Interview reviews

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UT San Antonio

Overall, my experience was very positive here. There were a lot of people interviewing; the program secretary told me they had received 450+ applications and were interviewing 130 total for 8 categorical slots over 5 total dates. Half of us interviewed in the morning, the other half in the afternoon. The mixer the night before was nice although it’s not a real dinner, so don’t come very hungry. There were several residents that turned out and everyone I talked to seemed very happy and would be willing to come here again if given the opportunity. All stressed the varied caseload, resident camaraderie, and city of San Antonio as the program’s strengths. Weaknesses were a little harder to coax out, but some said post-call pre-ops (off by 7am, but have to come back to the hospital after 3pm to see your pts for the next day), friction with surgeons, and didactics were at least somewhat problematic. The residents said they have no problems getting their numbers and all rotations are now able to be completed in San Antonio. Previously, to get their neuro and peds case requirements, they were sent to Baylor and Texas Children’s in Houston, but no longer. UTSA’s neurosurg program reopened this year so there are PLENTY of cranis, etc to go around and residents are now rotating at Santa Rosa Children’s in downtown San Antonio for additional peds.

Like I said, caseload is great—was told you’ll see just about everything there is here. Transplants are particularly numerous, especially livers. Apparently, your experience with such things can begin early…Dr. Hickey, the program director, told us one CA-1 did a liver transplant during his first week in the OR! Regional experience sounds pretty strong with dedicated block months and a busy acute pain service—was told you can easily do over a 100 blocks when on a regional month. For SICU, you rotate through the VA where the unit is run by anesthesia. There are several CRNAs on staff who take lower-yield cases and help relieve residents. No student RNA program so no competition for cases.

Lots of ICU experience: during your CBY, you’ll do 1 month of SICU, MICU, PICU, and NICU each and 2 additional SICU months during the CA-2 year. Other rotations during your CBY include 3 months of surgery (trauma w/ q3 call, cardiothoracic, and general), 2 months medicine (wards and geriatrics), 1 month pedi wards, 1 month OR anesthesia, and 1 month of the perioperative medicine clinic. The three months of surgery sound like a beatdown with you basically chained to the floors doing paperwork all day/night.

The two interviews with faculty are very relaxed and conversational. Basically just “get to know you” questions and stuff pertaining to your CV. They also want to know if you have any compelling reasons to move to San Antonio (both asked if I had any family in the area). Only saw the interim chair, Dr. Bracken, at the mixer the night before for a few minutes as he was unable to attend the interview day. Everyone said he is a real asset to the program. A search for a permanent chair is underway. The faculty is stable and nobody is planning on leaving apparently. Both the chair and PD claim to be strong resident advocates and meet monthly with the residents to discuss how the program is going and if there are any grievances. One thing that struck me was that Dr. Hickey and Dr. Allen (Assistant PD) themselves took us on a tour of the facilities—nice touch.

I think board pass rates have been on the low side recently, although when asked, the PD really did not provide an actual number. I heard from a resident that it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 80% at some point and the faculty responded by beefing up the didactics and things are improving. There is a generous educational allowance of $5000 distributed over years CA-1 to CA-3 to pay for books, computers, and board exams. One nice perk is a $1000 bonus for passing the intraining exam during your first two years. CA-2s and 3s can sign up for “backup” call which pays 200 bucks a pop whether you get called in or not…this is their version of “in-house” moonlighting—sounds good.

Well, this is too long. I’ll try and make things more concise next week. Bottom line, UTSA sounds like a strong program with very friendly, competent people…think I could be happy and trained well here.
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Baystate Medical Center

This is basically a really great program...stuck in the middle of ****ing nowhere. The program usually fills with lots of DOs and FMGs who get excellent training in every subspecialty of anesthesiology. All rotations are done at the hospital -- they used to have to spend a month at BWH (or was it BID?) to do neuro when a bunch of their neurosurgeons took off but they hired new ones and so neuro is very good again. No having to travel away to get peds numbers or whatever. Volumes are good all across the board. While this is a tertiary care center with a huge catchment area including Western Mass and parts of Connecticut, I get the feeling you see sicker folks in Boston, New Haven, etc. 20 ORs in main OR suite, another 10 or so in the new, gorgeous ambulatory facility. Separate pain center which is supposed to be awesome but I've never seen it. Ortho ambulatory center a block away where you can do a regional month (or more) as a CA-3 (otherwise you just do whatever comes along in the main hospital as a CA-2 or 1, which is not much. Maybe an interscalene twice a month). OB is very busy, something like 6000 deliveries. Given that there's only 9 residents per class or so, you get very good at OB early on as CA-1. ICU training is excellent, 3 or 4 anesthesiologist-intensivists on staff. They're big on airway here, especially Bullards. Two months of dedicated airway rotations where you can just pick a day and tell your attending that you're gonna use fastrach LMA on eveybody. Some would argue that if you go to a big university program with super-sick patients that you'll get good with airway toys just by using them all the time but I think dedicated rotations are a good idea.

Very modern hospital, nice Cerner computer system, computerized order entry, etc. Place is very well run, hospital is rolling in dough.

Three interviews, one with the PD, who's kind of abrasive but in a loveable sort of way. He's a real resident advocate.

Weaknesses:

1. Springfield (although Northampton is nice for folks used to Boston and NYC)
2. Not much in the way of reputation.


Hope that helps somebody.
 
I was not impressed at all. Problably they were not impressed either.
Should i rank it just because they are JHU?
 
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I went to this interview with an open mind but was disappointed by this program.

-It’s a small program (6 residents per year) and they offer a clinical base year at the Medical College Hospital.

-The Program Director, Dr Marco, was friendly and enthusiastic and was very open about the reasons why this program continues to be on probation (due to academics, lack of formal ICU rotation and poor board pass rates over the past five years). This program has taken steps to remedy these problems and now have improved teaching sessions (which are more board exam oriented), they have an ICU rotation in place, and the faculty have been busy trying to do more research (although research opportunities here are very limited).

-The interviewers were all nice, friendly, down to earth people. One interviewer described the program as ‘having a lot of potential’, another was very blunt and openly admitted that this program was amongst the lower third of all US anesthesia residency programs.

-Clinical exposure/ experience seems good, they do some kidney transplants. The hospital is a level 1 trauma center, but residents go to Ann Arbor for peds experience. Residents work approx. 65 hrs/week.

-The residents that we met were not too enthusiastic and didn’t seem to love the program. Most seemed to have elected to train here because of family ties/ wanting to stay in the area. One resident said that the relationship between surgery and anesthesiology was pretty poor, and that patients were rarely optimized prior to surgery.

-A minority of residents go on to do fellowships.

-I found the Toledo locals to be extremely friendly and warm but Toledo itself is very sleepy and seemed like it would be a boring place to live.

Conclusion: :thumbdown: (just my opinion)
 
This program was a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed the interview day and was impressed by the experience that this program offers.

Pros:
-Excellent clinical exposure.
-Lots of regional anesthesia (they do a yearly regional course where you can look at prosected cadavers and practice doing blocks).
-Serves a diverse patient population.
-They have a patient simulation lab.
-Lots of teaching sessions and preparation for board exams, including the occasional weekend to do ACLS/ATLS/other courses.
-Clinical base year included.
-High board pass rates (can’t remember the exact number).
-Faculty (at least those that interviewed me) seemed friendly and down to earth. Dr. Chidiac, the Program Director was extremely nice and was very enthusiastic about this program. The residents all felt that he was a real resident advocate.
-The residents were a mix of US and foreign grads. They seemed like a happy bunch and really seemed to like this program.
-Graduating residents were getting into the fellowships that they wanted.

Cons:
-They don’t do transplants.
-There isn’t an abundance of cardiovascular surgery (though more than enough to get the required numbers).
-Location? I actually quite liked Detroit, the multiethnic environment was very appealing and meant that they have a really great range of restaurants.

Overall impression: :thumbup: If I were to end up here, I’m pretty sure that I’d enjoy it and would receive very good training.
 
I loved this program… it seemed to have everything that I was looking for (with the exception of being located in a sleepy town that gets very cold).
The interview process began the night before when the interviewees had dinner with some of the residents at a nice restaurant. It was fun. The residents were friendly and very enthusiastic about the program. This was my first ‘pre-interview dinner’ and it was a good chance to speak openly about the program and about its strengths and weaknesses.
The interview day itself comprised a talk by Dr. Rose, three one-to-one interviews with faculty which were informal and friendly, a tour of the Mayo buildings and OR with a resident followed by lunch with some residents.
Pros:
-Excellent exposure to a wide range of complex and diverse cases.
-The facilities here are amazing. The patient simulation lab that has just opened is cutting edge and incredibly sophisticated.
-The faculty that interviewed us were all very down to earth and nice. Dr Rose, the Program Director, was great and my interview with him seemed to touch on every subject except anesthesiology.
-The current residents that we met all seemed bright, enthusiastic and happy. I thought they were an impressive group of people.
-Lots of teaching- they have daily fifteen minute keyword lectures and plenty of preparation towards the board exams.
-The in training exam scores and board pass rates are extremely high.
-They really made us interviewees feel important, and the interview experience was enjoyable.
-The research opportunities are abundant, they do a lot of research here (basic and clinical) and actively encourage residents to get involved. In fact, they have something called the clinician investigator track for people who want to head into research.
-Rochester is a safe place to live and raise a family.

Cons:
-The only two relative weaknesses in exposure (compared with other areas) are in peds and obstetrics. Residents get their required numbers but have the option of going to Mayo Jacksonville for peds or to National Children’s Medical Center in Washington DC. Residents can also go to Wake Forest for obstetrics experience.
-Rochester is fairly small and can’t really be described as an exciting place to live, but I think the quality of this program overcomes this issue.
Overall: :thumbup: :thumbup: I was very impressed- an excellent place to train.
 
SUNY BUFFALO
S/O
Pros: Good schools for kids, cheap housing... 1800 sq ft house in amherst for ~ 120K :eek: . Pretty cheap for northerners, although the s is typically a cheaper COL. Fellowship opportunities abound, and research interest is growing. Not much scutwork.

Cons: No transplant. Not much formal/classroom teaching, but some does exist. No central hospital, but ~9 hospitals to rotate thru. Most hospitals are close to each other, and only like 2-3 of them are a 15-20 min drive. Buffalo actually seemed like a reasonable place to live if your from the NE and used to snow. I had no prob with the weather/environment... in fact, I almost brought my brothers board.

PD: Dr Lema is awesome! He is working super-hard to improve the standing of the program. He has helped with funding from NIH (#35), and is working on more funding which would put them in the top 10 for NIH funding. New clinical scholar program is a research track which gives you 6 mo during CA-3 to do research, and he says that residents have no prob's meeting ACGME requirements even during research.

Interviewers: Warm, down to earth people. No grilling, or pimping.

Residents: Seemed happy. Good experience. Fellowships are no prob.

Ancillary: Phlebotomy team, good nurses, +CRNA's.


Impression: Good program, getting better with such a strong leader.

Plan: Would sign a pre-match, but wasn't offered. Will continue to monitor until interview season ends.


Addition: Just saw a report on safest vs most dangerous cities to live in in the US, and Amherst was #3 safest. Amherst is a few minutes N of buffalo, and was the location of the actual interview.
 
[
Plan: Would sign a pre-match, but wasn't offered. Will continue to monitor until interview season ends.[/QUOTE]


WELL WELL WELL- there are advantages to being a IMG or a DO- you may be able to get this crap overwith sooner than all those other poor allopathic MDs who have to wait for the match results :laugh:
 
DREXEL
Overall a positive vibe during the interview day. The residents and attendings all seem to get along and have a genuine good time with each other. The interview day is structured well - morning presentation by the PD, 4 or 5 interviews (15 minutes each) with attendings, a tour with a resident, lunch with residents. Seemingly a solid program.

Pros:
- Varied and extensive caseload, including transplants.
- Loads of high-risk OB.
- Level 1 trauma center. Upper level residents can attend traumas, especially if a difficult airway is anticipated.
- Great resident-attending relations/camraderie. Dr. Okum is a pilot and takes residents to DC for dinner.
- New PD - Dr. Horrow. Not new to the program but he has been away working in pharmaceuticals and brings back with him contacts for research sponsorship. He seems to have a strong and focused vision for the program that is evident when you meet with him.
- Didactics are reported to be very good with individualized attention if you are weak in particular areas.
- Peds rotations at St. Christopher's - a top-notch childrens' hospital (in the shadow of CHOP, but nationally recognized nonetheless).
- Call schedule seems fair compared to other programs, and they have an "early-out" rotating system that keeps any particular individual from consistently being stuck late in the OR.
- Free parking across the street from the hospital (very important if you want to live outside of the city and not be killed by the notorious parking garage fees).
- Philadelphia is a great place to live, work, and have fun.


CONS
- The ICU rotation is a little odd. The SICU at HUH is apparently not a great environment, or weak in some regard (this was vague), so residents are flown to SLU for one mandatory month, and can choose to do their second month there also. This may be seen as a plus by some, but if you are interested in ICU research, I see this as a potential problem.
- The hospital is difficult to navigate, even by hospital standards. I have been there several times as a student and always get lost. Ancillary staff tends to be on the grumpy side.
- Probationary status. Personally I am not bothered by this because I am familiar with Drexel and have seen them pull together to make positive changes. As explained to me, the program is on probation for a few reasons that are being addressed. One was a problem with board passing rates which was skewed downward by a few bad years in the late 90's, and rates have been improving. Another issue was the lack of "scholarly activities" at the program. This is expected to turn around with the help of Dr. Horrow.


I can't recall any other real outstanding cons with this program. In fairness it was my first interview so I am not exactly sure what I am looking for when I look for pros and cons. I will rank this program, but the ICU situation makes me wary, moreso than the probation status. Great people, friendly atmosphere. No holier than thou attendings chewing out the residents in the OR.
 
adleyinga said:
WELL WELL WELL- there are advantages to being a IMG or a DO- you may be able to get this crap overwith sooner than all those other poor allopathic MDs who have to wait for the match results :laugh:
Click to expand...


:thumbup:
Yup, nothin' like all the turnkey opportunities offered to IMG's. :laugh:
Even with all these benefits, I think the US students may have a slight advantage. Either way, I wouldn't change anything I've ever done... how many people do you know got to study medicine AND live on a golfcourse next to the beach on an island that people typically honeymoon on? :D
 
MEDICAL COLLEGE OF GA
There was not a dinner the night before - I like the dinners. The general thing that stands out the most from the interview is the sense that the faculty really acts like a team to support the residents to help them succeed in politics, research, etc. There is also a new anesthesiology department office area that is not quite ready yet - no furniture - but it is a huge area and is going to be quite nice with lots new computers, online resources, and giant tv's.
Not a lot of time is spent on didactics. There are grand rounds which are guest speakers on monday am. A 1-2 hour lecture on thursday afternoon and mock orals every other fri am. This is very much a read on your own and learn program. Depending on your personality this could be a plus or minus.

Once a month the department pays for an outing organized by the chief res. which consists of 2 free drinks and hors d’oerves. There are also organized department gatherings like a barbecue at the lake in July and a kids Christmas party.
Residents seem very happy - lots of married with kids here. Cost of living is pretty low and most residents buy houses and evidently boats. I didn’t spend a lot of time here - maybe I will take a leisurely trip through here with my husband later in the year to take closer look at Augusta.

The entire medical center got a crap load of money from tobacco settlements so there is a lot of money that has been allotted to make MCG a really top notch place in every department. Anesthesiology has a lot of new faculty and they are still looking for more. They have a pain fellowship and are working towards developing fellowships in every subspecialty - I believe that ped’s and critical care are next. Speaking of critical care there is a lot of critical care exposure in their rotation schedules - I think you do 4 months your intern year alone – usually 1 ccu at the VA, 1 MICU and 2 SICU.

They have categorical and advanced positions. The interns I talked to there said they felt like the CBY was not as demanding as most. On medicine, there is a night float that covers the hospital during the week so you just split up the weekends with the other interns.

Ca-1 break in by being paired with an upperlevel/attending for a month. You are in a room in the morning and afternoon lectures. You are usually on your own by the 3rd week
Call ca 1 is about 4 times a mo, that increases your ca2 and ca3 when you are on general OR to about 6 times a month. OB is set up so that there are 3 residents – one covers nights, one is covering the c-sections, and one is consulting for epidurals so OB seems pretty demanding right now.

There is not any official moonlighting - however, if you are not on call and not on a specialty rotation and they need someone past 5pm - you will get paid $50 an hour. Evidently this is a rare occurrence. I don't 100% understand what I put in my notes here so this might not be 100% right but there is also the opportunity to take code call overnight "next door" - I don't know what I meant by that - sorry. You can do that once you are licensed and you get paid $350. Maybe someone else that interviewed here remembers this better!?


You get $1500 for books etc., the dept will pay for you to present at conferences. They were very proud that MCG presented the most research of any other program at ASA convention this year. They will also support you if you are an official delegate to associations. Dr Head has a lot of political connections as do many of the faculty. I think it is safe to say that the department has a clear, mission and plan for making this a top program.
 
OK - I forgot my pen on this interview so I apologize for the holes!

VCU
There is a dinner the night before that is catered at a faculty members house. It is very personable. There is a lot of construction and a huge expansion plan for the medical center – some parts of the hospital are kind of dumpy and need new construction. However, the OR’s have pretty new equipment and there is computerized charting and electronic medical records that look pretty user friendly. Most of the faculty were very nice and affable. One of the people I interviewed with told me that there is no time for any research during your residency and any interviewer at any program that said there was time was lying to me. I thought that was a very interesting position to take.

Lectures on Mon and Thurs afternoon and grand rounds on Thursday morning. Nothing special stands out in my mind about them. They evidently have some type of simulator but never use it according to the residents.

Cost of living is pretty low and most residents buy houses – some parts of the Richmond are becoming pretty expensive to live and the traffic is getting bad in west end. There are lots of things to do in the area – amusement parks, sports, cultural activities etc.
VCU has a daycare that is open from 6 am to midnite and it is also on the list of top places for women to work in the “Working Mother” magazine.

The CBY year – at this point I think is 4 mo medicine, 3 mo of surgery (inc. ENT), NICU, 2 mo anesthesia, DO’s can take family medicine or OB to work it towards the rotating internship and EM. The 2 mo of anesthesiology are at the beginning (to orient) and at the end (to start breaking into your CA-1).

Break in to Ca-1 – the last month of intern year you are paired with a ca-3, you also attend 6 weeks of lecture based on morgan mikail (spelling?)

There is no overnight call except ICU, and your OB nights, T2 and T3 months. ICU is q4, OB nights is 20 12 hour shifts and T2 is 7pm-7am for 2 weeks with 2weeks off (3 of them) T3 is 7pm to 7 am with the other 2 weeks in the general OR (3 of them)

Moonlighting right now is $70 an hour with your Va license and after 6 mo of ca-1. You get paid to be the late resident (2:30 – 11), and you get paid if you work past 5 pm in the general OR and on specialty rotations. This seems pretty generous.

You have to pay to park like $30 a month, there are some pretty bad parts of town – but I guess that only means more penetrating trauma – right?!
 
SLU
Best interview experience so far – attendings are super cool. They really made a big effort to sell the place. Basically you get a bunch of presentations by different attendings all about the program, the town – just about everything you’d ever want to know. Then you tour the hospital which is a really nice place and every one seems friendly. The lunch with residents, all of which were down to earth. The program had some problems in the past with passing boards, but have been good last few years. Interviews were about as informal as it can get, with pretty much no agenda. The chair, dr comunale is a little more intense and a super cool dude. Hes got this vision of making slu a “top 20 department” – not really sure what that means or how that is measured, but I kinda doubt it if hes talking about NIH funding and stuff like that. Most attendings are not research guys, despite having amazing resources – so maybe he can attract more researchers – but again these types seem more likely to take less pay and more work at Wash U, then head across town, but we’ll see. Despite that – definitely a good program especially if your leaning towards private practice.

San Antonio
I thought this was weird interview until I got to Miami. The night before you go to a ballroom type of thing and have drinks and snacks with residents who (according to the email) are evaluating you. Seems like a really bad idea, but actually it was pretty cool. I didn’t care much about them evaluating me, so I had a pretty good time – figured if they didn’t like my off color humor and sarcasm, then it wasn’t meant to be. Actually, as it turned out, the residents were really cool guys (and gals), very laid back, and found a couple even more sarcastic then myself – so I felt right at home. Interview day was exactly as No oxygen (who I got to meet there – really cool guy, btw) with the additional few comments. The residents here work hard – lots of call and they are brutal calls. 3rd years have seen so much action theyre basically running the show at night. The thing that was the biggest draw back was that they have to go back in on the post call day around 3 pm for the next days pre-ops. They didn’t think it was that big of a deal. The medical center is in the nice part of town – and housing is dirt cheap. San Antonio seems like the last place you’d want to be if you were looking to find hot chicks – but seems great for families – both cheap and the residency director gave this pro family speech. Anyway, all in all definitely solidly good place- strong leaning towards private practice.

Jacksonville –Mayo
First they put you up in a posh hotel with one of those mattresses you see on tv that you can adjust the firmness of your bed – never slept better (seriously). Then you go to this beautiful little suburban hospital where everyone is smiling and the patients are going to that hospital because they want to not cause they have to (like most teaching hospitals). You start with an hour presentation from the program director – who is the most down to earth person – really nice. The 4 half hour interviews. Each was different – ¾ more of a get to know you, one was a little awkward with really, really open ended questions (why are you here?) The focus here is research, academics, excellence, prestige – the standard big name kinda selling points. The attendings are the people who write the books we all read, and they are all friendly and down to earth (according to the residents). Call schedule and work load are ridiculously light – almost frighteningly so. If san Antonio seemed like to much call – this seemed like to little…guess Ill never be happy. The residents get they’re numbers easily though cause they get every interesting case they want and crnas take the leftovers. Scut work is nearly nonexistent seemingly. I tried to find a bad part about the residency, but nothing seemed to jump out. My only concern was that you might not see enough stuff go really wrong and see lots of complications – but didn’t want to offend the residents so I never asked theyre opinion on that. Residents seemed really happy and friendly (better be with that call schedule) – the chief who was giving the tour was the nicest guy you could imagine – offering to do just about anything other than lend his keys for some afternoon joyriding- and who knows, maybe I shoulda asked! Jacksonville seems ok, good weather if your into heat and humidity- basically a huge sprawling suburb – which is fine by me at this point in life. Housing is not as cheap as I expected, but seems like everyone lives along the beach.

Miami
Welcome to the land of the weird interviews. First you go to a small white room located in an office space composed of a bunch of empty white rooms, all of which is behind a tiny unassuming door along a hospital hallway. Once there, the program director comes in cracks a few jokes and leaves. 20 minutes later hes back and takes a couple people out for interviews in other little offices. The he takes me and another dude to a completely different part of the hospital which is near the anesthesiology offices (where were we before??). Two interviews later he takes me back to the little white room where I get an interview from a resident. No presentation about the program. No meeting the residents for lunch. The tour was from the little white room to the anesthesiology office (where there is another conference room right there???) – no ICU, PACU, OR tour. It was so very odd, I kinda liked it. The program director had in his office evidence to what anyone would suspect spending more than a minute with him – he is also a stand up comedian. Ok, welcome to the twilight zone. Dr Gallagher was really cool though, pretty much a nut. Had a couple students at the interview familiar with the program that shed a little light on how thing are run there – all of which were positive. Cant really say much about the program, but seems like the residents work hard and have a reputation for being strong clinically. The new chair is strongly stressing research, and publications are starting to increase. Lunch was on south beach – which was a nice touch. Miami is one of those cities that I think is hard to figure out unless you spend some time there. Last time I was there was 5 years ago and it has changed a lot. Housing is fairly expensive. Miami (the city) is very cheesy, and its fun looking at people trying to look “Miami” which makes it even more cheesy. More half-way buttoned shiny brightly colored shirts then you can shake a stick at. The whether is great between hurricanes – not as hot as central florida in the summer and warmer in the winter. All together it is a strong program in a really awesome city.
 
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U. Kentucky:

This program knows how to treat applicants. Stay in the Sheraton Suites, eat at an upscale steak restaurant (order whatever you want), and get very nice leather exec folders.

Academics: argueably the best in the country. PD, Dr. Schell out of Loma Linda very enthusiastic about teaching, very structured lecture series that covers all aspects of anesthesia in about 18 months. Faculty are there to teach, most write for the boards, 3 are "real" oral board examiners. 100% of residents have passed the boards last 3 years due to great board review course. Excellent one-on-one teaching in the OR. #1 program goal: resident education!!

Clinical training: get necessary numbers, but nother stellar, working to improve weakness of CT by opening a new rotation in Houston for more hearts. Follow all RCC recommendations for more months of ICU, pain, and regional months. Work load is nice, call is 2-3 x months, 1 weekend.

Facilities: 3 hospitals
UKMC: Level 1 trauma center for East KY (mostly MVAs, ATV accidents and falls, very little knife/gun club) OLD academic hospital, 18 revamped ORs, calls rooms okay,
VA: next to UKMC, sicker pts, mostly hearts and vascular
Shriner's: private kids hospitals, learn to work efficiently

simulator: small (in the ICU), broken while I was there, supposedly intergrated into the program, not very impressive.

Residents: Very happy, interact well with each other. Mostly married with families, though some singles. M>F.

Interview: ask mostly "What questions do you have?" so I don't feel they got to know me all that well. Very laid back, they really tried to sell the program.

CBY year is pretty sweet and is divided 6 months on anesthesia, then 6 months off-service. During PGY-2 year, same schedule, 6 on, 6 off. Based on this, it's possible to do 12 months of off-service rotations and then come back and be thrown into a room expecting to pick up where you left off as a CA-1. Residents said they were a little "rusty", but got back into the groove pretty easily.

CBY rotations:
1 m Medicine Wards
1 m Pulm consult
1 m Cards consult
1 m PICU
2 m elective
1 m anesthesia
1 m Surgery
1 m EM
1 m CCU
1 m Preop clinic

Overall: excellent academics, average clinical training. You will get your numbers, but nothing stellar, not a lot of trauma or transplants. Cases and work load is moderate. Residents seem very happy. Lexington is a good sized city with most things that a person could want or need. Not a high-powered name or reputation, but putting out very knowledgable anesthesia consultants. Program is definitely improving and provides excellent academic training.
 
UAB


Good program in the middle of the SE US. It suffers a little bit from the area (see: WashU) as far as perception goes, but considering University hospital is the (only) Level I facility for about 10 million people, you have the potential to see a lot. OB is about 60% high risk (seems high, thats per residents) and, they stress that every service is fairly busy (regional is always iffy, except at VMU, but they are working to build it here.) THe residents have insane amounts of moonlighting opps, essentially CRNA shifts and home call. ~100 interviews for 16 spots surprised me, but apparently they take plenty of UAB students.

Strengths: Residents seem very happy, reputation for being a very resident-friendly program. Moonlighting, good case exposure. Closed unit (which they are proud of...heard claims along the line of "as good as any SICU in the country"). New facility with state of the art equipment (to rival Vandy, in my mind). Non-onerous call schedule (averages q5.6 throughout).

Cons: Only 3-year spots available. Heard different reports re: didactics (residents say weak, attendings say strong, likely in the middle).

Birmingham is an interesting city. It seems to me to be a big city (pop of 1 mil) with sort of a small-city feel. Still some pretty poor parts of town and some very rich parts of town. Managing cost of living with schools/proximity can be tough for families.

Overall, a very good program in a neat city with some great perks and great faculty support.
 
Although this has already been reviewed, I'll just post my impressions.

The pre-interview dinner was held at a nice seafood restaurant. There were three residents and they showed up a bit late. I was taken aback when we were making introductions and the CA-3 was suprised that one person there was a CA-1, as they had never seen each other before. The residents were pretty helpful in answering questions. The management of the dinner was a little strange as we weren't informed until afterwards that we'd have to pay for our drinks and that we were left without a ride back to the hotel. The residents were kind enough to drive us back. The transportation issue may be the hotel's fault as our prior correspondence with UTSW indicated that everything would be taken care of.

The interview day started in a conference room with a short movie and presentation. We were then taken to two individual interviews and then both lunch with a resident and an exit interview with the chairman. All of my interviews were relaxed without any difficult questions. The chair stressed that the program has a 100% first attempt pass rate on the written boards and that by the end of the CA-2 year, 75% of the residents did well enough to pass the boards. If you score well enough in your CA-2 year, then they will pay for your real written exam. Other notable things are a faculty pay incentive program where the faculty are divided into quartiles by resident reviews and are paid according to where they stand. The program also offers extensive OB and trauma experiences. There also seems to be plenty of opportunities to moonlight. Call seems to be q4 24hrs in-house for CA-1s. The senior residents either take call from home or in-house depending on where they are assigned. Home call is rarely paged in.

Pros: Dallas (great city and affordable), Can stay in the same city for all rotations, 7 training facilities (county, VA, private, children's, etc.), plenty of volume, great OB experience, great passing rate on written boards, moonlighting, proactive chairman, little recent faculty turnover, residents felt very confident in their abilities and the variety that they've seen, well-balanced intern year which may change to include a mo of anesthesia

Cons: Lots of residents (good for workload, bad for getting to know your colleagues), SICU (was told by a resident that they only have 4-5 patients and they take q4 call. The more difficult patients are handled by fellows, but they may be taking on Parklands SICU soon), Lots of fellows (little hands-on in pain, and was told that if you want to do pain, you'll have to do 12-18 months of it so missing out on hands-on in residency wasn't a big deal), Again, lots of fellows (the CA-3's I spoke with had not done any pedi hearts and said that it was above a resident's level - surprising b/c CA-2's at my institution do pedi hearts)
 
NoodleIncident said:
Although this has already been reviewed, I'll just post my impressions.

The pre-interview dinner was held at a nice seafood restaurant. There were three residents and they showed up a bit late. I was taken aback when we were making introductions and the CA-3 was suprised that one person there was a CA-1, as they had never seen each other before. The residents were pretty helpful in answering questions. The management of the dinner was a little strange as we weren't informed until afterwards that we'd have to pay for our drinks and that we were left without a ride back to the hotel. The residents were kind enough to drive us back. The transportation issue may be the hotel's fault as our prior correspondence with UTSW indicated that everything would be taken care of.
Click to expand...

Kind of funny, but this was exactly the same experience we had two weeks ago.
 
dodo2 said:
I was not impressed at all. Problably they were not impressed either.
Should i rank it just because they are JHU?
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Don't rank a program unless you are totally ok with going there...bottom line.
 
Baylor

Very impressive program--definitely the best offices and library I've seen thus far (very modern and chic, huge marble table that you sit around for breakfast and chatting between interviews). Recent split with Methodist hospital seems to be finally ironed out now...residents formerly did some of their cardiac cases at Methodist but now will be going to the world reknown Texas Heart Institute. In place of the Methodist affiliation is St. Luke's hospital. Faculty seemed to think this was a blessing in disguise and the program will only get stronger. The next phase of the Baylor Clinic will be opening in the next year or so and with it will come many brand new ambulatory ORs. Baylor is situated right in the middle of the so-called Texas Medical Center which includes 13 hospitals and over 9,000 hospital beds making it the biggest medical district in the world. Needless to say, as a resident, you will cover several of these hospitals and be exposed to everything out there. Calls can be busy with lots of penetrating, ballistic trauma typical of a huge city (Houston is the 4th largest city in the US) but at least you get to come in at 2:30 pm and leave at 6:30 the next morning (depending on what rotation you're on). Residents typically do post-call preops the first 6 months of the CA-1 year then begin to share the duties with a friend so you can have your post call day completely free. 4-5 calls per month are typical and work hours are in the range of 60-65/week. The residents stressed that they work hard but definitely have lives outside of the hospital and the presence of a student RNA training program allows them to be relieved between 3 and 4 pm when not on call. The residents seemed very friendly and happy. Some cited the multiple hospital coverage as a downside since you often don't see other residents for weeks at a time. No internal moonlighting exists but apparently you can do some general moonlighting during your CA-3 year, although this is rare. Dr. Conlay (Chair) and Dr. Raty (PD) are very outgoing and energetic and appear to be committed resident advocates. 3 interviews (with the Chair, PD, and another faculty member) were all very conversational, relaxed, and completely non-threatening. I felt very comfortable the entire day there. You take a bus tour of the medical center and surrounding areas which is nice (great to not have to walk around for an hour!).

Houston is big and very spread out. It's very affordable and 70% of residents own homes. Parking is apparently somewhat painful but you are at least partially reimbursed for the cost. It's very hot and humid during the summers which is the only drawback for me. Nevertheless, the training here is excellent and the people seem great.
 
I am putting the review in this thread b/c I think it's where it belongs. Hopkins seems to be under a lot of scrutiny on this forum and I am not really sure why. Anyways, let me first start out by saying that I thought the program was outstanding. I would be beyond happy to match at Hopkins. I felt they spared no expense with the pre-interview evening. About 9-10 residents showed up and all were extremely laid back, very friendly and enthusiastic about the program. There wasn't the slightest bit of elitist attitude. They were very open and honest about the program, the department, the working conditions, relationships between the residents and among the attendings. They all said the attendings were very supportive and encouraging. As with any program they stated that there were a few bad apples but it was rare that you had to work with them since the department is very large. All said their relationship with the PD is great and he is a very strong advocate and friend to his residents. I never once heard any resident use the term or allude to "the Hopkins way". All agreed that the variety and complexity of their cases were second to none. I walked away feeling that the residents were proud of their program and their training. To me this does not equate to being elitist.
As far as the city is concerned I think Baltimore has a lot to offer. If you are looking for a NYC, LA, SF etc then go train in NYC etc. I spent two days there with my wife and we both agreed that it has to offer what 95% of all cities in the US have. I spent some time in Baltimore 10 years ago and it has dramatically changed since then. The revitalization of the city is incredible. Cost of living seems to be high but it is the east coast.

The interview day... It started out with a presentation by Dr. Mittman (PD). There were about 8 of us sitting around a table. I thought it was a nice touch. Very personal. I am getting tired of seeing rehearsed power point presentations of faces I don't know and pictures I really don't care about. This was a chance to ask questions which he encouraged. As for what he was wearing, I won't even comment, I think that is irrelevant. This is a profession that basically wears pajamas to work everyday with goofy looking hats. I felt his presentation was sincere and I walked away with the feeling that I could go up and talk to him about anything, both program and non-program related. I was reassured this when I interviewed with him. It was nothing but conversational. We discussed our families, our hobbies and our interests. We had 4 interviews total. They are on a schedule and they told us up front that they run on time with the interview day. They gave us a time at the beginning of the day that we would be out by and they delivered. They are punctual. A plus in my book. Back to the interviews. All were very conversational and laid back. I think 1 had read my application but that is no concern of mine. The application is to get me the interview. The application is self explanatory if you can read. The interview is the social application. I actually prefer not talking about anything on my application. In my book, for a 15-30 minute conversation nobody should need reference notes or cue cards to hold a conversation. In my interviews we talked about everything from college football to family to dogs. Dr. Ulatowski (chief) was a genuinely nice guy. All were very informative and honest in answering questions.
We were given a tour by one of the residents who was very nice. He was very honest about some of his perceived strengths and weaknesses. As far as the physical structure. It has already been covered in the other thread. The Cancer center is new and very nice. The general ORs are older. Some looked remodeled and some looked much older. The anesthesia machines were new as far as I saw. What I thought was cool about some of the older ORs was those were where some ground breaking surgeries were done...if walls could talk. The facilities were no different than where I spent 4 years of medical school, some new buildings some old. The anesthesia department is in the older building and it is a little small and shows some age. I am not applying for an administrative position; I don't get an office up there, so I could care less. We had lunch with a group and residents, about 15 in total. Very nice people. All said they were happy at Hopkins. None had any regrets about coming to Hopkins. They all felt they would be extremely well trained which I do not doubt. So there you have it. I never saw the elitist, rude, or "Hopkins way" attitude that some has alluded to. Overall I was very impressed with the program and liked Baltimore. A very good friend of mine did an elective in anesthesia there and read some of the other posts and said he couldn't have disagreed more with the negative comments about the personalities and lack of encouragement. His opinion was the department was very warm and supportive of its residents.
Just to add to some of the other posts. I also interviewed at Mayo Rochester, Vanderbilt, and UF and agree with the other posts on those programs.

One thing I forgot to ask at the interview. Does anyone know their board pass rate? Thanks
 
blaze said:
I am putting the review in this thread b/c I think it's where it belongs. Hopkins seems to be under a lot of scrutiny on this forum and I am not really sure why. Anyways, let me first start out by saying that I thought the program was outstanding. I would be beyond happy to match at Hopkins. I felt they spared no expense with the pre-interview evening. About 9-10 residents showed up and all were extremely laid back, very friendly and enthusiastic about the program. There wasn't the slightest bit of elitist attitude. They were very open and honest about the program, the department, the working conditions, relationships between the residents and among the attendings. They all said the attendings were very supportive and encouraging. As with any program they stated that there were a few bad apples but it was rare that you had to work with them since the department is very large. All said their relationship with the PD is great and he is a very strong advocate and friend to his residents. I never once heard any resident use the term or allude to "the Hopkins way". All agreed that the variety and complexity of their cases were second to none. I walked away feeling that the residents were proud of their program and their training. To me this does not equate to being elitist.
As far as the city is concerned I think Baltimore has a lot to offer. If you are looking for a NYC, LA, SF etc then go train in NYC etc. I spent two days there with my wife and we both agreed that it has to offer what 95% of all cities in the US have. I spent some time in Baltimore 10 years ago and it has dramatically changed since then. The revitalization of the city is incredible. Cost of living seems to be high but it is the east coast.

The interview day... It started out with a presentation by Dr. Mittman (PD). There were about 8 of us sitting around a table. I thought it was a nice touch. Very personal. I am getting tired of seeing rehearsed power point presentations of faces I don't know and pictures I really don't care about. This was a chance to ask questions which he encouraged. As for what he was wearing, I won't even comment, I think that is irrelevant. This is a profession that basically wears pajamas to work everyday with goofy looking hats. I felt his presentation was sincere and I walked away with the feeling that I could go up and talk to him about anything, both program and non-program related. I was reassured this when I interviewed with him. It was nothing but conversational. We discussed our families, our hobbies and our interests. We had 4 interviews total. They are on a schedule and they told us up front that they run on time with the interview day. They gave us a time at the beginning of the day that we would be out by and they delivered. They are punctual. A plus in my book. Back to the interviews. All were very conversational and laid back. I think 1 had read my application but that is no concern of mine. The application is to get me the interview. The application is self explanatory if you can read. The interview is the social application. I actually prefer not talking about anything on my application. In my book, for a 15-30 minute conversation nobody should need reference notes or cue cards to hold a conversation. In my interviews we talked about everything from college football to family to dogs. Dr. Ulatowski (chief) was a genuinely nice guy. All were very informative and honest in answering questions.
We were given a tour by one of the residents who was very nice. He was very honest about some of his perceived strengths and weaknesses. As far as the physical structure. It has already been covered in the other thread. The Cancer center is new and very nice. The general ORs are older. Some looked remodeled and some looked much older. The anesthesia machines were new as far as I saw. What I thought was cool about some of the older ORs was those were where some ground breaking surgeries were done...if walls could talk. The facilities were no different than where I spent 4 years of medical school, some new buildings some old. The anesthesia department is in the older building and it is a little small and shows some age. I am not applying for an administrative position; I don't get an office up there, so I could care less. We had lunch with a group and residents, about 15 in total. Very nice people. All said they were happy at Hopkins. None had any regrets about coming to Hopkins. They all felt they would be extremely well trained which I do not doubt. So there you have it. I never saw the elitist, rude, or "Hopkins way" attitude that some has alluded to. Overall I was very impressed with the program and liked Baltimore. A very good friend of mine did an elective in anesthesia there and read some of the other posts and said he couldn't have disagreed more with the negative comments about the personalities and lack of encouragement. His opinion was the department was very warm and supportive of its residents.
Just to add to some of the other posts. I also interviewed at Mayo Rochester, Vanderbilt, and UF and agree with the other posts on those programs.

One thing I forgot to ask at the interview. Does anyone know their board pass rate? Thanks
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Agreed 100% with this. I think to an extent impressions just depend on individual applicants' priorities
 
I interviewed at Penn State recently. All I have to say is ROCK SOLID in EVERY area. The PD is such a resident advocate. Rather than elaborate on my opinions on the forum, please boardmail me if you have any questions. I'd be more than happy to respond.
 
SleepyTime said:
I interviewed at Penn State recently. All I have to say is ROCK SOLID in EVERY area.
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Every area except:


"anything to do for social/personal life in a 100 mile radius, except for Hershey Park, which gets old after the 3rd or 4th tour through the history of chocolate train ride"


seriously... i loved what i read about the PSU program but if you are single, Amish country is not the place to be.

unless you really dig girls with candles and homemade apple-butter.
 
Trisomy13 said:
Every area except:


"anything to do for social/personal life in a 100 mile radius, except for Hershey Park, which gets old after the 3rd or 4th tour through the history of chocolate train ride"


seriously... i loved what i read about the PSU program but if you are single, Amish country is not the place to be.

unless you really dig girls with candles and homemade apple-butter.
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mmm...candles

;)
 
Trisomy13 said:
Every area except:


"anything to do for social/personal life in a 100 mile radius, except for Hershey Park, which gets old after the 3rd or 4th tour through the history of chocolate train ride"


seriously... i loved what i read about the PSU program but if you are single, Amish country is not the place to be.

unless you really dig girls with candles and homemade apple-butter.
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http://www.city-data.com/picfilesv/picv10750.php

Perhaps. Hershey sure is appealing to me as a married man. Harrisburg is 15 minutes away, however. It has a population of 50K and a lot to do. NYC, DC, Baltimore, et al., are all within a brief drive. I really wouldn't rule it out if I were single. These are some of the coolest residents I've been around too.
 
Penn State is really a great program. A class act through and through. Put you up in a nice hotel. Nice dinner the night before. Nice lunch the day of. Facilities are great; well kept and very clean. Department has a lot of space and money. Attendings down to earth. Lots of supervision and teaching. PD is a former military dude who is a strong resident advocate and gets things done. Residents friendly and very happy. Strong simulation program (they place Sim Man in some random hallway, outside bathroom, in the parking lot, and call code blue to see the response time, and also see how they would handle the code. Definitely lots of case variety. Got trauma. They have a CT scan right next to trauma room. Decent hours. Many big cities close by. Nittany Lions football is rocking this year. However, I just got a creeping feeling that JoePa is gonna retire soon, especially if the team wins one of the big bowls this year. And finally, Hershey is very chocolatey :)

Now, the not so good part: I think many residents are married. Many came from so so medical schools. I think many attendings were trained in other countries. HOWEVER, all this does NOT mean they are weak; it's just an observation. I only say this because I know many of you guys put a special value on "pedigree" and "prestige" and where people came from. I personally don't give a damn. I would be very very happy training with them. 5 interviews, 20 minutes each, but they're easy. Not a lot of diversity in the residents or the patient population (ie mostly caucasian that I could see). 4-year program only, even though the curriculum does seem to make sense in that they have you start on some anesthesia stuff your first year. No call the first 6 months though, if I remember correctly.

Impression: this is definitely a winner, if you are married or is used to rural area/suburban life. If you cannot live without city life, then don't rank. They don't want unhappy residents. Many stay in the area or end up in Philadelphia after residency.
 
SleepyTime said:
http://www.city-data.com/picfilesv/picv10750.php

Perhaps. Hershey sure is appealing to me as a married man. Harrisburg is 15 minutes away, however. It has a population of 50K and a lot to do. NYC, DC, Baltimore, et al., are all within a brief drive. I really wouldn't rule it out if I were single. These are some of the coolest residents I've been around too.
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If I were married I'd love to wind up at PSU. I'm just not ready for that pace of life yet. No matter what my liver says. ;-) Now if it were located at the main campus of PSU... whole different story.
 
jc237 said:
Penn State is really a great program. A class act through and through. Put you up in a nice hotel. Nice dinner the night before. Nice lunch the day of. Facilities are great; well kept and very clean. Department has a lot of space and money. Attendings down to earth. Lots of supervision and teaching. PD is a former military dude who is a strong resident advocate and gets things done. Residents friendly and very happy. Strong simulation program (they place Sim Man in some random hallway, outside bathroom, in the parking lot, and call code blue to see the response time, and also see how they would handle the code. Definitely lots of case variety. Got trauma. They have a CT scan right next to trauma room. Decent hours. Many big cities close by. Nittany Lions football is rocking this year. However, I just got a creeping feeling that JoePa is gonna retire soon, especially if the team wins one of the big bowls this year. And finally, Hershey is very chocolatey :)

Now, the not so good part: I think many residents are married. Many came from so so medical schools. I think many attendings were trained in other countries. HOWEVER, all this does NOT mean they are weak; it's just an observation. I only say this because I know many of you guys put a special value on "pedigree" and "prestige" and where people came from. I personally don't give a damn. I would be very very happy training with them. 5 interviews, 20 minutes each, but they're easy. Not a lot of diversity in the residents or the patient population (ie mostly caucasian that I could see). 4-year program only, even though the curriculum does seem to make sense in that they have you start on some anesthesia stuff your first year. No call the first 6 months though, if I remember correctly.

Impression: this is definitely a winner, if you are married or is used to rural area/suburban life. If you cannot live without city life, then don't rank. They don't want unhappy residents. Many stay in the area or end up in Philadelphia after residency.
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This was much my impression as well. Really liked this program and Dr. Kimatian is very impressive. They do offer a couple of advanced positions but the vast majority are categorical...really like the categorical curriculum. Dr. Kimatian definitely sold me on it!
 
Sugar72 said:
MEDICAL COLLEGE OF GA
There was not a dinner the night before - I like the dinners. The general thing that stands out the most from the interview is the sense that the faculty really acts like a team to support the residents to help them succeed in politics, research, etc. There is also a new anesthesiology department office area that is not quite ready yet - no furniture - but it is a huge area and is going to be quite nice with lots new computers, online resources, and giant tv's.
Not a lot of time is spent on didactics. There are grand rounds which are guest speakers on monday am. A 1-2 hour lecture on thursday afternoon and mock orals every other fri am. This is very much a read on your own and learn program. Depending on your personality this could be a plus or minus.

Once a month the department pays for an outing organized by the chief res. which consists of 2 free drinks and hors d’oerves. There are also organized department gatherings like a barbecue at the lake in July and a kids Christmas party.
Residents seem very happy - lots of married with kids here. Cost of living is pretty low and most residents buy houses and evidently boats. I didn’t spend a lot of time here - maybe I will take a leisurely trip through here with my husband later in the year to take closer look at Augusta.

The entire medical center got a crap load of money from tobacco settlements so there is a lot of money that has been allotted to make MCG a really top notch place in every department. Anesthesiology has a lot of new faculty and they are still looking for more. They have a pain fellowship and are working towards developing fellowships in every subspecialty - I believe that ped’s and critical care are next. Speaking of critical care there is a lot of critical care exposure in their rotation schedules - I think you do 4 months your intern year alone – usually 1 ccu at the VA, 1 MICU and 2 SICU.

They have categorical and advanced positions. The interns I talked to there said they felt like the CBY was not as demanding as most. On medicine, there is a night float that covers the hospital during the week so you just split up the weekends with the other interns.

Ca-1 break in by being paired with an upperlevel/attending for a month. You are in a room in the morning and afternoon lectures. You are usually on your own by the 3rd week
Call ca 1 is about 4 times a mo, that increases your ca2 and ca3 when you are on general OR to about 6 times a month. OB is set up so that there are 3 residents – one covers nights, one is covering the c-sections, and one is consulting for epidurals so OB seems pretty demanding right now.

There is not any official moonlighting - however, if you are not on call and not on a specialty rotation and they need someone past 5pm - you will get paid $50 an hour. Evidently this is a rare occurrence. I don't 100% understand what I put in my notes here so this might not be 100% right but there is also the opportunity to take code call overnight "next door" - I don't know what I meant by that - sorry. You can do that once you are licensed and you get paid $350. Maybe someone else that interviewed here remembers this better!?


You get $1500 for books etc., the dept will pay for you to present at conferences. They were very proud that MCG presented the most research of any other program at ASA convention this year. They will also support you if you are an official delegate to associations. Dr Head has a lot of political connections as do many of the faculty. I think it is safe to say that the department has a clear, mission and plan for making this a top program.
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Additions to above
1. Strengths: Pain, and regional are pretty strong at this program.
2. Weaknesses: Hearts, and transplants. Competition across the street (private hospital) seems to be getting the hearts.

Gadgets: BIS in all OR's, Auto record keeper, monitors are only 2 yrs old.
Call rooms: Hiltonesque... not quite, but pretty darn nice for residency.

Parking: Free
Food: week call= $5, weekend call $10. Cafeteria seemed good.

The previous poster didn't quite hit augusta living: Very outdoorsy, and warm place. Dock about 20 min's away, and river next to hospital that people like to jog by. I saw some street bikers, and there is reports of mountain biking-a-plenty. I asked about trails for my quad and dirt bikes, and the resident claims that there is some prime riding about 20 min away. COL is cheap... residents with BMW's, boats, and 2000+ sq ft houses on 1+ acres
:eek:
Everyone lives about 10 minutes away in a supposedly nice area. Private schools have kids doing powerpoint presentations by 1st grade :confused:
The private schools cost about 7k, and have a great ratio... 13:1 I think.
Also, the program has a smalltown feel to it, while still cranking out the numbers of a solid university program. Good for married people, not too sure about singles, although one resident was single and claimed to have a pretty good social life, as well as having no probs finding attractive women.

Surgery relationship: Great. 1 or 2 stiffies, but the faculty here stick up for their residents with a vengeance. I heard one story about a resident getting cussed out by a surgeon who was later reamed out by Dr XXXX. Turns out, that surgeon was a lot nicer after that episode.

Overall: Program is getting tons of cash poured into it, and Dr Head knows how to use said cash. Anes resident area is looking good, and is right next to the faculty offices. Dr Head pointed out that this was intentional so that any resident concerns could be easily brought to his attention. Nice research lab, and is expanding. Projects include the use of knockout mice, which I thought was pretty cool/cutting edge. Teaching improving, but very self learning type of program according to residents.

Final: Loved the program, and the environment. Would of prematched if offered. I know I mentioned the same about SUNY, but this program ranks higher for me. I liked the slower pace of life down there.
 
lvspro said:
Additions to above
1. Strengths: Pain, and regional are pretty strong at this program.
2. Weaknesses: Hearts, and transplants. Competition across the street (private hospital) seems to be getting the hearts.

Gadgets: BIS in all OR's, Auto record keeper, monitors are only 2 yrs old.
Call rooms: Hiltonesque... not quite, but pretty darn nice for residency.

Parking: Free
Food: week call= $5, weekend call $10. Cafeteria seemed good.

The previous poster didn't quite hit augusta living: Very outdoorsy, and warm place. Dock about 20 min's away, and river next to hospital that people like to jog by. I saw some street bikers, and there is reports of mountain biking-a-plenty. I asked about trails for my quad and dirt bikes, and the resident claims that there is some prime riding about 20 min away. COL is cheap... residents with BMW's, boats, and 2000+ sq ft houses on 1+ acres
:eek:
Everyone lives about 10 minutes away in a supposedly nice area. Private schools have kids doing powerpoint presentations by 1st grade :confused:
The private schools cost about 7k, and have a great ratio... 13:1 I think.
Also, the program has a smalltown feel to it, while still cranking out the numbers of a solid university program. Good for married people, not too sure about singles, although one resident was single and claimed to have a pretty good social life, as well as having no probs finding attractive women.

Surgery relationship: Great. 1 or 2 stiffies, but the faculty here stick up for their residents with a vengeance. I heard one story about a resident getting cussed out by a surgeon who was later reamed out by Dr XXXX. Turns out, that surgeon was a lot nicer after that episode.

Overall: Program is getting tons of cash poured into it, and Dr Head knows how to use said cash. Anes resident area is looking good, and is right next to the faculty offices. Dr Head pointed out that this was intentional so that any resident concerns could be easily brought to his attention. Nice research lab, and is expanding. Projects include the use of knockout mice, which I thought was pretty cool/cutting edge. Teaching improving, but very self learning type of program according to residents.

Final: Loved the program, and the environment. Would of prematched if offered. I know I mentioned the same about SUNY, but this program ranks higher for me. I liked the slower pace of life down there.
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I'd agree with Lvspro. I really liked this place more than I expected to. They really have turned their program around, and seem to have a good plan to continue improving their program. They do work, but not extremely hard, and you have to work to hone your skills (IMO).

I'll definitely rank them highly.
 
I'm gonna try to be very brief with these.

Dinner the night before at nice restaurant. Very friendly residents who couldn't stop selling the program.

The interview starts with this CHEESY video about the history of Columbia anesthesiology, Virginia Apgar, and just generally sucks. I mean, who cares? Then the PD gives a not-so-hot presentation about the program. Very poor job of selling the place -- all she wants to do is talk about pedi anesthesia. She's odd, and I get the impression she's not too tight with the residents (very aloof).

Anyway, two 30 minutes interviews, then a pedi group session (they sit you down with a pedi attending who talks about pedi and asks for questions -- don't stress about this) then lunch and a tour.

On the plus side:

Superior case volumes in every category except trauma. Everybody talks about Cornell's regional program but you can do "block doc" months as a CA-3 and become a pro. The first guy who interviewed me did just that and said he's super comfortable with his PNBs. Cardiac, neuro, OB, peds, everything is just tremendous here. CTICU and SICU run by anesthesia. You are prepared to do anything.

Big on research.

Can do dedicated TEE months with no OR responsibilities.

Moonlighting (stay late and pull an extra $400 or so, come in on a Saturday to take backup call at ambulatory facility and pull close to $1000 after doing OB rotation). Sounds like everybody does a little of this to stay financially afloat.

Reasonable # of calls (4 shorts and 2 longs, I think)

New York City!!!

Minuses:

New York City!!! More of the applicant questions were about housing than anything else. It sounds like people get by one way or another (incurring some credit card debt, eating a lot of cereal). Gotta decide if it's worth it.

Not positive everybody was happy here. At lunch there was a sizable group of residents who sat by themselves, didn't talk to applicants or make any effort to do so. I dunno. I'm not a good judge of these things.
 
Great dinner night before, typical interview day (presentations, 4 interviews, tour). Have to interview with PD or Chair at least. They're both really nice, a rarity from what I've seen thus far.

Pluses:

Chicago!

Moonlighting at $50/hr, some of which involves sitting around reading.

Very reasonable hours and call, especially compared to NWU and Rush.

Sick-ass patients. I bugged the **** out of the PD and another interviewer about rumors of low caseload and was reasonably convinced by their answer. It's weird, you go to NWU and they tell you that they're in the 80th percentile in every subspecialtiy in terms of caseload. At U of C, they talk about how after a while, there's diminishing returns to doing your 50th lap chole or 40th AAA or whatever. They think it's better to do _enough_ cases (on very sick patients) and then learn by lecture, reading, whatever. I honestly don't know who to believe.

Dedicated TEE months available, can do regional months as CA-3 but you're not the "block doc".

Happiest residents I've seen.

Beautiful new pedi hospital. Can do pedi cardiac elective in CA-3.

CA-3 year entirely elective.

Department does not depend on residents to function, unlike NWU.


Minuses:

Hospital is in Hyde Park on South side but this is barely a negative -- lots of folks live in Bucktown, Lincoln Park, or up-and-coming South Loop. Of course this can mean a nasty commute at times.

Facility is like Columbia in that some of its old and the pedi stuff is ridiculously nice and new.

Ancillary staff. They have more anesthesia techs now but the nursing kinda blows.

Honestly, that might be it. This is an awesome program.
 
Mayo - Jax

No dinner the night before. This surprised me, and I figured there wouldnt be many interview candidates, but in fact, there were 8. Im surprised there wasnt a dinner, but its not a big deal. I drove around Jacksonville and found parts of the city that are very similar to North Dallas/Plano, so that was nice (for me).

Everyone was very friendly at the interview, and the names here are huge. One thing that I found nice is that everyone has been a chair of a program somewhere else and they are here, working as a team. Big names all around. Good surgical experience, as there are not many residents (13 total) so you have your pick of the cases. The residents seem genuinely happy, and that is nice. 15 minutes from the beach also. Call averaged q 6-7 ( :eek: )

Pluses: Mayo clinic faculty, most trained in Rochester. Philsophy still evident, city is MUCH more hospitable than Rochester also (1 degree there yesterday, 71 in Jacksonville). Less pressure to be manpower and more pressure to learn.

Weaknesses: OB, especially with the new hospital opening, which will not have OB. No Level I trauma (though plenty of ortho/neuro trauma). Small program = not for everybody.

Overall, I liked it tremendously. It leapfrogs some other programs in my book.

Also, I met some other SDN'ers and that was cool. Nice guys, both. Still havent seen a DO on interviews though. Maybe Monday...
 
First the really unimportant things...If you are from out of town (not including houston) you get to stay in the Galvez hotel which is really nice - right on the seawall with a beautiful view and a very delicious room service. There is no dinner the night before, but lunch the day of the interview was delicious - in fact I have been dreaming about one of the desserts (tres leches - mmm).

ONe fo the unique things about this program is that the clinical base year is actually split between the pgy1 and pgy2 years. Half of the incoming class starts with anesthesiology in July (usually people from outside of UTMB), then they go off service in August (IM etc). When they come back in Sept they are runnning their own rooms. SOme residents remarked that it is kind of difficult coming back and starting their own rooms after being off service for a month - but they like really starting anesthesiology their first year. the 12 mo that are your cby are 2mo sicu, 2 mo med, pulm, ER, oral surgery, pain, cards, elective, CT/general surg.

There is a lot of emphasis on didactics here - am lecutres at 6:15 on M, T, and thursday. W has either M&M or journal club, F has PBL's or subspecialty lectures. Sim lab is used for the introduction and to learn and practice crisis management. It is pretty integrated into the program. They are acreddited for fellowships in all subspecialties, but don't always have fellows - usually they take from their own program.

Call is around 3-4 times a month it is not a every so many nights - it is just scheduled by the cheifs so you can make requests for post-call days. THey have a floor for residents that you can only get to with your id and it has a bunch of call rooms and some computers. I can't remember exactly what they said they do during call except they call Jr. call 'Bubba call'. I think I waited a little too long to write this review - oops.

Usually you are out by 4:30, you can sign up for a late room to moonlight - it is $50 an hour and if you sign in and there is no need for you, you still get paid for an hour. Usually the late rooms run to 6-8 pm.

There are some rotations you have to so out of galveston - there is a pedi month at Driscoll in corpus christi, a month at MD anderson in Houston, and a month at Methodist. This off site schedule is still in flux, because methodist is new to UTMB and UTMB increased the number of residents starting this year. There are apts for residents in both houston and Corpus christi.

The residents are really happy and a lot of fun. I really enjoyed meeting everyone there - I felt right at home. Most residents buy houses either on the island or on the mainland. If you want to buy on the island it is affordable but hard to find a house because they go fast. You can buy more house for your money off the island but resale is harder. There are lots of married residents with kids.

You get a computer, and $100 every year for shoes. In fact, last year the residents got a computer and a pda. Don't know exactly what it will be for next year in terms of the pda, but definitely a computer. You get a free membership to the yacht club, there are several social events including a crawfish boil at the beginning of the year (July).

Negatives- they are attached to the prison so you have to go preop the prisoners and from what i hear it is a huge pain in the butt - but everyone has to do it - a pair of people go over every day to take care of the cases for the next day.
There isn't computer charting in the OR although they have epic medical records in the hospital.

I really liked UTMB and the people (residents and faculty) are great. I hope if someone else interviewed there you will take the time to touch on whatever I missed. It was awesome the way other people picked up and added onto MCG!
 
I'll kick things off with a shout out to my homie idiopathic. For a DO, you barely suck at all! :thumbup: I've done 6, and will do a quick run down.I wil do it chronolgically, and leaving out many key details.

1. U of F Gainesville - Big names, significant history. Very busy, short on support staff. Level 1 trauma, great simulators, biggest SICU in the country (run by anesthesia). Only downside is workload, location (Biased, from Tennessee).

2. Emory - :love: Big, Busy (55K/year), Plenty of support staff to keep the lap appys in check. First Call at Grady is Bad ass! You function as supervisor, board runner, emergency airway guy(like real life). Plenty of $$. Pay for conferences, 1500-3000/year in book, laptop, ?ipod? money. Chief with h/o self sutaining career in stand-up comedy.

3. University of Chicago - Good numbers, fun residents, big name attendings (2007 ASA president is chair). Paid senior call after CA-1 year. Downside- low on livers, working to correct.

4. UNC Chapel Hill - Excellent experience. Nicest hotel thus far. Close knit with the University. People are great (Chief with Big Lebowsky Fan in his bio). Nice facilities, beautiful area. No downsides, with possible exception of limited autonomy as a resident(Rumours of Attending pushing meds into CA-2 year). Lots of Anesthesia in Intern year.

5. Duke - Big reputation, large regional program. Painful interview. Programmed question from people who are not happy to meet you. Emphasis on isolation during resideency. Emphasis on hyperbarics :confused: Wrap up sesseion: "We are known for being brutal about not ranking people who interview with us." Free T shirt :rolleyes:

6. Mayo-Jax - Good times. No dinner, cheap lunch. Nice people, kind of religious about the mystical ideals of Mayo. New hospital will be cool. Likely off site OB starting in '08. All electronic charting, records. HUGE names.

This only covers what I thought of as unique. I'll field Q's, but likely not very promptly.

Good luck, kids.
 
Sorry this took me so long....

First off, they put you up at the Sheraton, which is probably the best gig in town. Very nice dinner the night before, with friendly and welcoming residents.

Interview day starts off with a slide presentation by the PD. You then go through four interviews, about half-hour each with faculty. The PD is one interviewer, and sometimes the chair interviews. He is the editor of the journal Anesthesiology, so he is basically the man. It was quite humbling to interview with him. All the interviewers were very nice, I got the feeling that there is a lot of support for the residents.

You then go through the simulator, which was cool because I have never experienced one before (just happened to miss using them on my rotations). They ask for volunteers from the audience (that means you) which puts you a bit on the spot, but it's not a big deal. That was the most fun part of the day.

You eat lunch with residents, and then go on a tour. The hospital is very nice, ICU's are kick- a ss, and you sorta peek at the OR's from behind the red line which is good enough to get a feel for them. After the tour, you leave and the other half of candidates does their interview.

From what I saw....
Strengths: Regional, regional, regional. They are a regional powerhouse, host several conferences for anesthesiologists to improve regional skills. Others include Pain, level one trauma. College town where the average education is one year post-grad. For Iowa, this is a much more liberal town with lots of arts. The hospital itself is strewn with all kinds of art! Residents can all afford to buy a house. Also, being that it is small, many residents live within walking distance to the hospital which is very nice. I don't think you would have to worry about being mugged here! They seem happy which was important to me. Ooo, another HUGE perk is that your health insurance is absolutely FREE! They just raved about this, and I think it's pretty cool. Many residents get Lasic surgery right away, and this is covered completely. If you have any reason to stay in the hospital (or one of your family members) you will not even see a penny of that pricey bill. In my opinion, all programs should be this way.

Weaknesses: Residents seemed to talk about Cardiac being not as good, you go to Des Moines for one month your third year. Also OB has been slow, but is picking up now with new-and-improved OB floor. Again, small town if this is not your thing. No Banana Republic :(

Overall, great program!
 
Idiopathic said:
Holla at a playa.
Click to expand...

Holla at the two SDNers at Jacksonville.

I also just want to say that the lunch was really bad. For a program that only interviews 60 for 4 spots, the food could be better. However, I did love the program.

Also, to my fellow interviewees that did not apply to the Jacksonville TY yet. I got an email from the PD. She told me that they are still accepting applications to their TY year. I already applied. Just let the PD know if you decide to also apply to their TY year.

Good luck Idio and wcostel.

cubs
 
Beck928 said:
Sorry this took me so long....

First off, they put you up at the Sheraton, which is probably the best gig in town. Very nice dinner the night before, with friendly and welcoming residents.

Interview day starts off with a slide presentation by the PD. You then go through four interviews, about half-hour each with faculty. The PD is one interviewer, and sometimes the chair interviews. He is the editor of the journal Anesthesiology, so he is basically the man. It was quite humbling to interview with him. All the interviewers were very nice, I got the feeling that there is a lot of support for the residents.

You then go through the simulator, which was cool because I have never experienced one before (just happened to miss using them on my rotations). They ask for volunteers from the audience (that means you) which puts you a bit on the spot, but it's not a big deal. That was the most fun part of the day.

You eat lunch with residents, and then go on a tour. The hospital is very nice, ICU's are kick- a ss, and you sorta peek at the OR's from behind the red line which is good enough to get a feel for them. After the tour, you leave and the other half of candidates does their interview.

From what I saw....
Strengths: Regional, regional, regional. They are a regional powerhouse, host several conferences for anesthesiologists to improve regional skills. Others include Pain, level one trauma. College town where the average education is one year post-grad. For Iowa, this is a much more liberal town with lots of arts. The hospital itself is strewn with all kinds of art! Residents can all afford to buy a house. Also, being that it is small, many residents live within walking distance to the hospital which is very nice. I don't think you would have to worry about being mugged here! They seem happy which was important to me. Ooo, another HUGE perk is that your health insurance is absolutely FREE! They just raved about this, and I think it's pretty cool. Many residents get Lasic surgery right away, and this is covered completely. If you have any reason to stay in the hospital (or one of your family members) you will not even see a penny of that pricey bill. In my opinion, all programs should be this way.

Weaknesses: Residents seemed to talk about Cardiac being not as good, you go to Des Moines for one month your third year. Also OB has been slow, but is picking up now with new-and-improved OB floor. Again, small town if this is not your thing. No Banana Republic :(

Overall, great program!
Click to expand...

Thanks Beck! Great review! I had a review in the works, but then I saw that you were meaning to write one, so I thought I would just mooch off yours ;) . The few things I would add about the UIowa are:

1) Dr. S. Hata is incredible! He is well respected in the Critical care field and is a genuinely nice man. He has multiple board certifications (all to make him a better intensivist) and I have no doubts that you would get world class CCM training from this man. You will also do a good number of required CC months at this program - which is just peachy with me.

2) Although the interviews were laid-back, a lot of the interviewers had a hand-full of these generic job-interview type questions, such as; "Tell me about an unpopular decision you've made." I had one interviewer ask me these types of questions, rapid-fire style, for the entire interview.

3) The CA 1's & 2's seemed quite happy, but the one CA 3 I spoke with said something to the effect that the CA 3's felt the anesthesia department was not receptive to their feedback.

4) Call is 5 weekends/year and two x 2week blocks of night float. This excludes critical care as it has its own call system. Seemed like around 60-70 hour/week program.

5) A lot of people complained about parking. I think it is by the stadium and is about a 10min walk - not a big deal to me, but may be to other people. There is also a shuttle that runs pretty late.

Overall I was very impressed and will rank it very highly due to its strong CCM training.
 
Today was our first round of interviews. Any of you guys there? or coming later on? We took the applicants out for drinks last night but nothing too crazy happened.
 
I'm sure this review is somewhat unnecessary, however, I'll throw it out there.

Nice dinner, they even split up the groups so as to keep the ratio of residents to applicants high. Residents are happy! Stay at hospital Marriot, indoor walk to interview.

Pluses: Well respected program nationwide. Beautiful new ORs with flat screen monitors everywhere showing what's going on in the case through cameras in the surgical lights. Dedicated screen for Anesthesia right at your machine. $60 hour for every minute after 3 PM! Liver call is $3/hour 24/7 for a week while doing nothing, $60/hr while in the OR. Attendings are very friendly. Seems to be very strong in just about every discipline

Minuses: Peds at Childrens, where cRNAs are in charge. Will have one in the room pretty much always. Once you get good, you can ask them to back off somewhat and they will often sit in the corner or chart for you. Surgery is politically on top. Oddly, 2 of the top senior surgical residents are switching to their Anesthesia program next year. Interim chair. According to current chair, pool is narrowed to 4, with possible news soon.

Overall impression: Tough to beat.
Helpful hints: Chair will ask one physiology Q in interview. Pretty sure it is always the same one, having to do with O2 sats with respect to Fick equation. You guys owe me if you nail it.
 
supahfresh said:
Today was our first round of interviews. Any of you guys there? or coming later on? We took the applicants out for drinks last night but nothing too crazy happened.
Click to expand...


see you in early january...

just curious, where do you guys go out for the drinks/dinner?
 
wcostell said:
I'm sure this review is somewhat unnecessary, however, I'll throw it out there.

Nice dinner, they even split up the groups so as to keep the ratio of residents to applicants high. Residents are happy! Stay at hospital Marriot, indoor walk to interview.

Pluses: Well respected program nationwide. Beautiful new ORs with flat screen monitors everywhere showing what's going on in the case through cameras in the surgical lights. Dedicated screen for Anesthesia right at your machine. $60 hour for every minute after 3 PM! Liver call is $3/hour 24/7 for a week while doing nothing, $60/hr while in the OR. Attendings are very friendly. Seems to be very strong in just about every discipline

Minuses: Peds at Childrens, where cRNAs are in charge. Will have one in the room pretty much always. Once you get good, you can ask them to back off somewhat and they will often sit in the corner or chart for you. Surgery is politically on top. Oddly, 2 of the top senior surgical residents are switching to their Anesthesia program next year. Interim chair. According to current chair, pool is narrowed to 4, with possible news soon.

Overall impression: Tough to beat.
Helpful hints: Chair will ask one physiology Q in interview. Pretty sure it is always the same one, having to do with O2 sats with respect to Fick equation. You guys owe me if you nail it.
Click to expand...



this is the third sign today that i should not cancel my UAB interview in January.

the first - slipping on ice today in the freezing cold.

the second - remembering that i can miss a day of my neuro rotation for this interview.



what's your take on Birmingham? i've heard mixed reviews ranging from "great southern town" to "hey did you hear it made the 'most dangerous cities' list last week"?

i'm guessing i won't slip on any ice there.
 
Columbia

Pros: big program (=infrequent call), residents work hard but seem happy, able to go to any fellowship or get any job, in Manhattan, can moonlight, good case variety, high case volume in children's OR (residents from other programs go there for experience), has all subspecialty fellowships
Cons: super high cost of living (there is subsidized housing but hard to get), hard work on general OR, sometimes have to wait for PACU bed, not so much trauma
Other: not categorical, residents who are single:married/with family about 50:50
Overall: very strong program in a very exciting city, very big, fast-paced - great if you like that kind of thing (I do)

OHSU

Pros: small program (lots of attention), very reasonable hours with relief by CRNAs, lots of oral boards prep, great oral and written boards pass rate, in Portland (small, clean, beautiful, near ocean and mountains), great reputation (chair is from Hopkins, brought a lot of Hopkins people with him), friendly staff and faculty, most subspecialty fellowships, high case volume and variety
Cons: residents and faculty not very diverse, weather in Portland (lots of cloudy days)
Other: not categorical, most residents married/committed with family, program name known in anesthesia circles but not so much in other specialties
Overall: strong small program in a small, progressive city
 
Sinai--

Well, well, well...I must say, my first time visiting but they have their act together as a department. I applied for an away rot here but the spots were taken because apparently people are gravitating to this place like crazy (plenty of visiting students on my interview day). Now I see how people were ranking this place above JHU, Columbia, Cornell and MGH in years past (with some of them not even matching here and getting these as a #2) despite the fact that it doesn't fall under the usual "elite-places-to-train" label.

The day starts with Adam Levin (PD) sitting you down in a no nonsense fashion and just putting the cards on the table. This alone gave me a great impression because info is your best friend on these interviews and what he had to say was on par with the aforementioned progs with some added bonuses (like great moonlighting which even CA1's seem to be doing, rotations in private offices in manhattan and jersey if you so desire a taste of the private life).

Lunch with residents was nice and they all get along and are more than happy to tell u what you wanna know. All were happy with the calls (4-5 a month) and the 2's and 3's seem very comfy with their abilities and opportunities post graduation (no probs with fellowships or jobs here, at all so it's kinda like they were BSing me at other progs).

Interviews with Dr Reich (young chair, cardiac guy who still works and takes call...formal but approachable), Dr. Levine (cool guy, chats it up) and another attending (all smiles here).

Overall, the day could have gone smoother but as I'm learning this is true of many places. Program-wise, I see NO deficiencies here! One resident said something about the schedule coming out late and causing him to stay for preops later than anticipated which would definitely suck but in light of the other benefits I guess it's excusable. Nice part of city, very rich (almost too rich for a resident, but again, housing is cheaper thru Sinai and the moonlighting is ample). The simulatpr is a plus, I wasn't expecting how heavily they integrate it but seems to acclimate the residents very well--you are certainly not thrown to the wolves and I think there is no shame in wanting some guidance when u start CA1.

Unless another place rocks my world I will be ranking #1 for sheezy as they seem devoted to the residents at Sinai. Other places probably have more research and textbook writers but they didn't educate me well enough to believe they were any better...like i said, info is key. The fingers will now be crossed.
 
Trisomy13 said:
this is the third sign today that i should not cancel my UAB interview in January.

the first - slipping on ice today in the freezing cold.

the second - remembering that i can miss a day of my neuro rotation for this interview.



what's your take on Birmingham? i've heard mixed reviews ranging from "great southern town" to "hey did you hear it made the 'most dangerous cities' list last week"?

i'm guessing i won't slip on any ice there.
Click to expand...

First thought is why on earth wcostel would give away an interview question like that. I didnt nail it, but subsequent groups nailing it would sure make me look worse by comparison. :confused:

Second thought is that, after my own research, Birmingham is the kind of city that is very segregated, economically. Some very nice areas and some very rough areas. Live 20 minutes away and you can be in a nice area, but 20 minutes turns into 40 minutes in the afternoon. Overall, I found the program to be similar to UVA, with a very wide breadth of cases and very happy residents. Their internal moonlighting arrangement is something that is not found very often either. I would also not call Birmimgham a "great southern town" just because of its size (is atlanta a great southern town?). Just my opinion i guess.
 
Probably the last two:

JHU
Honestly, everything (both good and bad) that anyone has said prior to this is true. Incredible program smack in the middle of a huge city that may or may not suit you. The program has strong inbreeding, but they train very good physicians (is that a bad thing?). They like to do things their own way, and their hospital is older (new one in 09?). Not much new here, you either love the atmosphere or it turns you off. I wont tell you which group I fall into. The residents seen happy, although not like they do at some places (read: UAB)

UVA
Beautiful program in a beautiful city. Very happy residents and faculty. Major hospital in a rural area. Seems to be a jack-of-all-trades program that trains extremely good private practice physicians which are desirable all over the country. Faculty come here and turn down better jobs to stay (word for word from such faculty)

(+) - great variety (peds heart/liver transplants, for example), happy residents, oustanding intraining exam scores, beautiful campus/city

(-) - no defined area of strength, small city (~40K), only pain fellowships,
 
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