Interview

[fourthyearmed]

Anyone started interviewing yet? Let us know what you've learned about the process and also anything interesting about the programs!

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[hokiedoc2005]

Had interview #1 at VCU in Richmond, VA. Day started with morning report, then an informal meeting with the PD, Chairman, and another doc on the committee. Very informal setting. Then we had a tour of the facilities. The interview came next and at this particular program you only interview with one faculty member. It was a very casual setting, no difficult questions, ie, What do you think will be the hardest thing about internship? How do you deal with conflict? How do you cope with stress? Then it opened up for questions that I had of the program. The interview was only about 30 minutes long and time flew. Lunch consisted of lots of meet and greet with residents as well as faculty members and the day finished up with a bus tour of the city. I went into this interview simply as a practice interview and was planning on using this program as a safety. I turned out being pretty impressed with what they had to offer, it seems the residents are happy and the Chairman is really working hard to improve the program. The only downside in my view is #1 Not a free standing childrens, though they do have beautiful clinics #2 Extremely Urban setting which I am not sure is the setting that I want to train in. Overall, worth the trip. I actually had a few more questions after the interview and I emailed two different people, both of whom emailed me back very quickly. The experience certainly removed a lot of stress I had about the interview process, but I should have known because pediatricians are such GREAT people

 

[chicubs1116]

First time I am posting so hopefully I do this right. Anyway I just recently interviewed at Kaiser in Oakland. I went there as a practice interview but ended up liking the program alot. The size is small only five residents per class but there very nice and pretty knowledgable, at least what I can tell from morning report. I had two half hour interviews by the program director and another physician, which were completly bengin and more letting me ask questions. We then went to lunch at a local Sushi restaurant with a couple of residents which was informative and fun. Then we went to a noon talk which was informative. My major concern was that since it was not an academic center the teaching would be sub-par, but from my day I don't hold that sentiment anymore.

 

[shellfish]

if anyone interviews at uchicago, could you post how the female interviewees are dressed? i got an email that said to dress business casual at the interview and i do not want to show up overdressed or underdressed!

thanks.

 

[rastelli]

One can never be "over dressed," unless you're a lady and wear a ball gown (or a tux for gents). All interviewees should be dressed similarly. Your clothing is not what should make you stick out.

Men should wear a conservative dark suit...blue, black, or dark gray (not green as I saw one poor soul wearing).

Ladies do fine in a pants suit or other suit variety.

 

[melena]

if anyone interviews at uchicago, could you post how the female interviewees are dressed? i got an email that said to dress business casual at the interview and i do not want to show up overdressed or underdressed!

thanks.

I just interviewed at U of Chicago, and all the girls there wore a suit. There was one male there who was dressed neatly but not in a suit, and nobody (that i noticed) seemed to look down on that. Hope that helps!

ALSO, Any one interview at CHO, Stanford yet? feedback?

 

[melena]

if anyone interviews at uchicago, could you post how the female interviewees are dressed? i got an email that said to dress business casual at the interview and i do not want to show up overdressed or underdressed!

thanks.

They check the shoes that you are wearing pretty religiously, but that is only because they take you on a tour of the new hospital that they are currently building and don't want high, spikey heels to get caught in anything

 

[thedude4]

seattle - loved it.

ucsf - loved it.

yale - loved it.

all great places w/ unique qualities and happy residents.

 

[Noelle]

Mercer Univ, Savannah, GA
Small program. Residents are all incredibly nice as well as the faculty. Interview day included morning report, meeting with Chair of Dept, 2 interviews with faculty and 1 with a resident. Interviews were very laid back. Hospital was on the small side. Nice facilities. Didnt get to meet the PD (who is just starting his first year as PD). About 1/2 the residents were FMGs which concerned me. Seems like lots of changes within the last few years and although they look like they are going in the right direction, I dont think this program fit my needs. Have a GREAT benefit package, including a 250.00 monthly housing stipend! Savannah is a great city. Residents dont do circumcisions. Although they said they get to do a lot of procedures, I'm not sure I quite believed it was as easy as they made it sound.

 

[chicubs1116]

The interview at CHLA (Children's hospital of Los Angeles) was good. The one thing I am realizing on the trail is even the high powered programs are chill about there interviews. Anyway the day starts by going to morning report, which is excellent. They are really into teaching at this institution, or at least it seems like that. Afterwards half go to interview while the other half go on a half-hour interview. After the that you eat lunch with current resdients, which is helpful. We then got a tour of the facility. After the tour we sat down as a group and talked to the resdiency director and the chair of pediatrics. After all that you go take a tour fo the "Rodeny" which is a apartment building across the street from the hospital, where resdients can live and the price is subsidized; it's no Taj Mahal, but it is less than half the prices of other apartments in the area. Overall a great hospital which really stress education.

 

[mailee88]

The interview at CHLA (Children's hospital of Los Angeles) was good. The one thing I am realizing on the trail is even the high powered programs are chill about there interviews. Anyway the day starts by going to morning report, which is excellent. They are really into teaching at this institution, or at least it seems like that. Afterwards half go to interview while the other half go on a half-hour interview. After the that you eat lunch with current resdients, which is helpful. We then got a tour of the facility. After the tour we sat down as a group and talked to the resdiency director and the chair of pediatrics. After all that you go take a tour fo the "Rodeny" which is a apartment building across the street from the hospital, where resdients can live and the price is subsidized; it's no Taj Mahal, but it is less than half the prices of other apartments in the area. Overall a great hospital which really stress education.

Did you feel like CHLA was a huge tertiary center? I have heard from others that you hardly see any well-kids in the clinics. Is that true? So, they weren't malignant at all?

 

[chicubs1116]

It is a huge teritary center and as a resident I here you can pick up any kids you want to, so since the population seen has a larger number of kids with trachs or G-tubes you will probably see more of that, but it seemed to me that you got your fair share of normal stuff such as the flu, croup, and asthma. They were not malignant at all.

 

[okochic]

What's wrong with having FMG residents ?!???

Mercer Univ, Savannah, GA
Small program. Residents are all incredibly nice as well as the faculty. Interview day included morning report, meeting with Chair of Dept, 2 interviews with faculty and 1 with a resident. Interviews were very laid back. Hospital was on the small side. Nice facilities. Didnt get to meet the PD (who is just starting his first year as PD). About 1/2 the residents were FMGs which concerned me. Seems like lots of changes within the last few years and although they look like they are going in the right direction, I dont think this program fit my needs. Have a GREAT benefit package, including a 250.00 monthly housing stipend! Savannah is a great city. Residents dont do circumcisions. Although they said they get to do a lot of procedures, I'm not sure I quite believed it was as easy as they made it sound.

 

[Noelle]

What's wrong with having FMG residents ?!???

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with FMG's. You have to take each resident individually but in general, it is my understanding that the more FMG's you have the less competitive the program. The FMG's which my school's peds program took last year (because they didnt fill in the match) were not of great quality but the IM program at my school has fantastic FMGs. Plus, looking at the match outcomes for last year, Mercer didn't match one single spot. Matter of fact, when i was interviewing there, I was interviewing with two FMG's who seem very qualified. One of the FMG's said she would even question a program who had too many FMG's.

So I wouldn't take this as a personal offense. I think most students interviewing take this in to consideration. That's just another way to judge a program - I think Iserson's even mentions this in his book.

 

[tbachi]

How did this thread die??? I know several of you are off on the interview trail... Please continue to post your experiences and help us who will be interviewing in upcoming years!!!

 

[Lara]

I'll second that. This should be a big week for interviews, so I'm hoping others will report (and promise to do my part next year).

 

[Noelle]

If they said they'd give me a spot tomorrow I'd cancel all my other interviews! Plus, Portland is amazing. They take 6 interns a year and have 2 med/peds spots. Residents are very happy and a close knit group. Facilities are nice. No peds ER but they are working on building a 4 bed peds section within the ER. Great faculty, staff, and PD. Residency Coordinator is great. Chairman is retiring and they are in the search process and state they've had some great applicants. Most residents don't want to leave and try hard to stay in the area. Residents have a great relationship with the attending - on a first name basis in many cases. They also have easy access to procedures since there are no fellows. 2-3 residents per year go on to fellowships in high powered places. This is only my second interview but I had an amazing feeling about this place - much different than my first interview.

5 more interviews coming up in the next two weeks , so I'll keep you all posted.

 

[chicubs1116]

This was a very nice program. I highly recommend going to the night before social gathering. The resdients are super nice and you can tell they really get along with each other. The interview day starts off with morning report, which was very informal and you have the program director guiding the discussion. I thought it was very cool that staff attends morning report, even though they are not required to. Then the day proceeds to two half-hour interviews which are very bengin and the interviewers really do a good job of trying to explain the program to see if it is a good fit for you not just trying to sell the program. After the interview you go to lunch with a bunch of residents, where again you can see that they really get along with each other. After lunch you come back and get a tour of the facilities. I liked the scenery from the NICU, you get a panoramic view of the surrounding area.

 

[Lara]

Bump...please, please post if you interviewed!!! The IM thread is kicking our butt here...

(East Coast programs especially appreciated...thanks)

 

[Noelle]

MUSC - Charleston, SC - Mid sized program. I had two great interviews and the PD and residency coordinator were great. I had a concern about resident happiness. They all for the most part seemed pretty haggard but they all kept stating they were happy. Very nice facilities. Charleston was awesome and I ended up staying a few extra days. Also if you have kids-consider a private school seriously.

Medical College of GA - GREAT program. Also mid-sized. Beautiful free standing hospital with all subspecialties represented. Residents were clearly happy, many residents married or have children. PD and chairman were fantastic. One of the best morning reports I've been a part of. Augusta is a fairly small city (70K I think) but cost of living is phenomenal. Almost all residents own nice homes.

Univ of Fla - Jacksonville - Loved it! Also mid-sized. It's very oriented to community practice but also has a great involvement in the community public health system and a great deal of opportunity for child advocacy. Great energy of faculty and staff. They have a BEAUTIFUL hospital - prettiest I've seen yet. City is great and cost of leaving is better than I expected. Morning report was also very good. I had some extra time to hang with the residents and they are as happy and friendly as they seem on the interview day. Great program.

Greenville Health System - Greenville, SC - I heard great things about this program from others on the interview trail. Greenville is a great town and cost of living is SO CHEAP. 9 residents per year. PD is absolutely great. It's not free standing but the facilities are very nice. I think this program has everything you need to be a great pediatrician, residents were also very happy.

Medical College of VA - Richmond, VA - Ideally the city isnt perfect for me but I LOVED the program. Another high energy program. PD has made great changes in the last five years. Residents are very happy. Had the best morning report - great interaction between residents and faculty. Only one interview which was great seeing this was my 7th. Not a free standing hospital and not the "prettiest" facilities but this has to be a great experience. If you don't want to deal with predominately indigent care don't bother applying. 30% of patients are hispanic and most dont speak english, 50-60 are african american. There is a great diversity in the patient and resident population which is nice. Cost of living more reasonable than I though. Good PS system outside of Richmond. City and burbs ~2 million.

I hope everyone else posts their impressions maybe it will help eliminate some of my 8 interviews next month!! Feel free to mail me if you have further questions about my interview experience.

 

[Blessedone]

Emory-Good Program. Residents work like slaves but in the end you get good training and will be an excellent pediatrician.

Tulane-LOVED it!! Residents were great. Great patient variety. No free standing children's hospital but Tulane Hospital has 4 floors dedicated to children. They also have Pediatric radiologists and pharmacists (which makes life easier). University Hospital is old but the patient population is classic. Ochsner is a beautiful subspecialty hospital (and they are in the process of expanding). Everyone at Tulane is extremely nice and they get great fellowships. Patient volume not extremely high so there is time to read if that's what you like.

LSU-PD and my interviews were great. Morning report was very good. Beautiful free standing childrens hospital. Good patient variety. Residents were okay but the Chief resident never smiled. I'm not sure how happy they are but everyone was nice.

MCG-Really good program. Agree with previous comments about program including the fact that everyone has there own home. Not sure if I want to love in Augusta but it is close to Atlanta and Charleston. Patient volume not as high as some places so plenty of time to read if that's what you like.

Orlando-LOVED it! Hospital is very nice with construction of new hospital for women and babies in progress. Residents are busy but were very friendly and seemed happy. They have lots of social outings. Orlando is nice place to live.

 

[WilliB]

Wake Forest- really liked their program.... the have an awesome brand-new "tower within a hospital" pediatric area, which felt pretty much like a free-standing children's hospital to me. We attended morning report and noon conference, which both went well and were non-malignant. Residents were very friendly and seemed happy. Intern year has only 4 q4 months!! Winston-Salem has a great cost-of-living...most residents own homes, even the single ones. The town itself is kinda small, although it seems to have a lot of outdoor activities.
Downside- think about staying somewhere other than the hotel they suggest. They don't pay anyway, and the place was kinda run down. Be prepared to bring something to eat for breakfast if you do stay there, unless you want just cereal at the free continental breakfast. There is a shuttle from the hotel to the hospital though, which was nice.

Univ. of Tennessee in Memphis- Their PD was fantastic! They really went out of their way to recruit us... paid valet at the hotel, had a goodie bag of stuff for us upon arrival, which included our schedule for the next day, residents picked us up and drove us around Memphis on the way to the dinner the night before... it felt more like a vacation than an interview! We toured St. Jude's, which was just incredible and a definite plus for their program, although residents only train there for 2 months. They have a stand-alone children's hospital which is a bit older but still very nice....extremely high patient volume. Intern year has 8 months of q4 wards, and during these months you admit like crazy- general patients, subspecialty patients, and private patients. You have to call the private pediatrician(s) every day to discuss the patients, and you have to catch up with the subspecialty teams to discuss those patients too. That all seemed a little overwhelming to me, but the residents were upbeat about it. Their mantra was "Work hard, play hard". Sounds like they do have a lot of resident get-togethers...Memphis has many things to do (pro sports, MUSIC, etc.).
The chief told us point-blank: If you're the type who learns best by admitting a handful of patients and then spending the rest of your night reading about them, Memphis is NOT the place for you. If you learn by doing, check us out. Several residents told us that they pretty much don't read at all during their intern year since they are so busy. Oh, and they no longer have morning report in an effort to comply to the 80hr rule.

Hope this was helpful to some of you!!

 

[mailee88]

Hope to help this thread along a bit...I have interviewed at 12 places...yes I know, it's been a long rough journey...I guess I will put on here a quick summary of some of these...

1) UT Houston - =( TCH seemed to be overpowering this program...they are very very busy there with q4 for 11 months of the year. One of my first interviews, sorry don't remember much, but didn't get a good impression from it.

2) UT SW (Dallas) - =) great program, awesome hospital, chairman/PD were not very friendly. The chairman is actually known to be kind of hard to approach. I have been warned that he likes to pimp during interviews....I had a great impression of the program after I left, the residents were all very nice and worked well together, the schedule is better now that they have gone to night float...but they still only have 2 weeks vacation. One thing that I did notice was that there was a lot of pimping during morning report from the attendings..the residents say that it happens a lot...

3) UT Austin - =( very small program, unstable, going through a lot of changes...there is a new hospital to be built in "2007"...don't know if that is actually going to happen. but right now, they are not free standing. The PD is very nice...but the residents were not very friendly and didn't really see mahy of them during my day there.

4) Wash U - =) GREAT program, very academic, but non-malignant from what I can tell. The residents are AWESOME...they go out once a week...we had a GREAT pre-interview dinner...so many of them showed up. St. Louis Children's is a beautiful hospital...everyone works together well, great didactics/teaching schedule. VERY VERY nice PD. BIG name faculty, can basically get into any fellowship coming out of this program. awesome subspecialty exposure

5) Jacksonville - =( very nice hospital and pretty good program, but not the type I am looking for. It's very big on community peds and child advocacy. this is not freestanding. it is a hospital in hospital kinda thing. Everyone was extremely nice. A good number of FMGs in the program.

6) Orlando - =( very nice hospital as well. the main problem I had with this program is that the residents didn't seem to have too much autonomy. The attendings are VERY available to them, sometimes too much. It just felt like med school all over again. Attendings were writing orders/telling residents what to do with their patients. Residents also are limited to the number of patients they have to see in clinic...they start with 2 the first couple of months and then titrate up from there...it just felt like too much "hand holding" from my point of view.

7) MCH - =), =( This program gets both because I can't decide whether or not to rank it. I wrote a very long post about it in a previous thread titled Miami Children's...read that if you would like.

8) Denver Children's - =) AWESOME program...great hospital, GREAT camarderie between residents...everyone seemed VERY happy with the program. They work really hard, but at the same time, are very happy with it. They work out of 2 different hospitals: Denver Children's where you get all the tertiary stuff and all the referrals...and then there's Denver Health, the county hospital where there is a HUGE hispanic pop. Residents get a lot of autonomy here...they basically run the show. when you are on call here, you are the only peds person, so you cover everything from the NICU/PICU to the ER and the wards. I felt like you get a lot of primary care here, not that it is focused on that, but seems like it is teetered a little in that direction...for example, you do 2 continuity clinics starting your 2nd year, and you have 1 month of rural medicine your 2nd year. But overall, very very good program with great teaching and awesome residents...and the city is BEAUTIFUL! Another thing to definitely keep in consideration...this program is going through MANY changes next year..some big some small...but all significant..
1.New Chairman (but the old one is staying around the hospital doing other stuff) 2. New hospital (to be done in 2007) 3. Changing to all computer orders/notes/etc. 4. New Night Float system to "try out".

9) UW Seattle - =) very similar to Denver. The residents here are all very happy and work very well together...they work very hard as well but definitely have the time outside of the hospital. They are very big into international medicine...a lot of the residents here have that interest and have done an extensive amount of work overseas. The faculty is great...very nice Chairman and PD...both of whom came and spoke with all the applicants. They don't provide hotel, but will give you a list of residents to stay with...which I HIGHTLY recommend doing because you can get a lot of inside info and make a good impression as well...the neat thing here is that the selection committee for the match consists of residents and faculty...it's 50/50. Unique things...2 months rural rotation, VERY unique electives, BIG name faculty, GREAT teaching, AWESOME perks (including a week long retreat for interns to climb some mountain

10) Phoenix Children's - =) Did a rotaion here as a medical student...very nice program, academic, but also community focused. they are now a med sized program...21 interns next year. work out of 2 diff. hospitals...Maricopa which is a county hospital...very nice for one too...huge Hispanic pop. Phoenix Children's (which is kinda far away...esp if you have to drive between the two in the middle of the day for a conference...which definitely happens)...very nice hospital though, only a couple of years old. The PD is very nice...spends a LOT of time with the applicants, answering questions, etc. Overall, very good program, though not very "big name" but still academic in the sense that residents usually get first choice for fellowships and they are trained very well in the subspecialties b/c Phoenix Children's is a pretty big tertiary center...and you get a huge volume of patients.

Hope this helps you guys! Good luck with the match everyone!!!!!!!!

 

[mshheaddoc]

bumping an old thread for updates if anyone on the interview trail would share ...

 

[chhsu]

I guess I'll be the first to put my input in for a 2006 interview trail.

I attended the pre-interview dinner at a resident's house which was very nice. About 4-5 residents showed up, some with spouses and kids. I got a sense that people were really happy at the program and there was a lot of comraderie.

The interview was also very stress free. We toured the pediatric floor which currently is 1 floor BUT the university is completing a brand new, free standing 84 bed peds hospital right next door. The entering interns will be the first to use this hospital so it will be an exciting time. Faculty are very nice and approachable. The Chair met with us a couple of times and it seemed that he had an open door policy with the resident. Generally, I got a sense that the residents and faculty really worked well together and acted as a team. Med students are also highly involved and residents are highly involved with the teaching. For those interested in research, they are also building a new research building next to the hospital.

Nice program, nice residents and faculty. The brand new hospital should be awsome for the intern class next year. One down side was that it was biting cold on the day of arrival (wind chill in the teens with some flurries).

 

[zedpol]

2006 St. Chris
I recently did my St. Chris interview which also happens to be my home program. The interview was very very laid back and friendly. If you go on a friday you will sit in on Grand rounds, this particular friday was pretty dry but they bring in some very interesting speakers and St. Chris has some great lecturers also. The residents all seemed to get along very nicely and all said they felt well supported and that the program responded to their needs. The only complaint I heard is that it sometimes take a little while for the program to make the changes that the residents ask for. Apparently GI is their least friendly department. St. Chris really went out of their way to stress how important resident education is, and how they want the residents to have as much responsibilty as possible while having someone to fall back on if need be. One of the neat parts of the program is they train all their residents (And i believe faculty) on effective teaching. Overall I felt like the program was very genuine, and very very friendly. It went through a tough time a few years back because the company that was managing st. chris went belly up (although st. chris was always profitable). Everything seems to be very stable now and they seem to be back stronger than ever. The chair has big plans on growing their specialties while keeping gen peds very strong. Oh, last thing I should mention is their community advocacy program. Some people may find that interesting. Basically the residents do some community outreach programs such as education etc etc.

Z

p.s. Think we should start a new thread for the 2006 interviews or stick with this one?

 

[E2W]

I agree with zedpol. Now that interviews are starting, I imagine this thread may get busier and fuller. It would be nice to open directly to this years interviews and not have to scroll down through threads for 2 years ago.