Help, my schedule has worked out so that I can only visit Duke or WashU and I'm struggling to decide which one to attend. Are either of these programs the type of program thaty really shines during the interview day? I can read all about both places on-line, but some programs just seem to stand out during the interview. I was wondering if either Duke or WashU might really surprise me during the interview. :)

Help, my schedule has worked out so that I can only visit Duke or WashU and I'm struggling to decide which one to attend. Are either of these programs the type of program thaty really shines during the interview day? I can read all about both places on-line, but some programs just seem to stand out during the interview. I was wondering if either Duke or WashU might really surprise me during the interview. :)

In this case I would definitely go with Duke for several reasons. First, Duke has a stronger medicine training program, both by reputation and overall experience. Second, Wash U did not fill last year, putting to question the quality of some of the residents surrounding you. Third, Duke is 2 hours from the mountains, 2 from the beach, and the home to a great basketball team. St Louis is 2 hours from cornfields in all directions. Last, look at where the residents have matched: Wash U tends to keep most of their residents in St Louis as fellows for some reason. Wash U is a great program, but Duke (especially if you're interested in cardiology where it ranks ahead of all but Cleveland Clinic and Mayo) would be my choice.

i would go visit duke. it is always nice to check out another top im program in another part of the country. even if you decide that you don't want to be there in the end, it is nice to visit to get some prespective.

Help, my schedule has worked out so that I can only visit Duke or WashU and I'm struggling to decide which one to attend. Are either of these programs the type of program thaty really shines during the interview day? I can read all about both places on-line, but some programs just seem to stand out during the interview. I was wondering if either Duke or WashU might really surprise me during the interview. :)

i would go visit duke. it is always nice to check out another top im program in another part of the country. even if you decide that you don't want to be there in the end, it is nice to visit to get some prespective.

if i were you, i'd go to both interviews. both are top 10 im programs. unless your other interviews are the brigham and ucsf, i think it'd be worth it to take a look at both programs.

if i could only pick one, i'd probably visit DUKE. it has the reputation of being a pretty malignant program (short white coats intern year). but it's a nice area to live in, as opposed to the dreary area of st. louis.

Visit Duke. You will meet the people there and realize that no matter what the reputation, only so much institutional ego is bearable and look for somewhere a little more down to Earth. Then again, if you are one of those egos...you may like it.

In this case I would definitely go with Duke for several reasons. First, Duke has a stronger medicine training program, both by reputation and overall experience. Second, Wash U did not fill last year, putting to question the quality of some of the residents surrounding you. Third, Duke is 2 hours from the mountains, 2 from the beach, and the home to a great basketball team. St Louis is 2 hours from cornfields in all directions. Last, look at where the residents have matched: Wash U tends to keep most of their residents in St Louis as fellows for some reason. Wash U is a great program, but Duke (especially if you're interested in cardiology where it ranks ahead of all but Cleveland Clinic and Mayo) would be my choice.


Unless you've for some reason managed to attend both internal medicine residency programs I'd be wary of making these types of generalized assumptions. In any large program (WashU has over 120 residents) there will be better and worse residents. Trying to fill a rank list that large without coastal geography in your favor can be difficult, particularly when most of the applicants can have their choice of program. Geography should be a deciding factor. St. Louis is cheap and there are enough things to do if you look, same with Durham.

Cards is king at WashU. The reason not a lot of residents leave for fellowship is that most of the subspecialities there are highly desirable positions and the internal applicants have a significant advantage over outside applicants (i.e. the head of the allergy program attends on the wards and conveniently the intern on the team expressed an interest in the program after performing well that month). The renal fellowship commonly fills at least one or two positions from interns expressing an interest. Cardiology takes 1/3-1/2 of the spots internally. And so forth. You will always have a leg up as an internal candidate so if you're undecided a place like WashU could play to your advantage.

One last thing, if you're planning on using your potential fellowship choice as a deciding factor on where to rank a program US News rankings aren't the place I'd turn to for advice.