Unfilled programs

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pathstudent

pathstudent

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Where were the unfilled spots. Cmon it is public information. That has always been exciting. I remember when I matched nw in Chicago only filled one spot and ucsf and mgh each had two open spots. Unbelievable but I guess it was a different less competitive era five six years ago
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multiplemyeloma said:
northwestern had two unfilled spots.
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Seriously? It's the 2nd time in like 5 years...either they're not ranking enough of their interviewees or just selected interviewees that preferred to go elsewhere (I think one strategy to make sure a program fill is not to just select all the best applicants to interview, but to select applicants that are most likely to choose that program).
 
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pathstudent said:
Where were the unfilled spots. Cmon it is public information. That has always been exciting. I remember when I matched nw in Chicago only filled one spot and ucsf and mgh each had two open spots. Unbelievable but I guess it was a different less competitive era five six years ago
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Unless you matched before 2005, it seems like UCSF and MGH have been filling up all the spots since 2005: http://www.nrmp.org/data/programresults2005-2009.pdf

NW didn't fill and had 3 open spots back in 2008.
 
lifehouse51 said:
Unless you matched before 2005, it seems like UCSF and MGH have been filling up all the spots since 2005: http://www.nrmp.org/data/programresults2005-2009.pdf

NW didn't fill and had 3 open spots back in 2008.
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It must have been NRMP data from 2004 or earlier.


that's an awesome chart. Wow Stanford filled every residency spot in all residencies for 5 consecutive years. Talk about coastal elitism!
 
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exPCM said:
My understanding is that Northwestern Is A Scut Monkey Residency Program Where The Residents Get Little Or No Slide Preview Time.
I also seem to recall hearing about them using residents as gross room horses so they wouldn't have to pay any PAs.
Go to this thread for a read on salient points:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=574310&highlight=northwestern+pathology
Click to expand...

Interview days can be deceiving, but can't say I got the feeling they scut residents like crazy, and supposedly they are working on changing over from a 2 to 3 day cycle. However, I didn't get a sense that residents were proud to be there...like some seemed like they wanted to be elsewhere
 
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pathstudent said:
2004


that's an awesome chart. Wow Stanford filled every residency spot in all residencies for 5 consecutive years. Talk about coastal elitism!
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Where did you train? You seem pretty obsessed with brand name programs
 
Have you ever been to Northwestern or personally interacted with anybody at Northwestern? Otherwise, you should shut your pie-hole! As Yaah has said time and time again, so many people on here are negative and most have no clue what they're talking about. All of our graduating residents get great fellowships and I know of no one that is jobless. In fact, most of our grads have had no problem finding jobs in the saturated Chicago job market. I expected to work hard in residency, and I feel like I'm reaping the rewards with my fellowship. Other programs, including Cleveland Clinic which is a fantastic program, had several spots open a couple of years ago because some people left to change specialties, etc... Things like that happen, and they happen in almost every residency program. I really don't think you can judge Northwestern if you've had no personal experience with them and only have read things on an internet forum. I obviously cannot change your closed-mindedness, but please only comment on things that you know and quit speculating.


exPCM said:
My understanding is that Northwestern Is A Scut Monkey Residency Program Where The Residents Get Little Or No Slide Preview Time.
I also seem to recall hearing about them using residents as gross room horses so they wouldn't have to pay any PAs.
Go to this thread for a read on salient points:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=574310&highlight=northwestern+pathology
Click to expand...
 
So pathchick, did NW's spot really go unfilled this year? What happened, just out of curiosity?
 
pathchick09 said:
All of our graduating residents get great fellowships and I know of no one that is jobless.
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Ah, yes. The criteria for a great program in pathology.

... expecting job market thread derailment right ... about ... now ...
 
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2121115 said:
Ah, yes. The criteria for a great program in pathology.

... expecting job market thread derailment right ... about ... now ...
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It's almost the Godwin's Law of the pathology board.
 
Entgegen said:
It's almost the Godwin's Law of the pathology board.
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lol, at SDN we have a rule known as "Burnett's law" (after Lee Burnett who founded SDN). It's similar to Godwin's law only that there will not be a Nazi reference, there will be a reference to how someone will make a terrible doctor if they keep up that attitude, etc. It's most common on the preallo forums where someone asks a question about physicians salaries, for example, they get challenged on the merits of going into medicine considering money so highly, they fight back, and then the claim comes out about how horrible a physician they will be.

In terms of the above posts, people will almost always believe unfavorable rumors before they will believe favorable opinions, because favorable opinions must be biased whereas rumors are the truth. In reality you have to treat every unfounded claim or opinion skeptically, and consider the source. I have not heard anything firsthand about the NW program for over 2 years, so I have no idea how things are now.
 
pathchick09 said:
Have you ever been to Northwestern or personally interacted with anybody at Northwestern? Otherwise, you should shut your pie-hole! As Yaah has said time and time again, so many people on here are negative and most have no clue what they're talking about. All of our graduating residents get great fellowships and I know of no one that is jobless. In fact, most of our grads have had no problem finding jobs in the saturated Chicago job market. I expected to work hard in residency, and I feel like I'm reaping the rewards with my fellowship. Other programs, including Cleveland Clinic which is a fantastic program, had several spots open a couple of years ago because some people left to change specialties, etc... Things like that happen, and they happen in almost every residency program. I really don't think you can judge Northwestern if you've had no personal experience with them and only have read things on an internet forum. I obviously cannot change your closed-mindedness, but please only comment on things that you know and quit speculating.
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Sorry - your post is garbage IMO. I am not a speculator. When the previous thread was active I had contacts from a Northwestern pathology resident detailing many of the problems there.

This thread here documents how the PAs never arrived and the preview time was never implemented: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=674313
I also have heard that the unknowns conference there consist of slides that have the surgical numbers right on them so that the residents can look up the diagnoses and it is not a true "unknowns" conference as I would classify it.
Is it possible that the program is just great posts are the result of a Stockholm syndrome type of effect?
The program looks to me to have a very poor record as far as resident retention and match rates. That is also a red flag IMO.
Let me guess: You are still on a 2 day grossing schedule and the promised PAs are where?
 
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I can only speak from my experience, but when I interviewed at NW, they really didn't put a good face on the program. I simply didn't get a good feeling about it. Residents didn't go out of their way to interact with the applicants, and generally seemed stressed. That's my n of 1, anyway.

If they really didn't fill this year, that's two out of the last three years, including two years ago when they only filled one spot. I guess in and of itself it's not a terrible thing, but it doesn't exactly look great. I know it's a "name" program, but the program I ended up choosing over it is less of a "name" and they've filled every year for the last several years. And we all - as everyone at every program always says - get great fellowships.
 
Here's a list of all the Path programs that didn't fill in the match, with total number of positions available in the match and number of unfilled positions. I did not include any data from programs that were listed as AP- or CP-only. If I'm counting right that makes 17 unfilled positions total, which I believe is lower than average for Pathology.


Penrose Hospital (Colorado Springs, CO) – 2 positions, 1 unfilled

Northwestern – 5 positions, 2 unfilled

University of Chicago/Northshore – 3 positions, 1 unfilled

Berkshire Medical Center (Springfield, MA) – 1 position, 1 unfilled

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center – 2 positions, 1 unfilled

Stony Brook – 5 positions, 3 unfilled

University of Rochester/Strong Memorial – 4 positions, 1 unfilled

Pitt County Memorial Hospital/Brody School of Medicine (Greenville, NC) – 3 positions, 2 unfilled

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center – 4 positions, 1 unfilled

West Res Care/NEOUCOM-OH (Youngstown, OH) – 1 position, 1 unfilled

University of Tennessee Grad SOM-Knoxville – 2 positions, 1 unfilled

University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinic – 4 positions, 2 unfilled
 
Interferon15 said:
Northwestern? interesting....
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Well there is a bit of a discussion on NW's program in this thread. I do think maybe they didn't rank enough people or selected too many interviewees that preferred going elsewhere.
 
I honestly think its time to say who f- cares where you do your training.

We have gone well beyond rearranging deck chairs on Titanic, you guys are debating window coverings and wallpaper in a f'ing collapsing building in the midst of a burning inferno set somewhere in Los Angeles during the movie 2012. clue: the city is completely destroyed in the movie.

This isnt b-school where not landing the right internship and the Harvard MBA is going to lock you out of Goldmans.

At this point, BWH=South Arkansas State Mental Hospital, Department of Pathology.
 
I'm selling rope... very strong, will not fail you when you do the logical thing if you pay attention to the "truth" of medicine. Strong knot with perfect sized noose optional (for a cost of course).
 
Sulfinator said:
Here's a list of all the Path programs that didn't fill in the match, with total number of positions available in the match and number of unfilled positions. I did not include any data from programs that were listed as AP- or CP-only. If I'm counting right that makes 17 unfilled positions total, which I believe is lower than average for Pathology.


Penrose Hospital (Colorado Springs, CO) – 2 positions, 1 unfilled

Northwestern – 5 positions, 2 unfilled

University of Chicago/Northshore – 3 positions, 1 unfilled

Berkshire Medical Center (Springfield, MA) – 1 position, 1 unfilled

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center – 2 positions, 1 unfilled

Stony Brook – 5 positions, 3 unfilled

University of Rochester/Strong Memorial – 4 positions, 1 unfilled

Pitt County Memorial Hospital/Brody School of Medicine (Greenville, NC) – 3 positions, 2 unfilled

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center – 4 positions, 1 unfilled

West Res Care/NEOUCOM-OH (Youngstown, OH) – 1 position, 1 unfilled

University of Tennessee Grad SOM-Knoxville – 2 positions, 1 unfilled

University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinic – 4 positions, 2 unfilled
Click to expand...

Can't believe Wake Forest didn't fill. They have a really good program and Winston is a nice town.
 
Northwestern has had trouble filling spots for many years now......a troubled program trying to recover, i think they've had a very traumatic last 5 years.........it's one of those programs on "avoid" lists when i speak to others about it.
 
Sulfinator said:
University of Rochester/Strong Memorial – 4 positions, 1 unfilled
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Well, that's surprising. I know some of the pathologists from there personally, and they are great teachers. Perhaps there's something I don't know about this program (among the multitude of other things I don't know yet... http://img2.studentdoctor.net/images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
I was hoping to apply there since I'm from Rochester.... maybe I should think twice or at least look into the program a bit more carefully.
 
mm008m said:
Well, that's surprising. I know some of the pathologists from there personally, and they are great teachers. Perhaps there's something I don't know about this program (among the multitude of other things I don't know yet... http://img2.studentdoctor.net/images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
I was hoping to apply there since I'm from Rochester.... maybe I should think twice or at least look into the program a bit more carefully.
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Well, it looks like they completely filled in 2008 and 2007 (with quotas of 4 for both years). However, they had one unfilled position in 2006 (with a quota of 4) and two unfilled positions in 2005 (with a quota of 7).
 
mm008m said:
Well, that's surprising. I know some of the pathologists from there personally, and they are great teachers. Perhaps there's something I don't know about this program (among the multitude of other things I don't know yet... http://img2.studentdoctor.net/images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
I was hoping to apply there since I'm from Rochester.... maybe I should think twice or at least look into the program a bit more carefully.
Click to expand...

Programs not filling is a concern (And doesn't do good to their reputation), but that doesn't mean the program's itself bad. There are a few reasons I could think of that can result in that: 1. Being overly confident about filling and didn't rank enough people, for eg, interviewed 80 people but only ranked 20. 2. For that particular year, many of their interviewees just prefer going elsewhere and did match elsewhere instead.
 
And your guess is wrong...once again showing that you are speculating. We now have 2 certified PAs and are hiring a 3rd. Our 3 day cycle officially begins next Monday. I'm sure there will be kinks but we're all excited for it. Things took a while, but they happened. Big changes like that don't happen overnight when you have to budget for more employees and tell your surgeons that they will no longer have a 1 day TAT.

As for the unknowns, it's called an honor system. The whole point is to read about the case and try and figure out what you think the diagnosis is. I don't look up the answer because that makes no sense. When I'm out in the real world I can't do that, so it's not an option for me. We have unknowns twice a week so it really keeps you reading and up on the latest literature. If someone looks up the answers they're only cheating themselves.

As for you having a "contact" at NW: what are you the CIA or something? Did you ever think maybe that person was just unhappy for other reasons and had an axe to grind with the program?

Anywho, have a great day! :D

exPCM said:
Sorry - your post is garbage IMO. I am not a speculator. When the previous thread was active I had contacts from a Northwestern pathology resident detailing many of the problems there.

This thread here documents how the PAs never arrived and the preview time was never implemented: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=674313
I also have heard that the unknowns conference there consist of slides that have the surgical numbers right on them so that the residents can look up the diagnoses and it is not a true "unknowns" conference as I would classify it.
Is it possible that the program is just great posts are the result of a Stockholm syndrome type of effect?
The program looks to me to have a very poor record as far as resident retention and match rates. That is also a red flag IMO.
Let me guess: You are still on a 2 day grossing schedule and the promised PAs are where?
Click to expand...
 
mm008m said:
Well, that's surprising. I know some of the pathologists from there personally, and they are great teachers. Perhaps there's something I don't know about this program (among the multitude of other things I don't know yet... http://img2.studentdoctor.net/images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
I was hoping to apply there since I'm from Rochester.... maybe I should think twice or at least look into the program a bit more carefully.
Click to expand...

The only serious problem they had was not doing their own flow cytometry for a year or so and that was resolved a couple years back. I did my undergrad at U of R and still keep in touch with the people I did research with.

It's an interesting city. I miss the trivia nights at the Old Toad...
 
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