does it really matter?

[HamSandwich]

is there any advantage to going to a program with a name (mayo, dartmouth, brown) vs. podunk program? someone told me that duke grads for FM start out around 150K instead of the standard 125K. is there a grain of truth? if that is not true, then is the only advantage that you can say "i went to blah blah program"?

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[upitt]

It does matter if you do your residency at programs like mayo, dartmouth, or brown. If you were looking to hire a new FP physician would you hire someone that came from mayo or podunk?
The salary is based on your experience and if you come from a strong program you might receive more money but I wouldn't say it will be $150k instead of $125.
Like any job that you apply to they will check your references and would like a lor. Getting a good job depends on your performance during residency.

 

[erichaj]

I don't think It matters that much. When you go to get a job, it's about personality and selling yourself to the employer. Yes, there is a small difference but it's not important enough to worry about. By the way, big university programs like duke or mayo are not the best FP programs. It's a well known fact that to be a good fp you need to know general medicine well and this is best done in a community program. Thats because the university programs are very specialized and get the rare cases. That's where the specialist reside.

 

[DDuncan]

erichaj is right. FP programs that have a tradition for training full scope physicians are not big universities. Most FPs that are looking to hire a partner would prefer to get a grad from an unopposed program where they know the grads do it all - ICU, endoscopy, OB.

A "name" would probably only be worth anything if you were interested in academia.