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nice breakdown. just wondering y u felt columbia<MSSM<cornell (have yet to interview at MSSM/cornell) also y UCLA top in west? thanks!
2012-2013 Interview Impressions Thread
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nice breakdown. just wondering y u felt columbia<MSSM<cornell (have yet to interview at MSSM/cornell) also y UCLA top in west? thanks!
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Gut feeling. Hard to quantify but I will will use MCDA (multi criteria decision analysis) in the next two weeks to help with ranking 
Columbia: I know I am not being fair. My friend hates it there.
Cornell vs Mount Sinai : Cornell has a stronger program but I loved Mount Sinai PD & pimping morning rounds 🙂
UCLA exceeded my expectation - good quality program, supportive staff, happy residents, warm weather.
Stanford - I wanted to go there for med school. Was in love 3.5 yrs ago. Verghese speech gave me chills. Great program, great location, did not connect with residents as much.
UCSF - great program but not sure about their culture. Didn't make the connection.
One other thing I am looking for in addition to fit is where I have the opportunity to contribute the most (as cocky as it may sound)!
P.S I have global & community health interests.
Columbia: I know I am not being fair. My friend hates it there.
Cornell vs Mount Sinai : Cornell has a stronger program but I loved Mount Sinai PD & pimping morning rounds 🙂
UCLA exceeded my expectation - good quality program, supportive staff, happy residents, warm weather.
Stanford - I wanted to go there for med school. Was in love 3.5 yrs ago. Verghese speech gave me chills. Great program, great location, did not connect with residents as much.
UCSF - great program but not sure about their culture. Didn't make the connection.
One other thing I am looking for in addition to fit is where I have the opportunity to contribute the most (as cocky as it may sound)!
P.S I have global & community health interests.
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It depends on your interest. For example if you are interested in GI, MGH & BIDMC has liver transplant facilities and BWH does not.
For global health curriculum
MGH : You apply now - 4 yr program in which you spend 10 months international field work.
http://www2.massgeneral.org/medicine/index.asp?page=residency&subpage=Global Primary Care
BWH : You apply in PGY-1 - 4 yr program and work with Partners in Health
http://www.brighamandwomens.org/Dep...icine/services/socialmedicine/ghedetails.aspx
BIDMC : You can attend lectures, summer training...
http://www.bidmc.org/MedicalEducation/GlobalHealthProgram.aspx
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Gut feeling. Hard to quantify but I will will use MCDA (multi criteria decision analysis) in the next two weeks to help with ranking
Columbia: I know I am not being fair. My friend hates it there.
Cornell vs Mount Sinai : Cornell has a stronger program but I loved Mount Sinai PD & pimping morning rounds 🙂
UCLA exceeded my expectation - good quality program, supportive staff, happy residents, warm weather.
Stanford - I wanted to go there for med school. Was in love 3.5 yrs ago. Verghese speech gave me chills. Great program, great location, did not connect with residents as much.
UCSF - great program but not sure about their culture. Didn't make the connection.
One other thing I am looking for in addition to fit is where I have the opportunity to contribute the most (as cocky as it may sound)!
P.S I have global & community health interests.
Your opportunity to contribute will be more at a program with more turnover - make more money for the hospital/university, the quicker you discharge and less they are re-admitted 😀. Mostly, in the intern year all you will have time for is your basic ADLs and admitting/discharging patients.
You have a sweet list to pick your rank list from. Good luck
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Don't mean to de-rail the thread, but when your team admits that many people every other day (and you 100% of the time get that many people), I can swear to you that is not cush.
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CanIMakeIt:
Programs have elective blocks during intern year. Making money for the hospital/university - don't we already do that by being a cheap labor force ? I was not talking about financial contribution to hospital/university directly but in other ways such as research during elective blocks.
kentuckyguy84:
6 patients is what we did in MS4. 6 is cush compared to 8-10 in other programs.
Programs have elective blocks during intern year. Making money for the hospital/university - don't we already do that by being a cheap labor force ? I was not talking about financial contribution to hospital/university directly but in other ways such as research during elective blocks.
kentuckyguy84:
6 patients is what we did in MS4. 6 is cush compared to 8-10 in other programs.
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I think he means 6 every other day.
One of these days you will understand sarcasm and jokes - until then as always - Good Luck!
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Medical College of Wisconsin
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University of Wisconsin
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University of Minnesota
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Nice to see some love for the upper-midwest diamonds in the rough.
You'll never get a coaster to to come because they are, well . . . coasters. I try not to hold that against them.
Wisconsin, Minn, and MCW are all great programs.
You'll never get a coaster to to come because they are, well . . . coasters. I try not to hold that against them.
Wisconsin, Minn, and MCW are all great programs.
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I guess I'll post a few.
IOWA:
Residents were all very friendly and seemed to be happy enough. No booze at the applicant dinner though, which made sitting next to the biggest turd in my applicant group almost unbearable. As a whole, residents seemed sort of ho-hum.
PD seems like a really great guy to work for. Super personable, actively involved in noon report, very smiley. Plays jazz trumpet.
Hospitals were...less than impressive. Always lots of construction going on, but still, I felt the appearance of the facilities overall was subpar. Interesting iPhone pilot program being used in the ICU, along with big touch-screen monitors for ICU patient vitals and trends.
Interviews were really chill. Two 15-20min interviews with staff, then 15ish min with the PD. They seemed more interested in recruiting and gauging interest than grilling me. Very adaptable to personal educational interests.
The conference room was boiling hot, so I was terribly uncomfortable for the early morning Powerpoint form the PD and Noon Report presentation.
Hot lunch - Carved turkey.
Dessert - Cheesecake. No cookies 🙁
IOWA:
Residents were all very friendly and seemed to be happy enough. No booze at the applicant dinner though, which made sitting next to the biggest turd in my applicant group almost unbearable. As a whole, residents seemed sort of ho-hum.
PD seems like a really great guy to work for. Super personable, actively involved in noon report, very smiley. Plays jazz trumpet.
Hospitals were...less than impressive. Always lots of construction going on, but still, I felt the appearance of the facilities overall was subpar. Interesting iPhone pilot program being used in the ICU, along with big touch-screen monitors for ICU patient vitals and trends.
Interviews were really chill. Two 15-20min interviews with staff, then 15ish min with the PD. They seemed more interested in recruiting and gauging interest than grilling me. Very adaptable to personal educational interests.
The conference room was boiling hot, so I was terribly uncomfortable for the early morning Powerpoint form the PD and Noon Report presentation.
Hot lunch - Carved turkey.
Dessert - Cheesecake. No cookies 🙁
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Cleveland Clinic -
No resident dinner the night before.
PD is in his last year and they are actively looking for a replacement. It seems at this point that they may not find a replacement in time, so the current PD will stay on for an additional year. He seems like a decent guy, and made himself available to meet with applicants at the end of the interview day.
Residents all seemed like rockstars. They all had something super interesting going on either with research or plans for next year. A bunch of go-getters. Friendly people, and felt confident in their training.
Chiefs were very visible throughout the day and all seemed like good dudes. Made a genuine effort to talk to everyone and point them to talk to another resident with similar interests.
Facilities were impressive. ENORMOUS campus. Everything is flat, barren white painted walls, with an absolutely ludicrous number of flat-screens placed around common areas and skywalks. (Seriously, they had maybe 80 TVs displaying a slideshow of their various teacher of the year awards. Why?)
Two interviews ~20min each. For once, they actually seemed well versed in my application and were not so much interested in probing me, but more for explaining what CCF is about and what they can offer.
Gut feeling - very large, very busy. Confident in strength of training, but, as other treads here had already intimated, it seems geared towards churning out specialists. I got a bad feeling about the preparation for GIM or Primary Care.
Lunch - Absolutely to die for. Hot lunch at a fancy-schmancy café in the Intercontinental Hotel. I stuffed my face, the food was so damn good, but then I had bad case of the itis for the following noon report.
No resident dinner the night before.
PD is in his last year and they are actively looking for a replacement. It seems at this point that they may not find a replacement in time, so the current PD will stay on for an additional year. He seems like a decent guy, and made himself available to meet with applicants at the end of the interview day.
Residents all seemed like rockstars. They all had something super interesting going on either with research or plans for next year. A bunch of go-getters. Friendly people, and felt confident in their training.
Chiefs were very visible throughout the day and all seemed like good dudes. Made a genuine effort to talk to everyone and point them to talk to another resident with similar interests.
Facilities were impressive. ENORMOUS campus. Everything is flat, barren white painted walls, with an absolutely ludicrous number of flat-screens placed around common areas and skywalks. (Seriously, they had maybe 80 TVs displaying a slideshow of their various teacher of the year awards. Why?)
Two interviews ~20min each. For once, they actually seemed well versed in my application and were not so much interested in probing me, but more for explaining what CCF is about and what they can offer.
Gut feeling - very large, very busy. Confident in strength of training, but, as other treads here had already intimated, it seems geared towards churning out specialists. I got a bad feeling about the preparation for GIM or Primary Care.
Lunch - Absolutely to die for. Hot lunch at a fancy-schmancy café in the Intercontinental Hotel. I stuffed my face, the food was so damn good, but then I had bad case of the itis for the following noon report.
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Ohio State University -
Jennifer Journey is a damn sweetheart. She runs the day really well, and really helped me out in setting up the date of the interview.
Residents were super friendly and loved working there. Had a blast at the applicant dinner. After the no-booze situation at Iowa, I had to ask if there was a policy regarding the booze at dinner, and they looked at me like I was nuts. All very personable and helpful. Even left dinner with a few of the residents' business cards.
FOUR interviews - one 30min interview with staff/Assist PD, 15min with PD, 15 with other staff, 15min with a Chief. Chill interviews, again more trying to get to know what I wanted to do in medicine, and them explaining how they can make that work. Residents were hanging around the conference room all day and eager to answer questions. All well versed in what OSU had to offer, so I felt like all my questions were very well answered.
They do not have the weekly half-day of continuity clinic that most places have/had. Instead they do ambulatory blocks every 3rd month (or every other month if you are in Primary Care track). Ambulatory months are something like 5 half-days of continuity clinic, 3 half-days of subspecialty clinic, and 2 half-days for catch-up or whatever you want to do. It seemed too fragmented to me.
Facilities seemed to be adequate, but lots of construction going on. They have a Wendy's in the hospital. Not exactly invigorating, but not a turn-off either.
PD seems approachable, and seemed to be more critically appraising us as applicants than anyone else I had interviewed with. But not in an intimidating way, more like a "doing his job to make sure they get quality people who fit in here " sort of way.
Jennifer Journey is a damn sweetheart. She runs the day really well, and really helped me out in setting up the date of the interview.
Residents were super friendly and loved working there. Had a blast at the applicant dinner. After the no-booze situation at Iowa, I had to ask if there was a policy regarding the booze at dinner, and they looked at me like I was nuts. All very personable and helpful. Even left dinner with a few of the residents' business cards.
FOUR interviews - one 30min interview with staff/Assist PD, 15min with PD, 15 with other staff, 15min with a Chief. Chill interviews, again more trying to get to know what I wanted to do in medicine, and them explaining how they can make that work. Residents were hanging around the conference room all day and eager to answer questions. All well versed in what OSU had to offer, so I felt like all my questions were very well answered.
They do not have the weekly half-day of continuity clinic that most places have/had. Instead they do ambulatory blocks every 3rd month (or every other month if you are in Primary Care track). Ambulatory months are something like 5 half-days of continuity clinic, 3 half-days of subspecialty clinic, and 2 half-days for catch-up or whatever you want to do. It seemed too fragmented to me.
Facilities seemed to be adequate, but lots of construction going on. They have a Wendy's in the hospital. Not exactly invigorating, but not a turn-off either.
PD seems approachable, and seemed to be more critically appraising us as applicants than anyone else I had interviewed with. But not in an intimidating way, more like a "doing his job to make sure they get quality people who fit in here " sort of way.
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I absolutely agree with all of this. The interview alone will cause me to rank it in my top 5. I would be happy matching there definitely. The reason it's not higher is because its only the one hospital, not being able to moonlight until 3rd year, and its Ohio. In terms of interview day, definitely one of the best if not the best. The 4 interviews seem daunting but they are very relaxed and all about getting to know you. Hotel definitely one of the nicer ones provided. Keurig in the room is awesome.
Completely agree: Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota are all fine programs. I might say that in terms of clinical training Minnesota> Wisconsin> Iowa ( same in terms of location).
The midwest has quite a few strong programs. Besides the top tier midwestern programs ppl like to talk about-Wash U, Michigan, Mayo, Chicago and Northwestern, the other solid ones are Hennepin county, MCW, Ohio state, Indiana.
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Don't forget, SDN now has an interview feedback section for residency programs as well. Might be a good forum for those who want complete anonymity.
http://studentdoctor.net/schools/programs
http://studentdoctor.net/schools/programs
USC
PD: great, caring, down to earth, puts resident education and well being first
Hospitals: The new county hospital is really nice, you also spend a few months at the Keck private hospital. The two hospitals are just a few blocks apart.
Residents: all super enthusiastic about their program, really happy, appeared confident and capable
Morning Report: AMAZING, wow
Cons: none that I could think of. The (very happy) residents said to me: don't come here if you want a cush program. You work hard, make sure you want that. Lowest intern salary in LA (if not the country), but the other benefits are pretty good.
Other: They started putting NPs on each team to help with admissions while you are rounding, discharges and other stuff. They also started a hospitalist service to reduce some of the patient load so that the residents can spend more time learning about their patients.
Overall: A+ Great program, great people, lots of enthusiasm, excellent training.
PD: great, caring, down to earth, puts resident education and well being first
Hospitals: The new county hospital is really nice, you also spend a few months at the Keck private hospital. The two hospitals are just a few blocks apart.
Residents: all super enthusiastic about their program, really happy, appeared confident and capable
Morning Report: AMAZING, wow
Cons: none that I could think of. The (very happy) residents said to me: don't come here if you want a cush program. You work hard, make sure you want that. Lowest intern salary in LA (if not the country), but the other benefits are pretty good.
Other: They started putting NPs on each team to help with admissions while you are rounding, discharges and other stuff. They also started a hospitalist service to reduce some of the patient load so that the residents can spend more time learning about their patients.
Overall: A+ Great program, great people, lots of enthusiasm, excellent training.
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Cedars Sinai
PD: very nice, talked a lot about the interview process in general
Hospitals: You spend about ½ your rime at Cedars and ½ at Los Angeles VA in Westwood
Residents: residents seem happy with program
Morning Report: eh
Pros: location, relatively laid back program (if you want that)
Cons: see below
Overall: Overall it seemed fine. I didn't sense the enthusiasm that I got at other programs. Everyone seemed complacent, from the PD to the residents. I think that the main pull is (1) the location (2) its pretty cushy.
PD: very nice, talked a lot about the interview process in general
Hospitals: You spend about ½ your rime at Cedars and ½ at Los Angeles VA in Westwood
Residents: residents seem happy with program
Morning Report: eh
Pros: location, relatively laid back program (if you want that)
Cons: see below
Overall: Overall it seemed fine. I didn't sense the enthusiasm that I got at other programs. Everyone seemed complacent, from the PD to the residents. I think that the main pull is (1) the location (2) its pretty cushy.
Scripps Green
PD: really nice, thoughtful, education education education
Hospitals: Scripps Green and the Naval Medical Center
Residents: great bunch
Morning Report: well run There is a ton of education time, about 3 hours a day morning report, noon conference, and another conference right after (the last one is more workshops and sub-speciality stuff)
Location: easily the most beautiful view from a hospital in the world . Hospital, Golf Course, Pacific Ocean -- wow
Research: lots of research going on at the Scripps center
Cons: not a lot of outpatient/primary care experience, lots of educational time (some may not like that, others may love it)
Overall: really nice place to work, lots of opportunity for research, Naval Medical Center is a unique experience, gorgeous location, generally a low patient census
PD: really nice, thoughtful, education education education
Hospitals: Scripps Green and the Naval Medical Center
Residents: great bunch
Morning Report: well run There is a ton of education time, about 3 hours a day morning report, noon conference, and another conference right after (the last one is more workshops and sub-speciality stuff)
Location: easily the most beautiful view from a hospital in the world . Hospital, Golf Course, Pacific Ocean -- wow
Research: lots of research going on at the Scripps center
Cons: not a lot of outpatient/primary care experience, lots of educational time (some may not like that, others may love it)
Overall: really nice place to work, lots of opportunity for research, Naval Medical Center is a unique experience, gorgeous location, generally a low patient census
Kaiser LA
PD: very happy, enthusiastic, and funny (but also thoughtful --- very open to feedback)
Hospitals: Kaiser LA, ER is done at Cedars, option for electives at other hospitals
Residents: really happy, capable bunch
Morning Report: didnt take us, which, in retrospect seems odd
Research: mandatory research project, all retrospective chart review type stuff
Cons: Not an "academic" program. No basic science research if youre into that
Overall: well oiled machine -- their EMR makes working there a pleasure and significantly cuts down on the workload. Really good clinical training, and a built in job when you graduate from the program. Good work-life balance (as per the residents).
PD: very happy, enthusiastic, and funny (but also thoughtful --- very open to feedback)
Hospitals: Kaiser LA, ER is done at Cedars, option for electives at other hospitals
Residents: really happy, capable bunch
Morning Report: didnt take us, which, in retrospect seems odd
Research: mandatory research project, all retrospective chart review type stuff
Cons: Not an "academic" program. No basic science research if youre into that
Overall: well oiled machine -- their EMR makes working there a pleasure and significantly cuts down on the workload. Really good clinical training, and a built in job when you graduate from the program. Good work-life balance (as per the residents).
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Just interviewed at CCF and I'll echo these sentiments as well. Honestly, why does this program have such a 'controversial' reputation? The only questionable thing I saw was the overly large proportion of FMGs in the resident classes (which, granted, is a red flag)...but still. Physical plant was absolutely top notch, and their educational resources seem to be impressive. Their didactics were heavily revised a few years ago to allow for protected academic half days so that everyone could make it without being paged out. Given their reputation for 'low autonomy', I asked about this and was told that the only place fellows really take charge is the CICU...on most/all other units, fellows are either not rotating with the residents or are in a very supervisory role where they do not directly intervene on resident decision-making. Their match list is frankly pretty good - heme/onc (in which I'm interested) has had consistently strong matches over the last 5 years or so. It's true that their cards fellowship only takes one or two people from the residency program every year, but it seems like their other fellowships are pretty open to taking people from in-house (GI being maybe a little more hesitant)...and I don't give a rip about cards anyway so it doesn't bother me much.
It wasn't the absolute best program I've seen, but it seemed a lot more impressive than I'd been led to believe given discussion on these boards. It's also close to family for me. Am I missing something here?
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Not really. Except for CICU issue. I say go with your gut. Seriously, no one is going to say - oh you went to CCF, too bad for you. Here on SDN we like to skin hairs, this one is no exception (there are literally dozens of threads on MGH vs JHU vs etc threads 🙂)
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