Great question!
It is indeed difficult to get the full scoop on all the Chicago programs. I remember well my confusion when looking 2 years ago. Not until interviews at RIC, Schwab, Marion Joy and Loyola could I really make my choice clearly and I must say what impressed me most with Loyola was there breadth of experiences and the satisfaction that the residents I met exuded. We Loyola residents think of this program as a "hidden gem".
We gain a great variety of outpatient and inpatient experience here and work with some excellent attendings. If you enjoy MSK and pain, I can especially recommend the program. Dr. Steiner, though a somewhat subdued personality, goes out her way to make this the strongest program possible. As to how Loyola compares to Rush, I can't precisely say but let me lay out some similarities/differences.
First, you should know, Loyola, Rush & Marionjoy share some rotations and academic experiences. Rush & Marionjoy rotate through our SCI unit and our Loyola Consults rotation. Loyola does 2 months TBI, 1 month peds PM&R and 1 month pain @ Marionjoy. I'm not sure if anyone rotates at Rush besides Rush (at least Loyola doesn't). L, R and MJ get along quite well and get to know each other across our 3-4 years of residency.
Rush & Marion Joy residents attend some academic experiences with us including:
1) an excellent 2 month prosthetics/orthotics series (~8 lectures x 2 hours) with Scheck & Siress ... once plus for Loyola, we can attend every year if so desired. I'm not sure if MJ and Rush can do this. This is VERY helpful for boards.
2) A monthly (give or take a few months) "brown bag" lunch/lecture given at Loyola by a luminary in the PM&R field.
A big Loyola plus: a 2 month weekly anatomy/dissection experience. Each week the PGY2's dissect a portion of a cadaver (UE, LE, back, brachial plexus ...). That Thursday, A PGY3 or 4 gives a 1 hour lecture on the anatomy of that portion followed for a more intensive rehab focused lecture by a MSK fellow from a local RIC affiliated fellowship, followed by PGY2 led discussion of the cadaver. This is crucial in developing a strong understanding of the anatomical underpinnings of all the interventional experiences we get here, and huge benefit I feel.
I'm thrilled with my experiences thus far ... I'm a PGY2 and have done 4 months of inpatient (out of 8 total, 5 at Loyola, 3 at Hines VA), SCI, outpatient MSK (with many injections), EMG/consults (a split 2 month block). PGY3 will be mostly outpatient experiences except for 2 month inpatient @ Loyola and 2 months of consults @ Loyola. PGY4 is all outpatient except for one month as senior supervisor of Loyola inpatient.
We have some great faculty at both facilities, highlights including Dr. Lucero at SCI (an amazingly erudite lady, and great patient and resident advocate), & Dr. Chaudhuri at Loyola inpatient (relatively new, but very knowledegeable and infatiguably interested in resident education).
Dr. Gnatz, currently AAPM&R president heads up Loyola's Rehab unit. An important recent addition is Dr. Ahn (from Mayo and a subsequent EMG fellowship there) who is adding even more EMG experiences to our plate. Also, Dr. Charuk is crucial in our reputation for strong interventional cred and with him we do sundry fluoroscopic (and non) epidurals, blocks etc in a setting where the resident need not compete with a fellow for procedures. Many residents coming out of the program have gone straight out into doing injections w/o a fellowship in light of this.
Approximately 1/3 residents go into fellowships (MSK, Pain, ...), the rest generally go to outpatient settings, at least in the last few years.
Hope this ramble helps! Good luck!