FYI this thing is changing seemingly by the day, like an evolving EKG.
Here’s what my rank list looks like today though! A lot of my ranking is based on the city rather than the program, btw. Feel free to PM me if you want to trade insights on any of these programs...
1. USC – unrivaled volume and pathology. Their enormous ED is like a hospital within the larger hospital. Benign and friendly leadership, though residents do work hard and long (and become outstanding clinicians in the process). Faculty are leaders in educating the field (EMRAP). Being able to speak at least broken Spanish is pretty important. Traffic in LA is at this point bordering on a human rights violation.
2. UCSD – Solid program, multiply credentialed faculty with many letters after their names, San Diego is IMO the nicest city in the country to live in. A few too many hospital sites for my taste, if I'm being picky. I don't know how heavily to rate their apparently non-ideal trauma triage situation.
3. Utah – Extremely benign PD, established older program, unbelievable access to the ski slopes 20minutes away, strong outdoorsy culture generally, everyone is really smart, Salt Lake City itself nearly as Mormon as the rest of Utah (Starbucks, bars everywhere).
4. University of Nevada @ Las Vegas – People seem to get a ton of procedures here, one of those places where the EM residents dominate in the hospital hierarchy/ICUs. Internationally renowned city. May not be as academic as I would like. I may be overrating this program based on how much I like Vegas.....
5. Wash U in St. Louis – Wasn’t super amped on this program until arriving, concerned about the vast number of subspecialists around to take your procedures and be mad at you when you try to admit to them. In interviewing there, thought the PD and leadership were extremely benign, they get all the cool airway toys, Wash U has an amazing reputation generally in medicine, the area around the hospital in St. Louis itself seemed like a hip place to live. Gets a bit cold for my taste there. Fun fact: a 2nd year resident told me she performed ECMO cannulation on an infant. Only at Wash U I suppose.
6. UTSW – The most prestigious program in Texas, again concerned about all the subspecialists and the possibility I might not get procedures, but again thought the leadership exceptionally benign and residents universally cool. Crazy volume. Tons of residents (22 this year, I hear). This could be awesome, or perhaps I’ll get swallowed up by this monster of a hospital? Shiny new hospital this year, new chair, departmental status as of this year. Things definitely on the up and up. Still unsure of whether to put Parkland or Wash U first...thoughts? Prefer that UTSW is County vs. academic Wash U.
7. Davis – Rotated here, mostly impressed, a few of the faculty are straight up stinkers though! Could have just been my experience but was shocked at the abrasive personality of one faculty member in particular, and 2 or 3 faculty were strange in general. Sacramento is a wildly underrated city IMO.
8. U of Arizona South Campus. Am I the only one ranking this above U of A main campus? Prefer the autonomy, county feel, opportunity to “run the hospital” as an EM resident vs...
9. U of Arizona Main Campus. Better didactics here by far than South Campus. Better reputation. For both of the U of A campuses, I am concerned about the volume of patients they are seeing. Seems like it might be low based on my peeks at the waiting rooms, talking with residents. Anyone else concur? Else I would have them rank much higher.
10. UT San Antonio – New program, but seems to be starting off very strong. PD had to fire like 45 faculty members to start the program. Can’t figure out if that’s scary or comforting. The new faculty look very good. They have an absurd number of ultrasound machines. Still turf battles to be fought, but that PD is a helluva general to be leading that charge...
11. UT Houston – Unparalleled trauma, solid program, solid city, seems weird to me to be literally next door to another major EM program at Baylor. Could be much higher on my list, just got a few weird vibes on interview day.
12. Kaweah Delta – new program, residents get crazy procedure #s, air quality horrific, absolutely nothing to do nearby
13. Texas Tech El Paso – clearly a program in financial distress, poor reputation, PD seemed a bit strange to me, chair is well known here at SDN but is unfortunately apparently retiring soon,
and yet they do have a catchment area of basically Mexico. A truly unique program in this regard. Crazy pathology as a result. This program swings wildly up and down my list depending on the day. I've had it as high as #5 or #6 at times, as I really love treating the hispanic pt population.
14. Stonybrook – Weingart, whispers of landing some other EM big fish soon. Exciting program, but I’m not a New Yorker and definitely not a Long Islander. This program should be higher for NY folks.
15. Rutgers NJMS. Solid enough. Newark gets lots of penetrating trauma. But you have to live there. For four years.
16. Texas A & M/Scott and White. Amazingly benign leadership, residents renowned tertiary care center......in a town of 50k. Can’t deal. Good for families though as people there are super nice.
17. LSU-Baton Rouge. ED Dept publishes 1 peer-reviewed article/yr, no joke. I want a strong clinical program first and foremost, but I mean, there should be at least some academic underpinning. PD seemed very nice though. Residents nice, too.