Cleveland Clinic

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hardworker101

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Interviewed at CCF and wanted to get others' perspectives.
Top ranked institution but doesn't seem to get a great reputation on SDN? I wonder why some people question the quality of education at CCF?

Please share your 2 cents

Thanks

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Interviewed at CCF and wanted to get others' perspectives.
Top ranked institution but doesn't seem to get a great reputation on SDN? I wonder why some people question the quality of education at CCF?

Please share your 2 cents

Thanks

CCF is a great program (semi-biased, as I'm doing fellowship there). The CCF residents/residency graduates on this board consistently praise the clinical experience there. I haven't seen anyone question the CCF reputation on this board lately - if they did, they would certainly get flamed by the CCF posse.

Are you asking why it doesn't get listed in the top 5 anesthesia programs nationally by people on this board (despite being a "Top 5" hospital - whatever that means)? Well, you would have to look at the metrics used to rank hospitals, and ask yourself if any of them translate into the quality of the anesthesia education. It is indeed a quaternary referral center with an incredible diversity of cases, and great faculty - but how do you objectively rank such things? Personally, I don't get too caught up in the idea of rankings - are you really going to be that much happier at a program "ranked" #1 vs #2? CCF residents seem to get great job and fellowship placement - but the same could be said of other "top" institutions.

Perhaps the word "Cleveland" at the beginning of the name turns people off. It's really not THAT bad of a town. This winter has been incredibly mild - perhaps the global warming theorists are right after all.
 
Interviewed at CCF and wanted to get others' perspectives.
Top ranked institution but doesn't seem to get a great reputation on SDN? I wonder why some people question the quality of education at CCF?

Please share your 2 cents

Thanks

This is purely anecdotal, but the reputation I had heard is that it's a hard-working program with a minimal focus on education. I will say, though, that I worked with a CCF alumni last year who actually advised me not to apply there. Of course, this is only one person's opinion. It sounds like all the tools are there to have a really awesome residency program, so it's also not clear to me what specifically it is that people don't like about it.
 
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I did a rotation there and was pleased with my experience. From what I gather from talking to the current residents and alumni, the program used to be more of a workhorse program with less of a focus on education. They struggled with board pass rates for a while and eventually (a couple years ago I believe) reformed the program and now have a very strong didactic schedule as well as a comprehensive introductory period to anesthesia during pgy-1 year. They used to have two classes of anesthesia resident-- one who went through the normal match and another that started in January made up of FMGs. They have since stopped this practice and take everyone from the match now. This is all hearsay that I gathered from interviewing and rotating at this program so if any of the info I've provided here is wrong feel free to correct me. I believe people avoided the program in the past due to its workhorse reputation.
 
I did a rotation there and was pleased with my experience. From what I gather from talking to the current residents and alumni, the program used to be more of a workhorse program with less of a focus on education. They struggled with board pass rates for a while and eventually (a couple years ago I believe) reformed the program and now have a very strong didactic schedule as well as a comprehensive introductory period to anesthesia during pgy-1 year. They used to have two classes of anesthesia resident-- one who went through the normal match and another that started in January made up of FMGs. They have since stopped this practice and take everyone from the match now. This is all hearsay that I gathered from interviewing and rotating at this program so if any of the info I've provided here is wrong feel free to correct me. I believe people avoided the program in the past due to its workhorse reputation.

When I interviewed there in Jan, they said that 12 of the 26 spots were reserved for outside the match. Most of the outside match spots were made up of FMGs who had published books on anesthesia and practiced for many years in their home countries, etc. It seemed like the program had trouble filling their spots in the past through the regular match and this is a way that they could guarantee getting quality residents. I guess people didn't like the location? The anesthesia dept seemed very strong and career wise, you prob can't go wrong with CCF.
 
When I interviewed there in Jan, they said that 12 of the 26 spots were reserved for outside the match. Most of the outside match spots were made up of FMGs who had published books on anesthesia and practiced for many years in their home countries, etc. It seemed like the program had trouble filling their spots in the past through the regular match and this is a way that they could guarantee getting quality residents. I guess people didn't like the location? The anesthesia dept seemed very strong and career wise, you prob can't go wrong with CCF.

I remember hearing that they were doing about 250-300 interviews for 14 spots, so 12 outside the match sounds about right.
 
Why do they have trouble filling their spots? Isn't CCF known in the world for top medical care? Something doesn't make sense to me? How bad people think of Cleveland?

Thanks a lot
 
Why do they have trouble filling their spots? Isn't CCF known in the world for top medical care? Something doesn't make sense to me? How bad people think of Cleveland?

It's not so much that Cleveland is "that bad," it's that many of the other top programs are in very, very desirable locations.
 
It's not so much that Cleveland is "that bad," it's that many of the other top programs are in very, very desirable locations.

Agreed. I think the only other programs that come to mind that might be in comparable (medium sized, less renowned, urban cities) would be WashU and Hopkins. However, I think many people would still say that St. Louis and Baltimore are more favorable cities with less of a bad rap, and their programs are obviously spectacular too.
 
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