Hi everyone,

I've seen previous posts regarding this topic, but obviously things evolve and change with time. Just curious in terms of the perceived resident happiness within these programs, how would you rank them today? (Not to be confused with resident satisfaction, I am sure everyone claims 'satisfaction' at the end of their residency, but we all know it's the journey of a 1000 miles that can make/break the spirit.

1) UCSF
2) Stanford
3) BID
4) Wash U
5) Penn
6) U Chicago
7) NWestern
8) Baylor
9) UT Southwestern
10) UT-Houston

Any help and comments regarding the above programs would be appreciated. Good luck to everyone!

1. BIDMC
2. Northwestern
3. UChicago
4. UCSF
5. Stanford
.... 10. Penn

I'm confused Yippy; is that order in increasing or decreasing level of perceived happiness?

sorry, misread the original, but I fixed it (above) -- in order of happiest to least happy. Not sure about the order of the ones in the middle.

sorry, misread the original, but I fixed it (above) -- in order of happiest to least happy. Not sure about the order of the ones in the middle.

I am curious, you made a point to point out that Penn was the last on the list. why is that? i know they work really hard but most people i've talked to say that they like it there.

Like most people on SDN, my info is from a limited number of people. I know a few people at Penn IM, and a few people in other programs there (surg, peds). Almost every intern I have talked to (from any place on this list) has been depressed and unhappy at points, but most feel overworked, not beaten down. The people I know at Penn seem beaten down and unsupported (which I found unusual for IM). But don't read too much into what one person on SDN says - we all make our own decisions based on a very limited experience. It sounds like you've heard different things from Penn and maybe I just know the unlucky people who are having a tougher time of it...
Texas and Wash U folks seem happy. But I don't know enough people at the programs to really say much more than that. I am not Penn-bashing. It is obviously a top tier program with super-smart people that can set you up for great things. But it did not strike me as a "happy" place.

I have to agree about the way Penn interns feel. By PGY-3, all the Penn residents seem to forget how miserable they were as interns, but I talked with three PGY-2s who were maybe 3-4 months out of internship and 2 of them said that they were really close to quitting and actually envied their 5 colleagues who had left the program... the 3rd one's response was that she entirely regretted coming to the program, but that if she gets the fellowship she wants, she would be ok with what she went through.

That being said, I can't really tell you that they were ACTUALLY worse off than interns at other IM programs, just that they seemed to feel that they were.