CO Internal Medicine programs

[chrisv]

Hi all,
I’m interested in the two IM programs in Colorado: the Univ of CO-Denver and Exempla St. Joseph. Can someone tell me how these two programs are similar or different?
How competitive are they, compared to IM programs nationally, are they considered top tier or bottom?
Are they more oriented towards producing specialists (people interested in fellowships) or hospitalists/internists/primary care?
Average board score for these programs for Step 1 and 2? Any cut-offs?
Cush or intense?
Any other info about the two programs would be greatly appreciated.

I have looked into a couple of posts from the past, and they basically said that that U of CO is middle of the road for competitiveness, most people are laid back, non-malignant, although there have been some violations of the 80 hour work rule.

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[dreamfox]

Graduated from med school at CU in '09.

I really liked the medicine program at CU. The people are great - very laid back and very friendly. The medicine program tends to attract some very bright residents. I would say it's a competitive program, probably to a lesser extent than some of the big name programs, nonetheless competitive. I think the program tends to look at more of "the whole package" than just step 1 scores. I would say 230+ would give you a good shot at an interview, but I'm sure you would be fine if you didn't get that. There are people from all over the country that want to move to Colorado because of it's surrounding. I think they did get in trouble for work hours, but they have totally revamped intern year this year. I think you now get two months of electives and a much better schedule. University Hospital is brand new and absolutely beautiful and the county hospital has been renovated as well. I would have stayed at Colorado if I didn't have the urge to live in NYC 🙂

I did an ICU sub-i at St. Joe's. It's a very nice place, but definitely a different feel. It's a community program and the program director is a very nice guy who's very interested in the program itself. It tends to attract a lot of foreign med grads (american foreign med grads). I would say the caliber of student is of a different quality at CU than St. Joe's, but I think it would be a good place to train.

It also depends on what you want. If you know you want to do a fellowship than there's no question that you should go to Univ of Colorado. It's going to be a more demanding experience, but I think the residents come out trained very well (in fact, the residents are the reason I was so turned on to medicine). It's also one of the best places in the country for primary care. St. Joe's you will definitely have a tougher time getting a fellowship based off the fact that it's a community program, but I still enjoyed my time there.

Let me know if you have any more specific questions, I just went through the whole process myself.