Too many interviews. Too little money. Which should I attend?

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TheApple

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I have a feeling that people are going to have to start canceling interviews soon due to receiving too many so I figured I would create a thread where we could discuss which to cancel.

For me, I cannot afford to fly to all of these so I need to pick one. I am looking for a strong academic program that will place me well into an ID fellowship or academic general internal medicine fellowship. I want a place that has research available and I will have time to partake.

University of Utah vs. UC Davis vs. UCLA-Harbor/Cedars Sinai (I can go on both UCLA-H and Cedars because they are scheduled back to back)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm happy to provide feedback to others if I am familiar with the programs.

Thanks.
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TheApple said:
I have a feeling that people are going to have to start canceling interviews soon due to receiving too many so I figured I would create a thread where we could discuss which to cancel.

For me, I cannot afford to fly to all of these so I need to pick one. I am looking for a strong academic program that will place me well into an ID fellowship or academic general internal medicine fellowship. I want a place that has research available and I will have time to partake.

University of Utah vs. UC Davis vs. UCLA-Harbor/Cedars Sinai (I can go on both UCLA-H and Cedars because they are scheduled back to back)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm happy to provide feedback to others if I am familiar with the programs.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

thread already started
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=958272

program alone? i hear UUtah is a great program.
i think UUtah>Davis>UCLA-Harbor/Cedars
 
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does location/lifestyle not matter to you at all??

if yes: then i would go with utah>davis=cedars>harbor

if no, then well up to you...
- i was picking through some of the same programs. didn't bother with either utah or davis. because honestly, the only reason i'd go to salt lake is to ski. and sacramento...? to buy a super cheap house in the failing economy? who knows...
 
TheApple said:
I have a feeling that people are going to have to start canceling interviews soon due to receiving too many so I figured I would create a thread where we could discuss which to cancel.

For me, I cannot afford to fly to all of these so I need to pick one. I am looking for a strong academic program that will place me well into an ID fellowship or academic general internal medicine fellowship. I want a place that has research available and I will have time to partake.

University of Utah vs. UC Davis vs. UCLA-Harbor/Cedars Sinai (I can go on both UCLA-H and Cedars because they are scheduled back to back)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm happy to provide feedback to others if I am familiar with the programs.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

My advice from going through the residency then fellowship process.
- Make sure to only interview at places you would honestly want to go. I interviewed at 14 programs for fellowship and ended up staying at my home institution, then spent half of fellowship paying off the $9000 credit card debt I acquired. Don't make the same mistake!
- Try to bunch up interviews geographically as you mentioned, this will save a lot of grief in the long run.
- Stay with people at the program you are looking at if you know anyone. This will make the day go more smoothly and save money at the same time.
 
I have too many interviews. I am looking to live in a bigger city, but I don't want to jeopardize my clinical training. I'm hoping to pursue a non-competitive specialty like ID or rheum.

Which 2 should I cancel?????

University of Florida-Gainesville
University of Florida-Jacksonville
Wake Forest
Carolinas Medical Center
VCU
Bayview
USF
MUSC
Emory
UAB
Baylor
GW
 
FutureDOCdiva said:
I have too many interviews. I am looking to live in a bigger city, but I don't want to jeopardize my clinical training. I'm hoping to pursue a non-competitive specialty like ID or rheum.

Which 2 should I cancel?????

University of Florida-Gainesville
University of Florida-Jacksonville
Wake Forest
Carolinas Medical Center
VCU
Bayview
USF
MUSC
Emory
UAB
Baylor
GW
Click to expand...

The two UFs and/or Carolinas.
 
FutureDOCdiva said:
I have too many interviews. I am looking to live in a bigger city, but I don't want to jeopardize my clinical training. I'm hoping to pursue a non-competitive specialty like ID or rheum.

Which 2 should I cancel?????

University of Florida-Gainesville
University of Florida-Jacksonville
Wake Forest
Carolinas Medical Center
VCU
Bayview
USF
MUSC
Emory
UAB
Baylor
GW
Click to expand...

Half the programs on that list aren't in a "big" city . . .

cut jax and carolinas
 
If anyone has a comment about prioritizing this list, I appreciate your input (especially if you actually have first-hand knowledge of any of these programs).

Thanks a bunch. Good luck to everyone.

Duke
Wash-U
UNC
UAB
Emory
University of Washington
Columbia
Northwestern
Colorado-Denver
UTSW
University of Chicago
Tulane
UVA
MUSC *
Wake Forest *
University of Maryland *
UT Houston *
University of Mississippi *

* Indicates programs I'm most likely to drop
 
UT Houston is a very solid program (Hermann is cool, MD Anderson is there, TMC is an "intercontinental" referral site and their IM residents and the students are all good folk) but yeah it's probably not of the same name-brand/reputation caliber as the places you didn't asterisk.
 
LumberJack said:
If anyone has a comment about prioritizing this list, I appreciate your input (especially if you actually have first-hand knowledge of any of these programs).

Thanks a bunch. Good luck to everyone.

Duke
Wash-U
UNC
UAB
Emory
University of Washington
Columbia
Northwestern
Colorado-Denver
UTSW
University of Chicago
Tulane
UVA
MUSC *
Wake Forest *
University of Maryland *
UT Houston *
University of Mississippi *

* Indicates programs I'm most likely to drop
Click to expand...

To give us a better idea of what to drop, how many are you planning on attending?
 
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LumberJack said:
If anyone has a comment about prioritizing this list, I appreciate your input (especially if you actually have first-hand knowledge of any of these programs).

Thanks a bunch. Good luck to everyone.

Duke
Wash-U
UNC
UAB
Emory
University of Washington
Columbia
Northwestern
Colorado-Denver
UTSW
University of Chicago
Tulane
UVA
MUSC *
Wake Forest *
University of Maryland *
UT Houston *
University of Mississippi *

* Indicates programs I'm most likely to drop
Click to expand...

Nice list. Hell, I'd suggest dropping even more. Definitely call and cancel Mississippi and Houston.

I'd got to 8 and no more (10 tops)

These:

Duke
Wash-U
UNC
UAB
Emory
University of Washington
Columbia
UTSW
University of Chicago
UVA

(though I'd never personally interview anywhere near NYC, reputation be damned)
 
jdh71 said:
Nice list. Hell, I'd suggest dropping even more. Definitely call and cancel Mississippi and Houston.

I'd got to 8 and no more (10 tops)

These:

Duke
Wash-U
UNC
UAB
Emory
University of Washington
Columbia
UTSW
University of Chicago
UVA

(though I'd never personally interview anywhere near NYC, reputation be damned)
Click to expand...

May I ask why you included U Chicago but not Northwestern? I'm totally unfamiliar with both. And I do plan to interview at a max of 10.

Thanks...this is very helpful.
 
I would go to Northwestern and skip Emory or UAB or just go to 11 places.
 
LumberJack said:
May I ask why you included U Chicago but not Northwestern? I'm totally unfamiliar with both. And I do plan to interview at a max of 10.

Thanks...this is very helpful.
Click to expand...

I've never been impressed with them - by all reports you get a cush little residency with nice "name recognition". It wouldn't hurt you to go, but I was giving you the places I liked in the top 10 on your list. To me the real academic spot in Chicago is UofC.
 
jdh71 said:
I've never been impressed with them - by all reports you get a cush little residency with nice "name recognition". It wouldn't hurt you to go, but I was giving you the places I liked in the top 10 on your list. To me the real academic spot in Chicago is UofC.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. I have those two back-to-back, so I'm sure I'll go to both regardless. Thanks again for your input. Just out of curiosity, what makes you put UVA on the "top 10" list? I think it would be really fun, but the location concerns me from a patient volume perspective and the lack of an afffiliated VA is also a negative.
 
LumberJack said:
Fair enough. I have those two back-to-back, so I'm sure I'll go to both regardless. Thanks again for your input. Just out of curiosity, what makes you put UVA on the "top 10" list? I think it would be really fun, but the location concerns me from a patient volume perspective and the lack of an afffiliated VA is also a negative.
Click to expand...

I've heard good things. Had a medical student in residency who matched out there. We kept in casual contact and he raved about it. Respectable fellowship match list too.

Anywhere on your list will give you enough patients to see and while I agree that being able to go through a VA is optimal, even some big name programs don't rotate through one or share one with another program.

I still think worth checking out.
 
Which should I go on?
Interested in 50% reputation/ability to match to a competitive fellowship and 50% quality of life (some amalgamation of work hours, being in a good city, and high resident morale)
Northwestern
WashU
Pitt
Yale
UVa
Penn
UNC
OHSU
Duke
Michigan
Emory
Tufts
Brown
Chicago
Mayo
Dartmouth
 
If you had to go on 1 Houston IM interview,which program should they be? I want to go academic, heme/onc is the plan for fellowship. Guessing UT Houston? Better to avoid the Baylor / Methodist split programs?
 
It is going to be an expensive interview season with flight+hotel+car rental charges. I will be staying with friends when I am in NY & Boston. Johns Hopkins is the only one who has offered interns/residents place to stay. How are you guys managing ?
 
MediKate said:
If you had to go on 1 Houston IM interview,which program should they be? I want to go academic, heme/onc is the plan for fellowship. Guessing UT Houston? Better to avoid the Baylor / Methodist split programs?
Click to expand...

lol no, go to the Baylor interview
 
Interested in 50% reputation/ability to match to a competitive fellowship and 50% quality of life (some amalgamation of work hours, being in a good city, and high resident morale)
Northwestern
WashU
Pitt
Yale
UVa
Penn
UNC
OHSU
Duke
Michigan
Emory
Tufts
Brown
Chicago
Mayo
Dartmouth
 
anisotropy said:
Can't tell if you guys are joking around or are serious. Why Baylor? I really don't know much about the houston programs, and applied there b/c I have family there. I've just read Baylor has fallen from its height post split, even though it has been > 5 years.
Click to expand...

It's still the best program in Houston. It has solid training and a solid reputation nationally. It may have fallen from where it was, but it's not like it sucks.
 
IMQuest2012 said:
Interested in 50% reputation/ability to match to a competitive fellowship and 50% quality of life (some amalgamation of work hours, being in a good city, and high resident morale)
Northwestern
WashU
Pitt
Yale
UVa
Penn
UNC
OHSU
Duke
Michigan
Emory
Tufts
Brown
Chicago
Mayo
Dartmouth
Click to expand...

Trying to cut down to how many? 8?
 
jdh71 said:
Trying to cut down to how many? 8?
Click to expand...

10 would be good.

I guess my question arises from the fact that I have interviews at some top places -- Duke, Michigan, Penn -- that aren't really known for having a good quality of life but might nonetheless be worth taking a look at. And some others that have a nice quality of life but don't really have the same brand (which I realize is unfortunately pretty important for applying to a competitive fellowship). Just trying to strike the right balance.
 
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I met a girl who had an IV at UPMC Mercy and she was paid a hotel stay by the program. Is it something common?
 
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I would imagine that programs that need to work harder to recruit are gonna pay for the hotel. The main UPMC program doesn't feel they have to do that.
 
Since people don't seem to be really chiming in would anyone want to tweak the following?:D

Interested in 50% reputation/ability to match to a competitive fellowship and 50% quality of life (some amalgamation of work hours, being in a good city, and high resident morale)

Would these 12 be good:
Northwestern <= good reputation, excellent work/life balance
WashU <= very good reputation, good work/life balance
Pitt <= good reputation, good work/life balance
Yale <= good reputation, reasonable work/life balance
UVa <= good reputation, good work/life balance
Penn <= very good reputation, mediocre work/life balance
UNC <= good reputation, ?good work/life balance
Duke <= very good reputation, ?no longer malignant
Chicago <= good reputation, mediocre work/life balance
Mayo <= good reputation, good work/life balance but terrible location
Brown <= ? reputation, ? work/life balance
OHSU <= ?reputation, excellent work/life balance, excellent location

Dropping these 4?
Emory <= not sure re: living in atlanta, malignant reputation?
Tufts <= not sure of reputation?
Dartmouth <= not sure of reputation?
Michigan <= not sure re: living in ann arbor, malignant reputation?

(And yes, I realize that you probably don't need to do 12 interviews for medicine but I guess I'm a bit of a chicken :oops:)
 
IMQuest2012 said:
Since people don't seem to be really chiming in would anyone want to tweak the following?:D

Interested in 50% reputation/ability to match to a competitive fellowship and 50% quality of life (some amalgamation of work hours, being in a good city, and high resident morale)

Would these 12 be good:
Northwestern <= good reputation, excellent work/life balance
WashU <= very good reputation, good work/life balance
Pitt <= good reputation, good work/life balance
Yale <= good reputation, reasonable work/life balance
UVa <= good reputation, good work/life balance
Penn <= very good reputation, mediocre work/life balance
UNC <= good reputation, ?good work/life balance
Duke <= very good reputation, ?no longer malignant
Chicago <= good reputation, mediocre work/life balance
Mayo <= good reputation, good work/life balance but terrible location
Brown <= ? reputation, ? work/life balance
OHSU <= ?reputation, excellent work/life balance, excellent location

Dropping these 4?
Emory <= not sure re: living in atlanta, malignant reputation?
Tufts <= not sure of reputation?
Dartmouth <= not sure of reputation?
Michigan <= not sure re: living in ann arbor, malignant reputation?

(And yes, I realize that you probably don't need to do 12 interviews for medicine but I guess I'm a bit of a chicken :oops:)
Click to expand...

Looks fine.
 
If you are going to see Mayo, you might as well go see Michigan, drop Brown instead. OHSU has a so-so reputation, though like you said good work/life balance and great location.
 
darkelven29 said:
If you are going to see Mayo, you might as well go see Michigan, drop Brown instead. OHSU has a so-so reputation, though like you said good work/life balance and great location.
Click to expand...

Who told you OHSU has a "so-so" reputation?

Were they smoking crack at the time?
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

I do agree that most would interview at Michigan over Mayo and that is something I will need to think about. But I just get the feel from SDN that Mayo may give me more of the work/life balance thing than Michigan (which apparently is a very intense place). I'll have to think about it some more.

OHSU and Brown sound like reasonably nice places that I kind of feel like I should take a look at. And although their reputation isn't quite at the level of Penn or even arguably UVa, I'm guessing a fellowship from these places would probably still happen.

Right now it sounds like the best fits for me are likely to be NW, Pitt, and WashU with Yale and UVa being somewhere after that. I'm really after that friendly vibe that these schools seem to have and I do prefer Night float to Q4 (yale admittedly has Q4 but it is still quite a friendly place so I hear). Well, this is all preliminary anyway... excuse my rambling...
 
OHSU is a great program, but the reputation compared to others in IMQuest2012's list is less so. I was told not to apply to OHSU by my advisors when I wanted to apply to only 20-25 programs. It's not my opinion.

Brown has limited fellowship match in terms choice of places, though their hem/onc is usually very strong and sends people to impressive places. You will match to a desired sub-specialty nonetheless.
 
darkelven29 said:
OHSU is a great program, but the reputation compared to others in IMQuest2012's list is less so. I was told not to apply to OHSU by my advisors when I wanted to apply to only 20-25 programs. It's not my opinion.

Brown has limited fellowship match in terms choice of places, though their hem/onc is usually very strong and sends people to impressive places. You will match to a desired sub-specialty nonetheless.
Click to expand...

I think they did you a disservice.

Lifestyle, city, and area bang for the academic rep and clinical training buck is hard to beat with OHSU vs anywhere else, unless of course you're one of those northeast city-slicker types, then you won't be happy anywhere outside of your godforsaken natural habitat.
 
Didn't realize I would run into this problem.... Just got a late invite from one of these and not sure if I should go

How do these programs compare? No geographic preference.
Emory, UCSD, Pittsburgh, UNC

And don't make fun of me if none of them compares to OHSU.
 
darkelven29 said:
Didn't realize I would run into this problem.... Just got a late invite from one of these and not sure if I should go

How do these programs compare? No geographic preference.
Emory, UCSD, Pittsburgh, UNC

And don't make fun of me if none of them compares to OHSU.
Click to expand...

How many of them can you make? Those are all good programs and I don't know if I could narrow it down to just 1. I'd drop Emory first just because it's not my kind of program or geographic area.
 
Let me rephrase the situation. Just got UCSD late invite, so less than ideal interview date (meaning have to fly out separately from the East Coast). Already have 10+ interviews, with those 4 lower in my list. Flights all booked except UCSD, Emory is also probably the one that would have got the ax if I could change my reservation...
 
darkelven29 said:
Let me rephrase the situation. Just got UCSD late invite, so less than ideal interview date (meaning have to fly out separately from the East Coast). Already have 10+ interviews, with those 4 lower in my list. Flights all booked except UCSD, Emory is also probably the one that would have got the ax if I could change my reservation...
Click to expand...

Got it...that wasn't really clear before.

Totally up to you in terms of how much you would like to be in CA, SD in particular. It's a well regarded program in a great location. Fantastic opportunities in ID, A/I, Pulm and Hem/Onc (I don't know much about their Cards or GI). I would personally go but it's easy to argue not going for the reasons you pointed out.
 
jdh71 said:
I think they did you a disservice.

Lifestyle, city, and area bang for the academic rep and clinical training buck is hard to beat with OHSU vs anywhere else, unless of course you're one of those northeast city-slicker types, then you won't be happy anywhere outside of your godforsaken natural habitat.
Click to expand...

I agree with JDH.

If I were not going after fellowships (not that OHSU has bad list - they have great fellowship list), I would have ranked OHSU #1. It was by far the best educational day on interview trail - great learning during resident report - instead of presenting fascinomas, the resident report was more focused on learning and management/pathophysiology. We also rounded with teams that day and the attendings brought review articles for the team and summarized it as well - so that you could read it later as well for more in-depth knowledge.

Very impressive program - a hidden gem - your advisors definitely did u a disservice.
 
Why is OHSU not good if you want to do fellowships?
 
Most OHSU residents seem to stay in-house for fellowships, but I'm sure if they chose OHSU for residency why wouldn't they want to stay longer.

Anyway, I doubt I would rank OHSU higher than other "top tier" programs that are in line with my career goals, though it deserves a good look, yes.
 
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I am in the same situation. Have my top 7 interviews lined up (Michigan, Northwestern, Duke, Emory, Penn, WashU, Mayo) and want to go to one more interview.

I have to decide between UAB and Iowa.

I'm looking for the strongest reputation possible to be an IM attending at a university program and/or heme/onc fellowship.

Would appreciate any advice. Which would you cancel UAB or Iowa. And why?

Thank you very much for your help.
 
I think they are similar. Which location do you prefer?
 
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