another rank list call for help

[UTKB]

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God I didn't want to do this, but I need help too. I can't decide on my top 5 programs. I'm from Texas and am willing to leave the state for residency, but would like to return to TX and practice in Austin or Dallas. I am single and have a crap load of debt but can go anywhere. Oh and I'm a girl. So, how would you rank these 5?

Brigham & Women's
UT Southwestern Dallas
UT San Antonio
Vanderbilt
UAB

For the love of God, don't flame me, just rank em.

 

[Gimlet]

How I would rank them:

UAB
Vandy
Brigham
UTSW or UTSA (...no idea what difference is)

If you really wanna go back to Dallas or Austin:

UTSW
UTSA
Brigham
UAB
Vandy

I didn't interview at or apply to any of these programs, though...just my impressions based off of SDN hearsay!

 

[seamonkey]

I'm not going to give you a specific list review, as I've gone to the East Coast and can't speak with authority about your programs...

But that said, I'm from Texas, and hope eventually to go back to Austin some day.

Our med school class last year sent 3 ladies to Vandy, and all were absolutely thrilled. (seriously, I think they will dominate that place) So there will be plenty of Texas women there to talk to.

As an alumnus of San Antonio, I think the program was solid, the PGY-1 year may have needed work, but Dr Andrews was a solid pick-up as chair and I liked a lot of the faculty. Dr Bready wonderful and a great mentor. My old roommate is a CA-2 there now. SA has loads of cases...you will see plenty. The hit they took in review cycle was BS (admittedly I have some bias here).

Boston is a really fun town, expensive, but fun. B&W is what it is.

Can't speak to the others, only interviewed east for personal reasons.

Regardless, I'm only a PGY-1 now, but in my view all you list are strong programs. Texas connections will help, yes, but I can't see the others hurting you at all either. If you do well at any of those programs you should be fine. Hell, I'm going to be 1500 miles away from there but still hope to go back. Yes, Austin is full of gas MDs...but if you kick ass at any of those places you should be in the mix with everyone else.


What do you want? Do you have family connections in Texas? Don't discount distance over the years. Where were people the happiest, or most like you? None of your prospects are too far (except B&W). At this point, stop thinking too much about "what does my list look like? Am I going to rank the wrong places 1st vs 3rd?" Seriously, you have to pull the trigger here, on several good places. Pick the place that you, personally, would rather be 1st, 2nd, etc. It sounds like they are all close, and thats great because you have many options. Think about location and personal impact, and how important each place is for 4yrs vs another place closer to Tx. Then rank them. I remember doing this for the Texas match for med schools, and there I was again 4 years later, same problem. Maybe throw dice or darts if you really can't find a way to differentiate (jk!). The match is a tricky lady and you may get #1 or you may get #5 or other.......just make sure you are happy with all of your picks.

Then walk the F away......after changing it 10 more times.🙂


OK. now somebody else offer her what she really wants. Either way, best of luck to you!

 

[UTKB]

Thanks for the replies gimlet and seamonkey. I think I'm like everyone else ranking right now, as the deadline approaches you start doubting and second-guessing.

All of my family is in TX. They have all encouraged me to do what I want, stay in state or leave, and not to worry about the distance. I don't go visit more frequently than Q2-3 months, but I think it's knowing they'd be so far that freaks me out a little. I'd also like a place where there's a good chance of meeting someone, not to sound like I'm hunting for manflesh, but don't necessarily want to meet him in a seedy bar.

Boston seems cool but it's expensive, heavily taxed, and really the only thing drawing me there is the Harvard name.

SA seems solid to me, Dr. Andrews I really liked, but there are some things that bother me, namely the city (I was born there but don't really like it all that much), and lacks some amount of prestige.

UTSW seemed alright, no real complaints other than Parkland is a beast and that lingering malignant reputation, although the residents I spoke with refuted it.

Vanderbilt seemed good, great salary, benefits and name recognition, but I also heard the men sometimes call themselves "Vandy dandies".....wtf????? Eww. And although technology is great, it kind of seems over-wired...like, what would happen if the electicity went out or nuclear war? Maybe I'd become over-reliant. I dunno.

UAB I had no complaints, seems to have everything, including rep, with the exception of location like everyone repeats ad nauseum. It was my first interview and I kind of held other programs against it as the season went on.

So as you can see, all of these places have pros and cons (imagined or real), and exactly like you said, I'm afraid of regretting my decision to rank a given program #1 vs #4 and all that. What I really want is some experience in the world, and part of me knows it's good for me to get out of TX and live in a different state. Then another part of me says what if I have a s****y week and just need to see my sister or brother, and what if my parents need me if they get sick, etc. Moving somewhere out of state is one thing, but being committed for 3 or 4 years is almost overwhelming.

I appreciate seeing how other people view the programs and what their impressions are, and even if it ultimately doesn't influence my list, it at least helps with the nerves.

 

[DO4lifer]

i interviewed at UTSW. i didn't get that malignant feel at all. They did switch chairs or PD...something. but it looked like a solid program. the residents seemed very happy there too. my interviews were very benign. people seemed genuinely nice.

 

[Gern Blansten]

Vanderbilt ... And although technology is great, it kind of seems over-wired...like, what would happen if the electicity went out or nuclear war? Maybe I'd become over-reliant. I dunno.

You should not go there and that is exactly the reason why. I have been warning people about this for years. I call it the "don't go to Vandy because if nuclear war breaks out, you are screwed theory."😛

 

[sethco]

God I didn't want to do this, but I need help too. I can't decide on my top 5 programs. I'm from Texas and am willing to leave the state for residency, but would like to return to TX and practice in Austin or Dallas. I am single and have a crap load of debt but can go anywhere. Oh and I'm a girl. So, how would you rank these 5?

Brigham & Women's
UT Southwestern Dallas
UT San Antonio
Vanderbilt
UAB

For the love of God, don't flame me, just rank em.

Just spit-ballin' here, but we have a bunch of physicians in my office right now applying for a TX license. They are saying the process is unreal and unlike any other state with a wait of up to a year. They are finding that if you don't either live in TX and/or do your residency in TX, it is very hard to get licensed in that state. I can't imagine them actually being denied licensure just because they don't currently live in the state, but they certainly put up a lot of roadblocks and I hear the jurisprudence exam is decently hard (not a high failure rate or anything, but yet another thing that you will need to worry about while in residency). With this in mind, I rotated at UTSW for a month. Granted this was almost 5 years ago, but I really liked the program and would of ranked it highly. Can't speak for B & W, as I avoided applying to Northeast programs, secondary to Cost of Living. As for UTSA, a lot of Wilford Hall/BAMC residents rotate through there. Not a great program, but pretty solid was what I had heard. Can't speak for Vandy or UAB personally, but hear they are very good programs.

Just my two cents, take it for what it's worth

 

[UTKB]

Just spit-ballin' here, but we have a bunch of physicians in my office right now applying for a TX license. They are saying the process is unreal and unlike any other state with a wait of up to a year. They are finding that if you don't either live in TX and/or do your residency in TX, it is very hard to get licensed in that state. I can't imagine them actually being denied licensure just because they don't currently live in the state, but they certainly put up a lot of roadblocks and I hear the jurisprudence exam is decently hard (not a high failure rate or anything, but yet another thing that you will need to worry about while in residency).

Interesting. I hear it's difficult to get licensed in a lot of things in TX, including real estate. I guess since TX used to be it's own country, it likes to be a little uppity. I know it takes forever for everyone to get a license here, even if you do live here or do residency here. I didn't know that it was even more difficult for others.

 

[UTKB]

You should not go there and that is exactly the reason why. I have been warning people about this for years. I call it the "don't go to Vandy because if nuclear war breaks out, you are screwed theory."😛

Ha. Well I think that's a very concrete reason not to go to Vandy.👍

 

[lfesiam]

God I didn't want to do this, but I need help too. I can't decide on my top 5 programs. I'm from Texas and am willing to leave the state for residency, but would like to return to TX and practice in Austin or Dallas. I am single and have a crap load of debt but can go anywhere. Oh and I'm a girl. So, how would you rank these 5?

Brigham & Women's
UT Southwestern Dallas
UT San Antonio
Vanderbilt
UAB

For the love of God, don't flame me, just rank em.

hard top choices!

1) UAB (very popular among my classmates) vs Vandy (also very popular)
2) Brigham
3) UTSA
4) UTSW

 

[G0S2]

1. Vandy (outstanding program and fun city, cheaper than Boston)

2. B and W (Great program, Boston is great for singles, $expensive though$)

3.) UAB or UTHSCSA (bias) (the cities are not the best for singles but strong programs (Dr. Andrews, Chair at SA was residency program director at UAB, more $$ to make as resident at UAB).

4.) UTSW

I wouldn't worry about the TX license just yet. Its doable if you want it later and you never know what will happen in 4 years anyway. Dallas and Austin are fairly saturated right now.

 

[JimorJack]

I could only speak on UAB and vandy, but the obvious is Birmingham doesn't have the best options when you want to get out and enjoy a little nonresidency life and that seemed pretty well known even during the dinner for the interview. Also, if you are interested in cardiac anes, they are having a lot of change in that dept and possibly not a great position for stellar training within cards? Vandy is solid with rep just as UAB, but the electronic thing can be a little much especially leaving into pp they might see that as a negative especially with the impending nuclear strike ;-)...so based on city alone nashville wins between the two with pretty equal strong programs.

 

[UTKB]

I could only speak on UAB and vandy, but the obvious is Birmingham doesn't have the best options when you want to get out and enjoy a little nonresidency life and that seemed pretty well known even during the dinner for the interview. Also, if you are interested in cardiac anes, they are having a lot of change in that dept and possibly not a great position for stellar training within cards? Vandy is solid with rep just as UAB, but the electronic thing can be a little much especially leaving into pp they might see that as a negative especially with the impending nuclear strike ;-)...so based on city alone nashville wins between the two with pretty equal strong programs.

I like the way you think. Agreed.

 

[bigdan]

I interviewed at the Brigham and Vandy, and I loved both.

B&W:
- great name, great chair, seems like awesome experience overall, and residents seemed extremely happy. HUGE class size, and that allows for some flexibility it seems: generous call schedule and "out of the box" ideas - like one resident took a year off to go intern in Washington DC 'cause he wants to get into politics.
- Boston is cold, expensive, hell to drive in and worse to park in. No livers, if you're into that, and PGY1 part of categorical residency was poorly defined at my interview

Vandy:
- happy residents, very good name, that Robbins scholarship seems pretty incredible if you're into that, super-tech (as you already mentioned). Transplant everything, big shot trauma center with folks choppered in all the time. Warmer than Boston. Impressive perks package.
- Robust intern year, maybe over tech'ed. One of the residents mentioned that the PD might not have as good a grasp about what happens in the program as he might like to think, whatever that means.

I think both are great and will be ranking both highly.

You've got a great problem - good luck with whichever you choose!

dc

 

[error404]

Another shout-out for Brigham. If you can deal with the cold, Boston's totally doable with what they pay and a ton of fun.

1. Brigham
2. Vandy
3. UAB
4. UTs-- but I didn't interview there

But don't take my advice. 🙂

 

[Seba]

Don't know much about the others but UAB is a great program. The CC experience seems great and I thought B'ham was much better than what most people say about it.

 

[SexPanther]

Vanderbilt seemed good, great salary, benefits and name recognition, but I also heard the men sometimes call themselves "Vandy dandies".....wtf????? Eww. And although technology is great, it kind of seems over-wired...like, what would happen if the electicity went out or nuclear war? Maybe I'd become over-reliant. I dunno.

No man at our program calls themselves a "Vandy Dandy" b/c they would be ridiculed without mercy and I would possibly try to cage fight them. I don't know who would say that, maybe the ortho guys.

As far as the technology, we still have to use paper charts at times when they are doing work on the system...we survive. You definitely won't worry about over-reliance when you are here using the awesome system.