemonth off to do research, work as a hospitalist, or act every bit a primary medical resident. In many cases, this may strengthen your application. However, being away from clinical medicine for too long might arm-twist concern almost your clinical skills when you return to do. Make sure to address your conclusion to take time out in your personal statement and be prepared during your interview to explicate why y'all decided to have that path, how yous spent this fourth dimension, and how the experience will assistance you lot during fellowship and your career. If you were a hospitalist and practiced independently for an extended period, you may exist asked nearly the challenges of being a trainee once again and required to run your plans by someone else.

Assembling Your Application

Equally the awarding submission deadlines loom closer (inside vi months), offset collecting all the documents that you need to create your awarding. Some components depend only on you (e.m., the personal argument and resume) while other parts crave input from busy people (e.g., letters of recommendation). The before yous start, the better!

Here are the steps required to assemble your application:

• Familiarize yourself with the application requirements:

About subspecialties utilise the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Some programs and subspecialties have specific requirements, so you lot will want to review the ERAS website in detail likewise as the relevant fellowship program websites.

• Request letters of recommendation (LoR):
  • How many? Aim for iv messages if the number is non specified. Check plan requirements on the ERAS and program websites.

• Who should write the messages? Afterwards you review the alphabetic character requirements for your programs, think about who tin can write a meaningful LoR about your abilities equally a doctor rather than someone who will rehash your CV. Ordinarily, one of the letters is from your residency program director. Others tin can be written by clinicians in general medicine or subspecialties with whom you have worked. If you accept been involved in research or education projects, go LoRs from your project supervisor. Include at to the lowest degree one letter from a subspecialist in the specialty that you are applying for.

• When should I ask for the letter? Request for a letter of the alphabet while you are still working with a faculty member is best — and the earlier the amend — as this allows them to pay more than attention to your performance in existent time and perhaps take note of specific strengths or examples. You can provide additional instructions on how to submit the LoR closer to the due date.

• How practise I ask for the letter? Beginning, don't be afraid to ask! All faculty members at institutions with residency programs are accustomed to writing LoRs. You lot can e-mail your request, merely besides offering to meet in person to talk over your career plans. Writers based outside of the U.S. may crave more than guidance. An international faculty member may be brief about your abilities, and this could exist perceived more than negatively than intended. Providing sample LoRs could be helpful.

Here are some more helpful tips:

• Enquire if they feel they know you well plenty to write a positive letter on your behalf
• Provide an updated copy of your CV and your personal statement to frame the LoR
• Consider noting specific areas on your CV that you would like highlighted
• Always remember to thank your letter writers, particularly later you match, because they will be curious virtually the outcome!

• How are the letters submitted? Letters are submitted electronically via ERAS. Make sure you lot review the ERAS procedure advisedly and instruct your letter writers on how to submit their LoRs.

• Write your personal statement:

Your CV and LoR may be prioritized over your personal statement, but programs utilize your personal statement to learn more than almost yous. The personal statement is the only place in your awarding where you can add your voice and bring together all of the pieces of your application. Send your personal statement to friends and mentors to ensure that it is error-free. Keep it brief — no more than one page.

Some questions you may want to ask yourself every bit y'all write your personal statement include:

• What experiences make you a stiff candidate for this program?
• What parts of your application suggest that you volition have a successful career?
• How can you draw the reader's focus on your unique achievements?
• What relevant information is not included elsewhere on the awarding (east.g., unexplained absences from clinical work or a failed exam)?

• Create your application/CV:

ERAS will prompt yous to input all the information that fellowship program directors are looking for, such every bit education, academic projects, publications, etc. Include all achievements, including ongoing projects. Exist prepared to address anything that is on your awarding during the interview.

• Select programs to use to and submit your application:

Once yous accept created your application, you will submit it to programs (usually via ERAS). Deciding how many and which programs to apply to will depend on personal preferences, your competitiveness as an bidder, and the type of training yous seek. For example, if y'all are planning a career as a clinician-investigator, focus on academically oriented programs. If you had some struggles during medical school or residency and therefore practise not have a very strong application, you may need to apply more broadly. Your residency program director can help you decide how many and what programs to apply to. Look at the fellowship program website to find out the career paths of prior fellows.

Acing the Interview

Fellowship interviews are often a fleck more involved than residency interviews. The number of kinesthesia members and trainees is much smaller in the fellowship program, and some fellows may stay on kinesthesia after their fellowship. Therefore, kinesthesia will be because you as a potential future colleague and desire to make up one's mind in the interview whether yous will exist a skillful fit.

Tips for acing the interview include:

• Be engaged: Show your best side during the interview solar day. Make sure y'all are rested. Practise not schedule interviews when y'all are post-call! Exist social, put your telephone away, and get to know the faculty, fellows, and other applicants.

• Practice and prepare: Many residency programs will offering mock interviews with experienced fellowship interviewers. Even if you do not accept the opportunity to do a mock interview, set up answers to normally asked questions and practice delivering these answers out loud.

Some interview topics to set for include:

• talking about yourself
• your strengths/weaknesses
• draw a challenging patient interaction and how you lot resolved it
• where you want to be in five to 10 years (You don't have to exist specific but you should have some sense of what you would similar to do and how you will go there.)

Make sure you lot know what questions interviewers are not allowed to ask (eastward.g., what other programs y'all practical to, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and family unit status). If any of these questions come up, try to make low-cal of information technology and take the chat in a different direction. Permit your residency program director know if you are concerned about questions asked during your interview.

• Know your interviewers: Many fellowships will give y'all the interview schedule ahead of time; make sure you read about the interviewers and their interests. If yous know the program has a kinesthesia member that might make a expert mentor, make sure to contact the program well ahead of fourth dimension to see if they can schedule an interview with that person. In addition to the division'southward website, you can notice useful information most interviewers on PubMed, LinkedIn, Doximity, Google, etc. This data will allow you to find some mutual points for discussion during the interview.

• Ask questions: You should have read the programme's website in detail before the interview. Reviewing the website of the medical school or the medical heart might also be helpful. You may detect information on a relevant grant or multidisciplinary initiative. Set honest questions to help get to the essence of the type of curriculum the program offers (including clinical experiences y'all would similar to larn more nearly, research mentorship, or non-clinical training opportunities).

• Interact with current fellows: They are on the front lines and can tell you more about call schedules, piece of work hours, and other 24-hour interval-to-day questions than whatsoever of the faculty members. In addition, current fellows tin can give you the within scoop on the programme, the program managing director, and mentorship.

• Ship thank you notes: Sending a give thanks-y'all notation (via email or snail mail) is not required and may non be reciprocated. If your post-interview feelings are genuine, you can cull to transport a quick note to express your ongoing interest in the program and you can include specific points, but do not cutting and paste a generic thank you note. If at that place are been major updates to your awarding, permit the programme know.

• Mail service-interview communication: The official match policy is to discourage any communication from the program to the applicant after the mean solar day of the interview. Therefore, if yous do not hear from the programme, it does not necessarily signal a lack of interest in you lot. Yet, fellowship programs are non prohibited from contacting yous so y'all may go a phone call or an electronic mail, normally just to check if you have whatever additional questions. Programs cannot ask you how you lot are going to rank them. If you take concerns about a post-interview advice, discuss it with your residency programme director who can assist resolve the situation.

One time you are washed with the interview season, you will need to submit your rank listing and look for lucifer day! Good luck!

Dr. Hamnvik is an endocrinologist and educator at Brigham and Women'south Infirmary and Harvard Medical School in Boston. He is a core faculty in the HMS endocrine grade; an advisor for HMS medical students during their clinical years; an assistant program manager for the internal medicine residency program and an associate program director for the endocrinology fellowship program at Brigham and Women's Hospital; and also involved in several standing medical education courses.

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Source: https://resident360.nejm.org/expert-consult/applying-for-fellowship-what-you-need-to-know-2