Texas and Houston IM Rank Question

I can tell you that, as a BCM med student who chose to leave, while the Department of Medicine has its share of problems, they are most certainly not going broke. They are probably outclassed by UT Southwestern, which is in that group of programs that would rank (if there such a ranking list) in that group of 10 or so medicine programs behind the MGH/Hopkins/BWH/UCSF quadrifecta (not a word, but it's not a trifecta). But Baylor is certainly in the top 25 programs in the country and will place you well for fellowship, and no question is the most highly reputed IM program in Houston (and 2nd in Texas only to UTSW). They place really well for cardiology and ID, which are their 2 strongest departments, and I felt like most of the residents there were decently sharp. It's a pretty rigorous and large program just by its nature of taking care of a good number of hospitals in the TMC (does not, as most of the other departments do, rotate through Methodist and MD Anderson currently...). They've had some faculty departures in recent years but most of the really great faculty are still there and are very approachable. It was too big for me and I wanted a change and to see medicine as it was practiced elsewhere. I will admit that a lot of the residents I worked with counseled me to go elsewhere, because they felt overworked. It's especially bad because Baylor has a hard 1st and 3rd year, whereas most programs have a hard 1st year and each year afterwards is progressively lighter.

It cracks me up when I see people (not referring to you but to others who feel compelled to come here and make assertions despite having zero involvement with the school, either as an applicant or a member of the Baylor family) saying Baylor is going broke. Solely a med school, their endowment has dropped from slightly above a billion dollars to slightly below (again like most academic institutions EVERYWHERE). And they're having to reconsider building projects in light of the economic crisis and the increased difficulty borrowing money (like academic institutions everywhere, again... i can tell you that my other alma maters have put similar freezes on building projects). Baylor's has gotten more attention because of all the drama at the higher echelons of power vis-a-vis the Methodist situation and Dr. Traber's recent departure (I'm betting but I don't know for sure this was done to pave the way for a Rice-Baylor merger and a Methodist reconciliation)

Still, Baylor's one of the best brand names in medicine, and I can reassure you the school and the department are not going anywhere - most certainly not bankrupt. If you felt a better fit at UT Houston and aren't planning on applying for an ultra-competitive specialty, certainly rank there #1. But I didn't want you to do because you think Baylor's DoM is about to go into Chapter 11.

BaylorLion said:

Still, Baylor's one of the best brand names in medicine, and I can reassure you the school and the department are not going anywhere - most certainly not bankrupt.

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This is completely true. Baylor residency is large and tough (similar to Northeast residency programs) and graduates many fantastic doctors who work all over the country. The Vice Chair of Cardiology at UCLA Linda Demer went to med-school at Johns Hopkins and chose Baylor for residency due to Houston being the center of heart medicine. Baylor has plenty of money, and is building a new hospital and another clinic.

I do like the UT-Houston program (I went to med-school there). UT-H's program is slightly smaller than Balyor's and offers a no-nonsense residency with access to all TMC hospitals and clinics, including MDAnderson.

Not sure about IM in general, but cardiology at Baylor seems to be imploding. Methodist broke free and a lot of academic bigwigs went along. Now, Douglas Mann is leaving to be the head of cardiology at Washington U. For interventional work, Baylor is likely still great...but for everything else...who knows?