Program gives you discounted rate at Holiday Inn right next to the airport the night before (~$50). Nice enough hotel plus plenty of info about the program, coffee mug w/personlalized note from PD waiting at check-in. Big downside of this is that by staying here you have no idea what the city of Rochester looks like, as the airport/hotel is way outside the city.
Excellent dinner night before with chief resident, CA1 and CA2, 6 total applicants. Chief resident has a ton of things to say about the program and seemed very honest about everything, even driving 4 of us around in his car after dinner to show us the town.
Interivew day starts 6am, meaning if you're from any other time zone that's way earlier than you're used to, but what can you do. Lecture occurs 615-645 everyday (on our day the lecturer got a flat on the way). Bagels and juice with this, then PD gives PP presentation about the program. Program certainly emphasizes didactics and boards with daily lectures and very frequent key words/board reviews and oral boards practice, 100% pass rate for the past 4 years. However they also like to stress how strong they are clinically, which means, at least according to most of the residents, that they work quite a bit. Typical day starts about 0600 goes anywhere to 1600-1800 if not on call. Very rare to get out earlier unless post call. No 24-hr calls, just night float about 1 weekday/week and 2 weekend days/month. Overall they quote about a 60-65 hr work week, push 80 during ICU blocks. Starting PGY1 salary just over $44,000, with options to moonlight soon after step 3. If you moonlight enough, the hospital will pay for your state license. Chief resident then takes you into ORs during cases to meet with other residents while your colleagues are interviewing, which was nice. About 30 ORs, 12 more for OP surg, about half are new within 5 years. Big time liver center, were #1 for liver transplant volume last year. Also do plenty of hearts and peds, no off-site training needed. Residents said they met their requirements easily by the end of CA2 year. They do use CRNAs in more routine cases, leaving the tougher cases for residents, but residents definitely relieve CRNAs more than vice versa. They offer peds, cards, and pain fellowships in house. Residents have no problem getting prime fellowships or private practice jobs. Research available if you want it, but not required and not really stressed. Also cool, you can request any special drugs, instruments the night before your cases all online. (downside you have to specially request sevo or des EARLY, as they have limited supplies of these and they are scooped up by CRNAs because they get done so early; the gas of choice here is iso.)
2 interviews, both very benign and laid-back, 30 min each. Day ends with long lunch with residents.
Good intern year in that CA1 actually starts in March, and no call for first 6 weeks. You then do a couple ICU blocks later in CA1.
Residents all seem very happy, most are married +/- kids and some stressed that it may not be the most desirable place for swingin singles. Commaradarie seemed good but not great, residents didn't seem to hang out a lot outside or even at work, and some didn't seem to really know each other well at all, especially across classes. Just my perception, they all seemed just fine with everything. Rochester itself is a charming city, old, close to Lake Erie, plenty of outdoor activities. You still have to drive a ways to get to any decent skiing though, and they have minor league sports but no major leagues. A big plus is the fact the there is almost never any traffic and you can get anywhere in 10 minutes. Also avg house costs ~$120,000, almost all residents own a house, even single ones. Great school system for those of you that care. Finally they give you $1,000 worth of books PGY1 year, pretty much every anes book you could need, plus an extra $1K every year for educational allowance, which is pretty sweet.
Overall I was impressed with the program, no doubt you get excellent training and they are very resident focused, love teaching. In my opinion it probably isn't the best fit for me, just didn't get a great feeling, and I didn't like Rochester the area enough to uproot the family from the midwest. Certainly would not be upset to end up there though, will probably rank middle to end of my list, but that's just me, it's definitely worth checking out.