Chicago Programs

[rxfudd]

What's going on with some of the Chicago programs? Northwestern seems to have handed out only a few interviews, and UIC has been almost silent. Is anyone still waiting on these programs?

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[AlienHand]

I received an interview from UIC (EM, EM/IM) a few weeks ago. I haven't heard from UChicago yet. I can't comment on other programs, as UChicago and UIC were the only 2 I applied to.

 

[EctopicFetus]

Someone in the interviews offered thread had some insight into UIC. Also I believe a resident countered some of the statements. Perhaps you want to ask them. I interviewed at Res and rotated at cook county and I will be happy to provide my insights. Post your Q about them here or PM me..

 

[pinbor1]

Someone in the interviews offered thread had some insight into UIC. Also I believe a resident countered some of the statements. Perhaps you want to ask them. I interviewed at Res and rotated at cook county and I will be happy to provide my insights. Post your Q about them here or PM me..

Over at UIC we have started to hand out interviews primarily to those that have rotated with us, and a select few other candidates. I think they are waiting to send out the majority of IM/EM interviews so they can coordinate the days that people will be interviewing. If I recall correctly, there we issues with over booking interviews on specified IM/EM days. Good luck all, and if you have any questions about UIC feel free to PM me.

pinbor1

 

[Poncho]

Is there anyone out there that has rotated at Cook County, Northwestern, and Chicago that would like to comment on their experiences? I'm particularly interested in quality of teaching and faculty, range of pathology, and happiness of the residents. Thanks!

 

[EctopicFetus]

Is there anyone out there that has rotated at Cook County, Northwestern, and Chicago that would like to comment on their experiences? I'm particularly interested in quality of teaching and faculty, range of pathology, and happiness of the residents. Thanks!

Ill give you my $0.02 on Cook County where I rotated. The place is completely busy. There is usually little time to rest. The pathology is at or near the best you will see in the nation due to the people who the hospital serves. The ED is divided into Red, Blue and Green. Red is generally the most sick people, blue is less so and of course green which is fast track. There is no shortage of opportunity for procedures. The traumas are brought into a special trauma area and I didnt have the opportunity to rotate there. They also have a dedicated 24/7 Peds ED. The attendings are great and you get a lot of autonomy. Since the program is a 2-4 the residents are more experienced than at other programs (I also rotated at ORMC which is a 1-3). The teaching is like anywhere else, it is dependent on who you work with. One of the attendings I worked with was absolutely amazing! Always willing to teach and always making time for it. They are starting a big push with ED US but you could say that about a lot of places. They have dedicated time to US each yr (I think). One of the attendings there (Dr. Cosby) is apparently the ED US goddess. I believe she has a book coming out soon on the subject. I worked with her and she was quite excellent. Being Cook County they send their grads all over the country and from what they were telling me that have no probs getting jobs anywhere in the country. The residents seem happy and get along quite well. The seniors basically run the whole show by themselves and seem to barely (I never saw it once) need attending help. The downside is that there is some scut. You will see attendings etc pushing patients to the CT scanner (which is real close). The staff is both a little slow with their work and also extremely busy! In the end I think the training has to be second to none! I hope this helps. If you have specific questions I would be happy to answer them. The program seems strong top to bottom!

 

[ErGirl]

Anyone have any thoughts on Northwestern?

 

[Poncho]

Thanks Ectopic, that's good info on Cook.

 

[kbrown]

anyone have the scoop on The Res (Resurrection)

 

[FoughtFyr]

Is there anyone out there that has rotated at Cook County, Northwestern, and Chicago that would like to comment on their experiences? I'm particularly interested in quality of teaching and faculty, range of pathology, and happiness of the residents. Thanks!

try this thread and the links in it...

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=89013&highlight=Chicago+Programs+Resurrection

- H

 

[EctopicFetus]

I interviewed at Res and I think it is an up and coming program. It is a suburban hospital and while many of their past grads stayed within the Res system they are starting to make a bigger national name for themselves. They are churning out a ton of research. (I think when I was there they said they presented more stuff at ACEP than all of the other Chicago programs COMBINED). The hospital itself is nice and the nurses are solid. They claim they do NO SCUT. The facilities are nice and relatively new and updated. The attendings and residents seem to get along well. I would agree that the order of competetiveness is probably Christ, U of C, Cook, NW, UIC and then Res. I think it is mostly cause res is not affiliated with a university or the county. I honestly dont know why Christ is so competetive but if you look at their residents those people have the grades for Rad Onc and Derm.

 

[pinbor1]

I interviewed at Res and I think it is an up and coming program. It is a suburban hospital and while many of their past grads stayed within the Res system they are starting to make a bigger national name for themselves. They are churning out a ton of research. (I think when I was there they said they presented more stuff at ACEP than all of the other Chicago programs COMBINED). The hospital itself is nice and the nurses are solid. They claim they do NO SCUT. The facilities are nice and relatively new and updated. The attendings and residents seem to get along well. I would agree that the order of competetiveness is probably Christ, U of C, Cook, NW, UIC and then Res. I think it is mostly cause res is not affiliated with a university or the county. I honestly dont know why Christ is so competetive but if you look at their residents those people have the grades for Rad Onc and Derm.

Not to slam northwestern, but I don't think they are more competitive than us at UIC. I think when it comes to training for community I would put it at Christ and UIC as places that train you well for community EM. Resurrection at Univ of Chicago then followed by NW and finally by County. When it comes to academic EM, I would put Univ of Chicago and county at the top tier, folowed by UIC and NW with a close third tier of Christ and Resurrection solely because they have a week university affiliation. Don't mean to start a flame war, but this is my impression as a resident in Chicago. All these differences are minimal, as most positions and placement are based less off of where you go as opposed to the strength of your recommendations.

Good luck guys and find the program that fits for you.

 

[WilcoWorld]

I've only had training at one Chicago program, so I can't speak very knowledgably about the other five, but I have observed at least one pattern; People from every other program seem to list Christ as second best in the city and their own as the first.

Draw from that whatever conclusion you will.

In danger of giving the ol' broken record another spin, each program has it's own set of pros and cons to offer. The trick is to identify which pros are most attractive, which cons are most repulsive, and find the program with the most agreeable profile.

Truth is, you'll probably never know if a program is right for you until you've trained there, so it's all just a crapshoot anyway.

 

[EctopicFetus]

Wilco,

My post at least had nothing to do with who is "best". Rather by competitiveness. Obviously it is quite hard to really know until it is way too late. Obviously you have to look at the 4 yr progs at Cook and NW and see if you want to spend an extra yr training. Then you look at the different experiences. I would agree that County prob is the weakest in the community experience. They only get a few months at the the community places like LOR and West Sub, that being said their grads go on to do pretty impressive things. The one big drawback that I saw from res is a large number of their grads stay within the res system which makes me wonder about their job prospects a little bit although it seems like they are getting better at getting more residents out of state.

 

[WilcoWorld]

I certainly didn't want to start any flame war/pissing contest. But I've been visiting this site for about a year now & I realize that, sooner or later, these threads turn into a "what's the most competitive program" discussion. I was just trying to squash that proactively. For, I really believe that every program in Chicago is the "Best Program" for someone out there. For me, Christ seemed to be the best choice. Here are a few reasons why I like it as much as I do:

-The sense of hierarchy is almost totally absent. We poke fun at each other (attendings included) in conference & it's all in good fun. I am terrible at sucking-up, so this was very important to me.

-Procedures are abundant. As an intern I've done so many that I've already started passing some of my intubations to med students (not all of 'em, mind you) & on my ICU rotation I was teaching the IM 2nd year how to place central lines.

-Internal moonlighting. At Christ you have the chance to do moonlighting for $500/night which increases to $700/night for 2nd & 3rd years by taking extra over-night shifts. On these shifts there is always an attending just across the hall for help, but you're basically running an 8 bed Emergency Cardiac Center on your own (but, again, there is always an attending available for when you're overwhelmed).

That being said, I know people I went to med school with who probably would not have been happy at Christ, so I wouldn't say that it's the best program without any qualifying terms.

If anyone has specific questions about Christ, feel free to PM me.

 

[pinbor1]

I agree with what wilco said, didn't mean to start a flame war. All the Chicago programs are great and hopefully we'll all end up where we were meant to and where we want too. Just like Wilco, Syd, and myself. I've worked these guys as med students or residents and they are great guys. I would have been happy at Christ as well, but chose UIC because the multihospital system seem to fit me well and also fit my future goals. I'm interested in international EM so I like variety. I think out of all the programs, Christ and UIC residents are interchangeable for the most part. It will all eventually go down to gut feeling when it comes to wear you go, and UIC specifically Mercy is where my gut told me to go. What can I say, I guess I'm a south sider at heart

Wilco, take care and glad to see Christ is treating you so well, I'll see ya around in March when I come back for 2 weeks of trauma.

 

[laziom]

I rotated at NU for 4 weeks this past summer and was quite happy there. Prior to going there I was unsure of the patient diversity I'd see there, but I was pleasantly surprised - it was not all Gold Coast and Streeterville patients. I thought the patients were fairly representative of Chicago as a whole, lots of opportunites to treat Latinos if Medical Spanish is an interest of yours. The associate residency director told me that behind County they treat the 2nd highest number of uninsured patients in the state.

Residents seemed very happy. 2nd and 3rd years ran traumas, and 4th years were basically like attendings. The program is unique in that they have research, administrative, or education tracts that residents are involved in. NU residents spend 2 months at County on the trauma team also, so the trauma experience is good.

 

[peksi]

I am consistently amazed that EVERY year the same discussions occur about program after program. Some like um, some don't.

Here is my 2 cents. I worked as an attending (alot=1500 hours) at Christ while I was a fellow in....1999...(MAN I'm getting old). Anyway, I liked the diversity and pace, knife and gun just like MS at Temple in Philly. The PD Bob Harwood is frikin brilliant and a great guy, great folks to work with ( P.S. I am not bucking for a job there....cause I like my 150K visits and office wall mounted Flat Screen TV in DE)

For applicants who are out there, please, please believe me and others when we say that the most critical aspect of residency selections is if "fells right" to you AKA the "fit". All approved programs have strong points and not so strong points.

There will be times when you walk into an interview and an institution and it feels like walking into a family get together, it may be at a major university or a small volume new residency program, it does not matter, when you get that sense you WILL know. That will likely be the program for you, as you will likely excel there be you interests academics or community em. Every program has folks who are connected, it is a tight community in EM and almost any oppertunity is just an email or phone call away!


Best of luck..
P.S. My wife and I really like Chicago in general, great city, nice people.
P.S. We really like Delaware, great place, nice people, tax free, close to Philly, but not too close.
P.S. We really like Fiji and St. Maarteen as well, great weather, nice people, clear water!

Paul

 

[deleted52758]

cook county is the best.

i also can pee further then anyone else on this board.

 

[EctopicFetus]

Willy I know you.. I dont know how far you can really pee.