Residency comes next

Not residency, but fellowship. D will find out where fellowship will be next week , after 7 long years of residency. She interviewed at many places, we will find out if she will end up in MA, CT, MI, TN, NC or GA. Currently in MA so hoping to match here. Moving for a 1 year fellowship will suck. I will be moving with them as I am the caregiver for grandson.

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@kingsman115

icuinNm’s daughter is a graduating med student. She received a merit-based private scholarship managed by the school last year (meaning the school chooses who receives it) and now, apparently, a different school-based merit award.

Both of my daughters attended the same med school the icuinNm’s d went to and they both also received merit scholarships, but, boy, let me tell you the school is pretty opaque about how these scholarships get awarded. There are no published criteria for the awards. The only way D1 found out she had received a scholarship is when a credit line appeared on her semester billing statement.

Residents and Fellows are paid a salary by their employer (hospital or clinic that hosts the program). They don’t get scholarships.

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Thank you. That is what confused me I guess that D is going into residency and got a scholarship. I guess I just misread the timing. So what you saying is that Med schools (or their sponsors) do look at performance and EC in college and might award Merit if they “want” you.

No, this med school awards the scholarships only after students have successfully completed a semester or more of med school. Undergrad activities have zero to do with it. It was their performance in med school, their academics, their clinical skills, their volunteer work and ECs (particularly leadership roles in activities) which won them awards.

For example, D1 was a top quartile student, but not at the very top of her class. However, she was very active organizing a wide variety of med school-related activities. (Specially interest groups, whole body donor remembrance day, clinical volunteering projects, community health outreach with disadvantaged groups, etc). Her scholarship was for her volunteer service & class leadership.

But not all schools handle it this way. Some offer merit to entice desirable incoming students (usually with multiple med school acceptances) to enroll at their school.

The school in question is a state, publicly supported med school. Public med schools have very limited funds for scholarships. So getting a full or half tuition scholarship is a big deal at those types of schools.

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Like @WayOutWestMom stated, the selection process is a mystery, at least for the scholarships that D has received. They aren’t all like that though. There was one scholarship during the 2nd semester of her 1st year where she just had to fill out a quick online form. This was the only scholarship that required a form that D actually filled out. The others were given without applying for it. Everyone in her class who read the email and filled out the form, received the scholarship. Then Covid happened and the students were receiving all kinds of money back into their accounts each semester. I’m assuming that was Covid money that the school received and passed to the students.

The scholarship D received a few months ago was quite large. D and a few other students were invited to a luncheon where they received recognition from the sponsors. We still don’t know how the recipients were chosen. This last scholarship showed up 3 days before graduation. That was certainly an unexpected surprise. D doesn’t know how many others received it.

Thank you both for your insightful feedback.

My D matched to her #1 choice for fellowship, the same place she has been at for Residency. No moving!

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And then poof. Residency ends. On to a fellowship!

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My D has two years left on her residency. She flew in today for a visit and to attend a wedding and will go home Monday. We were talking at dinner about how this time next summer she would be starting to apply for jobs. She probably won’t do a fellowship.

After all these years my daughter is home working on notes at my dining room table. I think it has been at least 12 years since the last time.

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D will be home for a week before starting fellowship on 2nd.

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Excellent!

Congratulations to those who have a resident graduating! Did their programs have graduation ceremonies or is it more of a dinner celebration type of event? Does Fellowship begin July 1st like residency? Does their current program release them a few days early or do they work until June 30th and then start their fellowship the next day? I guess that would vary by program.

D and her H are all settled into their new city and home. She has been going through the residency onboarding/orientation process for over two and a half weeks so far. She has nothing but great things to say about her PD and her fellow residents. Time for the next chapter to begin!

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D’s ceremony didn’t include anyone from family, essentially resident only ceremony. They spent the money that would have gone to event in buying them a gift.

The program officially lists ending Friday but they were released last week. Fellowship starts on 3rd.

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Residency graduation events vary by specialty and program. Some specialties are small (like only 2-3 residents/year); other are larger (like 50-75 residents/year)

Both D1 (15 in her graduating class) and D2 (6 in her graduating class) were in smaller specialties at academic hospitals. They had a dinner for grads and guests where there were lots of speeches. Awards were given to both grads and current residents. But not all programs do that.

Fellowship begins the first Monday on or after July 1 just like residency for most sub-specialties. But there may be required orientations ahead of time–just like for residency.

Sound like you D made a happy match with a program where she will grow and learn.
That’s wonderful news!

~~

D2 finished fellowship last week. ( I think.) There was no ceremony/fanfare. Just you’re done, Goodbye. She’s getting ready to start her first attending job and is getting nervous. Working without a net is scary. The first 2 years of being an attending has a huge learning curve where you learn how you personally like to practice medicine and what you want in your workflow.

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DD residency did a very nice cocktail hour, dinner and presentation of all the residency and fellowship grads in her discipline (I think there were 16 residents and 8 fellows). Each doctor was allowed six guests. The program directors spoke about each graduate, and the one we attended was actually very well done, and funny!

This residency was a three year one, so these 2020 med school grads didn’t have a live med school graduation, and that was noted. Made evening really a celebration of 7 years of training.

Fellowships here start July 1, but most have orientation the first two weeks.

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Thanks for the replies to my questions. I had no idea what took place for the residents and fellows when finished. I assumed that all residents started on July 1st, but learned from you all that it’s actually the first Monday in July! I should have asked D but assumed it was July 1st so I never asked.

Congratulations @thumper1 and @texaspg. Another phase


D has finished 3 years of a 7 year program - so there’s still no light at the end of this tunnel here. She was presenting at a conference last week and I joined her - had a great mother-daughter trip for the first time! And she’s working from our home this week - like @bajamm daughter, she hasn’t been home for any extended time for the past 12 years!

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20 years back, spouse’s program did a dinner cruise in NYC and one guest was allowed :smiling_face:

BTW, I was wrong. Talked with D2 yesterday. Fellowship finishes Friday. They are making her work to very last day of June.

Also residents starting on or around July 1st is the reason why everyone should avoid the ER and hospitalizations during the first couple of weeks of July if at all possible. All the new interns have zero idea of what they’re doing and so everything runs slower than usual.

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Today was D2 last day of fellowship. She finished all her paperwork, turned in her badge and walked out of the building. No acknowledgements. No good-byes. Very anti-climatic.

On to the joys of attending-hood.

We talked about how D2 wants to decorate her new office. As the most junior of an 8 person group, she gets the smallest office and one without a window. The office comes with a desk and chair and nothing else.

Since she says she’ll be sleeping there** about 2 nights/month when she has overnight call, she wants a nice comfortable futon, a white noise machine, a couple of nice artificial plants in varying sizes. She wants to get all her diplomas framed so she can hang them behind her desk and probably a nice framed painting or poster of mountains. A coffee table if it will fit.

**There is an on-call room for attendings, but it’s right next to the residents’ call room which is noisy because people are banging the doors open and closed all night. Most of her partners sleep in their offices because it’s quieter.

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