post-interview impressions of programs?

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scm

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i know some people have been on interviews already. anyone care to comment?

these posts would be helpful to everyone applying not only this yr, but in yrs to come as well (i know plenty of people who looke dthrough last yrs on sdn for various specialties)..

thanks
scm
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U of Miami

beautiful campus.. hospital is HUGE.. if you get a chance.. u have to see emergency department.. it keeps going and going..

residents for the most part seem pretty happy.. interview was really chill.. it felt like buying a car.. the chairman/residency director/faculty/residents all try to sell you the program rather than pimp you.. definitely different than med school interviews..

that being said.. they were my first interview.. and i told them as of right now.. i would rank them number 1 :laugh:

oh yeah.. the med students wear long coats.. weird :eek:
 
Hey. Interviewed at UMASS today. I was, overall, very impressed with both the faculty and the program. there were 6 interviews, 30 min each with lunch and a tour with the residents in the middle of the day. The faculty were all extremely warm and friendly and seemed very approachable-the interviews were very benign and each interviewer had very obviously read and remembered info from each person's application.

Strengths--It seems like a very resident friendly program in the way it is structured and in terms of the relationship the attendings have with the residents.
--it is a large referral center for the area, so a wide range of neuro cases.
--residents seemed very happy and said they'd choose it again.
--overall, a very balanced and well rounded program esp if you're interested in clinical neurology.

Weaknesses--no Neuro ICU as of yet; there are plans to have one by 2 years but currently all such patients are admitted in either the MICU or SICU and neuro follows. residents who have been interested in critical care have done away electives in their 3rd year.
--Worcester--it's not the most happening place. it is however an hour away from boston and has a certain new england charm. I think the location would be the biggest factor for me--I will definitely rank it though.
 
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has anyone interviewed at BU yet? or UCSD? any impressions/comparisons to other places you've been to? i think I need to cancel some interviews, thinking about BU in particular...
much thanks
scm
 
wasn't impressed with drexel, PA. Residents seemed to be somewhat stressed out. The only good thing i would say was the chairman who does an excellent job teaching the residents, and he attends morning reports 6 days a week for 52 weeks. The hospital seemed ok and ancillary staff is great. Residents seem to match at great fellowhip at mass general, johns hopkins, columbia etc. They have a neuro icu as well as a critical neuro fellowship which is good. Interviews were very benign.
any one interviewed at maryland, rochester, u of miami, care to comment?
 
md2bny said:
wasn't impressed with drexel, PA. Residents seemed to be somewhat stressed out. The only good thing i would say was the chairman who does an excellent job teaching the residents, and he attends morning reports 6 days a week for 52 weeks. The hospital seemed ok and ancillary staff is great. Residents seem to match at great fellowhip at mass general, johns hopkins, columbia etc. They have a neuro icu as well as a critical neuro fellowship which is good. Interviews were very benign.
any one interviewed at maryland, rochester, u of miami, care to comment?
Click to expand...

see 2nd post of this thread ;)
 
Anybody else?
 
Hey Neuro people--where did everyone disappear to? I'm sure most of us have been on some interviews by now, so let's keep posting impressions of programs :)
anyone??
 
Just to add impressions of two places...

Emory--nice hotel, nice dinner and very nice wine and cheese reception the interview day! they put on a good show man! interviews were with the chairman,PD and assistant PD for 10 min each and with four faculty members for 15 minutes each. for the most part, all were friendly and benign. they all knew a lot about each candidate before the interview which always feels good. the residents were a very nice bunch and all said they were extremely happy and would come back again. great place overall. big negative--no MS faculty.

WashU--prelim interviews were the day before, which were 30 min with a med faculty member. the rest of the day was sitting around, a 2 hour tour of the place(it's HUGE) and lunch/noon conference. that night there was a great dinner with the residents. they were all very nice and friendly and seemed very happy,would come back, etc etc.
neuro interviews were with the chairman, PD and 2 faculty members for 20 min each,all benign. since we got the major tour the day before we just saw the neuro specific facilities and had lunch. this was another great place.
 
Just found this page. I think this is great, so here are my 2 cents (by now means it's comprehensive, i don't have my notes on me, so please add to these. It's always better to have several opinions):

New York Med: Very weak program. They even tried to hide their residents. In fact only 1 was available -- who gave the tour and will be a chief next year.
Pros: location maybe? (it's pretty there although there is a prison there if you enter from non-specified site) :) Faculty does seem freindly. other than that not much
Cons: teaching, research, awful call schedule heavily favoring the seniors. Stroke resident must be on call every saturday. Older facilites. Nit great ancillary services.

Overall: I won't even rank them

LIJ: OK program overall. THe interviews are little disorganized, w/Dr. Kanner (chair) interviewing everybody. Residents seemd very happy and relaxed. Teaching is OK; seem to have enough conferences and they are ok in style and substance.
Pros: Great chair and a few very good attendings: Dr. Libman, especially. Residents are definitely not overworked. A lot of time to study on your own. Reasonable call. Merging with north shore will bring neuro icu in and a few more good attendings. U can get a good felloship out of there -- Dr. Kanner is well connected and will push for you. Some subsidised housing is available but not for everyone.
Cons: Didn't seem like they get enough patients. Not really academic center. Too much time to study on your own (if u are not learning from the books only and prefer to seee it first). Merging North Shore program can bring a lot of unfavorable changes in terms of schedule, coverage and call. Also, both of these programs had really different cultures, in how they were organized and treated the residents. So could be stormy relationship until they work out their kinks.

Overall: Here's a quote from a resident, second by few other residnets who heard it: "I worked hard in college and medical school. I had other programs for which i was qualified. However, i have a family and other priorities. I've worked hard before and I was looking to take it easy at this level" So here u have it. I'll rank them-- but not not in my top 5 choices.

Einstein: Liked it a lot. Interveiw process is a panel. Residents seem happy and friendnly and so did the facluty. I was actually suprised by it b/c I heard a lot to the contrary. The interview day is long thouhg with a lot of walking -- so prepare for it

Pros: -- patient population (u pretty much see everything).
-- Strong epilepsy and child neuro program. Ok stroke. Got good attendings. Ok call schedule but reasonable. Don't remeber at this point if senior take calls (will look it up) and if there is subs. housing.
-- U'll be well trained at the end. New Chair has a great vision and seemed to be respected by the faculty, administration of the hospital and school, and residents

COns: -- Spread out. Getting to the conferences, clinics, and overnight call is a drag sometimes.
-- Private attendings at two hospitals, so the teaching sometimes is not there and for some attendings u are a scut monkey (there are only few of those it seemed, not majority).
-- Location: it's Bronx

Overall: liked it a lot. Will rank them pretty highly, depending on other interviews.

UMass: see Dr girl description: I completely agree with it. I was actaully pleasantly surprised. They had LIJ atmosphere of ease and relaxation, but there seemed to be enough patients and variety. The only other thing to add (probably won't matter to future residents but just in case): they don't havea chair right now and a new one will be hired probalby by July 05. Most likely stroke guy/gal. So thre might be changes but several faculty assured that they will not be harmful to resedents.

Overall: Similar to Drgirl: Liked them. Will rank them, not sure how highly though just yet.

BU: this one is tough. If somebody wants to share please do. B/c this is what has me in a quandry. I surprisingly liked them. They are totally different from UMass but i still liked them. They are intense program, hard working -- but they are NOT malignant. I remember interview at BU med and saw despondent faces of students, dark hallways, it almost made me depressed. I DIDN'T see that yesterday. And i was suprised b/c I heard a lot of bad things about BU. But I didn't see it yesterday. I am going to go for a second look and maybe then I'll be able to write something more objective. I can't really do it right now,

Hope some of this descriptions helped. I would love to hear people talking about these and other programs (NYU, Mount Sinai, Yale, Brown, Downstate, UMDNJ, St. Vincent, Columbia, Cornell) - what they heard and the feel they got after seeing them.

I'll try to add things about Uconn and Stony Brook later during the weekend.
 
I'm getting close to wrapping up the neurology interviews. Just a few more left this month. It's been fun seeing different programs and meeting the same folks on the interview trail. Living out of a suitcase bouncing from hotel to hotel kinda sucks though. Anyway, here a a few thoughts on the more noteworthy programs.

PARTNERS:
WOW!!! An incredible program in a great city at two of the worlds best hospitals. Can't go wrong here. PGY2 is a really busy year and they see a tremendous volume of patients. The residents I met were all very friendly and motivated. Nice mix between future researchers and more clinically-oriented residents. The attending very down to earth. The program is steeped in tradition but didn't feel pretentious at all. The facilities at MGH and BWH are top notch. Morning report with Dr. Samuels at the Brigham was great. He meets with the residents every morning. I felt that the size of the residency class (14 per year) was more an advantage than disadvantage. Conferences are video conferenced between MGH and BWH so you don't miss anything. Getting between hospitals takes 20-30 mins on the Partners shuttle.

MGH is located in Beacon Hill along the Charles River. Beautiful neighborhood but very expensive to live near the hospital. Average rent sounded like $1400/mo for a 1 bdrm. BWH is on the Longwood Medical campus, home to Harvard Medical School and BIDMC, and a short walk to Fenway Park. Brookline is next door, beautiful residential area.

HOPKINS:
Great interview day. Dr. McArthur (director) and Griffin (chair) are great people. The day is well organized and the lots of opportunities to meet residents and attendings. Grand rounds at Hopkins was terrific. Very close knit residents. The pre-interview dinner was at a residents house and catered--very nice person touch. Put us up at a very nice hotel in the Inner Harbor. Shared the room with another applicant which was fine and even threw in a free pay-per-view movie voucher. Validated our parking at Hopkins. The day ended with a wine and cheese reception. Tons of faculty attended and were very interested in meeting all of us. Very very friendly and down to earth.

Very acadmically oriented focus. Hopkins takes great interest in your career promotion. Over 90% success in winning K awards! PD stated that not only are they evaluating us as future residents but also as future faculty.

Wasn't very impressed with Baltimore. East Baltimore is a dump. The rest of the city is descent but not my cup of tea.

COLUMBIA:
Impressive program, busy service. Residents seemed a bit overworked but were generally pleased with their experience. Dinner the night before was OK. The residents werent overly talkative. They never said bad things about the program but didn't rave about it either. My faculty interviews were great. Had very enjoyable conversations with each one.

PENN:
I loved this place. Galetta was awesome. Very dynamic and easy going person who cares much for the residents. Residents were great and loved their experiences. Facilities were fine, especially the outpatient clinics.
The resident room seemed a bit cramped. Front loaded program. Very little in house call after the junior year! The peds neuro rotations are very busy at CHOP but you learn a lot. Got a great feel from this program.

BIDMC:
Small and intimate program. BIDMC is separated into East and West Campus, located across the street from each other. Night Float system!!
Residents are very happy and the attendings are great. Dr. Saper spends time with the residents to do a basic science conference based on patient presentations. Residents didn't get pimped, only the Harvard med students.
Very friendly atmosphere, non-intimidating. Neuro-ICU experience not emphasized. Good for people who want to concentrate on the neurological issues and not have to primarily deal with managing vent settings and putting in central lines. Stroke program seemed strong. The residents clinic was one of the best setups I've seen. Beautiful facility for the residents. Computer system is probably the best in the country. Almost everything is online, the patients record, labs, imaging, accessible from any computer including your home computer. You can always find a computer on the floor. The patient floors look almost like computer labs. This is the best medium size neurology program I've seen.



The rest of the programs I've visited weren't very noteworthy. If you want my comments on one of the others let me know. I've also completed interviews at Yale, Cornell, Virginia. Still need to visit WashU, UCSF, Rochester, and maybe Mount Sinai.
 
thanks everyone, i have so many notes/so much to say about places but no time, havent been home much at all, im leaving tomorrow for the west coast for 3 weeks of interviews/hanging out with friends..after that ill post in depth details, but for now, some one liners in case it helps people with places they are still thinking about,and since i applied to dif types of places than syrinx based on what i was looking for(and more picky about where i'm willing to live, no way i'd even consider st.louis, baltimore, rochester, cleveland-and ive been to most of these places)...

BU-cancelled it

Tufts-really didnt seem very good, wont rank it, a number of reasons didnt seem like a good place

UNC-surprised me, really great place, growing, some excellent people/curriculum/location etc..

Duke-surprised me-many FMGs, seemed pretty good all around, similar to umich in some ways

UMichigan-loved it, all around excellent

Rush-really liked

Sinai-probably best program in NYC in some ways, but i'm biased, though when comparing to others outside NYC, not as excited in some ways

Yale-really so/so

Brown-liked it, more than i thought i would

UMadison-wont rank for sure, weak, nice people of course, great town

still left to go: OregonHSU, UWashington, UCSD (anyone heard anything about these).

i think folks are thinking about cancelling places based on hearing they are "malignant" and so on, really, give it a second thought, places supposedly malignant ive heard only wonderful things about onthe trail (i.e. washu, sinai, duke..), except columbia, heh(though malignant being a strong term)...

i'm glad i interviwed at as many as i did, this whole process has quite helped me figure out a bit more what i want/what im looking for in a program, stuff i had no idea about when i started interviewing..

take care everyone
scm
 
I did not like the following.....

Miami -- THE WORST!! no welcome session (and expected to locate interviewers on our own), no tour of facilities, did not meet residents (either at dinner or during interview day), did not meet co-applicants, informed chairman recently resigned, recommended hotel sucked

Hopkins -- ok program, East Baltimore sucks, residents a little "off"

MGH -- program was ok, better than Hopkins and definitely better location

Duke -- agree that I was surprised by amount of FMGs in the program.... very interesting

UNC -- good up and coming program, better location vs. Duke if you are single... Durham better if family
 
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SCM,
I'd like to hear a little about OHSU's program. Kinda silly since I have a while before residency, but I am interested in the possibility of ending up in Oregon and may do a neuro rotation there next year.

Good luck with the west coast.
 
scm said:
Tufts-really didnt seem very good, wont rank it, a number of reasons didnt seem like a good place


scm
Click to expand...

Can you give me any more specifics why you didn't like Tufts? I am thinking of cancelling my interview there but want to make sure I'm cancelling for the right reasons. I heard that you have to cover several hospitals while on call. Is that true? How far away are the hospitals?

Thanks! :)
 
guyute said:
can anybody elaborate on Yale?
Click to expand...

Yes, can someone who interviewed there and at Brown do this?

Also, if someone wants me to write about Stony Brook and UConn lemme know. It looked like not too many people were interested in these ones.

Finally, I really would like someone's opinion of BU -- please :confused:
 
hey, loved OHSU, probably will be in my top 4 for sure...

ok, ill elaborate a bit, but hope to post full impressions around xmas time. c'mon, you guys please post about the places youve been, it'll help all those people lurking around, even people next yr and beyond.

Tufts-just really didnt get a good feel at this place. most of these places are good spots to train at, so most people on the interview trail seem to be making their decisions with a good weight to just how a place felt/how they got along with people. Obviously this isn't the only important thing to consider.. i met 3 people this past week who liked Tufts, so dont cancel because of me...

I felt as though Dr.Ropper and Dr.Sabin were much more formal in their interactions with residents than most other places I applied, kinda a more old-school, i hate that term, approach to teaching, that made them feel less accessible. There was something very disjointed feeling about the program, granted there are benefits from training at 3 different sites, but it didn't seem too optimal overall..the teleconference things they did for chairman rounds, sorta introduced as a technological innovation was continually interrupted by folks at NEMC/a small voice requesting "can you move the mic? we can't hear you" it just seemed a mess, each place had its own grand rounds i think, you could be on call at one place but me on the wards some place else during the day...they tried to minimize that though.. they seemed very strong in neuromuscular and stroke, you do tons of EMG, (also 10 weeks of neuropath, havent seen that anywhere else) I'm more interested in MS and MD, which they only had a few folks for..each site seemed to be strong in some aspect, but lacking in many other aspects(sorry, too tired to elaborate).. myself and many other people were very disappointed with the interviews, after a long day, I went in 3 rooms each with 2 attendings, for 5-15min each...I was in some way on the defensive in each room at any given time, i've heard other people mention the interviews there were strangely rough, it just didnt seem very inviting, they didnt seem to know anything about me, I expected questions/interest in my application, instead there were statements like "sell yourself to us" , and so on..very kinda superficial/short interviews with a few questions each....maybe i'm looking for more of a balance between clinical and clinical research in terms of faculty..i dunno...their "master clinician" sell just didnt catch me, seemed as though they were trying to make up for lacking other aspects of training...overall i got the impression that the residents were happy, matched well for fellowships-dr.ropper apparently is well known nationally, got along well, worked a reasonable amount, and got good training, it just wasnt for me. i was impressed that they often had journal club at the houses of faculty, obviously that means there is a good relationship between faculty and house staff...

lets see, what else, 8 weeks neuropath, they are responsive to residents, just incorporated a new morning report at NEMC and neuroscience course requested by residents..high board pass rate, no night float, call is q4-4.5ish as pgy2, i dont remember all the details, not bad though, no dedicated "stroke service", i'm not sure i dont think they had anyone who did neuro-AIDS/ID, continuity clinic-they had you assigned to the same preceptor for all 3 yrs(could be good or bad i suppose)..NEMC-more indigent population, lahey is more tertiary care, st.e's apparently dr.ropper draws folks from all over for neuromuscular stuff, + its a community hospital, they had a neuroicu there with 4 beds i think..do tons of EMGs at St.Es..no shuttles between sites, one person doing MD/Parkinsons..ok im rambling, id probably have much more to say if i gave this some thought-its off the top of my head...onto Yale


Yale-ok, i was biased going into this, hearing from numerous folks where im at in NYC (granted they are biased as well) that the program wasnt very strong. It seemed as though they were very strong in basic science research, everyone except one person I interviewed with was an MD, PhD, and doing some bench research, including i think, the chair and program director..this made me wary a bit. again, i kinda wanted a good balance across the board. they are huge in epilepsy if you are interested in this, but again, im looking for more of a balance and i'm not sure they had it with the other subspecialties..yale has the advantage of a huge area they pull in people from, no competition,no community hospital in new haven, huge array /variety of cases, great place to live, seemed as though electives were very flexible, i met some who had made 25,000$ extra moonlighting, a good number moonlighted on their electives..they had a good NICU i think(dont remember) if youre interested in that..the only place i know of which does a rehab month at a neurorehab facility, which i think is a huge plus..the residents seemed to have lots of independance(maybe too much) in some ways..they all seemed to love it there, loved the teaching/faculty etc...I think maybe I just felt that neuroscience was so strong there it overshadowed the clincial aspects of the program, but who knows, i saw no didactic session while i was there(big mistake on their part IMHO)..maybe some time on the wards would convince me otherwise...but i just didnt feel as though they were strong across the board.

they did have some general neurologists, which is a plus IMHO, siince at some research0heavy institutions you wind up with someone who is your attendnig on the wards, has spent 11 months in the labs doing neuroimmunology, then is seeing patients with you out of his or her area of expertise and isnt as up to date(or interested)... it seemed as though there were a number of folks from the south training there, in some silly way i wonder if this has to do with people wanting the name "yale" etc, i'm not so interested in/worried about that, clearly folks on the east coast have always thought this program was good, but not great..i havent met many people on the interview trail who really liked their experience there..but then again, how much can you get to know about a place from one day?...

they said 85% of their residents publish somethign, very strong in epilepsy, very flexible electives, have a good neuroicu shared with neurosurg(good relationship), basic science and clinical neuro folks are in the same building(hopefullu collaborate), do a rehab month at Gaylord(good idea, sounds like it can be slow there though), good patient mix, many young faculty, people were approachable, living in new haven is cheap etc, VA can be kinda slow, you do lots of subspecialty clinics there..kinda hard to explain call schedule, call is very busy, also some night float..emphasized, very flexible in terms of accomodating interests of residents, however this made me wonder about formal didactics..no neuropath(if you care, i dont).

Brown-small program, 4 residents, but the neuro dept seemed small.. OHSU has 3 residents, but it seems, double the number of faculty(dont quote me, just seemed like more in each area of expertise).. busy hospital, nice enviroment, providence is awesome/beautiful, some really nice faculty, only a few people representing each subspecialty, often the MS guy did MS only for half the day etc, however some of these folks were involved in clinical research and so on...seemed like you could get great solid clinical training, the chair was excellent, did morning report every day(?) i think..pulmonary handles sleep there, so that may be a disadvantage for some, i dont remember about the NICU(not so important for me)...elective was at the end of training, pgy4, maybe a disadvantage if you are tryign to go into something esoteric and want earlier exposure, however they seemed flexible with electives.., though you do get plenty of exposure to everything in clinics thoughout the yrs, brown has very strong neuroscience, but i got the impression there was not much interaction with them, however over the next 2 yrs there is a huge renovation of some educational space that will foster a more collaborative effort between the two, along with folks involved in neuro-type stuff (i.e. pain)..they dont have a headache attending if that matters to anyone..again, great volume at rhode island hospital, not much traveling around needed, huge area/diversity of population mix etc etc, residents seemed very happy, worked reasonably hard (i'm essentially not looking to be worked to death so that I have no time to learn, but dont want to be sitting around on a dead service either), when on call you also always take call for peds-neuro at th hasbro childrens hospital, this keeps you fresh with neuro-peds througout training, which is great for the baords, or so they claim...overall, i think it's a solid clinical program and there are especially great opportunities there if you are the type fo seek out novel things/arrangements..

ack gotta go, someone let me know if this was helpful at all and ill post more later on..also please reciprocate and post your random thoughts for myself and others..
thanks
scm
 
ps oops to answer your actual question-tufts yes 3 locations, they try not to have you at one place during the day and on call somewhere else at night...i think call is just pgy2 yr anyway, like most places (there i home call after that).. brighton/St.E is at nice place/is a small community hosptial, not too far from cambridge etc, ive lived over there(cambirdge etc) brighton is alright and close to brookline, NEMC is large but, well, kinda crappy i felt, but in downtown boston/near everything if you like downtown, i dont know much about Lahey, seems like a good place, its a drive away..they are no more than 20min from each other, but have their own didactics and grand rounds and mornign reports etc, which you can decide, is either good or bad..they conveyed that people who tried to deal with this stuff without a car had a rough time..residents lived near one place or another, or tried to be inbetween...also there is some new stuff going on with the children's hospital they were affiliated with (i.e. they no longer are? they are doing it at a diff place?).i dont remember..
 
To scm and others..thanks very much, your insight is definitely helping those of us who will be applying next year. I look forward to your other responses.
 
stroke said:
Yes, can someone who interviewed there and at Brown do this?

Also, if someone wants me to write about Stony Brook and UConn lemme know. It looked like not too many people were interested in these ones.

Finally, I really would like someone's opinion of BU -- please :confused:
Click to expand...

Hey. I would like some info about UConn--my interview is scheduled for end of December and I am seriously contemplating cancelling.

Some more input...

UNC--very pleasantly surprised. It was an amazingly friendly program, great faculty and residents and seemed to be a very humane and friendly place-they seem to also have a lot of ambition to further progress the program which is great. A lot of the faculty have been there for years which said a lot.
Duke-- also a good program, however very different from UNC. It was NOT as malignant or research-oriented as had been rumored. Faculty all very nice and so were the residents. I actually liked UNC better than Duke--Duke just didn't stand out to me the way other places have so far. The residents evaluate all the interviewees and give a lot of input to the faculty so be aware of that.
 
hi, im new to the forum, but ive been going to this site alot, reading about stuff, so i thought i might as well contribute. im one of the only people i know doing neuro so its been super helpful, esp to get the post interview impressions of places. i dont know about a lot of you but i definitely didnt know enough about programs before i applied, and then before i interviewed. here are my two cents.

bu: i had heard bad things about them, people cancelling. the call is very heavy-- something like 90 calls in the PGY2 year, 70 in the PGY3 year, and then 50 in the PGY4 year. the residents though dont seem to mind, and i think i asked every one of them. they were very cool though, and friendly. not malignant at all. the director doesnt seem so personable, i dont know about him-- but he does seem committed to the program and expanding the opportunities. didactics are structured for one day a week only. big salary for those interested-- PGY2s start out with something like 50,000.

mt. sinai: not great. thought i would like it, and i didnt. the chair seemed a little pompous. the residents were nice, though. the hospital is pretty nice, the location is expensive but theres subsidized housing (somewhere around 1000$ which isnt that great but whatever, its nyc). wasnt blown away like i thought i would be. the secretary also was sort of incompetent.

(i hope this is anonymous?)

tufts: nice, very nice. ropper seemed nice, and so did sabin. the department seems bonded despite the three facilities although the aforementioned teleconferencing didnt seem to be the most effective way to do an exam and talk about patients. maybe theyll work out the kinks. overall, good feeling. go to the interview if youre considering it.

brown: small, friendly atmosphere, providence is nice and so are the residents. there are 4 per year, and theyre mostly women right now. combined first year.

what have people heard about georgetown or gw? and does anyone get the sense about maryland taking their own over others? their pgy2s are all maryland grads, right?

ill write more later once i make sure im doing this right.
 
wups, someone wanted to know about brown so ill give more details.
there wasnt a dinner so i didnt get to meet anyone, and they dont pay for a hotel room which is fine-- its not as expensive as boston or nyc. every morning there is morning report with the chairman, dr easton (i think thats spelled right)-- dr. easton is an older gentleman who everyone speaks of highly. the residents rave about him, because he does do morning report every day and is very involved with residency. i did ask several people re whether or not he would be retiring anytime soon, and they said no. he is very, very nice, and has a good relationship with every resident, it seemed to me. you have four interviews, and in one of them i got pimped re a case presentation. the attendings i met (the director, the asst director, another attending and dr. easton) were all interested in talking about more than just neurology though-- i got asked about little things on my application that were not just about school, which i found refreshing. theres a brief tour of the hospital, which is medium-sized. they have a huge er, and get a lot of consults down there. call is a little tricky-- something like q4.5 the first year, and then less every year. one golden weekend amonth. lots of opp for research, basic or clinical, though not required. the list of fellowships was impressive. they really do only have like one attending per specialty though, and not too much time to do electives (if at all) until your PGY 4, so if you want to do a fellowship i got the impression you kind of have to pursue it early on, and then you usually do well. lunch was nice, everyone just sat around with the residents, who were cool. all in all id say i will rank them mid-high-- its not a really big city, but providence is close to a lot of bigger cities. the community does seem like they go out a lot, and go skiing, and play and work hard.
hope that helps.
 
As a med student who did a neuro elective at BU the previous post was only partly right. It is a busy program but the call numbers for PGY2 are set to fall with the addition of two PGY2 from the new pediatric neuro program from 2006 and this will make the call much better. BU got a new pediatric neuro program when the entire Tufts program defected given Tufts' terrible finances and news of imminent closure (The Boston Globe even had a story that New England Medical Center may close soon). BU had a lot of academics with daily morning reports, an entire day of protected didactics and with neuroradiology, chief rounds and dementia conferences on other days. One of the other applicants told me and I checked it out too: it is one of the few programs in the country with a city hosiptal, a university hospital and two VA hospitals and the only VA neuro service in New England. The residents are great to work with, all are very happy and the staff are committed to teaching. This is my first choice and I loved my elective.
 
hey, chillin in the Koolhaas-designed library in Seattle, liked UW, but some reservations, objectively so far, combining the program and other factors, I think I've liked OHSU, Brown, Rush, UMich, and UNC the best, secnd tier for me would be Sinai, UW, Duke,...more about those later on..

just wanted to help out: i've only heard horrible things bout GW and Georgetown on the trail, i really dislike Baltimore and DC, didnt apply, but ive met quite a few nice people who live in DC/have significant others there/really wanted to stay and were very disappointed that they would in no way be able to feel good about going to these programs. this is in spite of them willing to sacrifice some time/life/teaching etc just to stay in DC, they felt they couldnt do it(and these werent people mostly looking at whatever "top 5" neuro programs people keep posting, they were pretty open minded).

apparently there are like, 12 people/students from university of maryland going into neuro this year, again i didnt apply there, but other folks who liked this place are worried since yes they tend to mostly take their own(or so they say, i dunno, look at their resident list)..someone back me up on this, im pretty sure the number is gigantic. also, MS guy at UW mentioned a few of their big MS at UM people left for Hopkins.(this being important since i guess UM is known for MS)..

hope this helps
scm (my rental car actually has 3 numbers and then "scm" on the plate up here)..

ditto all of the above about brown..although i tend to think providence is better than boston in many ways(having lived in boston, and nyc and a few other places)..one comment, some places do indeed have electives mostly pgy4, hwoever when you have 2-3 months of designated time in subspecialty clinics in pgy2 or 3(like most places do), have months of EMG, EEG etc, by the time pgy4 rolls around you have a good idea what you want to do for fellowship anyway. i too thought i'd use electives to figure out fellowship stuff(leaning toward MD right now), but ive asked programs about this(programs with elective time last) and usually they say they are very flexible about electives(ie. you can switch and do them earlier and do some required electives later) if you want to check out/go into something you might not have been exposed to otherwise through the normal curriculum....

crackerjack said:
what have people heard about georgetown or gw? and does anyone get the sense about maryland taking their own over others? their pgy2s are all maryland grads, right?

ill write more later once i make sure im doing this right.
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I spoke with a few of the Maryland students on the interview trail, and what they told me is that there are 14 of them applying into adult neurology this year. The facilities at Maryland are beautiful, and I was told by several of the UMD students that although it appears they take their own, that is certainly not the case. PGY4 has only 1 out of 5 from MD med school, PGY3 has 2/4, and PGY2 has 4/4, which is probably the main reason for the program to appear inbred. The reason for the PGY2 class is that all 4 that year (out of 10) had a significant reason for staying at Maryland. Little do applicants know that the PGY1 neuro class, who are all doing prelim at UMD, are 0/5 from MD med. The rest of the years will be 5 per class.

I was also told that really only 1 of the 14 med students really wants to stay at Maryland. Everyone else is looking to get out...why, i dunno?

MS is still strong at Maryland. I interviewed with Dr. Bever, a big time MS guy there. He was great. They are strong in so many areas.

Anyone else with impressions on Maryland?


With regard to Georgetown and GW, I was told it was not worth it to apply.

Georgetown I applied to anyway, but it has been several weeks since I have interviewed there and I contacted the PD with a few questions, but he has not returned my calls -- they have certainly fallen off of my rank list.
 
Just wanted to thank all of you who are posting your experiences. Although I'm only MS2, I think this kind of info is very helpful. You can always look at program websites, etc., but I think hearing the opinions of residents and applicants gives a much better feel of what a program is like and what to look for when doing away rotations, applying, etc.

Anyways, just wanted to let you all know that the time your spending writing these long posts is (or at least will be) appreciated by future applicants, too.
 
k, glad to help out, ive been reading sdn for yrs, and looking back at older posts about places really helped... check out my posts about tufts, yale, and brown above over the next few days, im going to edit them/make them more complete, then ill work on new ones..
 
ok, ill have less notes/less to say as i post, but here goes:

i know much about this program, i would say residents are happier here than in most nyc neuro programs, and second to columbia its the best inthe city..

the faculty are amazing, and most are nationally known. the chair is quite famous for his work in MD,another big MD guy-from beth israel and his DBS surgeon just moved over to sinai as well, Dr.Lubland and Dr.Miller are also very well known in MS, apparently Lubland has the largest grant in sinai history... the MD and MS depts are quite good and have more folks.. the stroke team/service is amazing, not many sinai residents go onto stroke fellowships, apparently they do well managing stroke services without them since the training/faculty is quite excellent..there are a number of people i dont know about in each subspecialty, however Epilepsy is a huge hole they are recruiting for, only one attending, monitoring planned but nothing as of now..reading stiuation/results placed in a little book is kinda pathetic.

the chair and program director, and dr.lubland are people who tend to occasionally make jokes using sarcasm, a large number of extremely earnest applicants often dont get the jokes or take them seriously and youll hear negative things on the trail as a result...overall they are friendly and interested in teaching students and joking around.

sinai has more ward months during the 1st yr than most programs i applied to (except UW), pro vs/con? you decide. its busy, and there is night float, no electives really during the 1st yr, and long call can wind up being q3, though ends at 9pmish, you can be there much later..gets easier pgy3 and pgy4 home/no call etc, front end loaded like most places. but pgy2 yr is rough.. 3 sites, pgy3 yr spend time at the VA and elmhurst(queens, most diverse section of most diverse county in the country), you see interesting stuff, though are away from sinai and everyone else for much of the yr..free shuttles to each place..im not sure if you see your own patients(vs seeing with fellows) at subspecialty clinics, may be a problem..i dont know the whole schedule offhand months wards/consults/electives..the pgy2 yr is rough/busy..

the hospital is quite nice/IM pei designed, views of the park, clinics, quite not so nice, nursing typical for nyc, though won a magnet ...award(supposedly best 5% in country). seems as though less outpatient than most programs, much inpatient and consult, electives mostly in pgy4 year. not a huge research emphasis, though lots of amazing stuff going on on basic science as well as aforementioned clinical side(i.e. neuro-optho dr.cohen, longest running NASA grant, studying vestibular stuff and space)..lots of opportunites for research if you have time, the MD, MS, stroke, people are very active. new neurocognitive guy recently, some good pain and headache people..im not sure what im forgetting.program overall was very structured..peds is 3 months consult..

summer/when residency starts has entirely different structure to ease people in..morning report every day concerning admissions overnight, often lead by chair, program director, or other senior faculty..chairmans rounds once a week, grand rounds once a week, also rounds on the wards, formal didactics, lots of time to learn..journal club has changed, Dr.Miller is one of the editors for the continuium insert in the green journal, he goes over that stuff with residents. there will be occasionally private attendings admitting patients(i.e. see Rush review also), which could be annoying, but less so in neuro vs. in IM, IMHO.

thats all i can think of off the top of my head..i would say very solid clinical training, one of the best places if you want to be/stay in nyc. they have housing etc. i not going to get into details about location, good patient population mix due to 3 sites, edge of UES/E Harlem..many very strong nationally known people involved in clincial research, though its in the curriculum, not many residents graduate with papers, though most go on to very reputable fellowships...problems: less outpatient/subspecialty exposure than other places i looked at, not so great epilepsy/sleep exposure..residents all seemed happy, would say a pretty laid back friendly group is usual.

nyc stuff: i would say less research driven and more friendly and informal than columbia(and happier residents), more mixed patient population than cornell(though cornell has neuro-onc if youre interested, though you could always do an an elective at sloan kettering from anywhere i would guess), and all of the above are better than nyu-see various posts around on here about that.
 
i really liked Rush, almost everyone I met on the interview trail really liked Rush and seemed to think it was the best program, or at least the best clinical program in Chicago.

everyone is very nice approachable, the PD and i think(?) chairman spent some time in private practice before getting into academia = strong emphasis on general neurology and clinical skills. one of several places with a general neurology dept or people dedicated to teaching on wards/clinic, hard to do these days-for sure plus. big hole in stroke program, one attending, dr.kelly(?) still around at cook county, the rest left for UIC, should be recruited/resolved by time we start. medicine/neurosurg/psych take call for neuro, i think call schedule winds up q4-5 for 6 months during 1st yr, pretty nice scheulde overall..3 months eeg/emg..no morning report, many conferences didactics, seem very responsive to residents. facilities are very nice, though not a nice area(hospital) near drive/bike to many areas with young people..brand new county hospital-cook county, drastically better than old one, leads to diverse patient population mix, and its only 2 blocks from Rush..

"research project" required, but can be something very interesting/laid back, lots of flexibility, you get a mentor. residents seemed busy, but well, not so busy (vs. say, yale, or brown, or umich), peds-consult, no call. i think there is a combined MS/Epilepsy service, was interesting. they have monitoring, DBS, epilepsy surgery etc. work with own patients in subspecialty clinics. very strong in MD, Dr.goetz and co are well known, strong MS center, maybe biggest in the area? also had impressive multidisciplinary alzheimers center..do have private attendings, but not many(or so they asserted)..you do some significant outpatient, i think some subspeciality clinic as pgy2..residents all seemed very happy, laid back, glad they chose the program, schedule, i dont remember all the specifics, but was quite nice compared to other places..

overall great clinical training, only problems people talk about are the stroke service, no doubt soon to be fixed, and private attendings being around.. also residents have tended, or so i hear to go into general neurology or private practice from there , due to this emphasis, but if you look some excellent fellowships as well(not sure if i have to keep saying this, none of the programs i looked at had people going to crappy places for fellowship)..

lemme know if there is anything else you are wondering. ive heard northwestern was kinda new/in flux, 3 people told me on their visit, during morning report the residents didnt get to speak and had to endure young faculty arguing with each other/posturing about specific details. i dont know much about UC, but was advised by my PD that i wouldnt like it there, so i didnt apply/only applied to Rush. for me, I'm not so sure about liking Chicago, otherwise I really loved Rush all-around. i'm sure there are things im forgetting/people in certain subspecialties/certain strenghts, if i dont mention them, dont assume they dont exist(for anything i post).

i'd appreciate it if people could chime in/agree/disagree/share their thoughts , even just a line or two (Yale?Tufts? Sinai? Rush? anywhere..)
 
I've been following this site, but just recently logged in and set up an account. Here are my impressions of programs, if you want more info, feel free to ask.

Vanderbilt: I really like the program, it seemed to really be on the upswing, though a lot of the faculty they were hiring seemed to be more researchers than clinicians (ie clinic 1/2day and 1mo svc/yr). a lot of $$ going into the hospital and neurosci research. call was light-~q6 pgy2 only (all year), no pgy3/4 call. all of the residents seemed happy and stressed that the residency was not as geared towards research as program made it sound. also, the catchment area of the hospital was large.

Rush: very strong clinical program, my thoughts are similar to everyone elses. research requirement not overbearing, only problem is the stroke svc, but like everyone says, should be solved by the time i'm a neuro resident (though not guarenteed) about the nicest pd around.

Northwestern: something didn't sit right with me with the program, but it seems on paper like a strong program. kessler is with residents 5d/wk at morning report, if i remember they had most specialties represented. I wasn't overly enthused about VA clinic, but can do it at NWU; call throughout residency.

UIC: quality of program felt to be the same level as NWU but moving up. now have a good stroke dept and movement d/o. have many attendings that followed gorelik from rush. everyone seemed very nice there, but some seemed upset that the program had changed to something they didn't sign up for-ie more stroke intensive. education at christ hospital could be a real plus, they emphasized this. wasn't happy the attendings came to dinner though, at the time i thought they might be trying to hide residents, but did get a chance to talk to the residents at lunch the next day.

UofChicago: I don't really know what to make of the program. I had heard that it was stressful environment, overworked, etc. going into the interview and was thinking of canceling. I didn't get that feeling from talking with the residents, though. For the most part they seemed happy. The big question here is no chair and no clue which direction the program will go. The old chair is still on staff though, said he wanted to step down to allow the program to expand. I actually thought it was a strong program which suprised me. I liked it more than NWU and UIC for chicago programs, but I do really have to think about that statement just because of the reputations it has.

Barrow: I also had mixed feelings about this program. call is q6-7 pgy2, then 2x/mo pgy3 then home call pgy4. The resident post call(1person on call/night), who came to the dinner, said they have seen 17 consults in one night--HOW?! that seems like an awful lot and Im afraid that the residents are really delegated to a ton of work. interesting hospital, neurosci admissions make up i think they said 65% of admissions, very neurosurg intense and that probably skews the patient population. I think this was the place that said that every time a neurosurg pt has a sz, they get tx to neuro. I dont like the idea of managing most of neurosurg pt's. they did say they were trying to add 2 more residents per year and making 2 residents per call, but they were just thinking. also adding 140 neuro beds to the hospital. I got along with the residents really well though.

Umass: felt about the same as most other people, I was pleasantly suprised. Worcester isnt the most happening place, but I could get used to it. they seem to want to hire a stroke doc as chair and make the program more oriented to stroke. had a very pleasant experience there.

Brown: again like everyone else has said(curious if this is mob mentality) I did like this program a lot and providence had a nice little charm to it, the story of the mayor turned felon(embezzalment) who urinated on a guy sleeping with his wife and now is like some sort of folk hero was funny.

Hope this helps some people. any more questions, Ill be happy to answer them if i can.
 
Hey there -- thanks for all of the valuable input so far...

I've seen some of the less sought after programs, so if anyone has any questions for me re: the SUNY programs (Buffalo, Syracuse, Downstate, Stony Brook), Albany or LIJ, please PM me.

UMass: This seems to be a program people are interested in -- I, too, was very pleasantly surprised; and although Worcester truly is not the most happening city, it was quite a bit better than some of the other, small, New England towns I had visited. It's a little weird that the position of Chair is in a bit of flux right now, but with the recruitment of a new stroke attending the program should really start to take off.

Dartmouth: Loved it. Probably the sort of place you'll either love or hate, given it's location (truly the middle of nowhere) and small size (only 2 residents per year until this past year's class when they offerred 3 positions). But I found it to be the friendliest program I've visited, with hands-down the most beautiful facilities. I really need to invest in some skiing lessons if I wind up matching there. :)

Tulane: I was down there recently -- please let me know if any of you have had a similar experience, but this was just bizarre -- no formal orientation or overview, no tour of the facilities (never even set foot inside the hospital -- we interviewed down the road at an office building), met a couple of residents at lunch and they gave wildly conflicting pieces of information about the program, its hospitals, etc. When I had asked one attending about the board pass rate, I was told that I probably didn't want to know... What the...????

I'll post more after the holidays... have about 5 more scheduled between now and Jan. 7th.

Good luck everyone! :)
 
Here are some thoughts on other programs. For those applying next year, one thing to keep in mind is that most programs (with the exception of the very big names) can change drastically year to year, especially if there is a change in chairman. Take most of these reviews with a grain of salt.

UCSD: This is a strong smaller program (currently 3 residents/yr likely 4 next year). Their teaching philosophy seems to be see as many patients as possible (Q4 for R2 and R3, lighter as R4). Didactics were good and the program director is very involved and motivated to teach the residents. Chairman is stepping down in the next 1-2 yrs to focus on his cognitive research and not deal with administrative duties. This probably only strengthens the program because he will remain there and they will likely hire another strong chairman. Neuroscience research is impressive. Work at 4 (I think) hospitals, looked like a great variety of patients. The two hospitals that we toured were extremely nice. Only met a couple of the residents, but they seemed cordial enough. Specialty strengths: cognitive, stroke, epilepsy, neuromusc. Specialty weaknesses: Movement, neuroonc.

UW (Seattle): Another strong program, similar in many ways to UCSD. Teaching here is largely during rounds. They do have didactic sessions, but these are at the main UW hospital. Those at the other sites are often too busy to make it. Call is Q4 as an R2 and it looked pretty tough, especially the 4 months at harborview. After that it gets considerably easier (Q10 I believe). The chairman was excellent, well spoken, motivated, and seemed like the type of guy that really knew how to help you get where you want to go in your career. Residents were great, most of them laid back, though a few of them did seem stressed from the work load. Specialty strengths: MS, neurogenetics, movement. Specialty weaknesses: cognitive.

Mayo: Outstanding larger program (8 residents/yr). Didactics are extremely well integrated. At one point during the day they state that 95% of their residents score 97% or better on the neurology boards. I found that a little hard to believe, but perhaps it is true. Call is an odd mixture of Q5 and night float as an R2. You are not on call unless you are on service (there is no call during outpatient months) . Program is actually backloaded (R4s are the 1st to see patients in the ER) making the R4 year more difficult than most. Chairman was a quality guy. Program director outstanding based on what I heard from the residents. Really responds to their input. They will fly you to Jacksonville or Scottsdale and put you up in an apartment for 1-2 months a year at the other Mayo clinics for elective rotations. They work at two hospitals in town and the outpatient facility (which is hands down the nicest patient facility I have ever set foot in). They of course get a wide variety of zebras flown in from other parts of the world, but they see bread and butter neurology too. Residents were very nice, easy to get along with. It starts to feel a bit eerie because the residents and faculty compliment each other so much. Only drawbacks are Rochester (depending on who you are), and the fact that you will largely miss out on the inner city patient population (very few patients with HIV in minnesota). Specialty strengths: all. Specialty weaknesses: none.

Cleveland Clinic: Strong medium sized program. Call is Q5 as an R2, then gets easier. Seemed to have outstanding training in EEG, EMG, and neuroradiology, like you could potentially sit for boards for these after your residency training alone. Had an impressive presentation on the cutting edge research taking place there. They truly are leaders in the fields of DBS and interventional stroke therapy. Chairman is solid, as is the program director. Services are organized a little differently than other programs. They have a center for back pain for example, separate from other buildings that houses neurologists, neurosurgeons, and PT/OT that focus solely on back pain. I didn't particularly like the senior residents, but the junior residents were incredibly easy to get along with. Only drawbacks here are whether or not you like cleveland. Specialty strengths: epilepsy, stroke, movement, MS. Specialty weaknesses: there probably are a couple, but I can't remember them.
 
docneuro said:
As a med student who did a neuro elective at BU the previous post was only partly right. It is a busy program but the call numbers for PGY2 are set to fall with the addition of two PGY2 from the new pediatric neuro program from 2006 and this will make the call much better. BU got a new pediatric neuro program when the entire Tufts program defected given Tufts' terrible finances and news of imminent closure (The Boston Globe even had a story that New England Medical Center may close soon). BU had a lot of academics with daily morning reports, an entire day of protected didactics and with neuroradiology, chief rounds and dementia conferences on other days. One of the other applicants told me and I checked it out too: it is one of the few programs in the country with a city hosiptal, a university hospital and two VA hospitals and the only VA neuro service in New England. The residents are great to work with, all are very happy and the staff are committed to teaching. This is my first choice and I loved my elective.
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i think it all has to do with style. the didactics being one day seems to me to be tedious, but youre right, it does mean its protected time. however, other programs do protect their didactics, but dont have it all in one big lump. i thought the program director was kind of a jerk, he really turned me off. i havent heard this stuff about nemc, in fact, the boston globe just did a big article on the tufts neurology program. bu does do more call than any other program in the city, and i think as a result, thats why they give more money (their pgy2 starting salaries when we do it should be around 50,000$-- almost 10,000$ more than the other programs in boston)-- im glad you like it, and like i said, its all about style. the call schedule thing i heard from the residents themselves so if its not true, thats news to me.
 
scm said:
just wanted to help out: i've only heard horrible things bout GW and Georgetown on the trail, i really dislike Baltimore and DC, didnt apply, but ive met quite a few nice people who live in DC/have significant others there/really wanted to stay and were very disappointed that they would in no way be able to feel good about going to these programs. this is in spite of them willing to sacrifice some time/life/teaching etc just to stay in DC, they felt they couldnt do it(and these werent people mostly looking at whatever "top 5" neuro programs people keep posting, they were pretty open minded).
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thank you for the info-- i got some more information about georgetown. apparently, they are really not a stable program-- their chair did just step down a couple months ago, after only being there for 2.5 years or so, and the interim chair they have now, who wasnt at the interview, is actually an employee of medstar, the hmo that bought out georgetown (he is a neurologist though). the word on the street, that i heard from another program director, is that he will soon be promoted to chair, from interim chair. also i discovered from other people on the trail that something like 6 or 7 people have left the department in the last several years because they felt the education was going downhill since medstar bought out georgetown, and they were working in a factory. tornatore is supposed to be excellent-- he is the program director, and was a student, resident and now pd of georgetown. i dont know if ill still go to gw but i appreciate the advice. ive heard its a super small program-- 2 people-- and they only have 6 faculty members!!! way small. lots of call.

you would think that with dc being such a great city they would have at least one solid, stable neuro program! i guess baltimore is close by. maryland seemed very nice, and hopkins also. i was actually surprised-- i liked maryland better than i liked hopkins. hopkins seemed much less clinically oriented-- they really are training the scientists of tomorrow-- whereas thats where marylands main interests lie. its interesting to see how gentlemanly the programs are when referring to each other-- jh and maryland seem to have a good relationship and collaborate often. i think i just expected to be blown away by hopkins and i wasnt, personally. i dont really know why. the residents were nice, and the interviewers were all nice, and the facilities were better than the rumors of "rundown" i had heard. (but not as nice as maryland... wow!)
 
UIC--agree with what ptolemy said above, it seems to be on the rise. Dr.Gorelick,the chair, was extremely nice and really seems to be trying to progress the program.He's brought in a lot of funding and there have been about 10 new faculty recruited in the past year and apparently some bigwig MS doc is joining. The experience at Christ seems to be a very strong point--all the residents love it. Time is divided between University hospital (65%), Christ (25%) and VA (10%) .Residents themselves seem very nice and happy. Overall, a non-malignant, clinically oriented program. Weaknesses are MD, epilepsy. Call: pgy2 is q4 all year except VA which is home call.pgy3 is 3-4 calls/month and pgy4 is 2/month from home.

Loyola--wasn't impressed--the PD is very nice and is planning a lot of changes to the program. They are currently actively trying to recruit a MD specialist. not many faculty and its a small program(10 residents total)My feeling was that the program will be good in 5 years--but right now, I wouldnt want to be at the beginning of it's growth curve.
call is in house call, all year every year even as a senior, 3 calls/month.
 
drgirl said:
Hey. I would like some info about UConn--my interview is scheduled for end of December and I am seriously contemplating cancelling.
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Check out my reply in UConn section if still interested.

More programs: Yale -- just didn't like it. I had one interview at which me and the interviewer just clicked: and he had nothing good to say about their own program. Chairman pissed me off, with his manners and style -- as well as providing some info which I knew was not true... Residents seemed liked a good bunch though, and well prepared, although in their own words it's more of a training by fire method. Your senior is your sourse of education for general neurology. there are a lot of specialists in various areas, but very few good general neurologist who have the ability to teach during the ward month --> therefore it's a lot of autonmy, which I like, but I think it's been taken to extreme. that said, if you are interested in research, especially bench, this is a great place for you. New Haven has changed a lot but it's still not the best place to live -- but it's more happening than it used to be. And the stubbings/stealing occurs 1/ every 2-3 months rather than 1 every night as it used to :) I like their program director a lot. he seemed like a very good guy, who genuinely cares -- but overall I'd rank them below #8, and I liked UMass and Uconn more than them.

Brown: small program. Fairly busy, fairly diverse b/c it's the only hospital around. Teaching is above average to very good. Didn't like that there is no buddy call at the beginning, seemed that residents were overwhelmed at the beginning. Calls are frontloaded I also got the feeling, and I have no prove to substantiate this, that they are not the richest program around, and money is rather tight (the reason i think that is that some fellowships are not offered every year and how the department has grown). But overall I liked them and would put them in my top 5 just b/c i liked the residents and their demeanor. Plus i don't mind Providence, and in some respects consider it's better than leaving in Boston.
 
hey everyone, can one or two of you post what you thought of OHSU? I really liked it there/thinking of ranking it highly but would _really_ appreciate other peoples thoughts of pros and especially cons..


just finished last interview today #12, will post more, lenghtly, rambling reviews in the next few days, of all of them, i think i have 5 up so far..

take care
scm
 
scm said:
hey everyone, can one or two of you post what you thought of OHSU? I really liked it there/thinking of ranking it highly but would _really_ appreciate other peoples thoughts of pros and especially cons..


just finished last interview today #12, will post more, lenghtly, rambling reviews in the next few days, of all of them, i think i have 5 up so far..

take care
scm
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i went to ohsu a few weeks back, and absolutely loved it. i went there with absolutely no expectations, but ended up loving the environs. the faculty and the residents are adorable, though not quite close to their ivy league compatriots in terms of calibre. meet the pgy2s and they seem to be partying their way through a fairly busy program. the y3 and y4s are all like elder siblings, guiding the kids around. all in all, a really motley crew. the university is okay, and the program has nothing exceptional to offer, other than the fact that everyone is very very friendly. the same rings true for the city. dont know where i will rank it, but i give it 9.5/10 in terms of comfort, and 6-7 in everything else.

miami is the complete opposite. very big, brash, and cold. jackson is a monster, and the university is a machine. very very clinical, leaves little time to do anything else. the program is big (8 per year), and hence i could feel that the residents were a little segregated. the legendary chair is leaving in a couple of months, and the program will immediately lose half of its charm. spanish is a big problem - more than a quarter of the patients speak no english.
at the end of the day, the city is the only draw, if at all.

nw, chicago. i didnt understand what the program was all about. very very good on paper, with legendry faculty, but the residents seemed unhappy. and the whole environment was sickeningly drab. i guess its because of its ivy league history. the chair is nice (though the residents wern't too sure if he is the best neurologist). the hotel (its hardly a hospital) is nice, complete with guides (who second as lift operators and bell boys). all in all, reputation is the draw.

st louis universty - good, underestimated, unfairly overshadowed by big brother across the street.
 
k here goes some rambling: lots of subspecialty elective in pgy2-3,very strong in sleep, epilepsy.. might be a bit weak in MS-only one doc, one R3 has big plans to start MS center, nothing so far that rivals detroit or chicago. only really one MD guy as well i think, but there is some DBS and other stuff going on.. strong in other subspecialties.. q4 on ward months, however very nice call schedule otherwise. Residents take call with attendings(!) only, i think this is kinda a big deal, only other place I've seen this is OHSU, probably results in quite superior learning on call, you _have_ to call attendings/they expect you to call/to teach etc. pretty nice. seniors are backup i think if it gets too busy..but im pretty sure you report to attendings, this is for sure true at OHSU...most people are on 1st name basis w/attendings..VA is right nearby. two tracks, pgy1-4, pgy2-3, this yr 3 residents each for total of 6..

obviously everyone was very responsive to reidents needs/interests. 8 interviews(!) but 3 were from residents, its nice they take their interests into consideration..have moved more toward outpatient schedule in recent yrs(i.e. a bit ahead of other programs, but clearly where everyone is moving). hmm.. VA, lots of outpatient and consult. when not on ward months, which i think is 4 months or so pgy1, call is like twice per month due to "call pool" arrangement. call can be very busy..seems like a pretty busy service. lots of didactics, there are many folks involved in research, and one of those clinical trials education programs/masters(i think) is available (i.e. sorta an MPH, but trains you more in the development of clinical trails)...also saw this at OHSU. people may do this more often in fellowship.

UMich was one of my favorite places by far. Obviously great reputation, great/approachable faculty/eager to teach, lots of great research going on, really very happy residents, excellent schedule and curriculum.. will rank them highly for sure..Ann Arbor is a nicer/more progressive place than i thought also..
 
there is another thread about Duke, but I'll say a bit more. It's strange that people have heard its malignant there, i find this very surprising, and quite wrong from what I saw/heard. I guess people from the southeast also seem(from my experience) to assume people at Duke are somehow snooty, I didn't experience this at all either..

Everyone was quite nice/approachable, indeed, as mentioned previously there were a good number of FMGs, i would say almost half of the people I met. q4 1st yr, 4 months on wards..awesome facilities. have interns in medicine on call/teams with you to handle some of the scut(other programs also have this, i dont remember which), so as pgy2, youre really a resident/pgy2, not an intern again..VA is clinic only, electives only in pgy4 (see above for pros and cons)..im not going to go into details of schedule for any of these, most are online..however 2 months of NeuroICU was distinctive, especially if you are interested in neurointerventional..lots of conferences/didactics, people seem interestedin teaching. you round with a pharmacist and social worker, so d/cing people and such works out well. They have a new brain tumor center, though its unclear how much exposure/interaction there is with neuro actually. i think they are working on that. some good general neuro folks there on wards and in clinic (vs have subspecialty people all the time), is a plus..interesting multidisciplinary Alzheimers and MD clinics. i think the chair does Alzheimers research. i would say very strong in most subspecialties across the board and lots of interesting research going on.

in some ways I would compare the feeling of this place with UMichigan, in terms of the attendings and teaching, and quality. seemed like a great program..however there was something i can't articulate, probably about the residents, that made it appeal to me less. fmgs and everyone else included, i felt unsure if i fit in there/less excited for some reason...
 
i was surprised, and very impressed by this program..has grown enormously(the neuro dept) over the last few yrs, and continues to do so(Chair from UCSF continues to carry out big plans). Residents were excellent, eager, interesting well rounded folks, excited to be there. call is really nice, similar to UMich, q5 on wards, but rest of the time its maybe a few times a month. Much outpatient, amazing facilities. advantage of having everything at one hospital (vs traveling to VA/other sites) leads to cohesive group of residents and dept. like most places ive reviewed, diverse patient population, draw from all over the state...seemed really easy to get involved in research, everyone is very approachable..PD gave us the tour.

giant new sleep lab will be done by time we get there. relationship/proximity with their public health school(top 3 or so in US) leads to easy/interesting collaborations for research. this was appealing/unique. i spent some time after i was done talking to a doc i worked with here in NYC, quite prominent in MD who was recruited by UNC for an endowed professorship, really felt strongly that the program was already excellent and stil growing..now a good number of people in MD. besides having folks in each subspecialty, there were also people doing things in palliative care, and complimentary medicine, pretty cool. currently actively recruiting 1-2 MS people, probably their weakest area now(though I've seen many programs with only 1-2 people doing MS, of just having some folks who did it part time/werent really neuroimmuno people)..

q7 or so when not on wards, have interns from 3 diff programs who do much of the scut for you..faculty seemed very dynamic and excited about program. chair has stated to faculty that he aims to be making it a top 10 program in the next couple of yrs, and seems on track with the people theyve been hiring..sorry i dont remember other details about all the folks in other subspecialties..no neuroicu really(vs Duke), so keep that in mind, though like most places, excellent stroke exposure..overall, i'd rate this program highly, i know its hard to tell from what i'm writing here, but they are really quite a strong place and along with that, a really nice, interesting, approachable, dynamic group of faculty, and people reading this in the future should check out UNC for sure..
 
this was one of my favorite programs. its small, 3 per yr, however they seemed to have double the number of faculty in each subspecialty vs bigger programs(i.e. see brown), also VA and neuroscience people are integrated into the dept since buildings are all on one campus(another plus). integrated 4 yr program, do 2 months of neuro with no call as pgy 1, otherwise i think you are similar to other IM categoricals..though you dont have to do pgy1 there..call is well, q8 all 3 yrs(pgy2-3), but i think as senior you never have it on weekends. seems pretty much 8-5 days.

when looking/comparing places, its become really interesting how they define "electives", for some places , many, this means non-wards months. OHSU has 12 months of electives, but youll do EMG/EEG, peds and so forth in there, so it turns out to be similar to most places. EEG monitoring/exposure is built into VA wards rotation. VA right across the bridge etc. not sure if you have wards as pgy3 or 4 actually, or how much.. lots of subspecialty exposure, and consult..everyone was overwhelmingly friendly and approachable, residents and faculty, very tight group. some very well known people in MD, MS, and Alzheimers, strong in those areas.interesting multidisciplanary alzheimers setup. really very big in MS/lots going on in that area(chair does MS). really strong neuroscience people and ample opportunities fo collaboration(vs Brown and other places).. 2 new buildings going up, OHSU sits on a hill overlooking the city(beautiful), down the hill will be a new clinic for the hospital, a new tram will come up the hill into new wing of hospital..beams are up, likely done by our pgy2..good patient mix like most places.

again, on call with attending(!) always, like umich, i think makes for great learning oppotunities, and relationships with faculty. residents are very happy. portland is awesome..ohsu has lockers/showers for biking to work, they feed you..the place has really nice facilities.. ancillary staff seems amazing(apparently a resident had just gotten an EEG in the middle of the night, which where im from, is unheard of). seem very responsive to residents, and supportive. conferences pretty much every day, i was very impressed by the residents, and faculty during the morning report with the chair, and afternoon conference. one interviewer told me they went through a rough time a few yrs ago (4 or so) recruiting residents cause there wasa period between PDs, many residents i've talked to at other programs who are currently pgy4s mentioned they loved OHSU when they were interviewing but felt as though it was still growing(and had some fmgs at the time), clearly they have really strong applicants/residents now from great places, but this sentiment may filter down to what you hear, so keep in mind its changed.. just started peds-neuro program this yr..

flexible electives/schedule..(one resident went to london), good pt mix , obviously huge area they draw pts from from. belong to some of the same regional centers/designations (i.e. MS etc) as UW. no travel to VA or around obviously.. formerly weak in neuromuscular, EMG was ok, but having someone who does ALS and myasthenia research and so on, just hired a big name in this field..very strong in MD, large group, DBS and so on going on..faculty very interested in teaching as well as research..in addition to being strong in most subspecialties, they have someone working on augmentative communication(i.e. fitting people with ALS and so on with computers), someone working on complimentary medicine research...lots of interesting, dynamic folks..

really one of my favorite programs, and seemed like an excellent place all around compared to most places i visited... really would love to hear more opinions, especially cons, im thinking of ranking #1 or #2 but would love to hear some opinions on aspects of OHSU i havent thought about...
 
i was excited to interview at UW, i think when all 6 or so applicants kinda reflected on what we thought on the way out in the elevator, none of us were very excited..granted, this was our last neuro interview for many of us/burnout..


i would say the residents work harder here than most places ive been, and im not sure its worth the trade off (i.e. is there an equal amount of learning/teaching in turn?), vs just doing medical management, or dealing with certain things at harborview(i.e. alcohol withdrawal) that are often taken care of by IM at other places.. in addition, UW has something like 10 months or more of inpatient during pgy2, and more later on.. clearly most programs are moving away from this model, for good reason(i think), maybe ill start another thread on this. but Sinai and UW had more inpatient in the pgy2, and more total, than all the other places I interviewed..

residents really appreciated being there, but none actually seemed that happy, more of a "residency is this way" kinda feeling, which im familiar with from IM folks, but not what i saw at most places ive been to. 3 sites, you are traveling between them often, seemed as though didactics were often missed, and that you learned at pgy2 mostly on the wards.. there is talk of teleconferencing, which didnt impress me based on how this felt(really poorly done) at Tufts when I was there..somewhere between q3-4 as pgy2..less call later on, similar to most places/front loaded..weak in neurobehavoiral..they claimed that all the simple strokes were often handled at local hospitals and they often got the complicated ones..lots of neurosurgery/DBS/epilepsy, good relationship(havent heard a place/residents say they didnt have a good relationship with neurosurg though)..

the dept left the dept of medicine in 1995, i guess this is somewhat recent, im not sure how much this means. i think Duke was part of the dept of medicine, people on the trail made a big deal about this, but it was really cunlear what impact it had on residents..surprsingly there are almost no fellowships there(vs everywhere else ive been, i guess i didnt list these, but they can be looked up on the web)..no neuroicu, seemed to have strong MS, MD, Sleep, Epilepsy people. very strong in MS actually, though I was interviewed by the most well-known guy and he had many good things to say about OHSU as well. 3 sites-diverse patient pop..referrals from 5 diff states(WWAMI etc)..PADC Md center, NW Ms center, both similar to OHSU..working on fellowships... kinda weak in neuromuscular due to sharing EMG and so on with what is probably the top Rehab program in the country (visit PM&R forums for confirmation)..i think PM&R guy teaches EMG to the neuro residents..also, there is big rehab/MS stuff going on, so you often do not followup with MS pts, rehab does..obviously very strong depts across all fields, youll be working with good residents. seemed to have some neurogenetics people..continuity/outpatient clinic is staffed by general neurologists, which is excellent (vs some places having a neuroimmuno guy leaving the lab once a month and unhappily seeing headache pts with you, while not really being up to date etc..)...

i wanted to love UW, i think its a very strong program, the residents had diverse interests(md/phd research vs private practice) and seemed be getting an excellent education in spite of exhaustion as pgy2..im not so sure about the curriculum, and the 3 sites, the program seemed a little disjointed..seattle is great..
 
ok last one. i'll preface this by saying that i was suprised that i really didnt like san diego( in spite of the weather) very much, and as the PD explained that they would be geting a new Chair at some point during my training(likely as pgy2), and also hoped to expand from 3 to 4 residents but in order to do so would add someone to my yr from outside the match..i immediately was less interested in being there..the chair is apparently quite well known for his alzheimers research and plans to stay on with his group, but they will start the search for a new chair soon...

i would say the most outpatient, and most call, of any program. i think wards are for 4 months or so pgy2..lots of outpatient clinics/experience. no neuroicu, weak in icu (some programs still manage pts in micu etc), dont go here if youre interested in neurointerventional..no neuroimmuno people, though a good clinical MS person, one strong/well known MD person who has been ill for months, unclear if they will return, otherwise MD experience isnt optimal. call is "q3.8" for _all_ of pgy2 and pgy3. granted youre coming from clinic months, and some are q3, some q4, some q6, works out to q3.8 apparently..they emphasize that call isnt too bad, people get sleep, often dont have to come in from home call(VA i think?) vs other programs/people up all night..

very strong in alzheimers and neurobehav..very strong emphasis on teaching, one interviewer told me he felt there was too much teaching/oversight and not enough autonomy, but i dunno, he was kinda very different than most of the people who interviewed me who were very excited about teaching, about residents, the program etc(which he didnt seem to be)..PD very approachable/responsive to residents. apparently noone has ever gone into MD fellowship from this program(i asked). good pop mix with the 3 hospitals. ucsd may have strongest neuroscience in the country, very good relationship/collaborations, its the same dept(unique), the chair is chair of neuroscience dept. so probably 80% of dept is phds etc. i think 6 inpt months total, small #. also unique, you spend 4 months on EEG, and 4 on EMG, more than any other place ive seen, can get certified in EMG/get your 200 by the time youre done if you do some extra electives..i think was previously a program that turned out local private neurologists, is changing toward more academic folks etc....very strong clinical program..strong in stroke..

i dunno, the people seemed very good here, i just overall wasnt very exicted about this place and wont rank it very highly, especially given the changes in the next few yrs and my strong lack of interest in living in san diego..
 
crackerjack said:
i think it all has to do with style. the didactics being one day seems to me to be tedious, but youre right, it does mean its protected time. however, other programs do protect their didactics, but dont have it all in one big lump. i thought the program director was kind of a jerk, he really turned me off. i havent heard this stuff about nemc, in fact, the boston globe just did a big article on the tufts neurology program. bu does do more call than any other program in the city, and i think as a result, thats why they give more money (their pgy2 starting salaries when we do it should be around 50,000$-- almost 10,000$ more than the other programs in boston)-- im glad you like it, and like i said, its all about style. the call schedule thing i heard from the residents themselves so if its not true, thats news to me.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.
I think that there are some inaccuracies again.
Firstly the neuro program by itself at BU does nt pay 10000 more to its residents; the resident union (BU was the first private hospital in the country to have a resident union) negotiated the generous pay hike for ALL residents from pathology to vacsular surgery. BU is extremely busy; it has the busiest ER in the state and sees the bulk of Boston's stroke patients.
Given this situation a protected academic day gives residents a day off a busy schedule just to get educated. Again in slower programs like U Mass for example this may not be needed.
Thirdly about Tufts: I quote Boston Globe from 12/23/04: "Tufts-NEMC has been struggling financially. In neurology, Tufts-NEMC recently lost several doctors to Boston Medical Center (BU)".
Fourthly I rounded with the neurology program director. He is extremely supportive of his residents, has an incredibly detailed knowledge of neurology, and an extraordinary sense of humor. He knew each students name and whatthey wanted to do and often he would sit in the resident longe joking and laughing with residents and students. My psych intern told me that none of her psych resident friends doing neuro at many other programs have this much teaching and warmth from residents and faculty.
True the program is very busy and call is heavy but my resident told me this prepares you for life as an attending when you may be on telephone call every other night. The bottom line: if you want a more relaxed program dont come to BU.
 
SCM -- thanks a lot for your description of Mount Sinai. It pretty much echoes my feelings about them as well. the only thing I am still unclear about is didactics in PGY3, when most of your time you are in Emhurst. Do you know whether residents shuttle back and forth to attends the lectures, morning report, grand rounds, etc. or whether some sort of didactics is provided at Emhurst?

Also, I liked NYU. Actually liked it a lot. However, I hear a lot of rumblings about it (i.e malignant, not very good at anything else other than epilepsy, etc). When I interviewed there I didn't get the feeling that it was malignant and residents seemed quite happy -- I am wondering whether this reputation stuck w/them from years past, sort of similar to BU in mid 90's. If anyone can elaborate about their feelings/knowledge of NYU, I'd appreciate it.

Happy Holidays everyone. One month left and it'll be over! :thumbup:
 
i'm pretty sure the didactics happen at Elmhurst and those residents do not attend the morning report at Sinai while they are at Elmhurst. youre busy, get really good volume/diversity of cases over each field-especially at Elmhurst(city hospital), perhaps more than other places around the country(its nyc after all). i looked at my rambling post above about Sinai, i think it's pretty decent, I'll add that the PD is much more hands off than other programs I've interviewed at, I would say the Chiefs have more of a role/input in running things deciding on changes, to a limited degree of course. PD is always responsive and so on. Also might mention you can wind up having a ward attending who is primarily in private practice, a +/- depending on the situation.

I've never heard that NYU was malignant, just that it wasn't a very good program(including from people this yr), I'm not sure about specifics..but it's true, much stuff get passed down the vine for yrs that often is no longer true, its worth checking places out..

anyone feel free to PM me with questions if you are seriously considering Sinai..
 
scm said:
I've never heard that NYU was malignant, just that it wasn't a very good program(including from people this yr), I'm not sure about specifics..but it's true, much stuff get passed down the vine for yrs that often is no longer true, its worth checking places out..
Click to expand...

Some NYU faculty who have worked elsewhere actually told me that there were better programs (which was a fact, but you probably wouldn't want your own faculty to say that).
 
scm put up a detailed post about this so i'll just add a few details. I did like the program more than i thought i would. i had heard that the residents weren't very happy but i found them to be a nice, fun, happy group of people. your pgy2 year seems to be very difficult, q3 call, and a bit harder than other programs. but it is frontloaded and gets much better. residents seem to love the elmhurst experience despite the fact that they are away from everyone for most of the year. epilepsy is the major gap--there are apparently plans for recruitment and setting up and EMU--maybe by the time we start but nothing is finialized yet. i guess you could always do a rotation at nyu for that if you were interested. past residents have gotten great fellowships--only one in the past 4 years has gone into private practice. some of the residents i spoke to hadn't done any clinical research; however, the pd and chair said they are interested in people who would like to do research. that seems to be a common line at many places i've visited.the residents have a lot of autonomy as far as scheduling etc is concerned. they all seemed to love it here and would definitely come back. the faculty seemed very nice and friendly. i did think the chair was a bit pompous, as someone posted above. it's not because he had a sarcastic sense of humor, which would be fine. something else about him, which i can't really explain, just a vibe.he did morning report that day and it was very intense, with a lot of pimping of the residents especially the seniors. the pd was one of the nicest pd's i've met--very friendly and we had a good conversation about a wide range of topics.
as for housing--there are 5 or 6 buildings in the area, about a 5-7 minute walk. the better buildings have an elevator, parking garage($200-$300/month), doorman, laundry room. these are also more expensive. it's supposedly subsidized but still runs at about $1800 for a 1 bedroom. cornell definitely has better and cheaper housing.
speaking of cornell, anyone have impressions of their program?
 
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