Univ of Washington (rainy city)

Scuttlebutt on the interview trail last year was that it was rather malignant; in addition to random people saying this, one of UW's own students said that he wasn't going to rank his home program. *shrug* I don't doubt that it's a strong program with good clinical and academic exposure. My interview day seemed rather cold and impersonal, unlike some of the other programs that I interviewed with. I got a much better vibe from Virginia Mason myself. Of course, UW was my last interview of the season, so I was more than a little burned out by that point. Seattle's a great city though.

I'm currently a CA-2 in the University of Washington residency program. As far as why the program didn't fill last year, we were told that there were not an appropriate number of applicants ranked. Who knows.
As far as the "malignant" rumors -- I have to say that I, and most of the residents in the program, have no idea where this comes from. I am extremely happy here, I feel like we work very reasonable hours, and usually have at least 2 if not often 3 weekends a month off, time to read, great teaching, superb facilities, and friendly faculty who are dedicated to resident education. We do see extremely complex patients being THE referral center for a 5-state region. I feel like I'm getting a great education in a very pleasant environment. I think a lot of these rumors are based on information that is several years old and that the program is very different now.
Residents are also much more involved in the recruiting/interviewing process this year, so hopefully it will be a more informative and enjoyable experience.
If you have any specific questions about the program, please feel free to PM me! 😀

I changed from Emergency Medicine to Anesthesiology after my R-3 year, but I did do my internship in Internal medicine at UW as part of my Emergency medicine training. This was prior to a LOT of changes in the dept of medicine (caps, night float, ect), so a lot of my information is outdated. But from what I hear from our R-2's now who did the categorical thing, they all had positive things to say about their experience. And I think there is something to be said about doing your internship in the same institution just in terms of learning the system, getting to know the surgeons, ect.

Seattle is a great city -- lots of terrific restaurants, theater, music in-city, and amazing recreational stuff 15-45 minutes away including snow and water skiing, hiking, backpacking -- you name it. Mountains, water, laid-back friendly people, and in all honesty - our beautiful summers/falls make up for the winter rain!