I think Rochester, Minnesota has to be on that list. It's COLD COLD COLD in the winters and that place is tiny and 90 minutes from the twin cities IF you make it there without crashing your car on all the black ice. Roch is WAY worse than Atlanta, the Florida programs, or any number of other places on that list. It's possibly rivaled by Detroit, but even Detroit has a lot more fun things to do.
Okay I admit rochester is cold and isn't world renowned for it's club/night life, but there are some definite perks for living in rochester. It's a great small city with mid west down to earth values with a slight cosmopolitan feel, cause so many bright minds from all over the world come to train and work here. If you want to live in a small city were: crime is almost none existent, cost of living is very low, the majority of residents own their own homes, can get no down payment loans on homes, buy a huge house for the price of a condo in other cities, schools for you kids are great, day care is provided for, people here are nicer then anywhere I've meet in the country (I've lived on both coast and in NY if ask someone for directions most give you a dirty look and walk away, in L.A. most well tell you how to get there, in MN most well go out of their way and take you there), many trails to hike or cycle in the summer or snow shoe/cross country ski in the winter, beautiful rivers and lakes to do water sports in summer or ice fish in winter, many camping and hunting (if you're into that) sites, basically a great place to settle down and raise a family. I could go on but those are some of the things that come to mind now. Being a larger program that is very family friendly, if one takes maternity leave, clinic and workload doesn't go to hell. We've had 2 residents recently take leave without it being a coverage problem. Many of the residents across all 3 years and even fellows hang out a lot going to: bars, house parties, BBQs, comedy clubs, concerts, dinners, boating, skiing, and hunting together. Also one of our resident's is social chair of the resident/fellows association and plans weekly events/get togethers with all the residents across fields, that are tons of fun.
As for me being a semi single, metro sexual, club hoping techno/electro house listening, surfer/skater/snowboarder, wannabe PUA, sushi/thai food eating, asian guy finding fun things to do can be a little more challenging, but fun is still to be had. I hang out locally once in a while, but don't want to be known as that guy who hit on everyone at the local bar, so about every other weekend I go into minneapolis to get my club on. I'm from southern cali and used to driving an hour on weekends to go to clubs in hollywood so driving ~an hour to the twin cities is no big deal ether. I have a 4 wheel drive suv and don't go when conditions are really bad/icey. I have family and friends in the cities that I stay with when out there, so if one craves big city night life it's not hard to attain. I have most weekends off without call, so I go back to L.A. about every 3 weeks to see my semi GF, get my hollywood clubbing on and some surfing. The local mountains are more like hills but they have snowboard parks with some good rails to slide, jumps to do tricks on and even a small half pipe. I have a nice size hill in my backyard and built a good size kicker on it that I ride on certain sundays when I'm bored. I've landed some good 360s on it, still practicing landing my 540s.
As for the program itself it's a great place to train/work. The atmosphere is very chill, everyone is super nice, attendings treat you like peers. If you interviewed out here you can see how we interact with our attendings and our co residents, it's just so stress free and makes for a great work environment. You'll see bread and butter and all the hardcore derm stuff that other dermies won't know what to do with or are afraid to touch. Cause you'll be comfortable admitting the most severe derm conditions and being the primary, not just the consult service. One person said in another thread just imagine working with hardcore/gunner derm applicants always trying to out shine/being more right then you day in and day out for the next 3 years. We have none of that here, the committee selects for some of the most chill/humble, but smart personalities. Just look at me can't you see how chill I am.
