Big vs. Small

[PreMedDocMD]

What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a big vs. small program. For example, usually GS (and IM- doesn't necessarily have to be surgery, but I am more interested in surgery) has a lot of people, like 20 or so. More specialized areas, like orthopedic surgery or neurosurgery have a small amount of slots, like 5. What are the advantages of being big vs. small? Which one is better?

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[Scrubbed In]

General surgery programs tend to have fewer slots per year than medicine programs. 6-10 for surgery vs. 20-40 for medicine. The surgical subspecialties (ortho, plastics, urology, etc) have less and typically take 3-6 per year.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Big programs:

Lots of other residents to commiserate with; camaderie
Coverage if someone is ill, needs leave, etc. (ie, your call doesn't go from q5 to q3)
Can be a problem if seeing enough patients, doing enough cases is an issue - make sure their is adquate patient volume

Small programs:

Can become quite close (essentially have to) with other residents
Personality differences magnified in small groups
Lack of coverage if someone takes leave
More cases

These are just generalizations - there are some surgery programs which have double digit figures for residents each year, but most tend to fall in the 2-8 numbers of Categoricals per year rather than the larger numbers for IM.