Interview experiences

Hopkins - Liked it much more than I thought I would. The firm system has its good and bad, but mostly I thought it was very impressive. Incredibly front loaded intern year (over ten months of call), which could be a plus or minus depending on how you look at it. Over and over it was said that the program revolves around the intern year. Most of second year is spent doing electives, career development, applying to fellowships, etc. Third year has its focus on education. The ACS attendings were all pretty cool, all in love with hopkins (selection bias I would think). Not a great program if interested in primary care, but my god is their fellowhsip placement impressive. The program director is kind of old school in a joking kind of way. I didn't get the impression that any one comes and looks for you on your post call day to make sure you are out of there in 30 hours. Bottom line: Great training, interns ahead of the game, but I think it all evens out after three years. You go to Baltimore to go to Hopkins...I wasn't impressed with Baltimore at all. Oh, ward rounds were exceptional - so was grand rounds.

Penn - Fantastic. Very similar to the feel of UCSF. Three hospital system, smart and well-balanced residents, friendly program that is at the same time -rigorous. Great ICU training, impressive fellowship placement, very cool international experience in Botswana. Coming from UCSF, our program says over and over that BWH and Penn are very similar in terms of philosophy and personality. I didn't visit BWH, but I would agree what is said about Penn. University City wasn't all that bad, and very close by are some great neighborhoods in Center City that I wouldn't mind living in at all. Cost of living isn't that bad either - which would be a nice change from SF. Very impressed with my interviews. They definitely took the time to match me with people in the field of my interest (Chief of the department), which I thought was a very nice touch that left me feeling like my day was very personalized.

Jefferson - Smaller program. Some of the residents were motivated and focused on education, others treated it just as a job. Fellowship placement was good, but not great. Those that shine do just fine, but you have to make yourself distinct. Many moonlight in their second and third year and basically double their salary. Talked a lot about the program on the other side of the river (Penn) and how they compete with them for many things, but Penn didn't mention Jefferson at all. Was not all that impressed with resident report. It was an EBM conference that was poorly done by a senior resident, and the audience was not involved and doing their own thing. Very little interaction with interns throughout the day, most of my discussions were with R2's and R3's.

UMDNJ-RWJ - Small program that is very friendly. Stronger in placing their residents in some fellowhsips than others. Cards is very weak, but GI is pretty good. Young faculty, which I actually liked. Resident report was good, led by an old gastroenterologist that went over chronic liver disease. They have this weird didactic thing at 7am to review MKSAP stuff for the licensing exam. That was kind of a turn off. They said they don't need to do it for their residents to pass, but to it to motivate residents to read. Ward months average about 65hr/week and their pay is actually very good for the area. Opportunities to moonlight during the later years of residency. Time split between the university hospital and a private hospital. Would be a great place to train if you know you want to do private practice, and it would also be a good place to train if you want to do some form of academics. The faculty seem incredibly supportive. The residents were an interesting mix. Some were very impressive and passionate about learning medicine - having really cool and interesting career plans. Others seemed a bit more behind the learning curve. All in all, I thought the residents were great, thought the faculty was supportive, and feel like if I landed there I'd be able to achieve what I want (interests in medical education and GI) - but may not have as many opportunities and resources available compared to some of the bigger/stronger programs.

OHSU was, overall, a bit of a disappointment for me. Residents were very happy and laid-back and seemed to have a lot of fun outside of the hospital together. They definitely have time to enjoy the city of Portland. They seemed a little less intense than I am about medicine, which makes me concerned that I might not fit in there. The PD seems approachable and nice enough, though I thought he seemed to talk a lot and say really nothing of substance. It sounds like they get a varied patient population, but I went on rounds at the VA so I didn't get a firsthand look at the types of patients they see at OHSU - anybody get a feel for that? Autonomy seems pretty good, with hospitalist attendings on most services. The attending I worked with wasn't that impressive - really young and made some errors that were glaringly obvious to me (but perhaps I just caught an outlier). I have other concerns with regard to quality of AM report, patient volumes, and fellowship placement that are outlined in detail here.

Portland is a wonderful, progressive city with temperate weather and tons of outdoor activities nearby. It's on the smaller side but still with plenty to do, great restaurants, etc. I have family in town and love it there but at this point I just have too many concerns about the quality of the training program to rank it highly. What do others think?

I posted my detailed review of UW in this thread. Figured there was no need to copy the whole thing over here, but at least this way it will be easily accessible. Would love to hear what others think of the program.

I concur on OHSU. I liked the program quite well actually but somehow I felt underwhelmed at the end of the day. The PD totally took over the AM report and the chief just hung back -- I'd love to do a chief year for the teaching experience and this didn't seem like a good place for that. The program is very front-loaded (not a bad thing in and of itself) but sounds like the interns are getting WORK-ED.

DUKE -
Pros: The medicine program here is fantastic, and the program directors did a great job presenting it on the interview day. Most of the time is spent either at Duke Hospital or the VA, which are across the street from each other. There's also a community hospital, Durham Regional, where the residents occasionally (but not often) rotate. There's overnight call, with 1 intern, 1 resident, and usually a medical student. There's one attending per team who's responsible for all patients (none are private); at Duke they're either subspecialty attendings or hospitalists, and at the VA they're usually subspecialty attendings. Dayfloat takes care of your patients the next day so you can get out by 12 noon in compliance with the 30 hour rule. Duke is particularly known for Cardiology, but as far as I know, most of its residents match very well for fellowship. Its heme/onc, GI, and ID departments are also fantastic. The research opportunities are terrific, there's tons of money and projects (keep in mind the med students do research as well). There's chief resident signouts when you're on call, which is pretty cool--you basically present a few of the patients you've admitted, and then talk over your plan with the chiefs who can offer their thoughts and print you out some papers of interest. There's a new computer order entry system (started just last year) which is great and very easy to use. Labs, test results, and discharge summaries are on the computer; otherwise you use paper for your H&P, daily notes, consult notes, and so on. The chairman is AWESOME. He is utterly brilliant, and will blow your mind at his weekly morning report with all the stuff he comes up with. Although he's brilliant (as well as ridiculously handsome and polished), he's also very sweet, humble, and attentive (despite being a cardiologist, LOL). He's not intimidating at all, and will definitely be your advocate. The female program director is kind of an attention hog (and she always talks about basketball, which will either charm you or drive you nuts), but she seems enthusiastic, if nothing else. The male program director is super nice, and very open to contact. He'll be your advocate as well. The faculty, by and large, are incredible, although sometimes the services get so busy that the teaching will get lost. During a visiting Gen Med rotation, the attending only gave 2 short formal lectures in 4 weeks.

Cons: I don't know that I would call it "malignant," but it's definitely very intense, and you're held to a high standard--residents are expected to know all the literature and minutiae, and sometimes they act more concerned with impressing you with their knowledge than caring for their patients' best interests (in my opinion). If you thrive in this sort of demanding environment, it's great. If you're used to a more laid-back atmosphere, it will be an adjustment. There is certainly a sense of hierarchy, with short coats designating interns, but it's not as bad with medicine as it is with the surgeons (whose interns also *shudder* wear white pants). Also, there are certain rotations where the intern is the only one on the floor at night--such as the pulmonary unit (with lung transplant and other extremely sick patients) and the heme/onc service, where you're responsible for covering as many as 60 extremely sick patients (half of them on your team, half on the other team), while also doing admissions, all by your lonesome (although the fellow and the attending can be paged in an emergency, and there's also an upper level ICU resident if you get in trouble). Actually, an intern this year had a meltdown during the heme/onc rotation, and so I think they're now doing evening signouts and other quality control measures. For the most part the residents get along well and hang out, but they don't seem to be as tight-knit as residents at other places I've visited. There's not as much of a sense of teamwork or helping each other out amongst residents compared to what I've heard from other places. There's definitely a lot of friction between medicine and surgery, and medicine and radiology. There's a lot of bitching and fighting on the phone when you do a surgery consult, or to get a radiological study done in a timely manner (especially at the VA). It seems to me that the LARGE majority of the residents are either married or in committed relationships. Single folks have a tough time here, unless you're a male resident who wants to hook up with female nurses and med students, LOL. As a single female, this is a big concern for me. Also, this program is full of loud arrogant cardiologist wannabes, which also got on my nerves. They're pretty competitive with each other, and many of them want to stay at Duke (which usually only offers 2 of its Cards spots to its residents). At morning report, they're the ones who try to add cardiology diagnoses to the Ddx, even when they're extremely unlikely. Oh, and to go back to my interview day, while most of my fellow applicants were matched to interviewers who shared their interests, I was not. My interviewers mentioned that I wrote in my essay that I was interested in her field, which I certainly did not do. I had not expressed interest in her field, but was very vocal about my interest in another field. Both my interviewers were also very combative and antagonistic, picking on aspects of my application which they found wanting. This was my 1st of 12 interviews, and by far my least comfortable.

And, finally, there's Durham. The program directors and residents did a godawful job trying to sell Durham on the interview day, probably because they either don't have time to explore the area, or because they're married and spend all their time at home. This is what I can tell you. The cost of living is definitely low. I currently spend about $450/month on a giant bedroom in a big house I share with three other people, and in the past I've spent $550/month on a giant single in an apartment complex with a separate bedroom, kitchen, and living room. The area is great for buying a house and raising kids, which is why it attracts so many marrieds. The weather for the most part is warm and beautiful, but they do occasionally get snow and ice in the winter. A couple years ago, there was an ice storm which shut down power in Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill for up to a week. Unfortunately, when there's snow/ice, the town waits for it to melt without doing much, so while all the non-hospital people are sitting at home watching soap operas, you have to get yourself to work by driving on scary icy roads which haven't been cleared. A car is an absolute necessity, since this town is very spread out. There are a couple of fun bars, but the social scene in Durham is pretty pathetic; you'd have to go to Chapel Hill (25 minutes away) or Raleigh (40 minutes away) for a decent nightlife. The same goes for the restaurant scene; there's no decent sushi, or thai, or many other ethnic foods in Durham, but you can find some reasonable choices in Chapel Hill and Raleigh. I was particularly disappointed with the lack of coffeeshop options, especially in a college town (there aren't any open past 9 PM). Durham is full of strip malls for typical chain stores, and they do have a great new mall which is about 15 minutes from the hospital (with Nordstrom, etc). As for culture, it's actually pretty good for film, music, and dance. There's a huge documentary film festival called The Full Frame where many luminaries such as Martin Scorcese show up, and the American Dance Festival is an enormous event every summer. Lots of great bands come to Chapel Hill and Raleigh, and there's a thriving indie rock scene in those places as well. There are great jazz and bluegrass festivals. The theater and visual art scenes are lackluster, although there's a brand new art museum at Duke which I haven't yet had the chance to visit. (The previous Duke art museum was the worst museum I have ever seen.) There's plenty of sports stuff if you like that (I don't pay attention to it). As for natural beauty, there's Eno River and Duke forest which offer some nice walking trails, but Durham itself isn't particularly attractive (especially downtown, which is an abandoned crumbling disaster). For the real goods, nature-wise, you'd have to drive either 2-3 hours to the east coast (where you have the beach, particularly in the northern part of the state with the Outer Banks), or 4-6 hours to the western part of the state where you have the Appalachian mountains (as well as the cute, artsy town of Asheville). As a resident, you likely won't have too many opportunities to do this anyway.

I think that's everything. I'll have considerably less to say about the other programs I've visited, LOL.

Mumpu said:

I concur on OHSU. I liked the program quite well actually but somehow I felt underwhelmed at the end of the day. The PD totally took over the AM report and the chief just hung back -- I'd love to do a chief year for the teaching experience and this didn't seem like a good place for that. The program is very front-loaded (not a bad thing in and of itself) but sounds like the interns are getting WORK-ED.

Click to expand...

I have to say I was extremely impressed by OHSU and it shot up on my list after the interview. The PD is very personable, involved and has a dry wittiness to him. The residents seemed warm and collegial, and came from a wide variety of backgrounds. In addition, the layout of the program is in many ways just what I'm looking for: medium size, university and VA hospital that are connected physically and functionally (many services cover both at the same time), and just a couple rotations at a private (Kaiser) hospital. They are massively building up the clinical and research facilities, which bodes well. Existing facilities are very nice and provide a great working environment. Minor notes: good computer system, only call room I've ever seen with panoramic city/mountain views, a good 24 hr cafeteria, seemingly rigorous didactic curriculum. I agree that morning report was underwhelming. I also talked to an intern who came from my school who seemed to be exhausted. And the fellowship placements are not top-tier. Overall, though, I think this would be a fantastic place to get good internal medicine training.

Yup, essentially sums up my feelings. Not super-duper but very nice.

That call room is something else, isn't it?

Vanderbilt
I left very impressed with Vanderbilt. The PD seemed to have a great sense of humor and was very approachable. Residents come mostly form the southeast and northeast. The residents I met were very bright and friendly. Fellowship list was not advertised, so I am not sure about that aspect. The facilites were very nice. The VA and the main hospital are connected by a walkway. Both are in very good shape. The computer system here is exceptional. All the patient's info is easily at your fingertips. Each morning you print out your list and the computer generates a sheet on each of your patients with all of their current meds, labs and rad reports (and soon their vital signs as well). All residents are expected at all conferences (unless post call). Morning report is protected time with a secretary holding all the intern pagers. ABIM pass rate is 98%. Currently 6th or 7th in NIH funding, but they are currently building approximately 3 more research buildings. I had the feeling that this place was going to be rapidly moving up that list. Residents get plenty of research opportunities. Call is essentially q4 overnight and q6 at the VA. No night float. Interns do spend time in Vanderbilt's awesome ED (maybe you will get to work with The Bachelor). Nashville is a pretty big southern town (1 million pop.) so they have a pretty wide variety of pathology. They also have a non-teaching service. The attending or resident decides which admissions go to the teaching vs the non-teaching service. This keeps a lot of the scutty junk off of the teaching service (no social admits for constipation). They stress that there is plenty of autonomy, but the PD stated clearly that he felt that autonomy should be earned. The attending rounds I witnessed were driven by the attending (i.e.- the intern talked about overnight events and the attending spouted out a plan), but in all fairness we only had time to see two patients on rounds (attending was late) and they were not new patients. There is talk of "private" patients being admitted to the teaching service but this was vehemently denied by the PD. There were 2 interviews. One is matched to your stated interests or goals, and one is the PD. Both were laid back for me. There is the standard tour, and a Q/A session with one of their 4 chiefs. Chairman is dull as mud, but he is actively involved and teaches the residents electrolytes weekly (he is a nephrologist by trade). All in all I felt like this was a top notch program, and Nashville seemed like a groovy (and affordable) place to live.

For those 2 or 3 people (or others) who visited UVA....what is your feel for their somewhat non-traditional night float system?
I really liked UVA but am having some trouble giving them as high a rank due to concerns over how I (and my body) will do with so much night float (1/4 weeks). Additionally, I hear that it is not like other night floats (many 7-7) in that you still round the next morning, meaning you may not leave until 10 or 11am and then be back again at 6:30pm!? Is this accurate? Any other thoughts?

So I've done the whole blown a lot of cash, found myself in a dark hotel room asking myself what time zone am I in, and answered every interviewer's "Do you have any more questions?" with yet another question. Now I could use some candor about the programs I have in my top six or so .

Let me preface this by stating I am going into pathology but chose (yes volunteered) to do a transitional or preliminary year first. Essentially, I have a choice between an educationally solid but quite laid back transitional year that a large academically affiliated community hospital provides or immersing myself in a year of hard-core medicine with "zebra" pathology at a university med. ctr. Since this year is to enhance my potential as a pathologist, a larger community hospital is probably not in my best interest (i.e. not enough pathological diversity). As of now, my rank list looks like this

1. Mayo Clinic (Rochester), prelim.
2. Case Western, University Hospitals, prelim.
3. Brown University, prelim.
4. University of Pittsburgh, transitional
5. York Hospital (affiliated with PSU), transitional
6. York Hospital, prelim.
7. Lehigh Valley Hospital (affiliated with PSU), transitional

The other places I interviewed at did not seem to have the espirit de corp AND hard core medical education...it seems like there is a trade-off between these two at some places. In any case, if anyone has been on the prelim/categorical road or has been looking at transitional programs for their future life as a radiologist/neurologist etc and can offer a little comparative analysis based on my unusual circumstances, I would be grateful.

[Finally, no pathology does not require a preliminary year or transitional year before entering residency. Yes, the path and medicine departments at my school love the idea and no, the CT scan of my head does not show any abnormalities and my MMSE is just fine . I only state this because I have had at least one resident during an interview tell me I was wasting a year of my life and looked at me as though I need a straight jacket.]

Congrats to everyone who is done interviewing and good luck!!!]

mac613 said:

For those 2 or 3 people (or others) who visited UVA....what is your feel for their somewhat non-traditional night float system?
I really liked UVA but am having some trouble giving them as high a rank due to concerns over how I (and my body) will do with so much night float (1/4 weeks). Additionally, I hear that it is not like other night floats (many 7-7) in that you still round the next morning, meaning you may not leave until 10 or 11am and then be back again at 6:30pm!? Is this accurate? Any other thoughts?

Click to expand...

I was a bit worried about that as well, but the interns that I talked with loved it. It is only 5 days long and is bracketed by long weekends off. Apparently you have all day Saturday and 1/2 the day Sunday off before starting it. I thought I remember them coming in later than 1830 so that they could stay for morning report, but I could be wrong. You have to have 10 hours off between shifts so if you get out at 11am you could not legally return until 9pm. The night float lasts Sunday through Thursday night, and is them followed by a long golden weekend (Fri afternoon until Monday a.m. off). I agree it is kind of wacky, but one of the interns told me it was worth it to be able to go home and sleep most nights. I do know that it is only 5 nights long, and the non-night float interns take overnight call on Friday and Saturday nights. Anyway, that is my 2 cents. I don't worry about that too much. I am much more worried about adjusting to being up all night every 4th night for an entire year.

Loopo Henle said:

I was a bit worried about that as well, but the interns that I talked with loved it. It is only 5 days long and is bracketed by long weekends off. Apparently you have all day Saturday and 1/2 the day Sunday off before starting it. I thought I remember them coming in later than 1830 so that they could stay for morning report, but I could be wrong. You have to have 10 hours off between shifts so if you get out at 11am you could not legally return until 9pm. The night float lasts Sunday through Thursday night, and is them followed by a long golden weekend (Fri afternoon until Monday a.m. off). I agree it is kind of wacky, but one of the interns told me it was worth it to be able to go home and sleep most nights. I do know that it is only 5 nights long, and the non-night float interns take overnight call on Friday and Saturday nights. Anyway, that is my 2 cents. I don't worry about that too much. I am much more worried about adjusting to being up all night every 4th night for an entire year.

Click to expand...

Here's how the UVA night float system works;

1.Sunday through Thursday night, 8pm until 10am (however usually out by 9ish)
2. The weekend before you leave normal time on Friday and don't have to be back until 8pm Sunday night (we call it the "bronze" weekend).
3. The weekend after you are completely off, come back Monday morning (Golden Weekend).
4. Take admissions from 8pm until 7:30am, with your senior resident, who is in-house. Handle cross-cover with help again from your senior if you need it.
5. On call team signs out to you at 8pm so they can leave by 9pm; if you are not on nights you go home and sleep in your own bed!

This was designed to enhance the educational experience of Night Float. You round with the attending and discuss your admissions from the night before, get feedback on what you did an teaching pearls from the attending. This is rather than just "passing off" admissions to another resident in the morning.

I agree that it seems a bit confusing but it works and most residents love it. You essentially get two weekends off on a ward month, education is not sacrificed and you get to go home on call. To be honest after the first night it really doesn't mess with your sleep cycle too much. Having done this schedule I can't imagine doing a residency where you stay overnight q4, that really messes with your clock! Feel free to PM with any questions. Best of luck.

Columbia: Great teaching and diverse patient population. Really liked the idea of the 2 attending rounding system (don't know how effecient it is, though). No privates = high level of autonomy (like UTSW, U. Chicago). Awesome faculty and really strong emphasis on academic teaching. The ancillary services are not very good (as we all know), but they are improving. Vast opportunities for research. Fantastic fellowship placement, but not necessarily located in the best part of town. Definitely one of my top choices at this point.

Cornell: Interviewed on non-regular interview day, but I liked what I saw. Patient population not as diverse as Columbia, but still get a fair share of diverse pathology/patient population. Don't know how much the private attendings affect residency education, but I assume it's like any other place. Had a great time talking to various residents who really liked the program. My #2 in NYC.

Northwestern (Hotel, J/K): Well, you can't say anything about the fantastic facilities and location in Chicago. They seemed to be interested in making their program more academic (in light of what most people think is a moderately cush program among the big name schools). For example, during the wards interns go home at 10pm (don't take overnight call). In any case, I though their training was pretty good with very supportive faculty and administrators. Fellowship placement was pretty strong and opportunities abound for research. I can't comment too much about the patient population, but it definitely doesn't seem as diverse as Columbia's (that's for sure). Nonetheless, I liked the program. My #2 in Chicago.

UCLA: (my home institution, so take it with a grain of salt) Already knew about the prevailing "malignant" label, and agree that they work you hard (but don't necessarily think it is malignant), but it definitely is improving and the administration is much more receptive to residents than previously, as evinced by the changes in the call schedule and first year rotations schedule. One drawback that I've been aware of since a med student is the somewhat polarized patient population that comprises the bulk of the training at the westwood campus (lots of tertiary/quaternary care), with minimal bread and butter (which you get when you rotate through the local county and va hospitals). I kind of prefer the patient populations like at UTSW and Columbia, but still think it's important to be proficient in the subspecialties, but given the large volume of transplants at CHS, you get really adept at taking care of severely ill immunodeficient/transplant/ heme-onc patients, possibly (IMHO) at the expense of learning internal medicine within a larger, broader scope. Great teaching and fellowship placement. Awesome location, but very pricey.

U. Chicago: Very similar in style and autonomy to Columbia. Really liked the level of autonomy and emphasis on teaching (and ancillary services are great here!). Just like Columbia, lot's of opportunities for research. What's a little different is the fact that it's located next to the undergraduate school (while Columbia is about 50 blocks away) - I kind of like that. Hyde Park provides a very diverse patient population, and there are also no private attendings. Fellowship placement is also top notch. You work hard but the level of teaching/academic emphasis is high. Just got a new PD (Pulm/CC from Hopkins) who I hear is making lot's of changes to improve the research infrastructure of the school (which is already great to begin with). Definitely one of my top choices (next to Columbia).

Baylor (Houston): First of all, it's the main program at the Texas Medical Center (truly an amazing place to behold, if you haven't seen it). The program provides diverse training in a county (Ben Taub), VA, and private (St. Luke's) hospital settings. It's kind of nice that they're all located close to each other (within walking distance). Research opportunities are fantastic. At this point, I'm pretty much starting to see things kind of blurry between most top programs, and really don't know what else to add. Oh yeah, they do give you three months of sub-specialty blocks during your intership year, which I haven't seen in other top programs during my interview trails. Fellowship placement was strong, but not as strong as U/C or Columbia, I think. Liked Houston and the patient diversity. Great program and also thinking of putting it within my top three (or four).


UTSW: Let's just say, you come here to work hard and they make know apologies (I don't equate this to being malignant, though). Fantastic clinical training at Parkland and strong emphasis on teaching. The program is enshrouded in tradition from the top, and they have high expectations on their residents to be as autonomous as possible with their patients. The internship year is heavy with about 10 months of call, but they're changing their ward schedule to Q5 (from4). Everyone here raves about their exceptional clinical training, which I believe, but I wonder whether it's simply due to the high volume or the quality of their training (or is their quality dependent on their high volume)? I mean, do you need to admit 10 patients on call to really consider yourself clinically well-versed? Can you get that with 5 - 7 admits? Anyway, that's what I found myself thinking, but cannot disagree with fellowship placement (one of the best I've seen). For example, two of their chiefs match at Duke for cards this year. I really believe that you can't work anywhere harder than here (although I think Columbia is just behind). Great patient diversity and pathology. The acquisition of St. Paul will help them incorporate more tertiatry exposure to their residency program (which right now is mostly chronic, complicated high volume bread and butter at Parkland). Overall, excellent program. Can't say much about Dallas (don't mean that in a bad way), but Texas does have a much better price of living than LA, that's for sure.

Will add U. Washington and Stanford next week......

University of Maryland

A solid program--very nice night before supper at the hotel they had a deal with. Plenty of residents showed up, all very enthusiastic about the program. The PD is a wonderful, very involved lady who cares a great deal about "her" residents. The current chair is actually leaving this year to take the job of Dean at UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. He gave us an amazing "welcome to Maryland' pep talk that nearly brought us to tears--he's a great orator. According to the PD and to the residents, he will be sorely missed, but his absence shouldn't affect the program too much. As for the facilities, they are quite nice. They have a great ER and seem to get along well with the department. As for Baltimore, not a bad city. Just ghetto enough for me (I like ghetto), but with plenty of nice parts to go out to eat in or to spend an evening on the town. You can still buy there and do well in the market. 45 mins to an hour by train to DC.

George Washington

I don't like to diss programs because I'm always flattered to be invited, but I left GW wanting to have liked it a whole lot more. Morning report was pretty weak--one faculty, the PD, was present. When they had a question about the case that no one knew the answer to, they googled it during report. We were told flat out that if you want to do a bunch of basic science research, then it's not the place for you. When we asked what folks' favorite part of the program was, most responded "it's in DC." The PD is wonderful--she is very interested in making sure that everyone who does residency there gets to do what they want. If you want to set up a policy elective, no problem. Want to hang with the WHO for a month? Cool. They rotate at four institutions--NIH (one month taking care of research patients--described as "a cush month"), VA, GW University hospital, and Fairfax (private). From how I understand it, apparently GW hospital was a disaster several years ago and was torn down, then rebuilt by a private hospital corporation. That private organization also absorbed the hospitalist group and those folks became the teaching faculty for the GW program. Nice diversity of patients--DC being DC, they see a huge cultural and social diversity of patients. If you're interested in GW, make sure you find out about the continuity clinic experience. I left unclear as to what extent your patients in clinic are your patients. DC is a great town--expensive as all get out, but a great town nonetheless.

U. Washington: cancelled since I was sick (although I didn't miss much based on what others who attended said). Probably wasn't going to rank them high anyway.

Stanford: Great location and heavy emphasis on research and teaching (which I'm really looking for). Thought their curriculum was well balaned (not too front-loaded, yet not necessarily cush). You rotate through Santa Clara County, the Palo Alto VA (the best looking VA I've ever seen), and the Stanford hospital. I really thought the PD really cared about the resident's education and really fostered a warm learning environment with the housestaff (I guess I shouldn't be too surprised given the his PhD. in Education). By far one fo the best PD's I've encountered in my interviews.
Their match list was superb (one of their chief's matched at MGH for cards).
Definitely a top program with pretty cool and laid back residents. Really liked the fact that it's located in a university setting. Palo Alto is beautiful and really expensive (thank god you get ~50K per yr since most of it goes to rent). I'm glad I left the best for last, even though I was pretty sick during interview day and wished I could of enjoyed the day more. I really have to consider this program one of my tops now. It was interesting how on the last day they had the pics of all of the persons they interviewed during the year displayed in their conference room - I saw a pretty good mix of applicants from all over (some which I had met earlier in the interview trail).

This concludes my interview marathon. Now the real fun begins.

Ah, I am finally done as well. Any requests for schools that might not have been mentioned?

pintsized said:

Ah, I am finally done as well. Any requests for schools that might not have been mentioned?

Click to expand...

Sure, why not. How about Dartmouth? A couple others that haven't gotten much mention are Michigan and Mayo.

Fermi said:

Sure, why not. How about Dartmouth? A couple others that haven't gotten much mention are Michigan and Mayo.

Click to expand...

Would love to hear what people thought of Dartmouth and Mayo Scottsdale....

chickendoc said:

Would love to hear what people thought of Dartmouth and Mayo Scottsdale....

Click to expand...

I'll put in my 2cents about Mayo Scottsdale. The program is impressive. I think it has many, if not all, of the perks of Mayo, but set in sunny Scottsdale, AZ instead of freezing Rochester, Minnesota.

First, PROS: Mayo name, Mayo resources (aka Mayo money). Ancillary services and hospital are top notch. Labs and imaging are done before you have the chance to want to look at the results in the AM. Everything is brand new and expanding like crazy. Hospital is not resident driven (also can be a con) in that when the residents are not there, things still get done, but you supposedly have a lot of decision making power when you are there. I think it appeared that way on rounds; attendings were not taking over. Call is less than other places. I think Q4-Q6? Cost of living in AZ cheaper than other states. However, Scottsdale itself as a city is the most expensive in Phoenix. But can live fairly close to hospital for relatively cheap. Can likely buy a house on residency salary. Weather. Tertiary referral center, but also many ambulatory clinics in the surrounding area so you can get good training in both.

Cons: TINY program. 9 interns a year. Less call means less learning. They didn't give us much time during the interview day to speak to the residents. There was a dinner the night before, but only 1 R3 and intern were there, and overall I thought the residents were a bit odd. During the day, they did not seem very approachable except for 1-2 who came and asked us if we had any questions. However, these who did also said they were very happy there. Homogenous patient population: retired, insured Caucasians. Do get referrals from the Univ. of Arizona which has a large Spanish-speaking population and Native Americans. Only 1 hospital, but you can do a rotation at Maricopa County.

Nothing on University of Utah- did any of you interview here?

anyone??

bumping this for the MS4's who are trying to pick programs. This is another source of information for you, like scutwork reviews

Thought I'd bump this up again, too, since some programs got reviewed here that I couldn't find on scutwork. Can't wait 'til we start our own interview experiences thread!