Posted anonymously via
Google Form.
Applicant Summary:
Board Scores: 220's/250's (USMLE) 600's/600's (COMLEX)
EM Rotations: P/Honors/P
AOA: No
Med School Region: Southeast
Anything else that made you more competitive: Lol, I wish.
Main considerations in making this ROL: Proximity to home, my spouse, opportunities in medical critical care specifically and especially for in house fellowships, ability to buy a house in the area, quality of life and training, benefits and perks, exposure to trauma, COL, quality of residents, 3>4, and I'm sure there's more I can't think of at the moment.
1) MS- University of Mississippi
Pros: 3 years, good volume, farm and "urban" trauma, huge referral area, phenomenal COL, residents were great in similar mindset/values as my wife an I., easy to buy a house, PD very glad to hear I wanted to be there, huge plus for the IM based CC fellowship in addition to existing surgical and soon to be anesthesia one, not too referral heavy for a more academic place, handle most of the trauma, flight opps, discount on food and access in the hospital to it, resident food lounge thing. Gas station BBQ.
Cons: Jackson isn't the best city down south, but I'll take it.
2) VA- Eastern Virginia Medical School Program
Pros: Residents were very nice, family oriented, most had dogs, really love the area. ED staffed by private group with a little more cash to spend on perks like journal club with fam invited, catered lunch for didactics, resident retreat. New years or xmas off in addition to 15 days. IM Critical Care fellowship open to EM. Day float ICU rotation, and on that note lots of rotations very m-f 9-5 feel. Flight opps from day one. 2 month orientation. Send interns to SAEM and others. Dragon dictation, epic. Extensive alumni base, old program, well established. Allegedly can get an Emergency response vehicle with lights and sirens.I like the multiple sites longitudinally instead of one hospital each month vibe. Beach eating.
Cons: Location is great, but far from home. Concern for trauma exposure given hx of malignancy in surgery program.
3) GA- WellStar Kennestone Regional (Marietta)
Pros: Very busy, great perks, close to home. I rotated here, and got to do a lot during my month, but I could have done more. I enjoyed the PD and faculty and they seem like they have a great vision for the place if they could just work it out with the rest of the hospital. Close to Atlanta as well. Southern cooking.
Cons: If it wasn't so close to home for me and my wife, this may be further down the list. I didn't love my interactions with some faculty during my rotation month, the OB thing has to get figured out, and the program is just really new. Oh, and friggin' traffic.
4) LA- Louisiana State University (New Orleans)
Pros: Hands down the best program I visited. If it wasn't 4 years it'd be number one or two. Great exposure to everything, new orleans is awesome, PD is great and enthusiastic, cares about social issues and missions and puts their money where their mouth is, hospital is absolutely incredible. I think QOL would be really great here. Cajun food.
Cons: 4 years kind of ruins this place unfortunately, especially since I want to do critical care. I don't need an extra year separating me and a real income if I can help it.
5) FL- Mt. Sinai (Miami Beach)
Pros: Location is great, peds experience is at level 1 trauma, PICU experience off service also good, thinking of starting cc fellowship, small cohort year to year, friendly, likely will learn spanish, Miami, good mentor ship, daycare on site. We have "family" in the area and that's a huge plus for us. I enjoyed the faculty a lot. Connection with current AAEM president and will likely be able to make fellowship wherever I want. Cafe con leche.
Cons: Slow summer season, cost of living. Medical director is a bit intense.
6) FL- Aventura Hospital
Pros: Super nice faculty, PD CCM training and experience, strong fellowship placements so far but they have to work for it, good location, tight knit resident community, free food, free parking, mentorship model is cool (family style), Tuesday nights off at least first year for protected conference time. Also, cuban food.
Cons: Slow summer season, 12 hour shifts, HCA program, smaller hospital (400 beds), fast track work as a resident,, COL, lots of off service first year, away for peds month in a hotel
7) SC- Grand Strand Regional Medical Center Program
Pros: It seems like the PD really wants this program to be great and has recruited a lot of very talented people who are in the area to stay, the residents were really great, food was phenomenal, free breakfast and lunch at the hospital, very busy ED, close to the beach with affordable COL. Family friendly, organized. Beach food.
Cons: No critical care fellowship opportunities there, may set up well for one outside, but that means moving after three years. HCA. New program.
8) LA- Louisiana State University (New Orleans)
Yes this is on here twice. Not a mistake. This is my EM/IM ranking for the program.
Pros: Same as above, but for EM/IM the pros are that it's tight knit resident wise, great training, 6/6 split training, no supertern year,
Cons: No direct path to EM/IM unless I want to spend my whole life in training. I'd prefer to never go past PGY5/6, and the thought of having to go onto 7/8 is just too much. If this was EM/IM/CCM 6 year program it'd be #1 no doubt about it.
9) NC- Campbell University/Cape Fear Valley Medical Center
Pros: Residents were great, really seemed to like being trailblazers, didn't seem overworked, decent perks, admin listens to them, huge volume and very excited to build programs in the area, possible CC fellowship in the works a couple years out. Huge volume and exposure to a lot of really sick people. Proximity to Ft. Bragg and military style injuries.
Cons: 4 years, not graduated a class yet, osteopathic focus is unfortunate (and I say this as a DO), new program. Fayetteville is ROUGH.
10) PA- St. Luke's Bethlehem
Pros: The nicest residents on the trail so far, very nice and all get along well, many with families and kids. Attendings seem to be eager to teach and very focused on seeing residents succeed. Level one trauma. Access to critical care residency in house. 1.5 hours to philly and NYC. An hour to the mountains for skiing/snowboarding. Child care available on site/nearby; also sick kids in day care can be watched for $25 bucks a day. Third largest area in PA.
Cons: this is just too far from home. If it was less than 12 hours maybe it'd stand a shot but too far is too far. A little quiet in bethlehem and not really the biggest volume.
11) PA- Albert Einstein Healthcare Network Program
Pros: Very busy hospital for the area and location, busiest in Philly, #1 trauma in state, 3/3/3 schedule, Peds at CHOP (#1 in USA), family system mentoring but residents didn't get much benefit so really tbd, great fellowship placement for grads (seem to get what they want), good reputation, 40 year program, nice PD, goes to bat for residents.
Cons: This is the first program on my list where I'm not sure I'd be so happy to match. It's far, expensive, and Philly just really isn't our place. The residents seemed really overworked, tired, and there's no good reason for this program to be four years for any reason whatsoever. High COL.
12) MS- Merit Health Wesley (Hattiesburg)
Pros: Really good cost of living, residents are nice, theres a lot of moonlighting opps, medium acuity, transfer center, access to fitness with pool, sauna, gym and classes, food is always accessible, coffee shop in hospital, good graduated responsiblity system: on your own training, "battle ready" fourth year; pd said there may be opportunities to moonlight as CC doc, college town. Brett Farvre seen on the reg on the bike path.
Cons: This place just really has no bells and no whistles. It's just as plane jane as can be, 4 years, in the middle of nowehere MS, with no direct or easy path to fellowships. It's at the bottom only because it doesn't really have much to offer us other than the standard of everywhere else. It really wasn't bad, it just wasn't great.
Programs You Applied To:
Gosh, a lot. Originally around 70, ended up with only 4 IVs late october, panicked and added more, ended up getting a rest of invites from original group plus one or two from added ones.
Programs whose interviews you declined:
Rowan, St. Vincents PA, Robert Guthrie
I was waitlisted at U Louisville but never got off unfortunately, not sure where to list that so I put it here.
Programs whose interviews you attended:
All those listed above
Programs from which you withdrew before hearing anything:
None
Programs that rejected you:
Man lol. A friggin lot. Off the top: UNC (lol thank goodness), Orlando health (also lol at the non cc'd rejection not rejection rerejection late half-apology email train), wake forest, UT murfreesboro, U Penn, Northwestern, some texas ones, some chicago ones, and so on. Mostly it was a bunch of silence from everywhere. What a ride.
Note from @Stephanopolous : To anyone who would like to contribute or change anything, you can also PM me your ROL or any other information that was left off your submission on the spreadsheet. Your anonymity will be maintained.
