I used this thread last year and thought it was helpful.
Thought Id drop back in and leave some advice.
The process sucks, its really unfair to the applicants, a lot of places fill internally, and everywhere else invite people on a random schedule for interviews. Some places then take forever to decide, and some offer spots literally an hour after you leave. That's great if you like the place, but if you don't, then you have to choose if you want to take a spot or hold out and potentially get screwed. If you accept a spot you will have to sign a contract at most places almost immediately (Mine came via FedEx in 2 days). So know if you want a spot on that day.
For 2 year versus 1 year programs, it depends on what you want to do. A 2 year program should give you lots of structural, if they don't, then you are wasting your time. You should walk out of a 2 year program proficient in TAVR, and other core structural procedures as well. Also you should learn peripheral. If you go with a 2 year program, keep in mind that only somewhere between 300-400 hospitals in the entire country do TAVR, that's not very many (>1200 do CT surgery for instance). If you plan on being in a small private practice, then don't waste your time. A final note on this is a word of caution, some places are for sure 2 years, some places (MGH, Columbia) are one year and have a second year in structural, but maybe only one spot to give to one of the fellows in your class, so you may be the one left out. If you really want a 2nd year, try and get a guarantee going in.
Also, being a high level academic program is not always the best thing in interventional. For instance, some places have wonderful faculty (BWH, MGH) but not huge volume. And some places may have great general fellowships, but not great interventional programs (This applies to almost all of the Univ of CA programs).
Hope that helps, if anyone has specific questions, I might check back in at some point.
Here are places I thought were great:
Columbia - Only guarantee one year, but great faculty and high volume
Texas Heart - Huge volume, but lots of private faculty
Emory - Cant beat the volume
MGH - Lower volume, but great faculty
Scripps - Probably the best 2 year program, you get it all with great operators
Northwestern - Good volume, TAVR, great hospital
Sinai (NYC) - Crazy volume, you will be able to do anything once your done here
St Vincents (IN) - Lots of volume, some famous operators
