Baylor?
Started by azzarah
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As a baylor med student, i really think it's a non-issue. Baylor faculty all have very strong ties with methodist. Methodist isn't currently planning on starting up any ophthalmology residency anytime soon. Maybe in a few years.. but not presently. Also, the new eye institute building is a definite go ahead with a completion build time during the middle of our 1st year. The program has plenty of donors (good ole Houston oil money) for a state of the art eye institute. The timing will be great for those matching this year, because you don't rotate on privates really until your 2nd year. 1st year is mostly all county and VA work. Privates is during 2nd year and by that time, the eye institute will definitely be finished. I think Baylor is a phenomenal program. Faculty are incredibly devoted to teaching and friendly. Residents are well surpervised for a program that's very focused on resident initiative and learn by doing. And the residents are a friendly work hard play hard bunch. The residents also do very well for fellowship matching if you choose that path or feel very comfortable going into practice as a comprehensive. I personally feel it's one of the top 5 programs out there from a residency training perspective and will be ranking it very highly. Feel free to holler with any more questions about the program.
i agree with WhiteDots. i ranked baylor very high not because of its affiliation (or now, i guess lack of) with methodist, but rather the awesome clinical and surgical volume that its county and VA provide. definitely one of the top progams in the county. in the end, i chose to live in LA over Houston.
I feel like I have some grasp on the situation there since I trained there and have good friends who are faculty there. So as far as the residency is concerned, the whole Methodist situation is a none-issue. It will not affect the residency at all. As whitedots pointed out there are no plans for a Methodist ophthalmology program nor would it succeed if they started one.
For one, all faculty at Baylor had to choose either Baylor or Methodist affiliation when the split happened. All ophth. faculty stayed with Baylor.
In addition, Baylor has the county and the VA hospitals so a new residency wouldn't have a chance to survive.
Only thing the Methodist situation will change is where the faculty will have their private office hours. So the educational experience will not change at all for the residents.
In terms of residency training, I agree with the aforementioned comments. I couldn't have asked for better training. The number and breadth of surgeries, quality of didactics and facilities etc are all excellent. Residents train with the latest equipment. Baylor residency purposely has different phaco machines including Infinity, WhiteStar, and Millenium so the graduating residents are familiar with all three when they finish. The faculty are leaders in their respective fields but more importantly are nice and very approachable. They actually staff resident cases as well.
At the end of residency, you are prepared for whatever you decide to do. The residents match at top fellowships in all subspecialties but you are equally prepared for private practice.
The clinics can be busy but when you get out really depends on the team that you have during the rotation. I routinely got out before 5pm and it was
very rare to stay until 6. But this does vary by team since I know some other teams that regularly got out btwn 6 and 6:30.
Let me know if you have any other specific questions.
