WDS Career Corner: Tips for Applying to a Mohs Micrographic Surgery Fellowship

 Special thanks to Julia Baltz, M.D., current Chair of WDS RFYP Committee; Whitney Fancher, M.D., Mohs physician in Oregon and Washington; Kaitlin Blankenship, MD Mohs fellow at University of Massachusetts

 

In residency, prior to applying:

• ·Be a good resident- team player, treat everyone including staff and co-residents with respect 
  
• For all applicants, especially if your home program doesn't have a Mohs fellowship, make sure you network early on! You can utilize professional societies like WDS, ASDS or the Mohs College. Many have mentorship opportunities and are expanding their virtual options during COVID 
  
• Do everything you can to expand your surgical skills as some programs will ask you to suture during the interview and at the very least, programs expect you to have the basics down pat 
  
• Get involved in research, ideally surgical and Mohs-related research if possible 
  
• Make time to volunteer (i.e. skin cancer screenings)
  
• Especially if your program isn’t strong surgically, try to get in 1-2 away rotations during 2nd year of residency -ideally with programs you’d like to match at or well-known programs so you can get a good letter of recommendation 
  
• Save some vacation time 3rd year for fellowship interviews

 

During interviews

• Be yourself, be helpful, be interested 
  
• For virtual years, talk to prior fellows or residents to get the “real deal” information about the program, or talk to friends and colleagues to see what they know about the program
  
• Treat everyone, including surgeons, staff, patients, other students, with respect
  
• Know who you are interviewing with (read up on their research and specific interests in the field)
  
• Meet all surgeons in person if possible so you know who you would be working with
  
• Always visit the program in person if possible so you can see the location, office layout, meet staff as well as surgeon(s) 
  
• Take the interview as an opportunity to learns new styles of practice; even if you don’t match at a specific program you can still learn something new on an interview day

 

When applying to and ranking programs

• Know yourself and what you want out of a fellowship experience - some variables to consider: 
  
• Case volume, complexity and number of surgeons that would be training you 
• Surgical versus cosmetic - some programs have a large cosmetic component which can be good or bad depending on personal goals 
• Research opportunities and expectations
  

• Know what your next step is - where do you want to practice? Private or Academic?  If you don’t match, will you apply again?  In what ways will you strengthen your application during a gap year?