A few fellowship questions that must be asked to all present Urology Residents contemplating their futures, who may be disturbed by the idea of forgoing making a living and watching student loan interest accrue for an additional 2 years.
1. Can someone explain the logic of a fellowship match? Other than to control and artificially reduce salaries of highly qualified people, I cannot think of any reason.
2. We'll be training and learning new skills throughout our careers, why do this at a resident/fellow salary for an additional 1-3 years?
3. If someone is not "fellowship trained," but completed a 5 or 6 year residency in a top program, is he/she really worth less than someone who trained at a middle or lower teir program, but did a fellowship?
4. Is fellowship worth the $500,000 tuition? And, don't be fooled, that is the tuition in terms of opportunity cost. Not working as an attending Urologist for 2 years will cost you on average $250,000 per year in lost wages (possibly more).
A forum like this would be a nice place to hear opinions of current Residents on these issues.
1. Can someone explain the logic of a fellowship match? Other than to control and artificially reduce salaries of highly qualified people, I cannot think of any reason.
2. We'll be training and learning new skills throughout our careers, why do this at a resident/fellow salary for an additional 1-3 years?
3. If someone is not "fellowship trained," but completed a 5 or 6 year residency in a top program, is he/she really worth less than someone who trained at a middle or lower teir program, but did a fellowship?
4. Is fellowship worth the $500,000 tuition? And, don't be fooled, that is the tuition in terms of opportunity cost. Not working as an attending Urologist for 2 years will cost you on average $250,000 per year in lost wages (possibly more).
A forum like this would be a nice place to hear opinions of current Residents on these issues.
