Yale vs. UTSW vs. UPMC

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Khanitez

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UPMC is better regarded than Yale (I understand it's also bigger). Yale is in a better location. I would expect both names to open doors for fellowship.

There is a separate UPMC thread.
 
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UPMC definitly better. If you were choosing an undergraduate education, yes, but not for Anesthesiology. UTSW also good. Yale would be a second-tier program in my opinion.
 
UPMC definitly better. If you were choosing an undergraduate education, yes, but not for Anesthesiology. UTSW also good. Yale would be a second-tier program in my opinion.
Yale might be "second-tier" (depending how one defines first-tier), but most patients and surgeons will not think like that. If you go to Yale and relocate to another part of the country, nobody will ask you: "And where is that?" ;)

That applies to every big name university or hospital, even if they don't have the best anesthesia residency or fellowship. People should choose either a very good program, or a program with a very good brand. Just my two cents.
 
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I trained at UTSW but interviewed at Yale and UPMC. If I had to rank the 3 programs I would rank UPMC, UTSW and then Yale. With that being said, UTSW is still on the higher end of the maligant spectrum. Its reputation comes from its vicious Surgical Residency but that culture has spread to Internal Medicine and Anesthesia.

AT UTSW, about half the faculty are younger (most under 10 years out) but there are group of older attendings who have been there since the beginning of time and think their way is the only way. They have no hesitations to trash residents behind their backs (I'm sure this happens everywhere but at UTSW it was everywhere). Many times, I would be in the ready room at Parkland Hospital or Zale Lipshy and my attendings would discuss residents in front of other anesthesia residents, attending surgeons and surgery residents. The sad part is, when the resident who was being mocked and ridiculed would come into the room on break, the attendings acted like nothing happened and would even go out of their way to tell them "great job, take a break etc." I blame this on the culture of the entire medical campus that takes pride in kicking out the "weak".

With that being said, these terrible types of attendings are out-numbered by great teachers that I had during my training. Guys who realized how absurd the culture was and just encouraged me to stay under the radar and to do well. Attendings who had the courage to defend residents who were unfairly admonished at cinical competency meetings.

The program is huge (20+ residents a year) but I saw that as a plus. As with any program there are residents who are favorites and those who are picked on. I was lucky to be in the middle and glided by. But I did know of a junior resident who was fired recently for reasons that I thought were unjust. And I have heard through the grapevine that there are a couple of other residents who are headed towards that path.

I very much enjoyed my training and glad I got my fellowship of choice but I needed to put this out there. Our clinical experience was excellent and i was very happy with the didactics (just enough but not overbearing). Also plenty of Mock Orals. If you work hard, don't complain, and make sure you have good in training scores you should be fine. As most would agree, the first 6 months of CA-1 year are key. Come in with a hot ITE and do well and you are set for 3 years. If you don't do well, then this program will eat you alive.

In regards to UPMC, I thought that the program itself was aweomse. Just didn't want to live in Pittsburgh. Yale, I did not get a good vibe at during my interview. I know a neurosurgery resident there who ended up leaving yale to do anesthesia and told me the culture there was off. Hope this helps..
 
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Thanks for that awesome rundown of UTSW.

No problem. I remember going through interviews and majority of places residents seemed happy. But in a lunch setting it is hard to get 100% true information bc people don't want to talk negatively about their program in front of co-residents and even attendings. Like I said, the clinical experience is excellent and i felt like I was well trained. It just bothers me that residents in the program get left out to dry. When i work with residents, I try my best to guide them and offer constructive criticism. I have an older brother who trained at a great mid west program and from talking to him, their program seemed very different in the sense that they never fire residents whether it is Surgery, Anesthesia, IM, Peds, etc.

One thing I forgot to add is that 2 main hospitals at UTSW (Parkland and Zale Lipshy) are both opening soon or have opened. Both facilities look amazing.
 
I had a close friend that trained at utsw, she said she worked hard but loved her ca1 year. She ended up transferring to another program in the south for family/geographical reasons and she was so miserable she quit at the end of CA2 year. I think malignant is relative. I think people have unrealistic expectations of how much they'll be working. It's really the environment that matters. She said at utsw, she felt like the pd and chair really cared and for the most part, the attendings were good to work with. (Maybe this was in retrospect relative to the new program). They also have a #relief system, which makes things seem more fair. At the other program she'd often be there till 10, violate the 10hr rule consistently w malignant attendings that were not resident advocates. They would often disappear all day- forget to give lunch breaks, etc. It was a very stressful environment. I hink in general, you can be ok working long hours if you like who you're working with. If the culture in general is nice and you feel that people are trying to help you, you feel a lot better about showing up to work. At my program- we have to do a few months w gen surg the first year and they are actually really nice. Even the surgery attendings are nice. The neurosurgeons are the kindest. Most anesthesia attendings are easy to work with. There's a clique of mean grls that like to talk smack all day and can be very discouraging, but I assume that's everywhere. The above poster talked about getting picked on, I'm in a small program, and I was definitely one of those. Luckily, everyone important- the PD, assistant PDs, site director were my biggest advocates. They genuinely care about me and want to see me succeed. Really look at how involved the PD is w the program. Is he just concerned about numbers, is it just a title, or does he want to change the world? Lol My PD is always saying things like, you're not here to impress attendings, you're here to learn. That makes me really comfortable that if I want to use the miller 2 all day bc I suck at it, that even if it gets back to him that I couldn't intubate all day, he doesn't care. The culture here is to help every resident, even moral (as mine was low after some of those attending comments). Don't underestimate the importance of your PD!

Bottom line you're going to work hard everywhere, bc when you're not working, you should allow some time for studying. Even though people can't tell you how it really is at lunch, if there's a lot of them there and they seem happy, it's a good sign. When you hate your program, you are not willing to stick around for the show. Remember you're going to be there for four years! It doesn't go by quick! You have to like going to work. 50hrs at a crappy place is worse than 60hr at a job you like or don't mind.
 
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Did she quit or did she get fired/forced out? Which program was this? The only program that sounds this miserable is rush
 
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