Anonymous program reviews

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yaah

yaah

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I know sometimes people are hesitant about putting their reviews of programs out there for fear of someone "finding out" who they are. If that is the case and you would like to share your views, remember that you are always welcome to PM me and I will post it under my name and not identify you. Of course, I am not going to include anything deliberately inflammatory or off base, only honest reviews. I will protect your anonymity.

Of course, the first choice should be for people to post info on their own, but I know sometimes people are skittish about this for various reasons.
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yaah said:
Of course, the first choice should be for people to post info on their own, but I know sometimes people are skittish about this for various reasons.
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Screw that...the best information is balanced, "no holds barred" information...completely honest feedback about programs, good and bad.
 
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i appreciate yaah's comments. because i've given up my anonymity on here, i'm reluctant to post disparaging comments. and because i won't post negative comments about the programs i've visited i can't post positive ones either, or people may assume places i'm not commenting were negative in my opinion. although in fairness, of the 7 places i've been so far i've felt like all would provide excellent training, and my mental ranking at this point is based more on details and what place(s) would fit my needs (educational and lifestyle) best.
 
Adrian Cocot said:
Isn't this what scutwork.com is for?
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I dunno if people read that site anymore since a lot of it is so outdated...back when I applied, I found scutwork quite useless...either no program reviews or stale, outdated reviews that predate the paleolithic era.
 
oh, i thought this thread was meant for reviews by interviewees on programs. i agree scutwork is way out of date. i check it before each interview, but rarely do i find a review from 2005 or beyond.
 
mlw03 said:
oh, i thought this thread was meant for reviews by interviewees on programs. i agree scutwork is way out of date. i check it before each interview, but rarely do i find a review from 2005 or beyond.
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Either way. Yes, scutwork also works this way. I just am offering this as another way for people to post information (thus far no on has taken me up on the offer). By all means people should post reviews on scutwork also.
 
thanks yaah for trying to get this thread going. While I do understand the hesitancy, if people are really that paranoid about anonononmynimity then they should just create another separate screenname and post reviews under that.
 
Bierstiefel said:
I dunno if people read that site anymore since a lot of it is so outdated...back when I applied, I found scutwork quite useless...either no program reviews or stale, outdated reviews that predate the paleolithic era.
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Anybody interested in making a campaign to update scutwork? I was thinking about posting some program reviews there, although just slightly concerned that it would be obviously me.
 
The dates at Scutwork were accidentally all reset some time back (weren't they?), so I don't think the dates on reviews there are accurate. My impression was many of the reviews are fairly recent, although I agree they don't get near as many reviews as I would like.
 
I'd be more than happy to anonymously post my interview impressions on scutwork... after the current interview season. :)
 
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gbwillner said:
I thought the sutwork reviews were primarily by current residents, not applicants.
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There is an option to list your status as Intern, PGY-x, Med student rotating, med student interviewing, etc.
 
I'll try to spook you a bit. I have met in person and interacted anonymously with two of the people who post on this forum...
 
gbwillner said:
I thought the sutwork reviews were primarily by current residents, not applicants.
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It does sorta look that way. I haven't spent much time perusing that site because the data is so sparse (and dated)...

BH
 
A year or so ago, there was a push here for people to post reviews on scutwork. Due to the paucity of reviews, even applicants who only visited one day on an interview visit posted reviews, which is not as accurate as those posted by current residents. I know yaah and I posted reviews on our respective programs...but even those are now 2 years out of date. I know my program has changed since I posted my review but I'm too lazy to go and update it. Most of the changes at my program deal with the surg path schedule and responsibilities...changes that only made things better.
 
I need to learn how to interact anonymously more often with people...like my inernal medicine residents...
 
gbwillner said:
Is it just me or does that sound really dirty?
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It's you.

The two people whom I've met in person incognito were pathology applicants. Thanks to SDN I was able to track down where they grew up, why they chose pathology, what their hobbies are, what their marital status is, what foods they like, what they like and didn't like about my program etc.

Be careful what you post online gals and guys. I've read an article recently that employer don't really need interviews these days; all they need to do is a quick search on Facebook to learn everything there is to learn about job candidates. This is the point I was making. Oh and yes of course I'm a creepy stalker :laugh:
 
Nilf said:
It's you.

The two people whom I've met in person incognito were pathology applicants. Thanks to SDN I was able to track down where they grew up, why they chose pathology, what their hobbies are, what their marital status is, what foods they like, what they like and didn't like about my program etc.

Be careful what you post online gals and guys. I've read an article recently that employer don't really need interviews these days; all they need to do is a quick search on Facebook to learn everything there is to learn about job candidates. This is the point I was making. Oh and yes of course I'm a creepy stalker :laugh:
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Haha...reminds me of stories I hear about how employers fired people based on their myspace profiles. Then, I think there was one story where one guy called in sick to work. Boss looks on one of his webpages (don't know if it was myspace, facebook, or one of the countless bloggie pages) and sees pictures of him dressed up as a girl, clearly at a party drunk off his ass. Speaking of which, this story may have been reported around Halloween.

I have to agree with Nilf, it's really easy to find out who people are...quick example comes to mind. People here post the dates of their interviews...if a program interviews one person per day, it's easy to pinpoint who that person is. Granted, I rarely interview people (and in many instances, I refuse to) so I don't really pay attention...my friends who interview here tell me when they are gonna visit so I already know when they're gonna visit here. But you don't know who else is reading this message board. It's easy to register and simply do searches to identify people...but then, for one to do that, one must have a lot of time on his/her hands. I'd rather spend my time doing more useful things.

That being said, is someone really gonna use that info to really make a case for or against a person? Kinda seems a bit suspect, but anything is possible.
 
Bierstiefel said:
Haha...reminds me of stories I hear about how employers fired people based on their myspace profiles. Then, I think there was one story where one guy called in sick to work. Boss looks on one of his webpages (don't know if it was myspace, facebook, or one of the countless bloggie pages) and sees pictures of him dressed up as a girl, clearly at a party drunk off his ass. Speaking of which, this story may have been reported around Halloween.

I have to agree with Nilf, it's really easy to find out who people are...quick example comes to mind. People here post the dates of their interviews...if a program interviews one person per day, it's easy to pinpoint who that person is. Granted, I rarely interview people (and in many instances, I refuse to) so I don't really pay attention...my friends who interview here tell me when they are gonna visit so I already know when they're gonna visit here. But you don't know who else is reading this message board. It's easy to register and simply do searches to identify people...but then, for one to do that, one must have a lot of time on his/her hands. I'd rather spend my time doing more useful things.

That being said, is someone really gonna use that info to really make a case for or against a person? Kinda seems a bit suspect, but anything is possible.
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I basically act under the assumption that people could figure me out if interested enough and for the most part I am not ashamed of anything I do online. (With the exception of maybe the Allo/Pre-Allo forums ;)) If some program is going to reject me because my facebook page says I'm liberal, or because Casino Royale is one of my favorite movies, then I'm probably better off not being at that kind of place anyway.
 
Sean2tall said:
I basically act under the assumption that people could figure me out if interested enough and for the most part I am not ashamed of anything I do online. (With the exception of maybe the Allo/Pre-Allo forums ;)) If some program is going to reject me because my facebook page says I'm liberal, or because Casino Royale is one of my favorite movies, then I'm probably better off not being at that kind of place anyway.
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Totally agree. I don't really care if people know who I am, I haven't said anything that I'm ashamed of.
 
OK, so SDN has a new feature, residency program reviews (either from an interview impression or from actually being a resident). Similar to scutwork but easier to use, perhaps. Actually, this is mostly for interview feedback, but residents are more than welcome to post.

http://share.studentdoctor.net/residency

Go to it! But please continue to post stuff in this forum as well.

There is also an announcement about it from site admin
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/announcement.php?f=51
 
yaah said:
OK, so SDN has a new feature, residency program reviews (either from an interview impression or from actually being a resident). Similar to scutwork but easier to use, perhaps. Actually, this is mostly for interview feedback, but residents are more than welcome to post.

http://share.studentdoctor.net/residency

Go to it! But please continue to post stuff in this forum as well.

There is also an announcement about it from site admin
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/announcement.php?f=51
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seems like a very good idea that'll really help other applicants (perhaps programs as well, once they see how they're being perceived) once it gets some entries. i'll try to get some of my feedback up over winter break. thanks for the info, yaah.
 
The system also allows for posting reviews from the past few years' interview cycles. So if you interviewed last year or the year before, post them too!
 
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