I guess I'll put my list out there, since it is after the 23rd. I hope more people will add to this. Last year, when I was applying to places, I was interested in what people put first. So, this is for the next class of ob/gyns.
I applied to 24 places and decided to interview at 15 of them. I ranked 14 of them. I liked every single one of the places I ranked, and would be happy at number 14. After every single one of these interviews, I would call people and say "I love this place". Everyone got tired of hearing this after about the 7th or 8th time.
However, eventually you can't rank all of the places number one, so here is my list and the why. I hope this is helpful.
1. UNC-Chapel Hill-i loved this place: everyone was nice, they are doing advanced laparoscopic procedures, good research, etc. Can't really explain it more, this is my "instinct/gut" choice.
2. Hopkins: suprisingly everyone was super nice, I went out to a bar with the residents after our interview dinner (which was after the interview day). They were really interesting. Great name.
3. Magee-pittsburgh: i kept flip flopping b/w magee and hopkins. i really liked both places. Seemed to be doing great and interesting research here. Only 1 guy in the program.
4. Yale: interesting research, students i met from here loved the program, have a bigger percentage of men in the program.
5. UAB: great surgery numbers, seemed that almost everyone was married, birmingham is not the most happening town.
6. Emory-did a month here, love the residents and staff, love atlanta-it's fun and affordable. I felt there was a little bit too much autonomy at their grady hospital. I think their new chair is going to do great things. Their REI fellowhsip was put on probation (not really their fault, none of their graduated fellows have recieved NIH funding for a research project). They should get the fellowhsip back soon. They don't have a gyn-onc fellowship, however I really liked the gyn-onc attendings. Very good teachers.
7. Oregon-Hands down the most nice. The residents even had craft night once a week (i thought that was really cute-their guy residents did not participate though) Their program director is awesome. Oregon is just really far from where the rest of my family is.
8. Brigham: Probably one of the best as in name goes.
9. Beth-israel-would have ranked it closer to the top but I do not really want to live in Boston.
10. Northwestern: great program, however I would rather work with a more disadvantaged population.
11. Univ of Washington-recently lost their entire REI departement and the fellowship. Heard some things on the interview trail from their students-however, you never know if they're true or not.
12. Univ of colorado-spent a week there for a conference (not medicine related). I would love to ski there, however it is so dry there my skin could not take it. They don't have an REI felloship, however one of their 4th years matched into REI.
13. Duke: are having a lot of change, i think it will be an awesome program in a couple of years.
14. Brown-Great program, however they do a lot of medicine clinics. They do almost 6 months of half-a-day medicine clinics once a week their intern year. This would be a good thing for most interns-learning to treat DM, HTN, etc. I've done 4 years of 1/2 a day, once a week internal medicine clinics already in med school, so I would rather not do that many more medicine clinics.
Good luck everyone. I can't wait until March 17th. Maybe we'll all have good luck since it is St. Patty's day.
