Anyone knows about Texas programs?

[HappyPanda]

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Hi, First of all, this is the best internet forum I have ever seen, really. Everyone is cool, friendly and helpful. It just reaffirmed my decision to become a pathologist ;-) Okay, here goes my question:

I am interested in a pathology residency in Texas. It appears they have 9 programs: UTSW, UT-Houston,Baylor Dallas, Baylor Houston, UT-Galveston, UT-San Antonio, UT-Lubbock, Scott&White, and Methodist Houston. Which ones do you think are NOT SO competitive? (I am an IMG, so have to be realistic, especially when pathology is so HOT nowadays). And who knows about the Methodist program in Houston? It seems to be very new, so is it possible to get good training over there? Any comments are highly appreciated. 🙂

 

[beary]

Welcome HappyPanda! This forum reaffirmed my decision to be a pathologist too. 👍

 

[HappyPanda]

Nice to meet you, beary. Seems not many people are interested in Texas?

 

[beary]

Nice to meet you, beary. Seems not many people are interested in Texas?

I am interested in Texas, but don't really know anything about it.

But it is nice to meet you too! 😀

 

[path2006]

I think UTSW is the best one and most competitive. Baylor is for sure second. I think UTSW is best because they have a very large program with lots of volume but the residents have pretty descent work hours and I think Dallas is the better city (no huricanes to worry about too!). From what I"m hearing UTSW is very hot as far as pathology goes and this year will be no exception, so it may be very tough for an IMG but they do exist in their program. I've heard good things about Baylor-Dallas in general but dont know much about their path (but I think its a small program). Also Baylor-Houston has lost its connection with Methodist-Houston so that has to hurt their path program. Otherwise I dont know much about any of the other programs. As far as ranking the most competitive to least I would rank them as such:

1. UTSW
2. Baylor
3. UT-San Antonia
4. UT-Galveston
5. Methodist Houston
6. UT-Houston and Baylor-Dallas (tied)
7. UT-Lobbock and Scott&White (tied)

Overall I've heard that UTSW is the path gem of the southwest and considered to be in the top 10 of most applicants list!!

Hope this helps.

Hi, First of all, this is the best internet forum I have ever seen, really. Everyone is cool, friendly and helpful. It just reaffirmed my decision to become a pathologist ;-) Okay, here goes my question:

I am interested in a pathology residency in Texas. It appears they have 9 programs: UTSW, UT-Houston,Baylor Dallas, Baylor Houston, UT-Galveston, UT-San Antonio, UT-Lubbock, Scott&White, and Methodist Houston. Which ones do you think are NOT SO competitive? (I am an IMG, so have to be realistic, especially when pathology is so HOT nowadays). And who knows about the Methodist program in Houston? It seems to be very new, so is it possible to get good training over there? Any comments are highly appreciated. 🙂

 

[Gene_]

I agree that Southwestern and Baylor are probably the most competitive, and that Lubbock and Scott&White are the least competitive. I'm not sure how competitive Methodist will be either, this being its first year in existence.

 

[Pingu]

Last year, I know scott and white wasn't even in the match. I will post more on texas programs later as i am too tired now and want subway.

 

[HappyPanda]

Wow, thank you guys and gals. This is very informative. I just found Lubbock in Yahoo Maps. It seems to be in the middle of nowhere, not exactly the place I want to spend 4 years at. S&W looks fine but they don't have any IMGs. I think I'll pay more attention to UT-Houston and Dallas Baylor. Methodist is too new and will face ACGME evaluations more frequently in next few years. I don't know if this might become a little risky.

 

[emu kid]

"STAY AWAY FROM BAYLOR!"

Fellow SDNers, please correct me if I'm wrong. I heard from the program director at my home institution that the split at Baylor is causing problems for some residencies. I can't give you more specific reasons as to why, but this is not a good year to apply to Baylor. Too much uncertainty with how the split will affect the residency.

 

[Pingu]

"STAY AWAY FROM BAYLOR!"

He means Baylor-Houston, just to let y'all know.

I was told to stay away from Baylor Houston last year as well, as news of the split had come out then. As emu kid said there is a lot of uncertainity. This is a shame because prior to the split it was a good program. 🙁

 

[Gut Shot]

"STAY AWAY FROM BAYLOR!"

Fellow SDNers, please correct me if I'm wrong. I heard from the program director at my home institution that the split at Baylor is causing problems for some residencies. I can't give you more specific reasons as to why, but this is not a good year to apply to Baylor. Too much uncertainty with how the split will affect the residency.

The demise of Baylor has been, shall we say, greatly exaggerated. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

 

[Pingu]

The demise of Baylor has been, shall we say, greatly exaggerated. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

You mean you are not forging scalpel blades over a hot fire wearing nothing but a heavy apron? And building your old microscopes based on the studies of Anton von Leewuenhoek? And making your own slides by melting sand with lightening rods? And hunting down beehives for wax to embed your specimens in? Gosh, y'all are doing much better than I expected! 😀

 

[Gut Shot]

You mean you are not forging scalpel blades over a hot fire wearing nothing but a heavy apron? And building your old microscopes based on the studies of Anton von Leewuenhoek? And making your own slides by melting sand with lightening rods? And hunting down beehives for wax to embed your specimens in? Gosh, y'all are doing much better than I expected! 😀

No, it's not quite that bad yet. But if Methodist slams the door on us altogether I might have to fill three or four months of rotations at St. Luke's, Texas Children's, Baylor Central, the busiest VA in the country, or Ben Taub. Woe!

Still, the have the best catered lunches. I would certainly miss those.

 

[Pingu]

I thought I saw somewhere that methodist was going to have their own residency this year?

Plus, you have to fend off hurricanes. and you didn't get to loot. 😡

 

[emu kid]

I thought I saw somewhere that methodist was going to have their own residency this year?

Plus, you have to fend off hurricanes. and you didn't get to loot. 😡

I saw the same about Methodist.

It is a shame what happened to the program since I had heard such good things about it as a second year student. Regardless of whether or not it's true, their reputation is suffering from all the misinformation out there ... even being propagated by residency advisors and directors.

 

[Osler's Eponym]

Please note that there is no "UT Lubbock;" the program to which you are referring is Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, in Lubbock, Texas. I am a 4th year student there. The program is quite small compared to UTSW, for example. As you might imagine, there is ample one-on-one teaching with the faculty, which is nice. And despite what many believe, Lubbock is actually a nice place to live, as I have for the past 7.5 years. About 200,000 poplulation (big enough to have most things you need, but nowhere is more than 15 minutes away), friendly people, beautiful sunsets, good weather for the most part, good facilities. I will not be ranking them high, mostly to avoid "educational inbreeding" and desire to go to a larger program, but from what I can tell, they are a fine, albeit smallish, residency program.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to PM me.

 

[Gut Shot]

I saw the same about Methodist.

It is a shame what happened to the program since I had heard such good things about it as a second year student. Regardless of whether or not it's true, their reputation is suffering from all the misinformation out there ... even being propagated by residency advisors and directors.

That is a shame, and most of the information is decidedly untrue. Frankly I feel unqualified to speak much about the effects of the Baylor-Methodist split at an institutional level, but in terms of the path program it has been about 90% good. These upheavals are always worrisome, but they are also opportunities for positive things to happen. One of the things I love most about the Baylor program is how congenial and laid back most of the faculty are. The only pockets of so-called malignancy I've come across have been in Methodist. I'm not talking smack about them or Methodist in general - they have more than their share of awesome faculty who are great teachers. As far as I know, our affiliation with them is shifting to an "elective-only" situation, which suits me just fine. Later in my training I should be able to set up months with anyone over there I want to work with, while avoiding the couple of "not-so-good apples."

We've also established new ties with St. Luke's, which was formerly UT-Houston territory (from what I've heard UT-Houston has done the same with Methodist). The director of their laboratories even came to our orientation back in July, which was rather nice. We've even got PGY-4's doing electives at MD Anderson, now.

It might be a bit late to be standing up in defense of Baylor for this residency application cycle, but it would be a shame if people wrote us off just over what they had heard. If you're applying to programs in Texas (especially Houston), you'd be foolish not to at least come by and see for yourself.

 

[DrBloodmoney]

Baylor is getting a great addition to their residency next year when our long-time program director retires from the army. She is probably the nicest person walking around the planet and a great pathologist to boot. We are all very jealous of the Baylor residency program and wish that we could move along with her.