Or maybe even a better question, which are the worst research fellowships?

Are you a 4th year or intern?

4th year

The best ones are the ones AFTER internship. Have you matched to an internship?

yup - I'm just curious about which programs i should really shoot for when i apply in the fall

Don't do the Skin Oncology fellowship at BU. I haven't seen even one of their fellows match into BU for Derm.

do they match elsewhere? or not at all

I mean honestly, I haven't seen if they've matched elsewhere. Usually your BEST chance to match is at the place you're doing a research fellowship, except of course for places like MGH, but that's pretty well known in advance. But she clearly has the ability to get you into other places, assuming you work hard and are productive. Kimball is very honest when she recruits her fellows on how much they're going to have to do to reach their goals. She doesn't recruit people just to fill up a spot like some others do.

I know. I am her fellow ;-) I think it is important when looking at fellowships to know their match rate overall and also their match rate at that institution. You only need one of these. For me, I didn't mind knowing in advance I wouldn't match at Harvard because I knew she had an amazing track record of matching her fellows elsewhere, especially in the region they are from. Also, there are other aspects of this fellowship that I think set it apart from other fellowships with similar match rates.

Yeah, her fellowship is great to get (as you well know from experience) because #1 - you know you've been vetted in some way by her in terms of your ERAS application, so you know you do indeed have a chance (she doesn't just take a person to be a warm body filling up a position- not that she needs to - so her track record in matching is excellent), #2 - the fellowship experience with her is so incredible in terms of what you do and learn, that it would probably be helpful once you enter Derm residency. It's not a dead-end fellowship where you're not publishing anything, lose motivation, and end up not matching. Another good one is Dr. Koo with UCSF.

I'm biased, but MGH all the way! Literally could not have had a better fellowship year.

Dr. Kimball is awesome! <--- truth