Interview impressions

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One of the best reviews I've read on here... Sounds about right from my experience.
FWIW, that may or may not be true, but what may sound like negatives before residency and during residency end up being positives after residency ;) Emory grads are probably very efficient in PP

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There are some programs out there, perhaps more than just "some", where all you do is do all the work for the attendings with little emphasis for education. I rotated at one of these programs myself (different from above). Residency programs are expanding to provide more coverage for attendings, as resident coverage is a big selling point for new hires, but often times this leaves little time for reading. You need time to read to learn the field. Obviously some learning will take place in clinic but if you can't read any of the literature what's the point?
 
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One of the best reviews I've read on here... Sounds about right from my experience.

Same here. Loved the people at this program and the city of Atlanta, but the description of the clinic/workload from this review is spot on.
 
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There are some programs out there, perhaps more than just "some", where all you do is do all the work for the attendings with little emphasis for education. I rotated at one of these programs myself (different from above). Residency programs are expanding to provide more coverage for attendings, as resident coverage is a big selling point for new hires, but often times this leaves little time for reading. You need time to read to learn the field. Obviously some learning will take place in clinic but if you can't read any of the literature what's the point?

Agreed. Sometimes attendings are also unrealistic in their expectations for reading/learning the literature quickly when there are 50x the amount of studies out there since they were in residency. While now these same residents (who are working for the attending and spending most of their time assisting with these patients) also have to deal with increasing patient volumes and increasing scut paperwork and such.

On a thread-related note, I really hope people will post some interview impressions here instead of the google doc since it's much more easily accessible and better formatted to a wide range of people. This thread helped me a ton and I feel the google doc would have been more difficult to sort through everything. Even anonymous posts are rank lists are in are fine...
 
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Anonymous review

Here are some of my rambling notes from the 2014-2015 interview season.

Minnesota: Very clinically oriented. Two 3 month research blocks. Residents don't cross cover. 3 sites all spread out but they say traffic isn't bad. Good didactics for physics and rad bio. Roughly 7:30-5. Very friendly faculty. Not much in place to do research. Residents did mention call on weekends you will sometimes have to show up for about 30 mins to cover TBI cases . Good variety of cases - faculty don't just have 1 disease site. 2 linacs, 1 tomo, 1 gamma knife. Interviews are 2 faculty to one applicant, which wasn’t bad at all. The physics guys were awesome. Some people got the early schedule and were done by noon whereas some didn’t even have their first interview until noon. Sat around and watched youtube vids with residents while waiting. Overall seemed like a decent program in a neat, but cold city.

UAB: Well rounded - excellent clinicals, diverse cases, plenty of peds, very nice faculty, well-respected program, opportunities for basic/translational/clinical research. Clinical trials path gives you didactics on how the process works. Holman available. Oral mock boards. Rotate at UAB plus 1 satellite about 15 minutes away. PD is awesome, chair is well known (Bonner Trial). Residents happy, some were very southern. Birmingham looked OK. Affordable living. Good fine dining, hiking, some breweries. Resident mentioned databases aren’t so great but faculty said there was plenty. Associated with Varian - great tech. Prostate brachy is weak - allowed to go to puerto rico for week long fellowships. Interviews were standard and overall laid back. Overall a really outstanding and well-rounded program.

Beaumont: Very solid program that seems to have a chip on its shoulder and is actively trying return to its glory days. Adding 6 faculty, taking people from MDACC (Guerrero is the man), UCF, etc. Strong chair from Moffitt moving the program forward. Strong brachy, peds, GK, tech. 12 mo physics/rad bio research. Clinical databases as well. No cross cover, EPIC, charts easy to obtain, facilities are OK, animal models, targeted imaging, 3T MRI, PET/CT, animal versions; transitional year included with onc electives, 3 weeks vacation plus 1 week for conference. 7am tumor board every day for pgy2, then service tumor board only afterwards. Stay until 5 mostly. 1 satellite clinic where you see only consults and wide variety. Interviews were standard. PD is not the warmest of characters. My impression was they really push you to publish since they advertise how many abstracts they send to ASTRO every year. Located in the suburbs north of Detroit – didn’t get a chance to see much of town. Overall a strong program that is ambitious to ‘move up the ranks.’

U Chicago: A very strong program with a lot of history. The Monday morning conference was not malignant in my opinion – but it wasn’t necessarily laid back. One resident presents a case and another is randomly called up and fields relevant questions from faculty. When it is your case, I was told you spend a good amount of time (2-3 weekends) preparing by using pre-made resident info packets. Residents are quite sharp as a result. Many research opportunities - basic sci in Dr. W's lab. Can also do clinical research masters program where you take classes and finals (like college) while you do research on the side. 1 full year of research as PGY 4. Clinically they may be busier than other programs. Interviews were pretty standard. Vice chair kept getting paged and I went to a sim with him. No interview with chairman. Some of the faculty actually replied to thank yous. Overall a top program in a great city – must be ready to spend time preparing for conference and fielding questions.

OHSU: Great program with a very ambitious chairman. Beautiful and hip city with a gorgeous campus. Holman is encouraged and Dr. Thomas does everything he can to pair you up with whatever research interests you have. A lot of work going on and opportunities for residents to find a basic science lab. Clinically solid with very friendly and down to earth faculty. PD is absolutely hilarious but his service is BUSY and you may end up staying late into the evening. Awesome staff as well. Overall a solid program in a beautiful city.


USC: Up and coming program with young strong faculty. Great lifestyle and LA County is beautiful. Dr. Chang is great and everyone loves him. You get 6 months of elective, about half dedicated to physics, peds. Scheduled didactics and resident led lecture. Beautiful hospital and work area. Close knit residents who seemed very happy. Schedule is light - about 8-4. 5 weeks vacation plus a bunch of random holidays since it’s a county hospital. Residents say you have a lot of responsibility and autonomy at this program. GammaKnife and cyberknife. Panel interview with MD’s where you have the first 5 minutes to talk about whatever you want “to make a memorable impression.” It was a little stuffy despite my attempts to lighten the mood, but overall not bad. I think in the past people would try to show off talents (instruments etc.), but now its mostly just talking. Panel interview with physicists was OK also – no free 5 minute intro. Coordinator seemed a little… uncoordinated, but very friendly. Overall a nice lifestyle program in LA with great faculty and happy residents.

Emory: Strong program only getting stronger. This is a very busy program with heavy hours. Ultimately this leads to impressive efficiency by residents. Research opportunities are there and you get 6 months during PGY 4. Intern year is built in, but I could not get a gauge on how difficult it is. Protons coming soon. Faculty are very nice and Dr. Curran is THE dude of all dudes. Currently 4 sites – Emory, Midtown, Grady, and VA – all relatively close together. Soon adding 1 site that is farther away, but has GK,prostate brachy LDR/HDR and some breast brachy. Atlanta is a great city with pockets of awesome neighborhoods. It’s very affordable and a great bang for your buck. Traffic does indeed suck. Interviews are standard. Dr. Curran is the easiest person in the world to talk to. PD is a little odd but ultimately a nice guy. Again, a strong program getting stronger but with heavy hours.


Cedars Sinai: Brand new program in Hollywood currently with 2 residents. The hospital is nice with probably the broadest patient population you can imagine – homeless to celebrities. The volume is high. The faculty are great and Dr. Sandler is an incredibly kind and friendly guy that I would love to work for. Interestingly, even though Dr. Sandler is a prostate expert, they do not see much prostate. Interviews again were standard. While in the ‘waiting room’ we had some therapists and dosimetrists come in to talk about the program, which strangely turned into an impromptu panel interview with whoever was there. Overall a new program with strong leadership and high volume at a well-known hospital in a great, though expensive, location


Cleveland Clinic: A very strong and impressive program. Program director is amazing and advocates for his residents. No cross coverage. The coordinator is great. The faculty are incredibly down to earth and friendly, as are the residents. The chair is well known. He is stern with a poker face but is very ambitious and active in pushing the program forward. CC is a beautiful campus. Brand new cancer center being built. Used to have a built in onc related TY year which sounded awesome, but that is currently on hold due to acgme issues. The night before dinner was at a hip bowling alley and was a welcome departure from those stuffy dinners. The residents seemed very close knit and happy with only positive things to say about the program. Didactics daily 8-9am. There is a morning conference where a resident is assigned to present a case and discuss relevant literature around a conference table. IMO, very laid back and educational with faculty led discussion. Hours seemed standard to heavy. 9 mo dedicated research. Cleveland is cold but the city itself did not seem so bad. There are certainly trendy areas for the younger crowd and apparently some awesome fine dining. This was one of the most impressive and well-rounded programs I visited.
 
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'Cleveland Clinic: A very strong and impressive program. Program director is amazing and advocates for his residents. No cross coverage. The coordinator is great. The faculty are incredibly down to earth and friendly, as are the residents. The chair is well known. He is stern with a poker face but is very ambitious and active in pushing the program forward. CC is a beautiful campus. Brand new cancer center being built. Used to have a built in onc related TY year which sounded awesome, but that is currently on hold due to acgme issues. The night before dinner was at a hip bowling alley and was a welcome departure from those stuffy dinners. The residents seemed very close knit and happy with only positive things to say about the program. Didactics daily 8-9am. There is a morning conference where a resident is assigned to present a case and discuss relevant literature around a conference table. IMO, very laid back and educational with faculty led discussion. Hours seemed standard to heavy. 9 mo dedicated research. Cleveland is cold but the city itself did not seem so bad. There are certainly trendy areas for the younger crowd and apparently some awesome fine dining. This was one of the most impressive and well-rounded programs I visited.'


This review is spot on. Very impressive program.

'UAB: Well rounded - excellent clinicals, diverse cases, plenty of peds, very nice faculty, well-respected program, opportunities for basic/translational/clinical research. Clinical trials path gives you didactics on how the process works. Holman available. Oral mock boards. Rotate at UAB plus 1 satellite about 15 minutes away. PD is awesome, chair is well known (Bonner Trial). Residents happy, some were very southern. Birmingham looked OK. Affordable living. Good fine dining, hiking, some breweries. Resident mentioned databases aren’t so great but faculty said there was plenty. Associated with Varian - great tech. Prostate brachy is weak - allowed to go to puerto rico for week long fellowships. Interviews were standard and overall laid back. Overall a really outstanding and well-rounded program.'


Loved this place as well, but they definitely have a certain personality you have to vibe with.
 
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Why aren't there many posts for this cycle? Chit/Chat thread is quiet too. Where everyone at, things should be winding down.
 
Why aren't there many posts for this cycle? Chit/Chat thread is quiet too. Where everyone at, things should be winding down.

There is a google document where people are posting some interview impressions
 
Anonymous reviews
Cleveland Clinic

General: Established and strong clinical program. Cleveland may not be for everyone, but it is a good midwest city. Cost of living is affordable and many residents own homes.

Program: Three spots this year for a total of 12. High proportion go into academics (approx. 18/20 recent grads) but a few graduating this year are looking at private practice. Completing research is not an absolute must- you make your own experience. They have the resources available if you are interested, including department statistician. New cancer center will be opening Spring 2017 with four TrueBeams, two Edges, and one gamma knife (with vault for a second). Very active prostate brachy program. Active pediatric services but program keeps its relationship with St. Jude’s so resident go there for a month. Overall I would say the residents are busy and may have slightly longer hours than other institutions. Call is q5 weeks in PGY2 then lightens. They do treat on Saturdays so the on call resident has to go in. The department follows the socratic method of teaching, but there is never any malicious intent. Faculty, especially chair and PD, are 100% dedicated to resident education so there are high expectations.

Research: 9 months in PGY4. Mostly clinical opportunities but some translational available. Many established databases for disease sites. Very strong department representation at ASTRO.

Overall: great problem with some of the best clinical training. Residents know the data inside and out. If you can handle the socratic teaching and expectations then this is a great place to train.

Rush

Program: Two newer faculty from U of M and Cleveland that add to the experience already there with established faculty such as the chairman. Chairman has a unique personality but did not come off as malignant as some old reviews have stated. No big changes in the works but I believe the newer faculty will have a positive influence on the program. If I recall correctly there are 3 linacs and one tomotherapy. Strong reputation with clinical trials and Dr. Abram’s position in NRG. No cross coverage except for one service with the chair since he has more administrative time. One attending will now be going to Central Dupage regularly for clinic and resident will go with him. This will provide proton experience and ensure residents get their pediatric numbers. Can also choose to do an elective there. They also have a new community site just outside the city. From my impression the various faculty have a slightly different way of teaching that is being combined into updating the didactics.

Research: 6 months for research and electives. Appeared to be some good clinical research opportunities.

Overall: I haven’t seen a lot written about this program but I feel it is a small but solid program that will be getting even better. Great location in Chicago.

University of Arizona

Program: New merger with Banner health. Was approved for an increase and will now be taking 2 residents this year. It was stated they will be getting machine upgrades with a new department in 2017- but it was noted that this promise has been made for many years. Have some younger faculty that have come in and are pushing to transform the program with more pressure for research and more “socratic” teaching. I got the feel that this hasn’t exactly been accepted by the current residents.

Research: 6-12 months throughout PGY 2-5. There is a push for increased research but the residents made it seem like the program doesn’t quite have the resources available to match the expectation. One interviewer went through my application and listed nearly every poster and asked why there wasn’t a manuscript for each.

Overall: This is a stable program and it doesn’t appear the Banner merger will negatively impact the residents. Should be a new department in the future. I wasn’t confident I knew what the expectations would be with the PD, younger faculty and what department resources were available. Very friendly chairman.

Wayne State DMC

Program: Has had a couple rough years in the match but that was not addressed on interview day. Department leadership has been sorted out since the chair left a few years ago. Have some younger faculty that have stayed on and seem dedicated to improving the program. Did not get a feel for the didactics during interview day. Have some strong physics and radbio faculty. The biggest downside of this program is the location but they did a great job on a bus tour highlighting the revival of the city. Is now a part of McLaren; which will be opening a proton site and residents may get an opportunity to rotate there but the rotation was not fully confirmed as of interview time. One community site plus VA rotation.

Research: 6 months. There is opportunity for both clinical and translational research. The radbio lab seemed productive if that’s what you’re interested in.

Overall: It didn’t seem obvious as to why they have had trouble matching other than the location. Has good technology, case pathology, research opportunities and faculty.



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More Anon impressions

University of Southern California

Clinical experience: County hospital based program for the most part. A few rotations done at USC Norris Cancer Center. Lots of autonomy at the country hospital since its mostly resident-run for most residencies. Which is great since you interact with a lot of residents directly when discussing patients across different departments. Downside is that the resident training did not seem very structured to me, and I’m not sure there is enough of a focus on education/making sure residents know the literature.

Lifestyle: Decent hours, residents home at 5. Plenty of vacation.

Research opportunities: Seemed like research is an increasing focus, but USC is definitely a clinically focused program.

Leadership: Awesome PD and Chair! They both seem very invested in the residents and the chair is well known.

Job Outcomes: Seemed less than optimal. Jobs are tight in Southern CA, so its understandable, but a large number of recent resident graduates had chosen to do fellowships.

Location: Downtown LA. LA is awesome – culturally diverse, lots of food/entertainment options, lots of young people, but Cedars Sinai and UCLA are located in better locations.

Overall: Great people, fun location. Program seems to be on the upswing in terms of developing research opportunities. But the program seemed to lack as structured an education/clinical supervision as I would have liked. And job outcomes are not great unfortunately. If you had to be in Southern CA, I would rank this below UCLA/UCSD and above the others.

University of Wisconsin

Clinical Experience: You will be very well trained here. Residents know their stuff coming out of residency here. It seemed to be on the heavier side in terms of caseload but it clearly paid off and was not because of scut

Lifestyle: Residents worked pretty late during PGY-2 (leaving at 7-8 PM seemed common), but it got better (5-6 PM) as time went on. Definitely a place you work harder than others.

Research Opportunities: Amazing. Lots of residents designing clinical trials etc. Faculty are very supportive.

Leadership: Chair is one of the friendliest I met – he’s an awesome guy. PD is very supportive and all the residents like her – although her service is apparently the hardest in terms of work!

Job Outcomes: The residents are very well trained and are competitive when it comes time for the job search. Seemed like residents were able to get academic or PP jobs.

Location: Not my cup of tea. Small Midwestern college town, not a whole lot of ethnic/cultural diversity from what I could see, very cold. And unfortunately still a pretty expensive place to live compared to other places in the Midwest.

Overall: Great program – you will come out very well trained. You will work harder than most. The location is what dropped this program a bit on my rank list.



Mayo

Clinical experience: Truly amazing. What really sets this place apart is the Senior Resident Associate rotation the last 6 months of your training. You effectively work as an attending (with your own scheduling person and everything) and see all pathologies. You see patients completely independently and an attending just have to sign off on the treatment plan. Residents know the literature, know how to treat patients, and will be ultra competitive (on par – or better – than any top 10 program) when it comes to PP jobs for sure because of their clinical expertise.

Lifestyle: Great hours – residents out at 5/530 and get protected academic time.

Research Opportunities: Not a basic science place from what I could see, but GREAT clinical research opportunities. No pressure to do research, so residents can be very, very productive (because of all the time/resources they have) to much more clinically focused – its really your choice.

Leadership: PD seemed nice, did not get a chance to really interact with chair during interview day unfortunately

Job Outcomes: Ultra competitive residents at graduation. Can get academic or top notch PP jobs from what I have heard from residents at Mayo as well as PGY-5s/young faculty I talked to at other places.

Location: Rochester is pretty terrible…

Overall: Unless you want to do basic science, this place should be near the top of your list. I went to other places in top 10-15, and Mayo was more impressive than all of them (except for “the big 3”). Unfortunately, the reality is that Rochester is a pretty terrible location, so think long and hard about whether you are willing to spend 4 years here.


Cleveland Clinic

Clinical Experience: Great clinical experience, residents really know their stuff by graduation. Residents emphasize how awesome all of the faculty are to work with – and I could tell why on interview day. The didactics are Socratic method (think WashU/UChicago) but because all the faculty are awesome, and they do pass around questions if you don’t know the answer, it was not at all malignant. But you do have to work hard to learn all the data. They emphasized that residents typically score 95th percentile nationally on the in-service exam

Lifestyle: Decent. Residents seemed to leave at 5/530, but they did take work home with them and had to study for didactics.

Research Opportunities: Amazing. Residents are among the most productive in the nation and research is definitely an expectation here.

Leadership: One of the nicest, most invested PDs I met on the trail. Truly a great guy who is key to the residency program being so awesome. Chair comes across as a bit stoic on interview day but is also actually awesome and the residents love him.

Job Outcomes: Amazing academic jobs right out of residency! 80-90% get academic jobs – so this is the place to go for a top notch academic job coming out! The PD did say they don’t push residents into academic vs. private and one of the residents mentioned he was interested in PP.

Location: Cleveland…is okay. It does have some areas of town with decent bars/food. And it’s a big enough city that you will get some diversity. And you have different types of neighborhoods you can live in (downtown type spots if you’re young and single, very close suburbs with affordable houses).

Overall: This place went up on my rank list after interview day. Awesome job outcomes, seemed like a very happy/fun group of residents/faculty. Overall a solid place to do residency and I would be very happy to end up here.

UCLA

Clinical Experience: Steinberg (chair) has done an awesome job to build this place up. Lots of great people for every disease site and doing a lot of innovative work (ViewRay, SBRT for prostate, etc) which is interesting to see. Residents seemed pretty well trained. Didactics are well structured, although they seemed maybe too laid back to me…to the point where I’m not sure how well the upper level residents grasp some of the finer details of the literature that residents at other programs do grasp.

Lifestyle: Much of the scut that plagued the program in the past seems to be gone. PD made this a point and residents seemed to get out by 6 most days. And growing to 3 residents/year has helped. That being said, it did seem like there was still less support staff (NPs/Pas) than other places.

Research Opportunities: Growing. Seems like there is a lot of clinical trials and other research going on. From what I could tell, the older residents did not seem to have a whole lot of research under their belt, but the newer ones have taken advantage of research opportunities.

Leadership: Steinberg/Chen is probably the best chair/PD combo I met all interview trail. Awesome people and very invested in residents. The rest of the faculty are all awesome too, making this a good place to train in terms of the people working there.

Job Outcomes: Probably better than all the other programs in LA, but recent graduates still seemed to struggle. With changes over the past 2-3 years however, this program is definitely THE definition of program on a meteoric rise.

Location: Best location in LA. Little to no traffic/commute if you live close by (which is rare in LA…). If you like interesting people, cultural diversity, fun things to do, amazing food, the beach, and expensive housing…this is the place to be.

Overall: Solid program, on the upswing for sure. This program went up on my rank list after interview day due to awesome PD/Chair and faculty….as well as location. The only thing to worry about is that, historically, UCLA has not been that great of a program. I would say #1 in SoCal.

WashU

Clinical experience: Amazing clinical experience. You have every single radiation toy known to man. Normal structures are almost always contoured for you (so you focus on tumor volumes), which is amazing! Residents really know the evidence. Didactics are socratic (which may not fit everyone’s style), so you have to spend time to learn your stuff, but it pays off.

Lifestyle: Great. You come in at 730 get out at 5/530. Get plenty of academic time to contour/do research. Call is a bit on the heavier side – you do typically have to come in on Saturday when you’re on call. Residents are overall very happy with their lifestyle.

Research Opportunities: Clinical trials. Basic science. Chart Reviews. You can do anything and everything and WashU has amazing resources both within rad onc and outside of it.

Leadership: Chair is awesome – basic science powerhouse if that’s your thing, but he also is really invested in your development as a resident. PD is well liked. Some of the faculty seemed to be “rougher”, but residents all seemed to joke about it and co-applicants who rotated here told me they were all nice/are great people.

Job Outcomes: Heavily recruited. It seemed like residents got interviews from across the country, and about 1 a year stays on as faculty.

Location: St. Louis is a medium sized city. It does have some happening spots (downtown and central west end, sort of). You do have more sports/entertainment options and a bit more diverse/cosmopolitan population than other Midwestern cities which is nice. City does have one of the highest crime rates in the country.

Overall: Truly awesome program in a decent location. Would be ecstatic to match here!
 
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Baylor

Disclaimer: I learned about this place through a rotation a few years ago, interview and have spoken to current and former residents. I have held on to my impressions to allow time to pass for anonymity, but the time is very ripe now.

To understand this place, you have to know some background. The program has been around since the 1980s but it was always a very underfunded arm of the radiology department without a chair. Back in the day, this was a very different program with Shiao Woo in charge and Arnold Paulino as PD, they were one of the first places to get IMRT. A few years ago, BCM had a partnership with Methodist hospital and had a very nasty divorce. This led to Methodist Hospital taking some of the best clinicians from BCM and some programs including the bone marrow transplant program. BCM’s best radiation facility at Methodist left with the split. The money left with the split. BCM was like a very broke guy after a divorce and Methodist was the wife. The college is not affiliated with an undergraduate university, and was left with an almost failing bond-rating and totally bankrupt, which has mostly improved after many years of austerity. Currently, the institution has a VA, a private partnership with CHI St. Lukes and a county hospital. 2 out of three of those places generate the institution zero revenue. The department has remained underfunded and not a priority to this day in an institution that has historically been known for heart surgeons like Debakey and Cooley. Then, someone without any qualifications became the chair at BCM rad onc and recently left to be the chair at San Antonio (also another very bad program to avoid). This led to the majority of the department leaving including most physicists, the PD, and another faculty. Currently the department has 3 attendings which split time between 3 sites. I heard there are more people being hired, but this has always been a complete revolving door.

Ok now lets get to the meat of the post: this is one of the worst places in terms of residency experience in the country; this is important to highlight in these times of oversupply (bad programs need to be contracted or even shut down). The residents who thrive at this program are very self-motivated and essentially teach themselves and are actually very competent clinically. This is not by any means meant to knock anybody who trained there. I would be very happy to practice with any of them, and they make the best they can out of a bad situation. They do a lot of brachytherapy and this appears to be strength. The attendings are generally not involved in resident education; this has been the case for many years even at full level of staffing, clearly a cultural problem. The clinical didactics is mostly people teaching each-other with almost always zero faculty in attendance, watching recorded lectures. The department has been in probation before. They have had multiple board failures over the past few years. Some have even failed to receive board certification. They have also had people transfer out due to unhappiness over the past 10 years. Faculty is not always supportive of residents in the job search and in the past there have been allegations of faculty actually sabotaging certain residents. Historically, they have been ok in the match due to location in one of nation’s largest cities (#4). The mentality has always been essentially match a warm body, what they have always done and recently did. If you look at their alumni, they have recently had IMG and DO. There were certain faculty the residents clearly hinted who could not function without residents. There is sometimes an overwhelming amount of scut which interferes with education. They use the residents as PAs to essentially keep the gear moving. There also appeared to be bad culture in the department. I witnessed residents be disrespected by nurses and attendings. There was minimal collegiality. I once heard the chair at the time refer to the department as a “cockroach” who could not be killed by a nuclear fall out and will always re-emerge; he seemed to think this was quite funny which I thought was awfully odd. I also overheard this person say things that were borderline racist and sexist. I also went to see an inpatient consult with a resident and was shocked to find out that they have to pay for parking to see an inpatient or go to a tumor board at two of the hospitals because the department does not secure a parking pass for them. Minor issue, but relevant is there is zero exciting, practice changing research going on in the department.


I think during this time I would be very cautious about going here. The only reason I can see is you absolutely need to be in Houston and cannot get into MDACC. I know my rotation had a profound effect on my ranking of the place, so I feel the need to comment on what I know and observed. Currently in these times, we have to identify the programs that need to be contracted. People who apply have choices and should not go to a bad program. I could see this place improving if the institution actually invests significantly in the department and the culture changes but this does not appear to be happening anytime soon. The only place worst is UTMB.



As general advice, look out for code words when you interview which sum up similar situations at other programs (there are others just like this). This is what you will hear so listen carefully and learn the code, because residents are often being watched or are uncomfortable openly stating issues:

1. “this is a very clinical program”
2. “lots of hands on training”

3. Others similar phrases
 
So tell me how you REALLY feel. This time please don't hold back.
Lol, this post definitely gets the award for "Post airing the most dirty laundry" in this thread. BCM sounds like a mess. Echoes some posts in Programs that could be candidates for contracting/closing.
Surprised they were able to fill without SOAPing this year.
 
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people are scared. small specialty. lots of corruption. people want jobs. ---- awful for the society, the profession and the patients.
the corrupt ones thrive.
 
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the fact that we are nowhere near addessing the hellpit issue and some programs have even expanded, even some of the hellpits, tells you about all you need to know about the “future” of the field. The usual SOAPERS are at it again as ERAS opens up.

Oh wait I forgot the narrative is once again the field is hot, job market has never been better, nothing to see here. Sorry my bad!
 
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the fact that we are nowhere near addessing the hellpit issue and some programs have even expanded, even some of the hellpits, tells you about all you need to know about the “future” of the field. The usual SOAPERS are at it again as ERAS opens up.

Oh wait I forgot the narrative is once again the field is hot, job market has never been better, nothing to see here. Sorry my bad!

This issue is depressing to me, probably more than protons.

If Rad Onc collectively decided not to SOAP anyone who initially applied to another field, no one would care. Rad Onc SOAPs are like 0.1% of matches nationally. At each hospital, were talking about 1 or 2 residents. I just cant believe the hospitals would care. Patients would not be harmed.

At least with protons you can just admit you are scared of powerful people.
 
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This issue is depressing to me, probably more than protons.

If Rad Onc collectively decided not to SOAP anyone who initially applied to another field, no one would care. Rad Onc SOAPs are like 0.1% of matches nationally. At each hospital, were talking about 1 or 2 residents. I just cant believe the hospitals would care. Patients would not be harmed.

At least with protons you can just admit you are scared of powerful people.
Prisoners dilemma. Tragedy of the commons etc
 
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