Best of the Interview Circuit

[lord_jeebus]

So the next generation of applicants knows what to look forward to...

My West Coast bias is obvious

Best Dinner: BID - "Eastern Standard"

Best Dinner Wine Budget: UCSD (I think the chief resident got in trouble though)

Best Dinner Resident Turnout: UCSD

Best Breakfast: UC Davis

Best Lunch: UCLA

Best Afternoon Snack: UC Davis - Brownies, Eclairs, Hot Apple Cider!

Best Free Hotel: OHSU - Hotel Lucia

Best Tour: UCLA (we didn't go anywhere)

Most Efficient Interview Day: MGH

Best Folder for all the Papers They Give You: Columbia

Best Idea for a Pleasant Interview Day: Mt Sinai's Whole Day in Scrubs

Who are your nominees?

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[amyl]

Best Dinner: kentucky
Best Dinner Wine Budget: most of mine seemed about the same
Best Dinner Resident Turnout: oklahoma -- i think they all came.
Best Breakfast: MCG
Best Lunch: they all run together
Best Afternoon Snack: scott and white -- starbucks
Best Free Hotel: cleveland clinic -- the intercontinental opened the gift shop for me after hours
Best Tour: UTSW (was a video, no tour)
Most Efficient Interview Day: kentucky -- over at 1:30
Best Folder for all the Papers They Give You: can't remember
Best Idea for a Pleasant Interview Day: kentucky -- paid for flight there as well as hotel and organized shuttle to get us back and forth from airport to hotel, etc.

 

[lord_jeebus]

Feel free to come up with your own categories as well

 

[scotchnwater]

Best Dinner: UCSF - they pre-ordered everything and just kept bringing more food out

Best Dinner Wine Budget: UW-Seattle. Just kept pouring, and pouring, and pouring. Very nice

Best Dinner Resident Turnout: U of Chicago

Best Breakfast: Northwestern

Best Lunch: Three way tie for Northwestern, Stanford, and UCSF

Best Afternoon Snack: Wine and Cheese at UCSF

Best Free Hotel: Hotel Lucia at Oregon

Best Tour: OREGON (did you read the part about the aerial tram?!?!?)

Most Efficient Interview Day: Michigan. The interview schedule ran like CLOCKWORK and we were still out right after lunch.

Best Folder for all the Papers They Give You: Vanderbilt. It was like a zip up pouch thingy.

Best Idea for a Pleasant Interview Day: Vanderbilt took us to and from our hotel in a limo. Nice touch.

 

[silverumbrella]

Best Dinner: Kentucky (Top 10 steakhouse!)

Best Dinner Wine Budget: Dartmouth

Best Dinner Resident Turnout: Pitt (More residents than applicants)

Best Breakfast: Dartmouth (You get to order room service on them!)

Best Lunch: UNC (Huge resident turnout AND good food)

Best Afternoon Snack: Case Western (Lunch with the residents post-interview at a restaurant in place of pre-interview dinner)

Best Free Hotel: SO MANY - Penn (Hilton!), Dartmouth (swanky inn), UNC (luxury "boutique" hotel), Kentucky (warm chocolate chip cookies at check-in, jacuzzi bathtub)

Best Tour: UVA (walking tour of undergrad campus), UNC (bus tour of Chapel Hill including a stop at Starbucks), Kentucky (<10 minutes)

Most Efficient Interview Day: Case Western (8AM - noon)

Best Folder for all the Papers They Give You: Kentucky (actual portfolio)

Best Idea for a Pleasant Interview Day: UNC (So many fun and special touches but I won't ruin all the surprises )

Best Residents to Party with after dinner: GW!

Best free goodies: Duke, Pitt, UNC

 

[lord_jeebus]

Best Tour: OREGON (did you read the part about the aerial tram?!?!?)

Oh crap I forgot the tram

Best Vehicle: OHSU Tram

 

[kraphtymac]

Hottest Female Residents: Columbia

 

[lord_jeebus]

Fact: if you google "tram" the 2nd and 4th links are the OHSU tram

 

[scotchnwater]

Fact: if you google "tram" the 2nd and 4th links are the OHSU tram

This is true. I have no idea how you found that out.

Can we start a new thread of superlatives with "Worst of the Interview Trail"?

 

[nociceptor]

Most Family Friendly: New Mexico

 

[Coastie]

Best Rumor: UTMB-Galveston took some folks to a strip club when it was all guys interviewing. Apparently this happened 2 years ago. Any confirmation?

 

[Brocsonic]

Best Rumor: UTMB-Galveston took some folks to a strip club when it was all guys interviewing. Apparently this happened 2 years ago. Any confirmation?

Best Rumor: An anesthesiology applicant/interviewee hooked up (and I mean tha whole shabang) with a current Yale anesthesiology resident after the pre-interview dinner, then bragged about it on the interview day...lol

 

[AnesRover]

Best Dinner: Pitt (Cafe Allegro!)

Best Dinner Wine Budget: MGH

Best Dinner Resident Turnout: Pitt (More residents than applicants)

Best Breakfast: MUSC (hotel breakfast)

Best Lunch: UNC (Huge resident turnout AND good food), best food though was Duke


Best Free Hotel: UNC - Carolina Inn...enough said!

Best Tour: UVA (walking tour with stop at Starbucks), UNC (driving tour with stop at Starbucks).....I think I like coffee

Most Efficient Interview Day: MGH

Best Folder for all the Papers They Give You: none

Best Idea for a Pleasant Interview Day: UNC (everything just clicks, many very nice personal touches)

Best Residents (in general): Pitt, UNC

Best free goodies: Duke, Pitt, UNC

 

[WhoopDeeDoo]

My Two cents:

Best Dinner: Virginia Mason...I was really hungry and when they told me to get whatever I wanted...I went kinda wild.

Best Dinner Wine Budget: U Washington

Best Dinner Resident Turnout: Yale

Best Breakfast: Yale (the only place where I had hot food)

Best Lunch: UCLA -- I liked getting made to order sushi from the cateferia

Best Free Hotel: OHSU - Hotel Lucia was awesome (I took advantage of the pillow menu!)

Best Tour: UCSD -- they technically don't give tours -- but I got a tour of the call rooms and the bed looks more comfy than the bed I have at home!

Most Efficient Interview Day: Northwestern

Best Folder for all the Papers They Give You: OHSU -- I was bored on the plane and actually enjoyed reading all the information on fun things to do if I end up in Oregon. Also Northwestern where they give you a comprehensive binder with everything you would want to know about their program.

Best Idea for a Pleasant Interview Day: Northwestern - everyone was super friendly, no name tags necessary, and not too much dead time waiting. Oh and Virginia Mason, you spend most the day in scrubs which is kinda nice.

Best Residents (in general): I really liked the chiefs at Loma Linda. But overall, I liked the UCLA residents (I met at least 15 and they were all pretty cool)

Best free goodies: Yale and their $60 pen, I suppose. I didn't really get too many goodies -- I thought those were for family practice (I remember my old roommate getting fancy fondue sets, etc from FP residencies).

Best Transportation: tie between OHSU and Yale. The aerial tram is AWESOME! If I match there, I'm with scotchnwater, I will try to use it as part of my commute to work daily. Yale is also up there between they hooked it up so that the hotel transports you to EVERY WHERE and BACK really easily.

Best Rumor: I have to say that my interview season was disappointingly scandal-free.

 

[carrie198]

Best Dinner: BIDMC- Elephant Walk

Biggest Wine Budget: UCSD (chief is a self-proclaimed wine connoisseur)

Most amount of wine poured per applicant/place where everyone seemed closest to drunk: Washington (I agree that they kept pouring and pouring,...)

Best reception: The Brigham- sushi, wine, and cheese

Best resident turn-out at dinner: Pitt and The Brigham

Best tour: UCSD (no tour) and UVA (Starbucks stop is key)

Coolest Department Chair: Dr. Tremper at Michigan- he showed up on a Saturday at 7 am to talk to us for an hour, then came to drink beer, eat wings, and watch football with the applicants and residents at Buffalo's Wild Wings

Most pimped out ride to dinner: UCSD chief's S-class mercedes- the same guy who's a wine connoisseur. Apparently they make way more $$ in SD?

Most enthusiastic residents: Pitt, BIDMC, Michigan

Most laid-back dinner: Colorado (appetizers, pitchers of beer, shuffleboard, and pool) and Michigan (although this was also the smokiest)

Latest start to the day: Colorado- 11 am

Earliest start to the day: UCSD- 6:20

Longest interview day: The Brigham- 7:30 to 5:30, then reception followed

Nicest program coordinator: BIDMC, UVA, The Brigham, UW-Madison

Not so nice program coordinator: Cornell

Most efficiently run interview day: agree with Michigan- they were 100% on top of things

Most random comment uttered on the interview trail: Wash U attending- "I found true love on Eharmony.com" ???

Hottest male residents: Washington and Colorado

 

[DrN2O]

Best Free Hotel: Penn (Hilton Inn at Penn)

Most Efficient Interview Day: Definitely Michigan. 30+ applicants, hour long talk by the chair, 3-4 interviews, time with residents, and tour, all done by 12.

Best Afternoon Snack: Brigham (sushi, wine and cheese with tons of people).

Best free goodies: UCSF (free autographed baby Miller).

Most fun at dinner: UCSD (wine), Columbia (shots).

 

[AnesRover]

Biggest line of BS:

while sitting at pre-interview dinner:

Me: "So do you all get along well and hang out outside of work?"
Resident #1: "Oh yeah, it's great, we get together a lot...it's really a great group of residents."
(resident #2 walks in and sits down at dinner table)
Resident #2: "Hey, sorrry I'm late. Resident #1, who's this with you?"
Resident #1: "Oh, this is my wife Katie."
Resident #2: "Great, how long have you been married?"
Resident #1: "a year..."

Sounds like they are definitely a social group that hangs out together often . . . agree?

Best comment by an interviewer:

Interviewer: So you go to school at _____?
Me: yes
Interviewer: I did my fellowship there. I absolutely HATE it there.
Me: great. do you want me to just get up now?

 

[scotchnwater]

Best comment by an interviewer:

Interviewer: So you go to school at _____?
Me: yes
Interviewer: I did my fellowship there. I absolutely HATE it there.
Me: great. do you want me to just get up now?

That's awesome. How did that go over?

 

[AnesRover]

That's awesome. How did that go over?

I think I said something along the lines of: That's too bad b/c it's a fantastic place. You really missed out.

By that point in the interview day, however, I could care less...I had already made up my mind that I had absolutely no interest in going to that program.

 

[amyl]

for me the best comment was: so you go to nova scotia university? how is canada?

p.s. i go to nova southeastern, an american osteopathic medical school.

.....to the bottom of the rank list, thank you.

 

[Salt Creep]

Best breakfast: Louisville (Chick Fil-A chicken biscuits)

 

[173291]

Best Dinner: Three way tie btw BIDMC, UTSW, and Wash U

Most amount of wine poured per applicant/place where everyone seemed closest to drunk: Seems like Northwestern, because that is the one pre-interview dinner that I distinctly remember feeling drunk afterwards. Damned sneaky bastard waiters. I felt like everytime I had my head turned talking, he would sneak and fill my glass. I don't THINK I said or did anything suspicious/drunkardly...

Best interview day breakfast: Tie btw UC Davis and NW

Best interview day lunch: University Hospitals of Cleveland - We went to a sushi restaurant for lunch

Best resident turn-out at dinner: all about the same

Best tour: NW - Stopped by a fancy tea shop

Most enthusiastic residents: BIDMC, NW

Least enthusiastic residents: UTSW - one resident was in the midst of a mental breakdown over some personal issues

Most laid-back dinner: UT Houston - bar food and beer. My least favorite pre-interview dinner, I must admit.

Latest start to the day: BID 8:30am

Earliest start to the day: NW 7:15am

Nicest administrative assistants: U of C

Not so nice administrative assistant: none

Most efficiently run interview day: NW and BID

Most random comment uttered on the interview trail: "How did you get so darned, normal?" Whatever the hell that means. This was at a transitional yr interview. Weirdos

Hottest resident (to be read as, resident was so hot that I had trouble paying attention on the tour): UTMB

 

[silverumbrella]

Latest start to the day: GW: sometime between 10:30-11AM (Saturday interview)

Earliest start to the day: Univ of Rochester (5:45AM!!!!! )

Nicest administrative assistants: Pitt, UVA, Wake Forest

Not so nice administrative assistant: Penn State

 

[silverumbrella]

Most awkward conversation of the interview season:

Interviewer: So, where else have you interviewed?
Me: Ummm... well, my home program...
Interviewer: Obviously. Where else?
Me: Well... a lot of places in the southeast...
Interviewer: No. Specific program names.
Me: Well... the last place I interviewed was School X.
Interviewer: WOW. YOU got an interview at SCHOOL X? You should go there. It's a way better program than here.
Me: (silence)

 

[kraphtymac]

Best Bathroom: Northwestern. So spacious and OH so accessible.

 

[nociceptor]

Best hospital near a nude beach:UCSD, Miami a close second.

 

[CookWithGas]

I'll play along too!

Best Dinner: Johns Hopkins (I love seafood)

Best Dinner Wine Budget: University of Chicago

Best Dinner Resident Turnout: BiDMC

Best Breakfast: Brigham

Best Lunch: BIDMC

Best Afternoon Snack: n/a

Best Free Hotel: Hopkins....but PENN is a close second

Best Tour: PENN

Most Efficient Interview Day: Brigham and MGH

Best Folder for all the Papers They Give You: I did not want all those darn papers anyway

Best Idea for a Pleasant Interview Day: George Washington

Best Program Director: Penn

Best Chairman: NYU

Best Program Coordinator: Brigham

 

[Dejavu]

Not to reverse this thread a little, but any of you who interviewed at Mayo Clinic Rochester have any comments you would like to post?

Just curious.

 

[Dr Serenity]

Not to reverse this thread a little, but any of you who interviewed at Mayo Clinic Rochester have any comments you would like to post?

Just curious.

Perhaps this would be better addressed in another thread...

Having said that, I found Mayo to be one of the best all around programs I visited...and I'm not saying that merely because of the Mayo name.

 

[skittlesUofM]

Totally loved the hospital and the program. Everyone was nice, great dinner, excellent training, the only reason it isn't so high on my list is cause it's location. However, if I was married with 2 kids, it would for sure be #1. Its funny how you go through this interview process looking for "the best programl" when it really boils down to whats the best program for you at this time of your life. The top 30 programs all over great training, it's basically where do you want to live for 3/4 yrs, and it could be a long 4yrs being single in rochester.

Not to reverse this thread a little, but any of you who interviewed at Mayo Clinic Rochester have any comments you would like to post?

Just curious.

 

[gymone1]

Best Dinner: University of Kentucky then Dartmouth

Best Dinner Wine Budget: University of Chicago

Best Dinner Resident Turnout: University of Pittsburgh

Best Breakfast: Dartmouth (at the hotel)

Best Lunch: UK or U of C

Best Afternoon Snack: Penn

Best Free Hotel: Penn

Best Tour: Mt. Sinai

Most Efficient Interview Day: Wake Forest

Best Folder for all the Papers They Give You: Kentucky and Vanderbilt

Best Idea for a Pleasant Interview Day: none were "pleasant"

Best Program Director: Mt. Sinai

Best Chairman: UNC

Best Program Coordinator: Wake Forest

 

[pjl]

Did anyone else use the syrup at the dartmouth hotel? It was the best I have ever had. Hands down wins the best condiment/topping award from my interviews. Kinda gross to think back about, but I drank all the extra when I was finished.

 

[mmag]

Best Dinner: BID

Best Breakfast: tie between Brigham (oatmeal!) and NW

Best Coffee Break/Afternoon Snack UCSF

Best Lunch: NW

Best Reception: Brigham

Best Free Hotel: tie Hopkins and UPenn

Best Tour: UPenn

Most Efficient Interview Day: UMich

Best Folder for all the Papers They Give You: NW (actual 3 ring binder)

Best Program Coordinator: Mayo

 

[Brocsonic]

Here are my votes:

Best Dinner: Vanderbilt (Stoney River Steakhouse YUM!)

Best Dinner Wine Budget: Stanford

Best Dinner Resident Turnout: Emory/Cornell

Best Breakfast: Baylor (Breakfast burritos)

Best Lunch: UTMB (took us to Rudy T and Paco's)

Best Afternoon Snack: Brigham and Women's Cocktail Hour

Best Free Hotel: UTMB - San Luis RESORT!

Best Tour: UTSW (it was a video)

Most Efficient Interview Day: BID

Best Folder for all the Papers They Give You: Vanderbilt

Best Idea for a Pleasant Interview Day: Video Tour (UTSW)

Best Idea for Annoying All Applicants: Mandatory Grand Rounds Yale (started at 7:00am)

Best Program Director: UTSA

Best Chairman: Emory

Best Program Coordinator: Emory/BID

 

[amyl]

seriously, if there are any PDs etc that lurk here UTSW had a great idea to video the tour and show it instead.