ut southwestern general surgery

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sacajaweha

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wondering what people thought of the general surgery program at ut southwestern -- regarding competitiveness, malignancy, attendings, surgical experience, ect. Thanks.

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Great program I think, I've got a few former students there now. Might be a little too heavy on the trauma in the scheme of things. They have a # of world-class faculty & I loved Parkland as a labratory for training when I rotated there years ago as a visiting student. I heard good things about their program thru the grapevine from a acquaintance who recently did a specialty fellowship there.
 
I did a 4th year sub-I there in "TASC" which is the Truama and Emergency Surgery service and had a good time. It's a bit bizzare at good-sized county hospital to being seeing appys, choles, amputations, abscesses, blunt trauma, and penetrating trauma all on the same call night. This apparently is one of the new 80hr/week changes and makes for some pretty busy calls and long lists, but the great thing is that there is almost always an OR running (sometimes up to 3) and the residents seem to get great OR time.

I'm biased, since I want to do trauma, but I thought it was a very solid program. As County hospitals go Parkland offers a pretty good environment. Great resident OR time (at least on this service) and it's a pretty big program (in the high teens of categorical positions/yr if I remember correctly).

Er, I mean it's a poor program and no one else besides me should apply... Seriously though, if resident autonomy and trauma are important to you I would consider it heavily. It is high on my list.

Dallas is really not "Texas" as I think of it. I've lived in DC, Boston, and LA and have spent a decent amount of time in New York, Chicago, and Seattle and found it to be more cosmopolitan than I expected. While it lacks some of the natural beauty of a more coastal region and it is ridiculously hot and humid in the summer, it seems socially pretty reasonable (says a white male). Fair amount of young professionals, a decent nightlife, cheap housing, a passable array of ethnic restraunts, etc.
 
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Low teens it is... Still one of the larger g.surg programs.
 
Great program, excellent reputation, heavy on 3rd year, great endoscopic/laparoscopic training facilities, a little hardcore but not malignant, somewhat old school, good facilities

In Dallas which is a pretty decent town overall (except you have to drive to get anywhere). Heavy trauma. A lot of fellows around. New chairman.
 
I was impressed with UT Southwestern, and I would have ranked them higher is I was from the area. but I'm from the SE and wanted to stay closer to home.

Overall a great program. However, when i interviewed one of the interviewers told me to stay at coastal programs because racism still exists in Texas/Dalls (I'm not white). He was just being honest. He said he hoped I picked UT, but if I wanted to be happy stay on the east or west coast. Also, he told me he felt the chairman was "weak". Now I've talked to a lot of people who really like the new chairman, but I found it interesting that this interviewer would be so candid. Some ax to grind? Loyal to the old chairman? Who knows. But he made the case that the new chairman went through three rounds of interviews and he was always their last pick. When all the other candidates dropped out... he was the only one left.
 
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