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Surpised at the timing fo radbio/physics. I like the idea of only having to sit through the course once..but would prefer second or third year over first year..
Interview impressions
- Thread starter stephew
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I liked how many offered it every year but allowed you to test out of it at some point so you could not go during R-2 year then use it for review during your third year.
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We have a dedicated week long course for radbio and another week long course for physics. It's a great set-up, and we get it every year to help reinforce things...
Has been a while, but want to try and cover the rest of my interviews in the next few days.
UCLA
Location: I had not previously been to LA prior to going on this interview. Had heard good and bad things about the city. The bad was mostly true; the traffic is awful one of the days I was there was a bit smoggy. However, it was January and 65 degrees, which is always okay in my book. Got to visit Santa Monica, which was gorgeous. Additionally, the Westwood area of LA was beautiful with tons of nice shops and restaurants. Seems like there are a lot of great apartments in the area. I also got the feeling that the rental market is not as expensive as the real estate market. I thought it was a really livable area. One of the residents mentioned that there is subsidized housing available within a few miles which was very affordable and relatively spacious, although most of the residents lived within walking distance to the medical center. Overall, this is one of the better locations in the country.
Facilities/Technology: I don't quite recall all of the specifics. I know they were getting one of those ViewRay machines like WashU (and I think Wisconsin?). Installing a True Beam now. The chief physicist (recently recruited from WashU) also commented that they are moving towards 100% MRI-based simulations. If I recall correctly, residents spend most of their time at UCLA-Ronald Regan Medical Center, but also do peds at Children's Hospital-LA and UCLA recently built a breast center in Santa Monica (which is where they get their breast experience). Oh, and West LA VA rotation. Robust brachytherapy experiences. Don't remember much else about technology.
Research: Up to 10-months, taken in 2-month blocks or contiguously. Very supportive of whatever you would like to do, whether it be intra-departmentally or not. UCLA has a ton of resources. The Department is trying to beef up its research profile. Physics research definitely going to be a strength here given the new ViewRay machine, etc. Supportive of Holman Pathway (at least one resident was pursuing this option).
Didactics: Didactics on Wednesday morning, Friday morning, and Friday at noon. Seemed sufficient.
Faculty: This place has recently had tremendous growth. Went from 2-3 clinical faculty members to 13 in the span of 4-5 years. Physics has seen a similar trend. Dr. Steinberg is a pretty cool guy. Went from private practice baller to Department chair who really wants to inject some roids into UCLA. As he explained it, UCLA clearly is a top-notch institution, and its worthy of a top radiation oncology program. The faculty and residents all loved him. As one of the faculty members put it, "Steinberg does everything faster, larger, and better than he ever said he would." If you interview there, just ask him how he has done what he has so quickly; it's a great chat. Everyone else I met with was very nice. The PD was not the most conversational that I had met (and actively hated on LA as a city compared with the Bay area), but he was nice. One of the former PP guys, Dr. Beron, was hilarious. The chief of physics was easily the least awkward of all my physics interviews (and he actually did 90% of the talking, for a change). Rad Bio dude was a cool Scottish dude.
Residents: Now taking 2/year. Hoping to expand (who doesn't have plans for expansion?). Didn't have a ton of face time with the residents. Definitely a mostly SoCal group. They all seemed to be happy, but again, hard to assess given limited time with them.
Clinical Load: I got the sense that they were rather busy here. Volume has seen a big uptick since Steinberg took over and probably should have a larger resident group to cover for the increased volume.
Interview Day: Dinner the night before at a nice restaurant in Westwood with four residents. Dr. Steinberg provided some excellent wines for us. Start off with overview of program by PD, chair, and rad bio dude. Over the course of the day we had seven 25-minute interviews. Lunch was some amazing Asian-fusion takeout; best catered lunch hands down. Over lunch had a number of great talks by several research faculty about the different work going on in the department. Had a short tour of department and medical center. Day wraps up in good time, something like 2-3p – Plenty of time to head to the ocean, like I did.
Overall Impression: I was actually pretty impressed with this place. Chief resident at my home program said that he wouldn't have considered training at UCLA 5-years ago, but things have definitely changed very quickly. Of course, still some risk as it's not as well-established as other programs. I didn't have the schedule to interview at UCSD, but my guess is UCLA will have to fight them to be the best in SoCal given how impressed people seemed to be with UCSD. If you want to stay in the LA area this is probably a great place to train given Steinberg's connections within the PP community. Overall, they want to be "top 10"…they're not there, nor do I think they will be. But, keep up the great work! Would move it up the list.
UCLA
Location: I had not previously been to LA prior to going on this interview. Had heard good and bad things about the city. The bad was mostly true; the traffic is awful one of the days I was there was a bit smoggy. However, it was January and 65 degrees, which is always okay in my book. Got to visit Santa Monica, which was gorgeous. Additionally, the Westwood area of LA was beautiful with tons of nice shops and restaurants. Seems like there are a lot of great apartments in the area. I also got the feeling that the rental market is not as expensive as the real estate market. I thought it was a really livable area. One of the residents mentioned that there is subsidized housing available within a few miles which was very affordable and relatively spacious, although most of the residents lived within walking distance to the medical center. Overall, this is one of the better locations in the country.
Facilities/Technology: I don't quite recall all of the specifics. I know they were getting one of those ViewRay machines like WashU (and I think Wisconsin?). Installing a True Beam now. The chief physicist (recently recruited from WashU) also commented that they are moving towards 100% MRI-based simulations. If I recall correctly, residents spend most of their time at UCLA-Ronald Regan Medical Center, but also do peds at Children's Hospital-LA and UCLA recently built a breast center in Santa Monica (which is where they get their breast experience). Oh, and West LA VA rotation. Robust brachytherapy experiences. Don't remember much else about technology.
Research: Up to 10-months, taken in 2-month blocks or contiguously. Very supportive of whatever you would like to do, whether it be intra-departmentally or not. UCLA has a ton of resources. The Department is trying to beef up its research profile. Physics research definitely going to be a strength here given the new ViewRay machine, etc. Supportive of Holman Pathway (at least one resident was pursuing this option).
Didactics: Didactics on Wednesday morning, Friday morning, and Friday at noon. Seemed sufficient.
Faculty: This place has recently had tremendous growth. Went from 2-3 clinical faculty members to 13 in the span of 4-5 years. Physics has seen a similar trend. Dr. Steinberg is a pretty cool guy. Went from private practice baller to Department chair who really wants to inject some roids into UCLA. As he explained it, UCLA clearly is a top-notch institution, and its worthy of a top radiation oncology program. The faculty and residents all loved him. As one of the faculty members put it, "Steinberg does everything faster, larger, and better than he ever said he would." If you interview there, just ask him how he has done what he has so quickly; it's a great chat. Everyone else I met with was very nice. The PD was not the most conversational that I had met (and actively hated on LA as a city compared with the Bay area), but he was nice. One of the former PP guys, Dr. Beron, was hilarious. The chief of physics was easily the least awkward of all my physics interviews (and he actually did 90% of the talking, for a change). Rad Bio dude was a cool Scottish dude.
Residents: Now taking 2/year. Hoping to expand (who doesn't have plans for expansion?). Didn't have a ton of face time with the residents. Definitely a mostly SoCal group. They all seemed to be happy, but again, hard to assess given limited time with them.
Clinical Load: I got the sense that they were rather busy here. Volume has seen a big uptick since Steinberg took over and probably should have a larger resident group to cover for the increased volume.
Interview Day: Dinner the night before at a nice restaurant in Westwood with four residents. Dr. Steinberg provided some excellent wines for us. Start off with overview of program by PD, chair, and rad bio dude. Over the course of the day we had seven 25-minute interviews. Lunch was some amazing Asian-fusion takeout; best catered lunch hands down. Over lunch had a number of great talks by several research faculty about the different work going on in the department. Had a short tour of department and medical center. Day wraps up in good time, something like 2-3p – Plenty of time to head to the ocean, like I did.
Overall Impression: I was actually pretty impressed with this place. Chief resident at my home program said that he wouldn't have considered training at UCLA 5-years ago, but things have definitely changed very quickly. Of course, still some risk as it's not as well-established as other programs. I didn't have the schedule to interview at UCSD, but my guess is UCLA will have to fight them to be the best in SoCal given how impressed people seemed to be with UCSD. If you want to stay in the LA area this is probably a great place to train given Steinberg's connections within the PP community. Overall, they want to be "top 10"…they're not there, nor do I think they will be. But, keep up the great work! Would move it up the list.
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I'll try to add to the thread without repeating on any previous programs reviewed as I agree with everything said thus far. These reviews have been awesome and I really hope they help future applicants. And to emphasize previous posts, EVERY program was great in its own respect, and we are fortunate to be in such a great field. I'll do Virginia today and try stay close with VCU tomorrow and then I'm done! (this is more work than I thought 
University of Virginia
Location: I can honestly say from my visit that this is easily one of the best places in the country to live. Charlottesville is an incredibly beautiful city with tons of historical significance and charm. There are lots of restaurants, bars, and the college nightlife is hopping, but the city also has a solid young professional scene. Also gets great music and has lots of outdoor activities, wineries, etc. Close proximity to Richmond and DC if that interests you. One downside was the tiny, tiny airport that I had to fly in and out of which may limit your accessibility to travel (but the residents said they drove to DC for an airport....can't imagine dealing with that traffic regularly). If I had to do it again I think flying into Richmond would be the way to go.
Facilities/Technology: The new cancer center was amazing. Named after the late Emily Couric, her sister and broadcaster Katie Couric donated? and/or helped raisee a lot of money to make this a gorgeous cancer center. I believe they had 2 tomotherapy machines and had a CT-on-rails setup in the brachytherapy suite (they said one of the few in the world). Don't remember much else about the technology.
Research: Research opportunities seemed to be present here but you would probably need to work a little harder to find them. They seemed to be doing some clinical trials with hypofractionation and faster sim-to-treat times (they told me that they treat lots of rural folks who cant make more than a couple trips) which seemed very interesting and cost effective. If you are interested in basic science I think its lacking but I'm sure with such a great institution as UVA you could collaborate with other departments rather easily.
Didactics: Don't remember much but the residents seemed to be pleased with the training.
Faculty: Faculty were great. The PD seemed to genuinely care about the residents and he seemed to really take their point of view very seriously in terms of making changes/improvements to the program. They had recently hired a new faculty from Henry Ford?, I think, that will take over PD and he seemed really awesome. The chair had a few off the wall questions and seemed a bit eccentric but I was told he is a really good guy. Other faculty that interviewed with were great.
Residents: Residents were awesome. Really great group of people that seemed easy to get along with and def people I would like to hang out with outside of work.
Clinical Load: A little tough to remember numbers but the residents didnt seem overwhelmed with work load at all. It seemed service dependent but I heard zero complaints from any residents about scut or being overworked.
Wild Card: If you were interested in protons you were offered the opportunity to travel to Switzerland for a one month proton rotation. Yes, Switzerland! And even encouraged to tag your vacation to the 4 week rotation and spend 6-7 weeks abroad. Totally awesome!!! Wild card downside is the 1-2-1-2 number of residents spots. We are in the "1" year (total bummer as I would like at least one other co-resident to suffer with) but something to keep in mind if you are an applicant applying next year ("2" year).
Overall Impression: This place was great! I can't imagine a better place to train in terms of quality of life. The institutional reputation of UVA is incredible but I think the mid-tier rank of the Rad Onc department steers some top candidates away, which I think is very regrettable (in my opinion this program is VERY underrated). If places like Washington, Colorado, Utah (other outdoorsy places) interest you than this is a must see. This one was moved WAY up on my rank list from the position I had it pre-interview/visit.
University of Virginia
Location: I can honestly say from my visit that this is easily one of the best places in the country to live. Charlottesville is an incredibly beautiful city with tons of historical significance and charm. There are lots of restaurants, bars, and the college nightlife is hopping, but the city also has a solid young professional scene. Also gets great music and has lots of outdoor activities, wineries, etc. Close proximity to Richmond and DC if that interests you. One downside was the tiny, tiny airport that I had to fly in and out of which may limit your accessibility to travel (but the residents said they drove to DC for an airport....can't imagine dealing with that traffic regularly). If I had to do it again I think flying into Richmond would be the way to go.
Facilities/Technology: The new cancer center was amazing. Named after the late Emily Couric, her sister and broadcaster Katie Couric donated? and/or helped raisee a lot of money to make this a gorgeous cancer center. I believe they had 2 tomotherapy machines and had a CT-on-rails setup in the brachytherapy suite (they said one of the few in the world). Don't remember much else about the technology.
Research: Research opportunities seemed to be present here but you would probably need to work a little harder to find them. They seemed to be doing some clinical trials with hypofractionation and faster sim-to-treat times (they told me that they treat lots of rural folks who cant make more than a couple trips) which seemed very interesting and cost effective. If you are interested in basic science I think its lacking but I'm sure with such a great institution as UVA you could collaborate with other departments rather easily.
Didactics: Don't remember much but the residents seemed to be pleased with the training.
Faculty: Faculty were great. The PD seemed to genuinely care about the residents and he seemed to really take their point of view very seriously in terms of making changes/improvements to the program. They had recently hired a new faculty from Henry Ford?, I think, that will take over PD and he seemed really awesome. The chair had a few off the wall questions and seemed a bit eccentric but I was told he is a really good guy. Other faculty that interviewed with were great.
Residents: Residents were awesome. Really great group of people that seemed easy to get along with and def people I would like to hang out with outside of work.
Clinical Load: A little tough to remember numbers but the residents didnt seem overwhelmed with work load at all. It seemed service dependent but I heard zero complaints from any residents about scut or being overworked.
Wild Card: If you were interested in protons you were offered the opportunity to travel to Switzerland for a one month proton rotation. Yes, Switzerland! And even encouraged to tag your vacation to the 4 week rotation and spend 6-7 weeks abroad. Totally awesome!!! Wild card downside is the 1-2-1-2 number of residents spots. We are in the "1" year (total bummer as I would like at least one other co-resident to suffer with) but something to keep in mind if you are an applicant applying next year ("2" year).
Overall Impression: This place was great! I can't imagine a better place to train in terms of quality of life. The institutional reputation of UVA is incredible but I think the mid-tier rank of the Rad Onc department steers some top candidates away, which I think is very regrettable (in my opinion this program is VERY underrated). If places like Washington, Colorado, Utah (other outdoorsy places) interest you than this is a must see. This one was moved WAY up on my rank list from the position I had it pre-interview/visit.
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VCU
Location: Similar to UVA, the location is great. Richmond is a beautiful city with lots to do. This was another Saturday interview and I was able to spend all Sunday exploring Richmond, which was a great time. Great restaurants and easy going people. Close to lots of other cool spots for quick weekend vacations.
Facilities/Technology: Massey Cancer Center was very nice. Lots of standard technology with a bit of an emphasis on brachytherapy I think.
Research: 6 months dedicated time. Didn't get a good feel for specific projects but research seemed available. VCU itself is a pretty big time research university. They did have some collaborations with the School of Engineering on some imaging projects which I personally thought was pretty neat.
Didactics: Seemed a little more intense than I was expecting. Was told during a couple interviews that the Socratic method was prevalent here and residents were expected to be prepared at all of the didactics which were mornings ~3x a week.
Faculty: Chair is board certified in both medicine and rad onc which I'm sure adds to the training. The other faculty seemed easy to get along with and would provide good training. Good mix of older and younger faculty.
Residents: Number/structure is a downside (to me): currently 2-3-1-2 in terms of resident numbers (following the expansion to 8 residents) and they are only taking 1 this year. Didn't spend to much time with the residents during my stay but seemed nice and super easy to get along with.
Clinical Load: Seemed to get to do a lot of prostate seed implants at the local VA which is a huge plus. I believe had to go to St. Judes or elsewhere for Peds but all other requirements met in Richmond. Seemed overall average clinic load and no one appeared overwhelmed.
Wild Card: It seemed that most residents and faculty had a connection to VCU (medical school, lived there in the past, etc) which is open to interpretation. To me, Richmond is such an awesome city it makes sense people would want to come back or just stay put for their career!
Overall Impression: Another great program that is probably underrated. I personally preferred UVA slightly (maybe because of Charlotesville) but VCU is worth checking out if you want to end up around the area. I think whoever matches here this year will not be disappointed and I would def not be upset if that person were me!
Location: Similar to UVA, the location is great. Richmond is a beautiful city with lots to do. This was another Saturday interview and I was able to spend all Sunday exploring Richmond, which was a great time. Great restaurants and easy going people. Close to lots of other cool spots for quick weekend vacations.
Facilities/Technology: Massey Cancer Center was very nice. Lots of standard technology with a bit of an emphasis on brachytherapy I think.
Research: 6 months dedicated time. Didn't get a good feel for specific projects but research seemed available. VCU itself is a pretty big time research university. They did have some collaborations with the School of Engineering on some imaging projects which I personally thought was pretty neat.
Didactics: Seemed a little more intense than I was expecting. Was told during a couple interviews that the Socratic method was prevalent here and residents were expected to be prepared at all of the didactics which were mornings ~3x a week.
Faculty: Chair is board certified in both medicine and rad onc which I'm sure adds to the training. The other faculty seemed easy to get along with and would provide good training. Good mix of older and younger faculty.
Residents: Number/structure is a downside (to me): currently 2-3-1-2 in terms of resident numbers (following the expansion to 8 residents) and they are only taking 1 this year. Didn't spend to much time with the residents during my stay but seemed nice and super easy to get along with.
Clinical Load: Seemed to get to do a lot of prostate seed implants at the local VA which is a huge plus. I believe had to go to St. Judes or elsewhere for Peds but all other requirements met in Richmond. Seemed overall average clinic load and no one appeared overwhelmed.
Wild Card: It seemed that most residents and faculty had a connection to VCU (medical school, lived there in the past, etc) which is open to interpretation. To me, Richmond is such an awesome city it makes sense people would want to come back or just stay put for their career!
Overall Impression: Another great program that is probably underrated. I personally preferred UVA slightly (maybe because of Charlotesville) but VCU is worth checking out if you want to end up around the area. I think whoever matches here this year will not be disappointed and I would def not be upset if that person were me!
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Anonymous Reviews
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Anonymous review
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Anonymous reviews
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As a resident at Wash U, I feel compelled to correct the prior impression that "many residents had a story or two about somebody they knew who had been murdered/mugged/raped." This is just ridiculous and simply not true. I am a female resident who grew up in a small town, and I have always felt safe in St. Louis.
Congrats to everyone on the match and enjoy your residency!
Congrats to everyone on the match and enjoy your residency!
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Anonymous Reviews
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Is it me or does it seem much more quiet this year?
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The impressions are after the match cycle is over
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Get to posting ppl
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Wow this thread is surprisingly quiet considering the flood gates are usually wide open by now. Don't forget you can PM Gfunk for anonymous posting!
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I'll start. First I am going to prioritze places that did not get reviewed last year or where I think I'll add something that is different from recent reviews. Second, obviously my opinions are colored by my own biases and priorities, which are: I am interested in pursuing an academic career after residency in a position where I can produce original, more clinically oriented research, and I will not (at least for now) be bringing a family with me to residency.
Albert Einstein
Location: The Bronx is what it is. There is very cheap ($700/month) housing readily available across the street from the hospital. Many people get a studio but also have a second home elsewhere (Brooklyn etc) because commuting, especially PGY-2, per report is a major drag. Most (all?) of the residents have cars. Upside of the location as opposed to the rest of NYC is that they are the main game in town and there is plenty of exposure to advanced disease.
Facilities/Technology: In keeping with New York, the hospital/buildings are pretty drab on the outside, but they are nicer inside—probably not any nicer than most cancer centers but adequate. I didn’t count linacs/trubeams/etc and will not be commenting on that in any of my reviews. SRS is done on the linacs
Research: There is a 3 month elective block. For 6 months you are on the service of an 80/20 attending, but it sounds like that with only 2 half sessions a week (an afternoon and a morning I think?) you have time to work, so if you combine that with your elective block you get 9 months for research
Faculty: So one of the interviews is all about asking these logic questions. Otherwise they are pretty standard. Each interview with 2 faculty. The physics faculty asked really tough questions about my (admittedly physics related research). The interviews are relatively short and I did not get too much of a feel for faculty beyond this.
Residents: There was a pre-interview event with appetizers at a fusion restaurant. Seemed cool enough. 1 female resident, and the applicants were vastly male as well. A lot of the residents go on to academia in the kind of jobs that I’d be interested in (junior faculty at academic institutions with support for research). This year they are taking 3, but it’s a 3-3-0-1 model for the whole program. I think next year it will be 1.
Teaching/Education: Radbio at Mt Sinai (all the New York programs apparently do this), daily didactics for an hr Tuesday to Friday, shared guest lectures with all NYC programs. 1500/yr book stipend. PGY-4 and PGY-5 get 1 day a week as “academic day”. 3 month rotations with one attending who treats 2 disease sites so you see each site twice.
Work: It sounded like a really busy program. This was stressed repeatedly by both faculty and residents. The reasons for this were very unclear, but I got the sense that there may be diminished ancillary support.
Overall Impression: Seemed like a a very busy program with solid, respected clinical experience with good research opportunities.
Albert Einstein
Location: The Bronx is what it is. There is very cheap ($700/month) housing readily available across the street from the hospital. Many people get a studio but also have a second home elsewhere (Brooklyn etc) because commuting, especially PGY-2, per report is a major drag. Most (all?) of the residents have cars. Upside of the location as opposed to the rest of NYC is that they are the main game in town and there is plenty of exposure to advanced disease.
Facilities/Technology: In keeping with New York, the hospital/buildings are pretty drab on the outside, but they are nicer inside—probably not any nicer than most cancer centers but adequate. I didn’t count linacs/trubeams/etc and will not be commenting on that in any of my reviews. SRS is done on the linacs
Research: There is a 3 month elective block. For 6 months you are on the service of an 80/20 attending, but it sounds like that with only 2 half sessions a week (an afternoon and a morning I think?) you have time to work, so if you combine that with your elective block you get 9 months for research
Faculty: So one of the interviews is all about asking these logic questions. Otherwise they are pretty standard. Each interview with 2 faculty. The physics faculty asked really tough questions about my (admittedly physics related research). The interviews are relatively short and I did not get too much of a feel for faculty beyond this.
Residents: There was a pre-interview event with appetizers at a fusion restaurant. Seemed cool enough. 1 female resident, and the applicants were vastly male as well. A lot of the residents go on to academia in the kind of jobs that I’d be interested in (junior faculty at academic institutions with support for research). This year they are taking 3, but it’s a 3-3-0-1 model for the whole program. I think next year it will be 1.
Teaching/Education: Radbio at Mt Sinai (all the New York programs apparently do this), daily didactics for an hr Tuesday to Friday, shared guest lectures with all NYC programs. 1500/yr book stipend. PGY-4 and PGY-5 get 1 day a week as “academic day”. 3 month rotations with one attending who treats 2 disease sites so you see each site twice.
Work: It sounded like a really busy program. This was stressed repeatedly by both faculty and residents. The reasons for this were very unclear, but I got the sense that there may be diminished ancillary support.
Overall Impression: Seemed like a a very busy program with solid, respected clinical experience with good research opportunities.
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Case
Location: I came with an open mind for Cleveland and it did not seem terrible, but also not terribly exciting. The “downtown” area is extremely limited and I was underwhelmed by the food scene. The cancer center itself is right on the Case Western campus.
Facilities/Technology: Nice cancer center. Very new. Technically in the basement I believe but lots of windows and natural light. Strong brachytherapy program, particularly prostate brachytherapy. Apparently they have every conceivable type of technology (GammaKnife, CyberKnife, etc) but can’t give more details on that.
Research: New chair wants this to be bigger and is interested in aggressively recruiting folks with an interest in research which you can see reflected more in the younger residents. A 6 month contiguous block that is set to occur in PGY-2 though I’m sure if you talked to the PD she’d be open to doing it later.
Faculty: I really liked the faculty. They seemed friendly and open and were honest about all the recent changes to the program, all of which seemed for the better. The physics program seems like a bit of a weakness here and that it did not seem very developed but the physics faculty I spoke with is aiming to change that as well.
Residents: There was a pre-interview dinner at a casual restaurant. Residents are a heterogeneous group. Seemed nice enough. I think the program is about 6 or 7 residents but they were only taking 1 this year, and with over 20 applicants did not get to know them very well/ deeply.
Work: This program is not at all malignant and seems very chill. No concerns about overly low volume at all.
Overall impression: This program may have struggled in the past but with the new Chair, faculty seem excited about the new direction. The new cancer center and comments from speaking with the PD lead me to believe that the institution is invested in the cancer center and in the department specifically. One would think that would all trickle down to the residency program.
Location: I came with an open mind for Cleveland and it did not seem terrible, but also not terribly exciting. The “downtown” area is extremely limited and I was underwhelmed by the food scene. The cancer center itself is right on the Case Western campus.
Facilities/Technology: Nice cancer center. Very new. Technically in the basement I believe but lots of windows and natural light. Strong brachytherapy program, particularly prostate brachytherapy. Apparently they have every conceivable type of technology (GammaKnife, CyberKnife, etc) but can’t give more details on that.
Research: New chair wants this to be bigger and is interested in aggressively recruiting folks with an interest in research which you can see reflected more in the younger residents. A 6 month contiguous block that is set to occur in PGY-2 though I’m sure if you talked to the PD she’d be open to doing it later.
Faculty: I really liked the faculty. They seemed friendly and open and were honest about all the recent changes to the program, all of which seemed for the better. The physics program seems like a bit of a weakness here and that it did not seem very developed but the physics faculty I spoke with is aiming to change that as well.
Residents: There was a pre-interview dinner at a casual restaurant. Residents are a heterogeneous group. Seemed nice enough. I think the program is about 6 or 7 residents but they were only taking 1 this year, and with over 20 applicants did not get to know them very well/ deeply.
Work: This program is not at all malignant and seems very chill. No concerns about overly low volume at all.
Overall impression: This program may have struggled in the past but with the new Chair, faculty seem excited about the new direction. The new cancer center and comments from speaking with the PD lead me to believe that the institution is invested in the cancer center and in the department specifically. One would think that would all trickle down to the residency program.
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Cornell
Location: For me this is a positive. Located in the center of Manhattan (across the street from Sloan Kettering). Subsidized housing that seems really easy to get that is physically connected to the hospital. A substantial portion of the program is in Queens, and unfortunately interviewees do not get exposure to the Queens location which from my limited understanding is more of an underserved community. You can tailor your curriculum to get more or less time in Queens, but most residents opt for less time.
Facilities/Technology: One thing that struck me is how small the space is, but I think that’s just a New York thing.
Research: If you are interested in research the program will support you, and if you are not interested in research the program will support you. Having said that, there is about a year of elective time that can be used for research. Those who do not want to do research can do electives at other places. It is very common for people to conduct research outside the department or even outside the institution (like I said, Sloan is across the street and Cornell also has a relationship with Rockefeller) and it sounds like the faculty are amazingly supportive of that. There is a possibility of being pulled to crosscover the Chair on your research year if his midlevel is off, but otherwise the Research year seems protected. The program will pay for statistics support for resident projects.
Faculty: I think these were the shortest interviews I had. It’s only a half day interview. From my superficial interactions with the faculty they all seemed very pleasant and interested in resident education. They share a chair with Columbia (Columbia and Cornell share the same hospital system). My interview with him was exceptionally short and awkward. There was a lot of talk about a merger with Columbia, which was always portrayed as imminent (though how imminent is imminent I don't know) and couched with reassurances that this could only be positive. Program Director seems very committed to the program and helping residents achieve excellence
Residents: Pre-interview dinner at some type of Middle Eastern (Turkish?) restaurant. Very international crew with people literally from all over the world. There are 6, they were taking 1 this year. They seemed very down to earth and likable and I could imagine getting along well with them. Most with ties to NYC.
Teaching/Education: Multiple residents have done international rotations. Joint radbio with Sinai
Work: I got no whiff of malignancy from them and no concerns about low volume. For peds you need to rotate at Sloan for your numbers. There is an option to rotate at Columbia but only one resident has done that. Residents don’t crosscover for each other but do cover the Chair’s NP if she is absent.
Overall impression: Residents seemed very happy with the program and their support from faculty mentors.
Location: For me this is a positive. Located in the center of Manhattan (across the street from Sloan Kettering). Subsidized housing that seems really easy to get that is physically connected to the hospital. A substantial portion of the program is in Queens, and unfortunately interviewees do not get exposure to the Queens location which from my limited understanding is more of an underserved community. You can tailor your curriculum to get more or less time in Queens, but most residents opt for less time.
Facilities/Technology: One thing that struck me is how small the space is, but I think that’s just a New York thing.
Research: If you are interested in research the program will support you, and if you are not interested in research the program will support you. Having said that, there is about a year of elective time that can be used for research. Those who do not want to do research can do electives at other places. It is very common for people to conduct research outside the department or even outside the institution (like I said, Sloan is across the street and Cornell also has a relationship with Rockefeller) and it sounds like the faculty are amazingly supportive of that. There is a possibility of being pulled to crosscover the Chair on your research year if his midlevel is off, but otherwise the Research year seems protected. The program will pay for statistics support for resident projects.
Faculty: I think these were the shortest interviews I had. It’s only a half day interview. From my superficial interactions with the faculty they all seemed very pleasant and interested in resident education. They share a chair with Columbia (Columbia and Cornell share the same hospital system). My interview with him was exceptionally short and awkward. There was a lot of talk about a merger with Columbia, which was always portrayed as imminent (though how imminent is imminent I don't know) and couched with reassurances that this could only be positive. Program Director seems very committed to the program and helping residents achieve excellence
Residents: Pre-interview dinner at some type of Middle Eastern (Turkish?) restaurant. Very international crew with people literally from all over the world. There are 6, they were taking 1 this year. They seemed very down to earth and likable and I could imagine getting along well with them. Most with ties to NYC.
Teaching/Education: Multiple residents have done international rotations. Joint radbio with Sinai
Work: I got no whiff of malignancy from them and no concerns about low volume. For peds you need to rotate at Sloan for your numbers. There is an option to rotate at Columbia but only one resident has done that. Residents don’t crosscover for each other but do cover the Chair’s NP if she is absent.
Overall impression: Residents seemed very happy with the program and their support from faculty mentors.
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Fox Chase
Location: In Philadelphia, but near the boundary close to Philadelphia suburbs. Most of the residents actually live in the suburbs (most are married) which are cheaper. Fox Chse is a very doable 30 minute drive from Center City/downtown. Philadephia is an awesome city, IMHO—great sports town, tons of bars/nightlife, and great place for foodies.
Facilities/Technology: Fox Chase has an affiliation with Temple that has recently gotten a lot stronger (the details of this are unclear to me, seems like Temple Health has bought them) but from a resident perspective it doesn’t seem like there will be any notable changes. There was some chatter about financial issues with the Cancer Center that may have brought this on but I think that there is now stability with the Cancer Center. Fox Chase is only a cancer center, so there are fellows but rad oncs are the only residents. It’s a beautiful expansive complex. Everything is nice and new. Excellent brachy, Penn residents rotate here for brachy exposure. Optional rotation in suburbs that almost everyone does where you get CyberKnife exposure
Research: There is a guaranteed contiguous research year in PGY-4 that is protected except for call (though you can do as little as 6 months). Seems like all the residents do retrospective clinical projects or spend a year in the lab (I think even the labs here are nice). PGY3 and PGY4 go to ASTRO if a poster, PGY 5 no matter what. PGY-2s get sent to the NCCN conference in Miami instead Something unique that they stressed is that they have databases run by dedicated coordinators that make it very easy for residents to quickly publish retrospective reports.
Faculty: Interviews are conducted with 2 faculty at a time. Everyone here was very nice and likable, but the Chair is especially likable. They seemed like they would be very pleasant to work for.
Residents: Match 2 per year. Pre-interview dinner was held at an excellent higher end restaurant in Center City in a BYOB (Bring Your Own Beverage). Residents brought great wines. Most of the residents are married, but they still seemed very social considering that and like they were people I’d get along with well. This was the only place on the trail where we played video games in the break room in between interviews.
Teaching/Education: Residents lead conference 2x/week focused on most salient literature. Videoconference into Penn radbio. Annual mock oral. Currently rotate at Penn for peds, though that may change.
Work: This place seems to have very high volume in terms of residents’ simulation numbers (I forget the numbers I was quoted but they were very high) while at the same time being extremely reasonable workload-wise because of tremendous ancillary support. Every faculty member has a designated nurse who takes care of a lot of scut. As I said before it’s only a cancer hospital so there is no ED & call is very light (the senior resident I spoke to had never come in in the middle of the night).
Overall impression: May not be a research powerhouse but I really liked the people at this program and the supportive environment they help create.
Location: In Philadelphia, but near the boundary close to Philadelphia suburbs. Most of the residents actually live in the suburbs (most are married) which are cheaper. Fox Chse is a very doable 30 minute drive from Center City/downtown. Philadephia is an awesome city, IMHO—great sports town, tons of bars/nightlife, and great place for foodies.
Facilities/Technology: Fox Chase has an affiliation with Temple that has recently gotten a lot stronger (the details of this are unclear to me, seems like Temple Health has bought them) but from a resident perspective it doesn’t seem like there will be any notable changes. There was some chatter about financial issues with the Cancer Center that may have brought this on but I think that there is now stability with the Cancer Center. Fox Chase is only a cancer center, so there are fellows but rad oncs are the only residents. It’s a beautiful expansive complex. Everything is nice and new. Excellent brachy, Penn residents rotate here for brachy exposure. Optional rotation in suburbs that almost everyone does where you get CyberKnife exposure
Research: There is a guaranteed contiguous research year in PGY-4 that is protected except for call (though you can do as little as 6 months). Seems like all the residents do retrospective clinical projects or spend a year in the lab (I think even the labs here are nice). PGY3 and PGY4 go to ASTRO if a poster, PGY 5 no matter what. PGY-2s get sent to the NCCN conference in Miami instead
Something unique that they stressed is that they have databases run by dedicated coordinators that make it very easy for residents to quickly publish retrospective reports.Faculty: Interviews are conducted with 2 faculty at a time. Everyone here was very nice and likable, but the Chair is especially likable. They seemed like they would be very pleasant to work for.
Residents: Match 2 per year. Pre-interview dinner was held at an excellent higher end restaurant in Center City in a BYOB (Bring Your Own Beverage). Residents brought great wines. Most of the residents are married, but they still seemed very social considering that and like they were people I’d get along with well. This was the only place on the trail where we played video games in the break room in between interviews.
Teaching/Education: Residents lead conference 2x/week focused on most salient literature. Videoconference into Penn radbio. Annual mock oral. Currently rotate at Penn for peds, though that may change.
Work: This place seems to have very high volume in terms of residents’ simulation numbers (I forget the numbers I was quoted but they were very high) while at the same time being extremely reasonable workload-wise because of tremendous ancillary support. Every faculty member has a designated nurse who takes care of a lot of scut. As I said before it’s only a cancer hospital so there is no ED & call is very light (the senior resident I spoke to had never come in in the middle of the night).
Overall impression: May not be a research powerhouse but I really liked the people at this program and the supportive environment they help create.
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NYU
Location: Again, it’s Manhattan. How can this not be positive? Subsidized housing connected to the hospital at about $1700/month.
Facilities/Technology: Post-Sandy they have definitely lost a lot of clinic space. However, the part of the cancer center we did get to see is very nice. NYU attendings are getting credentialed at a proton center in Jersey and residents on the peds rotation now have the opportunity to go along with the attending on days that there are sims or other interesting cases.
Research: Guaranteed research year which you have the opportunity to break up into blocks. Chair is apparently very supportive and has helped many residents win competitive grants. Has well established breast database and has guided residents in choosing research projects that have been very productive.
Faculty: Everyone was very nice and really worked hard to sell their program. I was convinced
Residents: One of my favorite groups that I encountered on the trail. Had a pre-interview wine and appetizer reception at a restaurant that felt totally Manhattan
Work: Seemed like a reasonable workload—supposed to have excellent support staff, probably better than other NYC programs I saw. Broad clinical exposure in all sites. Bellevue population brings unique patient population, including a lot of gyn. .Residents do not crosscover each other
Overall impression: Definitely a great program with committed faculty and very happy residents.
Location: Again, it’s Manhattan. How can this not be positive? Subsidized housing connected to the hospital at about $1700/month.
Facilities/Technology: Post-Sandy they have definitely lost a lot of clinic space. However, the part of the cancer center we did get to see is very nice. NYU attendings are getting credentialed at a proton center in Jersey and residents on the peds rotation now have the opportunity to go along with the attending on days that there are sims or other interesting cases.
Research: Guaranteed research year which you have the opportunity to break up into blocks. Chair is apparently very supportive and has helped many residents win competitive grants. Has well established breast database and has guided residents in choosing research projects that have been very productive.
Faculty: Everyone was very nice and really worked hard to sell their program. I was convinced
Residents: One of my favorite groups that I encountered on the trail. Had a pre-interview wine and appetizer reception at a restaurant that felt totally Manhattan
Work: Seemed like a reasonable workload—supposed to have excellent support staff, probably better than other NYC programs I saw. Broad clinical exposure in all sites. Bellevue population brings unique patient population, including a lot of gyn. .Residents do not crosscover each other
Overall impression: Definitely a great program with committed faculty and very happy residents.
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University of Washington
Location: Seattle is an interesting town. Very clean, very casual vibe, kind of grey/rainy more than half the year, high cost of living. University of Washington is in its own kind of fratty area and pretty much everyone lives in nicer neighborhoods in Seattle and drives <10 minutes to work.
Facilities/Technology: The old facilities are fine, on par with everywhere else. There are two main sites where residents rotate, SCCA and University of Washington. They are right near each other (supershort drive away) and when you are at one site you stay at that site and would never have to drive between sites in the middle of the day (there is one rotation that is an exception because the GammaKnife is at a 3rd hospital). You videoconference the didactics. The proton center is GORGEOUS. Right now no residents work there because of basically bureaucratic issues, but by the time this class of residents starts that will be resolved. Whether it will be a proton rotation or residents will follow their attending to the proton center when they are on that attending’s service is yet to be determined. The proton center has a really wide cachement area so they seem really busy and are talking about adding a second shift to the machine.
Research: there is a 6 month guaranteed research block and you have the option to extend it to up to a year if you can find your own funding for the year. The program seems really flexible with options to do your year elsewhere if desired, and with flexibility to avoid taking call during third year if desired.
Faculty: Brand new Chair (been there since early fall) who the residents didn’t really know. Time will tell what mark she will make on the department. Program Director is relatively new (been there for about 2 years) but well liked by all accounts. Very personable woman. Actively discouraged post-interview communication. Residents here had particularly high praise for faculty mentorship in general
Residents: Very casual pre-interview meet up (at a bar I think?), followed by post-interview reception with faculty. 3 a year. Almost none from Pacific Northwest. Very cohesive group that socializes together, seem very happy with the program. Pretty much everyone has some kind of interest in outdoor activities (probably why they matched here).
Teaching/Education: 2 month rotations that are usually with one attending.
Work: Definitely seems like they work harder than at most of the programs I saw, but residents seem very happy with their experience
Overall impression: A great program with excellent clinical training
Location: Seattle is an interesting town. Very clean, very casual vibe, kind of grey/rainy more than half the year, high cost of living. University of Washington is in its own kind of fratty area and pretty much everyone lives in nicer neighborhoods in Seattle and drives <10 minutes to work.
Facilities/Technology: The old facilities are fine, on par with everywhere else. There are two main sites where residents rotate, SCCA and University of Washington. They are right near each other (supershort drive away) and when you are at one site you stay at that site and would never have to drive between sites in the middle of the day (there is one rotation that is an exception because the GammaKnife is at a 3rd hospital). You videoconference the didactics. The proton center is GORGEOUS. Right now no residents work there because of basically bureaucratic issues, but by the time this class of residents starts that will be resolved. Whether it will be a proton rotation or residents will follow their attending to the proton center when they are on that attending’s service is yet to be determined. The proton center has a really wide cachement area so they seem really busy and are talking about adding a second shift to the machine.
Research: there is a 6 month guaranteed research block and you have the option to extend it to up to a year if you can find your own funding for the year. The program seems really flexible with options to do your year elsewhere if desired, and with flexibility to avoid taking call during third year if desired.
Faculty: Brand new Chair (been there since early fall) who the residents didn’t really know. Time will tell what mark she will make on the department. Program Director is relatively new (been there for about 2 years) but well liked by all accounts. Very personable woman. Actively discouraged post-interview communication. Residents here had particularly high praise for faculty mentorship in general
Residents: Very casual pre-interview meet up (at a bar I think?), followed by post-interview reception with faculty. 3 a year. Almost none from Pacific Northwest. Very cohesive group that socializes together, seem very happy with the program. Pretty much everyone has some kind of interest in outdoor activities (probably why they matched here).
Teaching/Education: 2 month rotations that are usually with one attending.
Work: Definitely seems like they work harder than at most of the programs I saw, but residents seem very happy with their experience
Overall impression: A great program with excellent clinical training
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Penn
Location: On the border of West Philadelphia, across the bridge (walking distance) from Center City/downtown Philly. I think all the residents live in and around Center City. There is a VA next door and the satellite that has residents is about 2 miles away in downtown itself
Facilities/Technology: Yet another beautiful cancer center. + protons. Cyberknife and GammaKnife at the Center City satellite. Limited prostate brachytherapy now, brachy of all kinds will increase with hiring of new attending this July (no longer sent to Fox Chase)
Research: Recently changed to allow for contiguous research/elective year. Decide for continuous year or broken up year once you begin the residency. Unclear if every person who wants a contiguous year will/can get one but seems likely. Department funds residents to go to conferences at which they have posters. The funding limits are very high and increase with seniority.
Faculty: Residents seem to have a great relationship with the faculty, on a first name basis with all of them. Lots of great potential mentors of all levels of seniority. Everyone loves Steve Hahn (the Chair), and for good reason—very charismatic and committed to helping residents follow their academic interests. Faculty regularly attend Friday morning didactics and seem to all play very active role in teaching.
Residents: Probably my favorite group—a very cohesive group. All come together for didactics/chart rounds on Friday. Now expanding to 16 residents (4 per year).
Teaching/Education: Friday is education day with morning didactics and afternoon chart rounds. Mock oral with attending at end of each rotation. Option for elective in Botswana that is funded by department. Opportunity for free master’s in clinical research.
Work: Seems like increased workload over other programs I interviewed at but residents stressed many recent changes which had improved workload, including the fact that attendings had agreed to not always have to be covered and the fact that all rotations but one are 1:1 (one rotation is split with Chair and other faculty member). Residents are not pulled to crosscover each other if someone is absent. There is a midlevel who helps with daytime consults. It is a categorical program only—intern year schedule seems manageable in the context of academic prelims, but wards are definitely challenging
Overall impression: Definitely a top program with excellent research opportunities that produces very happy, well-adjusted residents.
Location: On the border of West Philadelphia, across the bridge (walking distance) from Center City/downtown Philly. I think all the residents live in and around Center City. There is a VA next door and the satellite that has residents is about 2 miles away in downtown itself
Facilities/Technology: Yet another beautiful cancer center. + protons. Cyberknife and GammaKnife at the Center City satellite. Limited prostate brachytherapy now, brachy of all kinds will increase with hiring of new attending this July (no longer sent to Fox Chase)
Research: Recently changed to allow for contiguous research/elective year. Decide for continuous year or broken up year once you begin the residency. Unclear if every person who wants a contiguous year will/can get one but seems likely. Department funds residents to go to conferences at which they have posters. The funding limits are very high and increase with seniority.
Faculty: Residents seem to have a great relationship with the faculty, on a first name basis with all of them. Lots of great potential mentors of all levels of seniority. Everyone loves Steve Hahn (the Chair), and for good reason—very charismatic and committed to helping residents follow their academic interests. Faculty regularly attend Friday morning didactics and seem to all play very active role in teaching.
Residents: Probably my favorite group—a very cohesive group. All come together for didactics/chart rounds on Friday. Now expanding to 16 residents (4 per year).
Teaching/Education: Friday is education day with morning didactics and afternoon chart rounds. Mock oral with attending at end of each rotation. Option for elective in Botswana that is funded by department. Opportunity for free master’s in clinical research.
Work: Seems like increased workload over other programs I interviewed at but residents stressed many recent changes which had improved workload, including the fact that attendings had agreed to not always have to be covered and the fact that all rotations but one are 1:1 (one rotation is split with Chair and other faculty member). Residents are not pulled to crosscover each other if someone is absent. There is a midlevel who helps with daytime consults. It is a categorical program only—intern year schedule seems manageable in the context of academic prelims, but wards are definitely challenging
Overall impression: Definitely a top program with excellent research opportunities that produces very happy, well-adjusted residents.
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I'll join the party. My reviews are going to be decidedly less involved, my apologies.
Edit: My initial Penn review wasn't very helpful, I've added some details.
UTSW
Much like Kip Dynamite, Dr. Choy loves technology. Beautiful facilities, and whatever tech they don't have now, they will have soon. Dr. Choy has big plans, and it seems like the wheels are in motion. 6-12 months of research (12 if bench), usually cover 1 attending at a time, residents typically get an academic day, and there is no cross-covering. All the faculty were very nice during the interview day, but when pressed, some of the residents admitted that there are some personalities that can be difficult to interact with. Still, most of the residents seemed happy with their choice and all of them were definitely happy with their training. Bottom line: good program that will likely get better with continued expansion, but some abrasive personalities may be a concern.
Stanford
This one's a toughie. I like California, I love Palo Alto, and having Stanford on your resume can't be a bad thing. But I'd heard the stories of scut and overworked residents, so I went in skeptical. The facilities are great, for tech they have pretty much everything but protons. The Varian connection is a positive thing, I think, and they recently hired a prostate monster that should really beef up the brachy training. Everyone was really nice, Dr. Chang and Dr. Le (PD & chair) are great, nice, accomplished people. Some of the previous scut problems have apparently significantly improved with Dr. Chang taking over. 11 months research/electives, usually at least 1 academic day per week, cover 1-2 attendings at a time (only cover multiple attendings when each isn't in the clinic much), but residents do provide 100% coverage (do have to cross-cover). Hours apparently vary widely from service to service, but can get pretty intense. Unfortunately, from what I understand, there are still problems with how residents are treated by a couple of the faculty. Bottom line: great training, fantastic research opportunities, big name, beautiful location, many fantastic attendings, but, again, some abrasive personalities may be a concern.
Penn
We've all heard it: beautiful cancer center and radonc department, all the tech you can handle (they are beefing up their brachy with a near-future hire), residents treated really well, Dr. Hahn is indeed "the man," etc. Residents get 12 months of research/elective time which you can take together or in chunks. Residents cover 1 faculty member at a time, not all attendings are covered, and residents don't cross-cover. I don't remember specifics, but the hours seemed to be pretty reasonable. You can go to Botswana for ~2 wks, which sounded pretty cool. There is lots of travel money available, even if you're not presenting. The call schedule is staggered by year (5 wks in first year, 4 wks, 3 wks, and 1 wk), and an NP helps with many of the inpatient consults. Didactics are mostly faculty-led and are held Thursday at 7am an all Friday morning
The wild-card here is the PGY1 year. Apparently the current residents recently voted to keep it but I really wish they wouldn't have. Even if you think doing an academic medicine year is a good thing (I do), there are plenty of "legitimate" reasons for wanting to do your internship somewhere else. And unfortunately, I do have a strong reason to be somewhere else next year. If it weren't for the intern year, I would have ranked Penn 1 or 2, but as it is, it ended up significantly lower. I wanted to post this because many interviewees I met felt the same way, but no one would ever say that during an interview. Bottom line: one of my favorite programs from the interview trail with great training and happy residents, but the built-in PGY1 may be a negative.
MSK
I don't have a lot to say about MSK. It's a great place: big names everywhere, high quality of life on the UES, 12 months research, etc. I do want to comment that I thought the reputation for overworked residents is a little overblown. They definitely see a ton of patients, and I'm sure the hours are longer than most, but I pressed the residents pretty hard for specifics of the day-to-day, and I felt like it's not that much different than other busy programs. The residents seemed happy with their training and quality of life, and the seniors I met seemed really happy with their job opportunities. The faculty were remarkably down-to-Earth considering their notoriety, and I felt like it was a really positive working/training environment. Bottom line: great program with unparalleled clinical training and extensive research opportunities that is busy but not unreasonable.
Ok, I need a break, I'll add some more impressions later.
Edit: My initial Penn review wasn't very helpful, I've added some details.
UTSW
Much like Kip Dynamite, Dr. Choy loves technology. Beautiful facilities, and whatever tech they don't have now, they will have soon. Dr. Choy has big plans, and it seems like the wheels are in motion. 6-12 months of research (12 if bench), usually cover 1 attending at a time, residents typically get an academic day, and there is no cross-covering. All the faculty were very nice during the interview day, but when pressed, some of the residents admitted that there are some personalities that can be difficult to interact with. Still, most of the residents seemed happy with their choice and all of them were definitely happy with their training. Bottom line: good program that will likely get better with continued expansion, but some abrasive personalities may be a concern.
Stanford
This one's a toughie. I like California, I love Palo Alto, and having Stanford on your resume can't be a bad thing. But I'd heard the stories of scut and overworked residents, so I went in skeptical. The facilities are great, for tech they have pretty much everything but protons. The Varian connection is a positive thing, I think, and they recently hired a prostate monster that should really beef up the brachy training. Everyone was really nice, Dr. Chang and Dr. Le (PD & chair) are great, nice, accomplished people. Some of the previous scut problems have apparently significantly improved with Dr. Chang taking over. 11 months research/electives, usually at least 1 academic day per week, cover 1-2 attendings at a time (only cover multiple attendings when each isn't in the clinic much), but residents do provide 100% coverage (do have to cross-cover). Hours apparently vary widely from service to service, but can get pretty intense. Unfortunately, from what I understand, there are still problems with how residents are treated by a couple of the faculty. Bottom line: great training, fantastic research opportunities, big name, beautiful location, many fantastic attendings, but, again, some abrasive personalities may be a concern.
Penn
We've all heard it: beautiful cancer center and radonc department, all the tech you can handle (they are beefing up their brachy with a near-future hire), residents treated really well, Dr. Hahn is indeed "the man," etc. Residents get 12 months of research/elective time which you can take together or in chunks. Residents cover 1 faculty member at a time, not all attendings are covered, and residents don't cross-cover. I don't remember specifics, but the hours seemed to be pretty reasonable. You can go to Botswana for ~2 wks, which sounded pretty cool. There is lots of travel money available, even if you're not presenting. The call schedule is staggered by year (5 wks in first year, 4 wks, 3 wks, and 1 wk), and an NP helps with many of the inpatient consults. Didactics are mostly faculty-led and are held Thursday at 7am an all Friday morning
The wild-card here is the PGY1 year. Apparently the current residents recently voted to keep it but I really wish they wouldn't have. Even if you think doing an academic medicine year is a good thing (I do), there are plenty of "legitimate" reasons for wanting to do your internship somewhere else. And unfortunately, I do have a strong reason to be somewhere else next year. If it weren't for the intern year, I would have ranked Penn 1 or 2, but as it is, it ended up significantly lower. I wanted to post this because many interviewees I met felt the same way, but no one would ever say that during an interview. Bottom line: one of my favorite programs from the interview trail with great training and happy residents, but the built-in PGY1 may be a negative.
MSK
I don't have a lot to say about MSK. It's a great place: big names everywhere, high quality of life on the UES, 12 months research, etc. I do want to comment that I thought the reputation for overworked residents is a little overblown. They definitely see a ton of patients, and I'm sure the hours are longer than most, but I pressed the residents pretty hard for specifics of the day-to-day, and I felt like it's not that much different than other busy programs. The residents seemed happy with their training and quality of life, and the seniors I met seemed really happy with their job opportunities. The faculty were remarkably down-to-Earth considering their notoriety, and I felt like it was a really positive working/training environment. Bottom line: great program with unparalleled clinical training and extensive research opportunities that is busy but not unreasonable.
Ok, I need a break, I'll add some more impressions later.
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I'll try to provide some reviews of the lesser reviewed programs also. Here's one to start:
University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
Interview Day:
I was completely blown away by how impressed I was with this program. I have no idea why it hasn’t received more reviews on this forum. The interview day was a great day – well run, well organized and everyone was very warm and welcoming. The way the interview day was run gave me the impression that the program ran like a well-oiled machine. Residents all seemed really happy and enthusiastic, and the faculty was great. The program is expanding to 8 residents next year - they are taking two in the match per year now, and were taking an additional PGY2 this year.
Research:
There are a few well-known senior faculty members (Marks, Tepper, etc) but also a group of young faculty members from places like Harvard and Duke who were very academically inclined and incredibly enthusiastic about their research ideas. There are three days in clinic, two research days per week. Great research resources in Lineberger, and in the school of public health. They have done some big things with the breast TCGA and have a GI SPORE and a breast SPORE. I really got the impression that whatever your research interests you could find it somewhere at UNC – the institution itself is a powerhouse even outside of the department and these opportunities seemed available to rad onc residents. And here’s the kicker on top of that: research is being expanded to a year of research time per resident with the expansion.
Lifestyle:
It seems like a very family friendly program – many residents with kids and a good area to live in, with good schools. I will just make a comment – there are zero female residents and only ONE female faculty member –who is also the PD. They made a point that this wasn’t purposeful, and there wasn’t anything non-female friendly about the program, but I will say there were plenty of programs (even small ones) with more diversity in the resident/ faculty pool.
Clinical:
UNC takes care of indigent patients and VIP patients and everything in between. Plenty of volume – expanding to 8 residents next year, but they still have 9 faculty members. Apparently head and neck is very strong here, thoracic may be a little weaker because surgeons are very aggressive. With the expansion, residents will do one community rotation at Rex Hospital ~ 30 minutes outside the city to get an idea of what private practice might be like. Multi-disciplinary conferences in nearly every cancer site – rad oncs are well respected by other disciplines and other researchers – “we’re treated like fellows here” said one resident. Brand new beautiful cancer hospital built in 2009 – inpatients are all here so no tromping across campus.
Didactics:
I can’t remember too many specifics here – but I did meet the radiobiologist who was fantastic – she teaches courses for residents at many other institutions and has taught for years. Her purpose here is to educate residents and it sounds like she does a great job. No one has ever failed boards – radbio, physics or clinical.
Bottom Line:
This is a program on the rise, well balanced with regards to resident lifestyle and excellent clinical training, and they are taking research seriously (both basic, translational and clinical). Not to mention Chapel Hill/ Durham is a great place to live.
University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
Interview Day:
I was completely blown away by how impressed I was with this program. I have no idea why it hasn’t received more reviews on this forum. The interview day was a great day – well run, well organized and everyone was very warm and welcoming. The way the interview day was run gave me the impression that the program ran like a well-oiled machine. Residents all seemed really happy and enthusiastic, and the faculty was great. The program is expanding to 8 residents next year - they are taking two in the match per year now, and were taking an additional PGY2 this year.
Research:
There are a few well-known senior faculty members (Marks, Tepper, etc) but also a group of young faculty members from places like Harvard and Duke who were very academically inclined and incredibly enthusiastic about their research ideas. There are three days in clinic, two research days per week. Great research resources in Lineberger, and in the school of public health. They have done some big things with the breast TCGA and have a GI SPORE and a breast SPORE. I really got the impression that whatever your research interests you could find it somewhere at UNC – the institution itself is a powerhouse even outside of the department and these opportunities seemed available to rad onc residents. And here’s the kicker on top of that: research is being expanded to a year of research time per resident with the expansion.
Lifestyle:
It seems like a very family friendly program – many residents with kids and a good area to live in, with good schools. I will just make a comment – there are zero female residents and only ONE female faculty member –who is also the PD. They made a point that this wasn’t purposeful, and there wasn’t anything non-female friendly about the program, but I will say there were plenty of programs (even small ones) with more diversity in the resident/ faculty pool.
Clinical:
UNC takes care of indigent patients and VIP patients and everything in between. Plenty of volume – expanding to 8 residents next year, but they still have 9 faculty members. Apparently head and neck is very strong here, thoracic may be a little weaker because surgeons are very aggressive. With the expansion, residents will do one community rotation at Rex Hospital ~ 30 minutes outside the city to get an idea of what private practice might be like. Multi-disciplinary conferences in nearly every cancer site – rad oncs are well respected by other disciplines and other researchers – “we’re treated like fellows here” said one resident. Brand new beautiful cancer hospital built in 2009 – inpatients are all here so no tromping across campus.
Didactics:
I can’t remember too many specifics here – but I did meet the radiobiologist who was fantastic – she teaches courses for residents at many other institutions and has taught for years. Her purpose here is to educate residents and it sounds like she does a great job. No one has ever failed boards – radbio, physics or clinical.
Bottom Line:
This is a program on the rise, well balanced with regards to resident lifestyle and excellent clinical training, and they are taking research seriously (both basic, translational and clinical). Not to mention Chapel Hill/ Durham is a great place to live.
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3rd year here, love reading these. You guys are all superstars and are inspiring.
I'd love to hear any new impressions people have about the following places:
Ohio State
UPitt
Northwestern
Cleveland Clinic
OHSU
Wake Forest
I'd love to hear any new impressions people have about the following places:
Ohio State
UPitt
Northwestern
Cleveland Clinic
OHSU
Wake Forest
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I can chime in about Ohio State, the others didn't want to interview me (sadface.jpg).
I was pretty impressed with the current state of the program as well as its trajectory. The department is expanding and will be moving into what will be a beautiful new cancer center. They've added some pretty impressive research and clinical faculty. As far as tech, I think they have everything but protons. 12 months of research/electives, residents cover one attending at a time, no cross-covering, residents generally get an academic day, and average hours are about 7-8 to 5-6. The residents seemed like a happy and fun bunch who spoke very highly of their training and quality of life. There was some concern voiced about the circumstances of the previous PD's exit, but as awful as that was, the new PD (Dr. Wuthrick) is a great guy and seems capable of nurturing the program in the face of the department's rapid expansion. The chair (Dr. Chakravarti) seemed like an inspirational leader as well. Bottom line: Very good program that will continue to improve. Good clinical training, lots of research opportunities, and high quality of life. My opinion is that the current "name recognition" probably lags behind the actually quality of the program.
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The only 'negatives' about Ohio State for me are the location in theory, but Columbus is actually a lot better than I expected, and I was surprised to find out it's like the 13th biggest city in the country or something. Also the fact that the name recognition isn't quite caught up to the program quality yet, but I think it is getting there.
Even at other interview days, the word among people who had interviewed there was very positive. They put on a good interview day.
I'm sure there are some other negatives that other people noticed.
Even at other interview days, the word among people who had interviewed there was very positive. They put on a good interview day.
I'm sure there are some other negatives that other people noticed.
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Here you go...
Cleveland Clinic: 12 residents total, taking 2 this year. Residents are on 2 month rotations with one attending, with no cross covering. Dedicated didactic time every morning from 8-9am which is mostly a pimping session but not malignant at all. The faculty seemed very dedicated to the education of the residents. I thought that was very impressive. The residents are definitely busy (more so than a lot of the other programs I visited) but did not seemed overwhelmed with their workload. All of them were very very happy with their training. The PD and Chair are very dedicated to the residents which I thought was great. All the faculty that interviewed seemed very easy to talk to and relatively easy going. The hospital is AMAZING and a new cancer center is in the process of being built but it will not be up and running for a good 5-7 years. As far as technology, I think they have everything except for protons. Research is abundant but mostly clinical. You get 9 months of research time during your PGY-4 year . I did not inquire much about basic science work since I am more interested in clinical research but I assume finding basic science research opportunities at CCF cannot be too hard to find. I honestly the only down side of this program would be location (although that is very subjective). Cleveland is an ok city but very cold. Most residents said they were skeptical about living in Cleveland as well but were pleasantly surprised about the entertainment available in the city and the cost of living is low.
Overall: This is a fantastic program that will provide you with great clinical training and abundant opportunities for research with the support and mentorship needed to go into academics if you so choose. Very intense academic environment with longer hours than most programs and preparing for morning conference daily may be a deterrent for some but overall I think you would leave CCF an outstanding clinician.
University of Florida: 8 residents, taking 2 this year. Residents are on 3 month rotations with one attending, cross-covering for new consults only. They also spend 6 months in Jacksonville at the proton center. Although it sucks that the proton center is 1 and 1/2 hrs away from Gainesville, the program provides a really nice condo for you to stay in during your rotation there and its right near the beach! I believe didactics are several times a week but I don't remember exactly. The residents meet all of their numbers and see more peds cases than almost any other program but they are def not overworked. As per the residents, the work day is from 8-5 and patients are rarely treated on weekends and they all seem very happy with their training. 6 months for research/electives given to residents which are very flexible with respect to what you want to do with them. Abundant clinical research available and long-standing databases which are always a plus. I did not ask about basic science research but with Dr. Okuneiff as chair and considering the last 3/4 residents who matched at UF are MD/PhDs, I assume the opportunity is there. The faculty here are probably the nicest and most easy going I met on the trail and the residents socialize with the faculty outside of the hospital regularly. The PD, Dr. Amdur is great and very supportive of his residents. The residents also mentioned that a great benefit of UF is that it's historical significance (50 yrs since the dept opened) and alumni network which def helps with great job placement. Recent grads got academic jobs at places such as Stanford, Fox Chase, and UNC but the program is supportive if you want to go into private practice as well. Gainesville is a very affordable college town, which can be good or bad depending on who you talk to.
Overall: Great program that again would provide you with fantastic clinical training and the resources to have a great foundation in academics if you so choose. Between the solid clinical training, family like environment of the department, proton exposure, abundant clinical research, good life/work balance, and great job placement, I thought this was a very impressive program. Location would be its only fault in my opinion.
Impressions to be continued...
Cleveland Clinic: 12 residents total, taking 2 this year. Residents are on 2 month rotations with one attending, with no cross covering. Dedicated didactic time every morning from 8-9am which is mostly a pimping session but not malignant at all. The faculty seemed very dedicated to the education of the residents. I thought that was very impressive. The residents are definitely busy (more so than a lot of the other programs I visited) but did not seemed overwhelmed with their workload. All of them were very very happy with their training. The PD and Chair are very dedicated to the residents which I thought was great. All the faculty that interviewed seemed very easy to talk to and relatively easy going. The hospital is AMAZING and a new cancer center is in the process of being built but it will not be up and running for a good 5-7 years. As far as technology, I think they have everything except for protons. Research is abundant but mostly clinical. You get 9 months of research time during your PGY-4 year . I did not inquire much about basic science work since I am more interested in clinical research but I assume finding basic science research opportunities at CCF cannot be too hard to find. I honestly the only down side of this program would be location (although that is very subjective). Cleveland is an ok city but very cold. Most residents said they were skeptical about living in Cleveland as well but were pleasantly surprised about the entertainment available in the city and the cost of living is low.
Overall: This is a fantastic program that will provide you with great clinical training and abundant opportunities for research with the support and mentorship needed to go into academics if you so choose. Very intense academic environment with longer hours than most programs and preparing for morning conference daily may be a deterrent for some but overall I think you would leave CCF an outstanding clinician.
University of Florida: 8 residents, taking 2 this year. Residents are on 3 month rotations with one attending, cross-covering for new consults only. They also spend 6 months in Jacksonville at the proton center. Although it sucks that the proton center is 1 and 1/2 hrs away from Gainesville, the program provides a really nice condo for you to stay in during your rotation there and its right near the beach! I believe didactics are several times a week but I don't remember exactly. The residents meet all of their numbers and see more peds cases than almost any other program but they are def not overworked. As per the residents, the work day is from 8-5 and patients are rarely treated on weekends and they all seem very happy with their training. 6 months for research/electives given to residents which are very flexible with respect to what you want to do with them. Abundant clinical research available and long-standing databases which are always a plus. I did not ask about basic science research but with Dr. Okuneiff as chair and considering the last 3/4 residents who matched at UF are MD/PhDs, I assume the opportunity is there. The faculty here are probably the nicest and most easy going I met on the trail and the residents socialize with the faculty outside of the hospital regularly. The PD, Dr. Amdur is great and very supportive of his residents. The residents also mentioned that a great benefit of UF is that it's historical significance (50 yrs since the dept opened) and alumni network which def helps with great job placement. Recent grads got academic jobs at places such as Stanford, Fox Chase, and UNC but the program is supportive if you want to go into private practice as well. Gainesville is a very affordable college town, which can be good or bad depending on who you talk to.
Overall: Great program that again would provide you with fantastic clinical training and the resources to have a great foundation in academics if you so choose. Between the solid clinical training, family like environment of the department, proton exposure, abundant clinical research, good life/work balance, and great job placement, I thought this was a very impressive program. Location would be its only fault in my opinion.
Impressions to be continued...
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UC San Diego
Location: San Diego is hands down the most beautiful city in the country! It’s a sunny, 65-85 degrees year-round. If you like being outside, SD is the place to be. SD is composed of several neighborhoods that can suit anyone’s particular style (i.e. hipster, prep, beach bum, city-type, etc.). The campus itself is located less than 10 minutes from the beach in the lovely city of La Jolla (one of the ritzier cities in the country) and is adjacent to the undergrad and med school campus as well as the VA Hospital.
Facilities: The Moores Cancer Center itself is relatively new (built in the mid-2000s, I think). The department is primarily located on the first-floor (above ground!), but they have a second, stand-alone building (also above ground! designed by Dr. Mundt himself) that has more office space, patient rooms and treatment machines. They also have a few satellite offices in North County and South Bay (that offer more of a private-practice experience). And now they have the brand new proton center that just opened. So, beautiful city, beautiful facilities.
Technology: In terms of technology, UCSD also has everything you could want. They have a PET/CT and MR scanners, a TrueBeam for IMRT, IGRT and SRS, a brachytherapy suite, and I think, between all of the sites, they have about 8 linacs and now they have protons. Down in their South Bay office, they also have a Xoft for skin cancers (that are pretty common in SD with all that sunshine).
Research: I think everyone gets 12 months of dedicated research if they want it, but it seemed like most of the residents were involved in research while still performing clinic duties. One of the residents even opened his own clinical trial. They have clinical, basic science and translational research opportunities available. At the interview, Dr. Mundt said that there were also opportunities to collaborate with medical physics, UCSD’s bioengineering department and local biotech companies.
Faculty: Dr. Mundt recruited an all-star faculty with some of the biggest names in Gyn (in addition Mundt himself, Mell and Yashar). Several young, energetic faculty members that are interested in teaching and pushing the field forward. A couple of faculty members are a little… intense, but on the whole, everyone (the vast majority, including Dr. Mundt) was very friendly and approachable. The overall atmosphere is very collaborative and energetic, they seem like they work really hard, they love their work, but they also enjoy their free time.
Residents: Awesome residents. Some of the nicest, smartest, most down-to-earth/normal residents that I’ve met. Right now, they’re taking 2 per year, so the group is a good size at 8. They have pretty good diversity with a military resident, PhD, and an MBA, but 7 of the 8 residents are male and 3 of the 8 will be UCSD med school grads (so a little less diverse in that respect).
Teaching/Education: 3-month long, site-based rotations. Post-rotation mock orals and exam. Most didactics are taught by faculty and are attended by Dr. Mundt himself. They have the usual case conferences, rad bio and physics lectures. In addition to all the normal rad-bio, physics and case conferences, they also have Spanish (very important for CA residents), biostats and business classes. Dr. Mundt also said that they have some international opportunities and partnerships with institutions in different countries that are available for the more senior residents.
Work: The residents are definitely very busy between prepping patients, seeing patients and attending didactics/tumor boards/conferences. The faculty to resident ratio is usually 1:1, with some faculty operating without a resident at certain points.
Overall impression: UCSD is a relatively young program, but it’s definitely on the fast track to the top. I think the moral of the story is to trust in Dr. Mundt - he’s invested, he has a vision, he’s committed to the future of the program and he knows exactly what he’s doing. Excellent training in an amazing location - you can't beat it.
Location: San Diego is hands down the most beautiful city in the country! It’s a sunny, 65-85 degrees year-round. If you like being outside, SD is the place to be. SD is composed of several neighborhoods that can suit anyone’s particular style (i.e. hipster, prep, beach bum, city-type, etc.). The campus itself is located less than 10 minutes from the beach in the lovely city of La Jolla (one of the ritzier cities in the country) and is adjacent to the undergrad and med school campus as well as the VA Hospital.
Facilities: The Moores Cancer Center itself is relatively new (built in the mid-2000s, I think). The department is primarily located on the first-floor (above ground!), but they have a second, stand-alone building (also above ground! designed by Dr. Mundt himself) that has more office space, patient rooms and treatment machines. They also have a few satellite offices in North County and South Bay (that offer more of a private-practice experience). And now they have the brand new proton center that just opened. So, beautiful city, beautiful facilities.
Technology: In terms of technology, UCSD also has everything you could want. They have a PET/CT and MR scanners, a TrueBeam for IMRT, IGRT and SRS, a brachytherapy suite, and I think, between all of the sites, they have about 8 linacs and now they have protons. Down in their South Bay office, they also have a Xoft for skin cancers (that are pretty common in SD with all that sunshine).
Research: I think everyone gets 12 months of dedicated research if they want it, but it seemed like most of the residents were involved in research while still performing clinic duties. One of the residents even opened his own clinical trial. They have clinical, basic science and translational research opportunities available. At the interview, Dr. Mundt said that there were also opportunities to collaborate with medical physics, UCSD’s bioengineering department and local biotech companies.
Faculty: Dr. Mundt recruited an all-star faculty with some of the biggest names in Gyn (in addition Mundt himself, Mell and Yashar). Several young, energetic faculty members that are interested in teaching and pushing the field forward. A couple of faculty members are a little… intense, but on the whole, everyone (the vast majority, including Dr. Mundt) was very friendly and approachable. The overall atmosphere is very collaborative and energetic, they seem like they work really hard, they love their work, but they also enjoy their free time.
Residents: Awesome residents. Some of the nicest, smartest, most down-to-earth/normal residents that I’ve met. Right now, they’re taking 2 per year, so the group is a good size at 8. They have pretty good diversity with a military resident, PhD, and an MBA, but 7 of the 8 residents are male and 3 of the 8 will be UCSD med school grads (so a little less diverse in that respect).
Teaching/Education: 3-month long, site-based rotations. Post-rotation mock orals and exam. Most didactics are taught by faculty and are attended by Dr. Mundt himself. They have the usual case conferences, rad bio and physics lectures. In addition to all the normal rad-bio, physics and case conferences, they also have Spanish (very important for CA residents), biostats and business classes. Dr. Mundt also said that they have some international opportunities and partnerships with institutions in different countries that are available for the more senior residents.
Work: The residents are definitely very busy between prepping patients, seeing patients and attending didactics/tumor boards/conferences. The faculty to resident ratio is usually 1:1, with some faculty operating without a resident at certain points.
Overall impression: UCSD is a relatively young program, but it’s definitely on the fast track to the top. I think the moral of the story is to trust in Dr. Mundt - he’s invested, he has a vision, he’s committed to the future of the program and he knows exactly what he’s doing. Excellent training in an amazing location - you can't beat it.
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- Apr 18, 2013
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Ohio State
Location: Let me preface by saying, I’m a California native (so, like most Californians, convincing me to leave the state is an obstacle in itself, haha). I have to say, however, I was VERY (pleasantly) surprised by Columbus. It’s definitely a Midwest, college town (Buckeyes = life), but there’s a huge young-professional scene with the law school, med school and business school all in the same area. There’s a pretty cool area (the Short North) full of art galleries, coffee shops, bars and music venues. The downtown area is pretty small, but there’s a “Brewer’s district” and several small micro/craft breweries are popping up (if you’re into that). Aside from the freezing winters, Columbus seems like a pretty cool and affordable place to be.
Facilities: The department right now is in the basement of the James Cancer Center, BUT they just built a brand-new cancer hospital (opening this year!) and the radonc department is going to be on the SECOND floor! (crazy, right?!). In addition to the new hospital, they have another beautiful, stand-alone site (the Stephanie Spielman Breast Cancer Center, ~1.5 miles from the James) that deals almost exclusively with breast cancer.
Technology: Right now, they have 2 CT sims, 4 Linacs at the main center and 2 TrueBeams at the breast center, gamma knife SRS, brachytherapy (permanent, interstitial, IORT), and US hyperthermia. With the new expansion, they’re planning on having like 7 (!), brand-new treatment vaults and an MR sim for gyn procedures. I forgot if they were getting a PET sim… and there were definitely whispers of protons in the future during the interview.
Research: They offer 12 months of dedicated research divided into 3-month blocks over PGY3-5 years, but most residents are involved in little side research projects at all times. They even have a Holmann pathway resident (!). The OSUCCC recently received a huge ($23 million) grant from the NCI for research and education. With big names like Dr. White (Breast, clinical) and Dr. Chakravarti (CNS, basic) and several newer faculty (like Williams and Wuthrick), OSU has an awesome combination of experience, energy and momentum when it comes to clinical, basic science and translational research. The physics department is also very strong.
Faculty: Like I mentioned before, big names, several young faculty and 5 new attendings that just started – all makes for an interesting dynamic. The younger faculty are very enthusiastic about teaching and you can tell that they’re committed to passing their knowledge on and producing excellent residents.
Residents: All are really friendly and smart. I definitely got a good vibe from everyone that I met. It’s one of the larger programs with ~10 residents. Most have some sort of tie to Ohio and some have young families.
Teaching/Education: OSU definitely has the volume, the depth and the breadth of patient experience that we’re all looking for in a training program. The clinical, radiobiology and physics didactics were some of the strongest that I’ve seen (and I rotated through a bunch programs). According to the interview, the residents consistently score in the upper percentiles on both the in-service and Raphex exams. Also of note, at the interview, there was talk of potentially offering an option for a concurrent MBA
Work: The residents are VERY busy. There are way more faculty than residents and the ratio is usually 1:1 with a few exceptions. Most faculty are used to operating on their own.
Overall impression: Honestly, I was blown away by OSU. It’s a monster program that is still relatively under the radar. BUT, based on several people that I’ve met along the trail, the word’s getting out and people are starting to catch on. It’s a fresh and exciting time for OSU and I expect that nothing but excellent things will come from OSU in the near future.
Location: Let me preface by saying, I’m a California native (so, like most Californians, convincing me to leave the state is an obstacle in itself, haha). I have to say, however, I was VERY (pleasantly) surprised by Columbus. It’s definitely a Midwest, college town (Buckeyes = life), but there’s a huge young-professional scene with the law school, med school and business school all in the same area. There’s a pretty cool area (the Short North) full of art galleries, coffee shops, bars and music venues. The downtown area is pretty small, but there’s a “Brewer’s district” and several small micro/craft breweries are popping up (if you’re into that). Aside from the freezing winters, Columbus seems like a pretty cool and affordable place to be.
Facilities: The department right now is in the basement of the James Cancer Center, BUT they just built a brand-new cancer hospital (opening this year!) and the radonc department is going to be on the SECOND floor! (crazy, right?!). In addition to the new hospital, they have another beautiful, stand-alone site (the Stephanie Spielman Breast Cancer Center, ~1.5 miles from the James) that deals almost exclusively with breast cancer.
Technology: Right now, they have 2 CT sims, 4 Linacs at the main center and 2 TrueBeams at the breast center, gamma knife SRS, brachytherapy (permanent, interstitial, IORT), and US hyperthermia. With the new expansion, they’re planning on having like 7 (!), brand-new treatment vaults and an MR sim for gyn procedures. I forgot if they were getting a PET sim… and there were definitely whispers of protons in the future during the interview.
Research: They offer 12 months of dedicated research divided into 3-month blocks over PGY3-5 years, but most residents are involved in little side research projects at all times. They even have a Holmann pathway resident (!). The OSUCCC recently received a huge ($23 million) grant from the NCI for research and education. With big names like Dr. White (Breast, clinical) and Dr. Chakravarti (CNS, basic) and several newer faculty (like Williams and Wuthrick), OSU has an awesome combination of experience, energy and momentum when it comes to clinical, basic science and translational research. The physics department is also very strong.
Faculty: Like I mentioned before, big names, several young faculty and 5 new attendings that just started – all makes for an interesting dynamic. The younger faculty are very enthusiastic about teaching and you can tell that they’re committed to passing their knowledge on and producing excellent residents.
Residents: All are really friendly and smart. I definitely got a good vibe from everyone that I met. It’s one of the larger programs with ~10 residents. Most have some sort of tie to Ohio and some have young families.
Teaching/Education: OSU definitely has the volume, the depth and the breadth of patient experience that we’re all looking for in a training program. The clinical, radiobiology and physics didactics were some of the strongest that I’ve seen (and I rotated through a bunch programs). According to the interview, the residents consistently score in the upper percentiles on both the in-service and Raphex exams. Also of note, at the interview, there was talk of potentially offering an option for a concurrent MBA
Work: The residents are VERY busy. There are way more faculty than residents and the ratio is usually 1:1 with a few exceptions. Most faculty are used to operating on their own.
Overall impression: Honestly, I was blown away by OSU. It’s a monster program that is still relatively under the radar. BUT, based on several people that I’ve met along the trail, the word’s getting out and people are starting to catch on. It’s a fresh and exciting time for OSU and I expect that nothing but excellent things will come from OSU in the near future.
D
deleted525116
Ask and you shall receive, well, one of them at least.
OHSU
For some reason a lot of the specifics are escaping my memory, but I can share what was important to me. If I'm wrong about anything I hope someone can correct me.
Location: Portland is a pretty neat place, a little too self-aware of its hippness, but fun nonetheless.
Facilities: The hospital is unreal, the setting and buildings are just breath-taking. And with Phil Knight paying the tab, the cancer center seems to be doing well financially. For machines, I believe they have 3 or 4 linacs and 1 tomo. No protons or brachy on site (I think?), although if I remember correctly, I think you can do a brachy rotation in the community (if I'm wrong about this please forgive me!).
Research: Dr. Thomas is very supportive of resident research and the Holman pathway. There are lots of basic science labs around OHSU at residents' disposal.
Faculty: It's a small department with, I think, 5 faculty members. They all seemed really nice and like they would be great teachers.
Residents: Seemed like a tight-knit and fun group. It's a fairly small program, so there's a lot of time spent together. They all seemed happy with their choice in residency.
Teaching: I honestly don't remember, this usually wasn't something I was super interested in on interviews.
Work: OHSU has a reputation for being busy, and yes there was a duty hours violation a few years ago. From my understanding, however, changes have been made in recent years to lighten the resident work-load somewhat. I believe residents are still busy but not excessively so.
Overall: I really liked OHSU, I think it's somewhat of a hidden gem that offers good clinical training and strong research support in a great location. Potential downsides would be the small size, depending on what you're looking for in a residency, and lack of strong brachytherapy training in-house.
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UNC:
Interview day: Long day, but appropriate breaks in between. Started at 7:15 with a nice breakfast. Quick overview of the program. Observed SIM reviews, which I thought was a great learning experience. They were very vocal about their opinions and seem to be well read on the literature. Dr. Tepper gave a nice overview of UNC, #7 in NIH funding, etc… Then nice overview of physics and radbio. Then the interviews begin. Overall, cordial faculty. Asked what other programs I was interviewing at (violation?), am I going to have children (violation?). Chair actually read my packet and had good questions to ask. Well-run. Really nice dinner the night before with laid back conversation.
PD/Chair: Dr. Jones was incredibly friendly and appeared to have residents interest at heart. Dr. Marks, former Duke PD, was very nice. Mentioned he had some type of prior interaction with car manufacturing workflow and is taking the efficiency protocols from that venue and applying them to the rad onc dept. This seems to be working very nicely. Emphasized efficiency repeatedly. Overall, friendly and seems supportive of resident well-being.
Location/Dept: I have never been to Chapel Hill before, but I liked it. Quaint city with interspersed urbanesque zones. Next to Duke, and NC State, so lots of academia in the region. Residents said cost of living was manageable, but expect Chapel Hill to be more than Durham. School districts are nice in Chapel Hill. UNC is in a nice part of town, did not feel safety was an issue. Nice new NC Cancer center and Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dept in the basement as always, 1 or 2 simulators (can’t remember), all the bells and whistles (3 Linacs, IMRT/IGRT, brachy (LDR/HDR), CT on rails, Calypso, tomo, cyberknife, IORT) and remote access to patient records. Have a MRI-PET, but in different building. Several big name faculty, stable dept, a few with R21/RO1 grants.
Research: Mixed notions about the goal of this program. Some faculty and residents stated there was a push to increase research time to 12 months, but the chair seemed to be taken back by such a suggestion. This aside, the residents have VERY impressive publications, awards, grants, etc.. So, this should not be a limiting factor. There is interest in carbon nanotubes and single cell irradiation techniques (very cool), Dr. Wang has some nice work going on with nanoparticles and biomatrix scaffolds and mets. Have own treatment planning software, so lots of opportunity if wanted to customize. I believe only one resident is involved in basic science work right now. Emphasis on a collaborative environment.
Residents: A great group of guys, yes that is right, I did not see any female residents here. May change, may not. Dr. Marks said they rank women, but the match is the overall predictor. I believe the majority of residents are married, a few have children. I was really impressed with the publication record of these guys. I believe they are approved for 8 residents now.
Workload: I did not get the impression that residents were overworked. They did mention they lost their PA/NP recently, so they have to do a little more scut than usual; this did not seem to be that big of an issue though. Avg. of 5 consults/day on busy service. Mention that they have 100+ on treatment/day.
Didactics: I do not remember the specifics, but seemed standard and high quality. Dr. Zeman teaches rad bio and she is incredibly passionate about it. Physics leader was also passionate about teaching. Tag team with Duke on visiting professors. Participate in onco-anatomy, residents seemed like they enjoyed this experience.
Service structure / coverage: 3 month rotations, some services they do double cover, but said it is still like covering one attending 2/2 to academic days (which they have approx. 2/wk) and personality of attendings. Call q6 wk, but could change with increase in residents. Mult-D clinic, but I believe the residents stay in their dept.
Random details: $2500 education fee and licensing costs given to you. Moonlighting in 4th year, which was mentioned by the chair. Cheap parking ($2/day) w/in 5 min walking distance. Nice café. Get $120/yr for food. Resident workroom was nice, increase in number may make it a bit tighter in space. No post-interview communication, they say they rank you that day and having a running list throughout the interview season.
OVERALL: I was really impressed with UNC. Great location, stable big name faculty, upcoming and engaging younger faculty, collaborative environment, productive residents, outstanding didactics and good technology. Not sure where dedicated research time will be 6 vs. 12 months.
Interview day: Long day, but appropriate breaks in between. Started at 7:15 with a nice breakfast. Quick overview of the program. Observed SIM reviews, which I thought was a great learning experience. They were very vocal about their opinions and seem to be well read on the literature. Dr. Tepper gave a nice overview of UNC, #7 in NIH funding, etc… Then nice overview of physics and radbio. Then the interviews begin. Overall, cordial faculty. Asked what other programs I was interviewing at (violation?), am I going to have children (violation?). Chair actually read my packet and had good questions to ask. Well-run. Really nice dinner the night before with laid back conversation.
PD/Chair: Dr. Jones was incredibly friendly and appeared to have residents interest at heart. Dr. Marks, former Duke PD, was very nice. Mentioned he had some type of prior interaction with car manufacturing workflow and is taking the efficiency protocols from that venue and applying them to the rad onc dept. This seems to be working very nicely. Emphasized efficiency repeatedly. Overall, friendly and seems supportive of resident well-being.
Location/Dept: I have never been to Chapel Hill before, but I liked it. Quaint city with interspersed urbanesque zones. Next to Duke, and NC State, so lots of academia in the region. Residents said cost of living was manageable, but expect Chapel Hill to be more than Durham. School districts are nice in Chapel Hill. UNC is in a nice part of town, did not feel safety was an issue. Nice new NC Cancer center and Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dept in the basement as always, 1 or 2 simulators (can’t remember), all the bells and whistles (3 Linacs, IMRT/IGRT, brachy (LDR/HDR), CT on rails, Calypso, tomo, cyberknife, IORT) and remote access to patient records. Have a MRI-PET, but in different building. Several big name faculty, stable dept, a few with R21/RO1 grants.
Research: Mixed notions about the goal of this program. Some faculty and residents stated there was a push to increase research time to 12 months, but the chair seemed to be taken back by such a suggestion. This aside, the residents have VERY impressive publications, awards, grants, etc.. So, this should not be a limiting factor. There is interest in carbon nanotubes and single cell irradiation techniques (very cool), Dr. Wang has some nice work going on with nanoparticles and biomatrix scaffolds and mets. Have own treatment planning software, so lots of opportunity if wanted to customize. I believe only one resident is involved in basic science work right now. Emphasis on a collaborative environment.
Residents: A great group of guys, yes that is right, I did not see any female residents here. May change, may not. Dr. Marks said they rank women, but the match is the overall predictor. I believe the majority of residents are married, a few have children. I was really impressed with the publication record of these guys. I believe they are approved for 8 residents now.
Workload: I did not get the impression that residents were overworked. They did mention they lost their PA/NP recently, so they have to do a little more scut than usual; this did not seem to be that big of an issue though. Avg. of 5 consults/day on busy service. Mention that they have 100+ on treatment/day.
Didactics: I do not remember the specifics, but seemed standard and high quality. Dr. Zeman teaches rad bio and she is incredibly passionate about it. Physics leader was also passionate about teaching. Tag team with Duke on visiting professors. Participate in onco-anatomy, residents seemed like they enjoyed this experience.
Service structure / coverage: 3 month rotations, some services they do double cover, but said it is still like covering one attending 2/2 to academic days (which they have approx. 2/wk) and personality of attendings. Call q6 wk, but could change with increase in residents. Mult-D clinic, but I believe the residents stay in their dept.
Random details: $2500 education fee and licensing costs given to you. Moonlighting in 4th year, which was mentioned by the chair. Cheap parking ($2/day) w/in 5 min walking distance. Nice café. Get $120/yr for food. Resident workroom was nice, increase in number may make it a bit tighter in space. No post-interview communication, they say they rank you that day and having a running list throughout the interview season.
OVERALL: I was really impressed with UNC. Great location, stable big name faculty, upcoming and engaging younger faculty, collaborative environment, productive residents, outstanding didactics and good technology. Not sure where dedicated research time will be 6 vs. 12 months.
UAB
Location: Birmingham is a larger city than I was expecting. There was some really nice scenery. Residents say there is a nice state park close by with great hiking, gulf is 4 hrs away, Atlanta 2 hrs away. Economy seemed stable.
Facilities/Tech: Very nice radiation oncology dept. I think approx. 3 years old. Very nice resident work room, each have double monitors, can contour on personal computer. I believe they use Varian planning software (probably due to their strong connection with Varian); website is pretty informative about tech. Was told multiple times that they usually get first dibs on new Varian technology. Lab space is directly above clinic, so can be involved with lab even when in clinic (this was actually encouraged by several faculty). Residents work at 2 sites, the satellite is approx. 12 miles away and has a more private practice feel (2 linacs). Mention of protons by chair, other faculty said this has been said for the past 8 years. No construction yet.
Research: Residents said there were 3 Holman pathway residents. One decided to go into private practice, which was not frowned upon by faculty. One resident said that clinical research mentorship is lacking. There is no departmental statistical support or well-established data bases, though one resident has put together a very impressive prostate database. Basic science is strong. Required to do Holman or Clinical research track. Got the feeling that this is a highly collaborative atmosphere.
Faculty: A good mix of senior and junior attendings. I interacted with 2 Holman graduates, each with their own labs and funding. Other non-basic science faculty seemed to also interact with the basic science laboratories. PD seemed very supportive of residents ambitions.
Residents: Nice bunch of guys. Pretty laid back. Most married and with children. Get together about 1/month.
Work: Call q8 weeks, but decreases with seniority. Some didactics start at 7 am. On busy service one residents gets off at 7 pm, but some residents report getting off as early as 3:30. Senior resident mentioned problem getting prostate brachy cases, therefore they have a connection with Puerto Rico that can be utilized if desired. Should be mentioned that they reach their required cases for brachy, but if you want more extensive experience this option exists. 4 month rotations, usually more than one body site/rotation. Rotate at 2 separate locations, but relatively close to each other. Use Dragon for dictation. No NP/PA.
Misc: $3000 education fund, 8 meetings supported/residency. 3 lab coats. Cheap food. Monetary incentives when getting abstract accepted, publishing, etc… Residents moonlight at various facilities (urgent care, weight loss, or rad onc with in 2 hrs). Can easily pocket $1000 in a week. Several tumor boards are held in rad onc department and there appears to be good rapport between other oncologic depts.
Overall Impression: Really really impressed with this program. Dr. Bonner said he is looking to hire more physician-scientists and has the lab space to provide. Comprehensive cancer center, unlimited research opportunities. Great place to start a family. Birmingham??
Location: Birmingham is a larger city than I was expecting. There was some really nice scenery. Residents say there is a nice state park close by with great hiking, gulf is 4 hrs away, Atlanta 2 hrs away. Economy seemed stable.
Facilities/Tech: Very nice radiation oncology dept. I think approx. 3 years old. Very nice resident work room, each have double monitors, can contour on personal computer. I believe they use Varian planning software (probably due to their strong connection with Varian); website is pretty informative about tech. Was told multiple times that they usually get first dibs on new Varian technology. Lab space is directly above clinic, so can be involved with lab even when in clinic (this was actually encouraged by several faculty). Residents work at 2 sites, the satellite is approx. 12 miles away and has a more private practice feel (2 linacs). Mention of protons by chair, other faculty said this has been said for the past 8 years. No construction yet.
Research: Residents said there were 3 Holman pathway residents. One decided to go into private practice, which was not frowned upon by faculty. One resident said that clinical research mentorship is lacking. There is no departmental statistical support or well-established data bases, though one resident has put together a very impressive prostate database. Basic science is strong. Required to do Holman or Clinical research track. Got the feeling that this is a highly collaborative atmosphere.
Faculty: A good mix of senior and junior attendings. I interacted with 2 Holman graduates, each with their own labs and funding. Other non-basic science faculty seemed to also interact with the basic science laboratories. PD seemed very supportive of residents ambitions.
Residents: Nice bunch of guys. Pretty laid back. Most married and with children. Get together about 1/month.
Work: Call q8 weeks, but decreases with seniority. Some didactics start at 7 am. On busy service one residents gets off at 7 pm, but some residents report getting off as early as 3:30. Senior resident mentioned problem getting prostate brachy cases, therefore they have a connection with Puerto Rico that can be utilized if desired. Should be mentioned that they reach their required cases for brachy, but if you want more extensive experience this option exists. 4 month rotations, usually more than one body site/rotation. Rotate at 2 separate locations, but relatively close to each other. Use Dragon for dictation. No NP/PA.
Misc: $3000 education fund, 8 meetings supported/residency. 3 lab coats. Cheap food. Monetary incentives when getting abstract accepted, publishing, etc… Residents moonlight at various facilities (urgent care, weight loss, or rad onc with in 2 hrs). Can easily pocket $1000 in a week. Several tumor boards are held in rad onc department and there appears to be good rapport between other oncologic depts.
Overall Impression: Really really impressed with this program. Dr. Bonner said he is looking to hire more physician-scientists and has the lab space to provide. Comprehensive cancer center, unlimited research opportunities. Great place to start a family. Birmingham??
Here's one for Wake Forest:
Wake Forest
Interview Day: Pretty standard. Observed chart rounds in the morning, which was a good experience. They probably won the prize for tastiest breakfast. There is a relatively new PD who seems to be trying to shake things up a little bit and increase the profile of the program. Residents said he had encouraged oral boards style didactics and friendly pimping at chart review. The interview day included a tour of Winston- Salem which was a nice touch. Residents go into about 50/50 academic / private practice jobs with a preference for the southeast, with both chiefs going into good PP jobs in the Southeast this year.
Research: 6-9 months research time where residents are encouraged to be in the lab, but residents are incredibly productive. 3/6 residents had oral presentations at ASTRO last year. There is a very cool TRADONC fellowship for translational research, which seems like a great opportunity even for those who don’t train here. There seems to be a good relationship between radbio and physics.
Lifestyle: I was told that the spirit of the program was “high pressure to publish, but laid back otherwise.” I did get a sense that residents work hard here and don’t mess around, which I don’t mind but is worth noting. One attending mentioned working weekends during PGY2 year and most residents seemed to be working 6am-7pm on a regular basis – perhaps partly because contouring from home wasn’t realistic. Winston-salem seemed a lot nicer than what I had heard. There was definitely a fair amount going on for a small town and a lot of great areas within driving distance. Good diversity of residents – male and female, different backgrounds.
Clinical: One of my interviewers was “doc of the day” and took me to check films and see a couple of patients with him – seemed like the residents were really able to manage their patients and got good clinical training. CNS is very strong here, GI has historically been strong. I got the impression that some disease sites may be weaker.
Didactics: They have a great format in place for preparing for oral boards – senior residents help out younger residents in preparing for case presentations and possible pimping questions. The top down format offers senior residents the chance to teach and obviously helps out younger residents.
Bottom Line: A solid (but busy) program with some good translational research opportunities, with the only drawback being only 6-9 months to take advantage of them.
Sorry, at some point I gave up on the formatting.
Here's University of Florida:
I got the impression that this was a very laid back group who were still held to high standards for education and research. Residents get a research project every year, along with the resources to get it done, including someone who writes the IRB or grant, does the statistics, and edits the manuscript. My impression (which may not be correct) was that this was primarily retrospective chart review research, and residents were doing the chart digging. There was one resident doing a translational project but I think he was an MD/ PhD with a significant lab background. Residents are #2 in the country for publications and get good academic jobs. We played Taboo and Wii at the interview day (only place that happened), and had a great time, although it was a VERY long day. Dr. Amdur, the program director, seemed like a really great mentor and resident advocate and went out of his way to talk to us all individually throughout the interview day, lunch and dinner. You spend 6 months in Jax and they rent you a very nice condo. There is a big emphasis on peds at Jacksonville – they have kids come from St Jude’s, the UK, Norway, all over. 6 months research, 1 academic day. Not a place for basic science, but one resident doing a translational project. It seemed like a very strong place for H + N or peds if these are interests.
They have a really well-run (but LONG!) interview day - and offer to have you come shadow in clinic the day before, which was a good experience. They have a dinner with the residents that night and then everyone is out of clinic on the interview day to get to know you. They only had one interview day and made a very concerted effort to meet and get to know everyone. I think this is a reflection of the attitude of the PD and program in general.
Here's University of Florida:
I got the impression that this was a very laid back group who were still held to high standards for education and research. Residents get a research project every year, along with the resources to get it done, including someone who writes the IRB or grant, does the statistics, and edits the manuscript. My impression (which may not be correct) was that this was primarily retrospective chart review research, and residents were doing the chart digging. There was one resident doing a translational project but I think he was an MD/ PhD with a significant lab background. Residents are #2 in the country for publications and get good academic jobs. We played Taboo and Wii at the interview day (only place that happened), and had a great time, although it was a VERY long day. Dr. Amdur, the program director, seemed like a really great mentor and resident advocate and went out of his way to talk to us all individually throughout the interview day, lunch and dinner. You spend 6 months in Jax and they rent you a very nice condo. There is a big emphasis on peds at Jacksonville – they have kids come from St Jude’s, the UK, Norway, all over. 6 months research, 1 academic day. Not a place for basic science, but one resident doing a translational project. It seemed like a very strong place for H + N or peds if these are interests.
They have a really well-run (but LONG!) interview day - and offer to have you come shadow in clinic the day before, which was a good experience. They have a dinner with the residents that night and then everyone is out of clinic on the interview day to get to know you. They only had one interview day and made a very concerted effort to meet and get to know everyone. I think this is a reflection of the attitude of the PD and program in general.
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I'm curious what people thought about U of Chicago
Moffitt (Tampa Bay):
Interview day: Really nice dinner the night before w/ great conversation. This is a very laid back group of residents. Interview day was split into 2 sessions. Standard interviews (one on one and others w/ 2 faculty). All my interviews were great, except for one interviewer constantly getting up and leaving during my interview, which also seemed like they did not even look at my application. And during one interview, a faculty member voluntarily said Moffitt was not a ‘top tier’ program, which I can appreciate their honesty, but please let me decide what is beneficial for my training.
PD/Chair: Currently, there is no ‘chair’ at Moffitt; per residents several applicants have come through, but no one has taken a bite at the package offered. Interim chair is nice and very direct, definitely encourages academic pursuits. PD is pretty laid back as well; residents say he is very supportive. Should be noted, that all interviewers stated that not having a permanent chair yet was not a big deal and should not affect resident education.
Location/Dept : Tampa is gorgeous. The waterfront was amazing. I believe 45 min from the beach. Most residents live in South Tampa, I guess the more happening locale. Moffitt is a beautiful cancer center right next to USF; the rad onc dept is pretty large, several linacs, brachy suite, I believe 2 CT simulators, etc.. Per residents, the work room has been revamped and each resident has their own personal work space. Several treatment planning stations, computers, etc.. Also rotate through VA (close by) and UF Proton Therapy Institute.
Research: Research is encouraged. Again, per residents there are some really nice clinical databases. I believe one of the largest published lung SBRT papers came from here. This is a comprehensive cancer center, thus it has all the infrastructure for excellent basic and clinical research. There are several SPORE grants, a working patient database (Total Cancer Cancer), which will be a powerhouse when up and running. I believe there were 2 residents that were Holman.
Residents: 8 total, but one is working on his PhD I believe. As noted above, these were some of the most laid back residents I came across on the trail. Some have put together some impressive publications and from chatting, are diligently working on putting other manuscripts together. Residents seemed VERY happy here.
Workload: They advertise that Moffitt has the 3rd largest clinical volume in the nation, not sure what that means in terms of rad onc patients. Overall, residents do not seem overworked. I believe they have NPs that help with patient management. Mostly 1:1 coverage. One resident did say that Thoracic service only had one attending and it was REAL busy, probably due to the departure of Craig Stevens (former chair).
Didactics and Service Structure: Standard didactics (rad bio, physics, etc..). 3 month site specific rotations, 1 month dosimetry rotation, 6-9 months research (broken up, but supportive of Holman). Now have rotation at UF Proton Institute in Jax w/ housing provided. I think this is a huge advantage since you get proton experience at one of the best pediatric treatment locales in the world combined with great clinical training at Moffitt. This program also has a brachy rotation, which is also a great plus if you want more intense brachy training.
Random details: $1,000/yr travel allowance. Free close parking. $250/yr book fund. Additional funds negotiable. Moonlighting available in PGY-5.
OVERALL: Though Moffitt has lost their chair and there is some faculty movement, I perceived that the program has a solid foundation w/ excellent technology, support staff and research infrastructure. Tampa is a beautiful city w/ affordable housing options. The only CCC in Florida and now with proton exposure at UF. I think this program will only get stronger when the chair situation is sorted out and a clear vision of the department surfaces. Overall, great program in which I would be happy to train.
Interview day: Really nice dinner the night before w/ great conversation. This is a very laid back group of residents. Interview day was split into 2 sessions. Standard interviews (one on one and others w/ 2 faculty). All my interviews were great, except for one interviewer constantly getting up and leaving during my interview, which also seemed like they did not even look at my application. And during one interview, a faculty member voluntarily said Moffitt was not a ‘top tier’ program, which I can appreciate their honesty, but please let me decide what is beneficial for my training.
PD/Chair: Currently, there is no ‘chair’ at Moffitt; per residents several applicants have come through, but no one has taken a bite at the package offered. Interim chair is nice and very direct, definitely encourages academic pursuits. PD is pretty laid back as well; residents say he is very supportive. Should be noted, that all interviewers stated that not having a permanent chair yet was not a big deal and should not affect resident education.
Location/Dept : Tampa is gorgeous. The waterfront was amazing. I believe 45 min from the beach. Most residents live in South Tampa, I guess the more happening locale. Moffitt is a beautiful cancer center right next to USF; the rad onc dept is pretty large, several linacs, brachy suite, I believe 2 CT simulators, etc.. Per residents, the work room has been revamped and each resident has their own personal work space. Several treatment planning stations, computers, etc.. Also rotate through VA (close by) and UF Proton Therapy Institute.
Research: Research is encouraged. Again, per residents there are some really nice clinical databases. I believe one of the largest published lung SBRT papers came from here. This is a comprehensive cancer center, thus it has all the infrastructure for excellent basic and clinical research. There are several SPORE grants, a working patient database (Total Cancer Cancer), which will be a powerhouse when up and running. I believe there were 2 residents that were Holman.
Residents: 8 total, but one is working on his PhD I believe. As noted above, these were some of the most laid back residents I came across on the trail. Some have put together some impressive publications and from chatting, are diligently working on putting other manuscripts together. Residents seemed VERY happy here.
Workload: They advertise that Moffitt has the 3rd largest clinical volume in the nation, not sure what that means in terms of rad onc patients. Overall, residents do not seem overworked. I believe they have NPs that help with patient management. Mostly 1:1 coverage. One resident did say that Thoracic service only had one attending and it was REAL busy, probably due to the departure of Craig Stevens (former chair).
Didactics and Service Structure: Standard didactics (rad bio, physics, etc..). 3 month site specific rotations, 1 month dosimetry rotation, 6-9 months research (broken up, but supportive of Holman). Now have rotation at UF Proton Institute in Jax w/ housing provided. I think this is a huge advantage since you get proton experience at one of the best pediatric treatment locales in the world combined with great clinical training at Moffitt. This program also has a brachy rotation, which is also a great plus if you want more intense brachy training.
Random details: $1,000/yr travel allowance. Free close parking. $250/yr book fund. Additional funds negotiable. Moonlighting available in PGY-5.
OVERALL: Though Moffitt has lost their chair and there is some faculty movement, I perceived that the program has a solid foundation w/ excellent technology, support staff and research infrastructure. Tampa is a beautiful city w/ affordable housing options. The only CCC in Florida and now with proton exposure at UF. I think this program will only get stronger when the chair situation is sorted out and a clear vision of the department surfaces. Overall, great program in which I would be happy to train.
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Anonymous
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Duke
Location: Not a fan of Durham. The interview was on a Monday and it seemed everything was closed by about 3 PM on Sunday afternoon, therefore did not really have a chance to explore “downtown,” although apparently Durham is not a small town or a college town but a small city. The main upsides are that it almost never snows and the cost of living is really low. Most residents live in Durham close to the hospital, many within walking distance.
Facilities/Technology: Again, a very nice cancer center. The department just got a new brachy suite which is just now starting to get used and which the PD is very excited about because it will mean that they will have a prostate brachy program, which they don’t really have now although the PD’s particular interest is prostate brachy. As an aside, prostate brachy seemed to be very common weakness, even among excellent programs, apparently because it is just being done less than before.
Research: In the past it seems like research time was fragmented and was given in varied amounts. Now it seems like moving forward there will be a contiguous protected research year for all. Obviously, Duke is a great institution with many opportunities. There were residents who were even involved with clinical trial work and writing manuscripts from these projects. In terms of funding for conferences, if you have an oral then you can go but may not be possible if you have a poster alone
Faculty: I really liked the PD. He is fairly senior in the department, which is relatively uncommon. He is also really passionate about the program. I very much liked the Chair as well, and per the PD the Chair really makes an effort to mentor residents and go to bat for them come time for the job search. Was impressed with multiple other faculty as well and had great discussions with them during the interview.
Residents: There was a pre-interview dinner at an Italian restaurant. Only some of the residents came, but those that did seemed nice. A lot of them are married (probably because of cost of living?). I believe there are about 4 residents per year.
Work: My understanding is that this definitely leans towards more work, but there are things that have been put in place to help ameliorate that. For instance, there is a midlevel who does all the inpatient consults.
Overall impression: Faculty at other programs on the interview trail would praise this place unsolicited, and it is definitely a very strong program. They seem to have great volume, and excellent clinical training. There are also excellent research opportunities that a motivated resident could take very far, and with the protected year now it will be easier to do this. Definitely a top program.
Location: Not a fan of Durham. The interview was on a Monday and it seemed everything was closed by about 3 PM on Sunday afternoon, therefore did not really have a chance to explore “downtown,” although apparently Durham is not a small town or a college town but a small city. The main upsides are that it almost never snows
and the cost of living is really low. Most residents live in Durham close to the hospital, many within walking distance.Facilities/Technology: Again, a very nice cancer center. The department just got a new brachy suite which is just now starting to get used and which the PD is very excited about because it will mean that they will have a prostate brachy program, which they don’t really have now although the PD’s particular interest is prostate brachy. As an aside, prostate brachy seemed to be very common weakness, even among excellent programs, apparently because it is just being done less than before.
Research: In the past it seems like research time was fragmented and was given in varied amounts. Now it seems like moving forward there will be a contiguous protected research year for all. Obviously, Duke is a great institution with many opportunities. There were residents who were even involved with clinical trial work and writing manuscripts from these projects. In terms of funding for conferences, if you have an oral then you can go but may not be possible if you have a poster alone
Faculty: I really liked the PD. He is fairly senior in the department, which is relatively uncommon. He is also really passionate about the program. I very much liked the Chair as well, and per the PD the Chair really makes an effort to mentor residents and go to bat for them come time for the job search. Was impressed with multiple other faculty as well and had great discussions with them during the interview.
Residents: There was a pre-interview dinner at an Italian restaurant. Only some of the residents came, but those that did seemed nice. A lot of them are married (probably because of cost of living?). I believe there are about 4 residents per year.
Work: My understanding is that this definitely leans towards more work, but there are things that have been put in place to help ameliorate that. For instance, there is a midlevel who does all the inpatient consults.
Overall impression: Faculty at other programs on the interview trail would praise this place unsolicited, and it is definitely a very strong program. They seem to have great volume, and excellent clinical training. There are also excellent research opportunities that a motivated resident could take very far, and with the protected year now it will be easier to do this. Definitely a top program.
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I've never been shy about being a Moffitt resident, and I'm very proud of our program. We receive an outstanding education with a large variety of cases, frequent lectures and educational opportunties, while seeing many varied and advanced cancers treated with a wide range of technologies. In addition, we are treated very well as residents, and I think our limited scut and benefits are some of the best in the nation. Anyway, I don't want to be one of those types who posts on here to sell their own program to others, but I just wanted to correct a few factual things. Nothing personal here at all there jcradonc--it's hard to really gauge these things during your limited time here, and it's entirely possible you were given some inaccurate details.
There are so many beaches in the area that it's hard to give exact numbers. It's 30-60 minutes from South Tampa to the beautiful, tourist magazine, beaches (it just depends which one...). It's less than 15 minutes to decent beaches. I run from my apartment along the waterfront all the time, and I see dolphins most of the time down there.
Research is basically required, but it doesn't feel onerous to anyone because all rotations have at least 1 academic day, and many have 2. There are so many opportunities and support mechanisms that anyone can get involved and be productive. The Total Cancer Care database has been running for years. I use it to pull gene expression data from thousands of samples and correlate it to results from our EHR and other clinical databases.
Some rotations are busy and some are light. Almost every rotation is 1:1 coverage, but some attendings are very busy and others aren't. That's all liable to change with time--i.e. we're very likely have another thoracic attending soon, they're working on hiring another head and neck faculty member, etc...
It's 9-11 months of elective currently. Essentially, there has always been 9 months of elective. There was a rads-path-dosimetry rotation, but the rads and path weren't felt to be all that helpful, so they're now optional. I think of research/elective time like what I wrote here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...-your-program-stack-up.1043268/#post-14656004.
When you take the elective time is flexible. I'm taking mine most of PGY-5 year and the end of PGY-4 year. Opinions vary on when is the best time to do research. You could take the time all as a block if you wanted or break it up. There are many more faculty than there are residents, so faculty are used to not being covered by residents. Also, there is no set schedule, other than some rotations being 1st year and others being "senior" (all other years). So you can pretty much do what you want with regards to scheduling.
Travel allowance depends on the year. It's not set in stone. My allowance this year was about $2500. I say about because the book fund is somewhat flexible as well, and I think is getting rolled into my travel funds for radium society. You could probably go to one conference a year with nothing to present. Additional conferences would require at least posters. It's very easy to put together a retrospective series and get a poster, so most of us go to 2-3 conferences a year (first years often do 1, if you get additional travel support you could do as many as 4). In addition, we get our ABR dues paid for.
Moonlighting is actually available starting PGY-3. There are only 2 residents who do it currently. This is because you need approval from the program, and there are some pros/cons to moonlighting that you have to weigh. The details are very specific to here and wouldn't be relevant unless you matched here, but it is available.
Edit 4/8/14: It was announced today that Dr. Louis Harrison will be coming on board as chairman of the department in the next few months. He is currently Chairman of Radiation Oncology and Physician in Chief of the Cancer Center at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City as well as a highly regarded academic physician particularly in head and neck radiation and brachytherapy. We are very excited to have him!
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Another anonymous review:
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im surprised there aren't more interview impressions posted by now..is there another thread that I'm missing?
Anyone else have any impressions on some of the southern programs (Duke, Emory, Baylor, UT-SW, UT-Galveston, Florida, etc) and midwest programs (Chicago, Mayo, Michigan, Cleveland Clinic)?
Anyone else have any impressions on some of the southern programs (Duke, Emory, Baylor, UT-SW, UT-Galveston, Florida, etc) and midwest programs (Chicago, Mayo, Michigan, Cleveland Clinic)?
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Agreed, it has been an unusually quiet year. I hope that people step up and post after Match day. This thread was such a huge help to me in the years leading up to matching, as I'm sure it was for a ton of the folks who matched this year.
Relax, celebrate, and then don't forget to pay it forward!
I did not factor minutiae when ranking; e.g. 6 v 9 months of research (I do not plan to do basic science research, so I'll likely be working steadily throughout residency), 8 v 10 weeks on call, 8 v 12 residents, etc. So, I apologize that I will not be summarizing that information here. If you'd like to find those details, I found the program websites to be very up-to-date and available to the public online.
I did not make an excel spreadsheet to assign a scoring system to ranking criteria. I ranked based on how I felt about (1) my cultural fit in the department, (2) opportunity for growth (through learning (didactics) and research), (3) support of faculty, (4) quality of life in the department, (5) area of the country (spouse), and (6) reputation of the program. Some from the areas you mentioned, in no particular order:
Duke: new cancer center opened 2 years ago. That, plus a faculty moving elsewhere, seems to have drastically changed the quality of life in the department for the residents. Whereas they previous lacked the necessary # of machines to treat all their patients within a reasonable hour of day, that no longer seems to be a problem. The new cancer center was gorgeous. Durham is really cleaning up, and what a fantastic area of the country with Chapel Hill and Raleigh nearby. I went to the interview with no pre-formed judgments and found the faculty to be very welcoming, intelligent, inquisitive, and supportive. Dr. Willett seemed to be a fantastically supportive chair, and I greatly enjoyed meeting him. I also really liked the vibe I got from Dr. W.R.Lee (PD) - seemed a bit quirky (in a good way) yet that he could be downright fun, and he obviously cared a lot about the program. The residents were very kind and approachable. No red flags or bad vibes. A+
UT-SW: a lot of development going on here. Goal for proton center (confirmed, I believe), carbon ions (not confirmed, but very probable), and entirely new department (confirmed, I believe), all within the next 3 years. This will evidently all be built within the same courtyard/on the same plot of land, making it the only such tight conglomeration in the states (world?) if that happens. What they have now is really nice; they're apparently simply doing so well financially that they are able to make this happen. Supportive and intelligent faculty; yes, several are patriarchs, yet I gather they are only like that in order to push each other (and themselves) to a higher level. Thus, to thrive here, you might need thickish skin. Some of the faculty are as kind as any in the country. What was a very strong physics dept before is becoming a land of gods with Jiang and Wu joining the ranks. Really liked the area of the country. A beach drive is not possible, but pool use 8 months of the year is realistic. If you want a program that will push you to be the best you can be (and expect that of you, but that's okay, depending on how you look at it), this is your place. I think underrated on the fake top 10 ranks. A
Moffitt: biggest surprise of the interview season. Beautiful place, friendly and very happy residents and faculty. No/very little "scut work" required of residents, with commonly 2 academic days per week, leading to publications galore if you take advantage of the opportunity, leading to great job placement. Forget that they don't have a chair; it doesn't matter for us now. That'll definitely pan out in the 5 years left before we'll finish. What you have here is a fantastic environment for learning, taking advantage of opportunities (should you choose to do so), and great quality of life. Dr. Dilling (PD) was one of my favorite faculty from the trail. If you want a place to live lavishly for not that much $$ and give yourself the opportunity for great academic success (but not the requirement (v. UTSW)), this should be on your list. A- (but on my scale you can make this an A+ type place if you work hard)
Miami: a lot of development going on here as well. My understanding is that the physics department has doubled in the last year, the faculty size has doubled in the last 4 years ish (?) and they're still growing. Potential to be a powerhouse in the next 5 years. Given the apparent respect lag that exists, I hesitated from assuming that powerhouse reputation would be in place during my time there. Panel interview, a style that I have a love/hate relationship with. Friendly faculty, happy residents. Amenities galore. In an effort to boost research, they're paying residents $300 per publication or something like that - I would work day and night haha. I went to the interview with no pre-formed judgment and really liked it. The weather is beautiful. Unfortunately, the culture in Miami (not the department) is awful. A- (since it seems great but is still a bit under development)
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I'm interested in the Northeast and haven't seen many reviews of Rutgers/Robert Wood Johnson and Cornell. If anyone interviewed with them this year, I would appreciate any reviews.
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I chimed in about Florida above, but can do Emory and Michigan.
Emory:
Interview Day: Pretty standard. It included a tour of the city which was a great addition. No surprises here.
Research: 6-9 months, although the program director stated that a year was possible “in the right circumstances” and has been provided in the past. The research resources here are phenomenal – there is plenty of basic science going on and some really groundbreaking clinical research also. This is probably one of the most balanced departments in terms of basic, translational and clinical research. Dr. Curran is RTOG chair, and there are other senior faculty with cooperative group connections who would make great mentors. There are several physician-scientists with labs where residents could get plugged in if interested. All residents have presentations at ASTRO and have several projects going on at one time.
Lifestyle: Atlanta is a great city to live in for nearly everyone. It’s a city with plenty to do for young, single folks and a low cost of living for residents with families. There is plenty of diversity and always something to do. With one of the biggest resident cohorts in the country (16 total) you will have plenty of compadres.
Clinical: This is really one of the biggest strengths of this program. You are at four sites – Grady (county hospital), Emory University/ Egleston Children’s Hospital (tertiary care facility, peds), Emory Midtown (private practice/ community hospital setting) and the VA (you know, the VA). You get such a broad variety of training you will honestly be 100% prepared for whatever you do after residency. 18 faculty members across all these sites allows for a lot of different perspectives for teaching.
Didactics: I didn’t get a good sense of how the didactics run, but the residents all seemed satisfied with them. They do practice tests throughout the year and everyone seems to do fine on boards.
Bottom Line: I 100% believe this is a phenomenal program that deserves more credit than it has gotten in years past. I saw a lot of great places on the interview trail and I really think this is one of the best programs I saw. It is well-rounded with the best clinical experience available anywhere and endless research resources, with everything from lab projects to large collaborative group trials.
Michigan:
So, I went to Michigan but missed the dinner and the interview day was so short I really didn't feel like I got a very thorough impression. The interview day is formatted in half- day interviews, so half the group goes in the morning, everyone has lunch together, and half the group goes in the afternoon. The interviews are fine, with two faculty members in each group. My overall impression was that physics was very strong here - and there is excellent research going on in specific areas (SBRT, liver). Dr. Lawrence was great. I had an odd interview with the PD that was a little confrontational and gave me the sense I wasn't wanted at the program, which really turned me off. That may not be the norm, however. I'm not sure that I would place this program in the top 5 despite its reputation, but I think it's still a strong program and may be a better fit for others. Ann Arbor is a great place to live, and a great place to have a family.
