Prelim Year Opinions

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MelMelisqueen

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Hi everyone,

I've been looking for info on prelim years, and have found some scattered stuff, but was hoping anyone could provide updated opinions about the vibe at programs. Right now I'm looking at-

Yale New Have
Johns Hopkins bayview
Johns hopkins university
mass gen
Brigham-
St. Elizabeth's
Nassau University
Icahn at mt sinai
carolinas medical center
cone health program
unc
duke
wake forest
Albert einstein (philly)
Main Line Lankenau
Temple
Thomas Jefferson
Brown University
MUSC
UVa
Eastern Virginia
VCU

Any opinions are welcome. I'm going to be a Neuro prelim, so it's important to me that I get good training. Of course I'd also like to enjoy a bit of a social life.

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my neuro friend who had an invite to Hopkins wouldn't touch them with 10 foot pole for being pretentious dbags

hearsay n = 1 a few years ago
 
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Is there a reason you didn't consider Albany Medical Center for your Neuro prelim?
 
I'm pretty clueless in this subject so apologies, but are you looking for Neuro Prelim spots specifically (honestly I didn't know these were a thing) or are you asking about TY/IM Prelim/even Surgery Prelim?
 
Hi everyone,

I've been looking for info on prelim years, and have found some scattered stuff, but was hoping anyone could provide updated opinions about the vibe at programs. Right now I'm looking at-

Yale New Have
Johns Hopkins bayview
Johns hopkins university
mass gen
Brigham-
St. Elizabeth's
Nassau University
Icahn at mt sinai
carolinas medical center
cone health program
unc
duke
wake forest
Albert einstein (philly)
Main Line Lankenau
Temple
Thomas Jefferson
Brown University
MUSC
UVa
Eastern Virginia
VCU

Any opinions are welcome. I'm going to be a Neuro prelim, so it's important to me that I get good training. Of course I'd also like to enjoy a bit of a social life.

Prelim at the Brigham here. Six weeks in, would highly recommend (though heard people start getting SAD in winter). The people are excellent and friendly, have elite pedigrees but aren't pretentious. The medicine is cutting edge and academic. The culture is very supportive of the intern's well-being. Share the scut, get out on time. The surgeon general (who was a BWH resident) talked to us at the end of orientation week about staying grounded, meditating, finding time to recharge, and socializing but not using parties as an escape from reality as he felt he did during intern year.

I have 1 month of vacation (28 days plus 5 days for one of the major holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years, or Rosh Hashanah). I have 2.3 months of electives (entirely flexible; in two week blocks; options include research, IM subspecialty consults, informatics, medical management (the business kind), iHub (innovation), patient safety, ultrasound, ophtho, neuro, derm, path, women's health, others). With respect to inpatient primary service rotations, I have general medicine (2.7 mo), oncology (solid/liquid/BMT) (1.7 mo), cardiology (floor or unit) (1.6 mo), MICU (1.4 mo), random shifts for the holidays and sick call/jeopardy (0.8 mo), and ED (0.5 mo). Out of these rotations, I'm at BWH's community hospital (Faulkner) for a month and the VA for a month. Overall a good diversity of experience. The program is pretty big so trading is common. Outside of vacation and electives, I'm working about 67 ± 7 hours per week, including time to go to noon conference to eat/learn every day. Census caps vary by service, from 6 to 10. Feels busy usually but seldom overwhelming.

Reply with questions.
 
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Prelim at the Brigham here. Six weeks in, would highly recommend (though heard people start getting SAD in winter). The people are excellent and friendly, have elite pedigrees but aren't pretentious. The medicine is cutting edge and academic. The culture is very supportive of the intern's well-being. Share the scut, get out on time. The surgeon general (who was a BWH resident) talked to us at the end of orientation week about staying grounded, meditating, finding time to recharge, and socializing but not using parties as an escape from reality as he felt he did during intern year.

I have 1 month of vacation (28 days plus 5 days for one of the major holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years, or Rosh Hashanah). I have 2.3 months of electives (entirely flexible; in two week blocks; options include research, IM subspecialty consults, informatics, medical management (the business kind), iHub (innovation), patient safety, ultrasound, ophtho, neuro, derm, path, women's health, others). With respect to inpatient primary service rotations, I have general medicine (2.7 mo), oncology (solid/liquid/BMT) (1.7 mo), cardiology (floor or unit) (1.6 mo), MICU (1.4 mo), random shifts for the holidays and sick call/jeopardy (0.8 mo), and ED (0.5 mo). Out of these rotations, I'm at BWH's community hospital (Faulkner) for a month and the VA for a month. Overall a good diversity of experience. The program is pretty big so trading is common. Outside of vacation and electives, I'm working about 67 ± 7 hours per week, including time to go to noon conference to eat/learn every day. Census caps vary by service, from 6 to 10. Feels busy usually but seldom overwhelming.

Reply with questions.

Thanks for this thorough answer. Would love to hear more thoughts now that it's further along in the year.
 
Thanks for this thorough answer. Would love to hear more thoughts now that it's further along in the year.
Same positive sentiment as before. In the interim, I've had the chance to teach first year med students in a small group setting and get hooked into research projects related to my eventual field. There's plenty to do in Boston outside of work. Every Friday evening, someone chooses a local bar and all the residents are invited to hang out. Many have gone apple-picking and hiking, either together or separately as the choices are many. Tomorrow, a group will be watching a big regatta. As part of the residency's humanistic curriculum, interns went after work to the Museum for Fine Arts to talk over art, then ate out afterwards sponsored by the residency. We get free tickets to the Boston Symphony Orchestra (some blackouts). The vibe is collegial. People send out shout-outs/praise for co-residents to the Phys (senior resident who does medicine consults and triages patients to ICUs) who in turn aggregates them in a daily morning email to the housestaff. The clinical experience remains diverse in terms of patient demographics and pathology (except less liver than other places).
 
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Same positive sentiment as before. In the interim, I've had the chance to teach first year med students in a small group setting and get hooked into research projects related to my eventual field. There's plenty to do in Boston outside of work. Every Friday evening, someone chooses a local bar and all the residents are invited to hang out. Many have gone apple-picking and hiking, either together or separately as the choices are many. Tomorrow, a group will be watching a big regatta. As part of the residency's humanistic curriculum, interns went after work to the Museum for Fine Arts to talk over art, then ate out afterwards sponsored by the residency. The vibe is collegial. People send out shout-outs/praise for co-residents to the Phys (senior resident who does medicine consults and triages patients to ICUs) who in turn aggregates them in a daily morning email to the housestaff. The clinical experience remains diverse in terms of patient demographics and pathology (except less liver than other places).

Thanks! Appreciate your time!
 
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