See, this is the kind of post I think is dangerous. Uwash isn't one residency program. It's more like 20 specialties. Some may be benign. some may be malignant. Some may be well regarded, some may be the bottom of that field. You can't make a blanket statement about all residencies at a place, whether they are benign, malignant, have changed, etc. They are all independent, and can run the gamut, even within a single hospital.
As for malignant, I think Mandiblespeaks definition is a reasonable one. It's basically whether they make the residency hell for the residents, or regard it as a genuine teaching opportunity to train folks to be good doctors. Sure internship is going to be hard on everyone, because the hours are crazy and it's such a steep learning curve, but malignant is something beyond that -- and doesn't necessarily end at internship. Bear in mind that this is not something you will tell on interview day, where people are on their best behavior and the folks who give the tours tend to be hand-picked by the PD. It's something you have to find out through a mentor who knows the program, or from recent alumni from your school who are residents in that particular program (not a different specialty in that same hospital). Malignancy is almost always a top down issue, so if the chairman or PD is a SOB, the folks at the bottom (residents) are going to feel it. You are in a very precarious and vulnerable position as a resident, because you "need" to do well in the program and are in a system where there is often nothing to protect you from the whim or attacks of attendings. You need to know this to evaluate whether it's a place you'd be willing to spend 1, 3 or maybe 7 years at. It matters, often more than just "getting in" to a specialty.
So yeah, you can't just look at a program name you recognize and say, "gee that's a good match". It might be awful. It might be regarded as everyone's last choice. As a premed you cannot know. Heck, as a 4th year med student going into a DIFFERENT specialty, you won't know. This is very much a word of mouth thing and you only get the gospel once you pull the trigger on a particular specialty and sit down with the appropriate people. No way to know till then. Hope this clarifies. Hope I didn't distract from the lists too much, but allowing some of these claims unopposed I think causes more confusion for premeds than help.
