Cushness of Northwestern

[vancopine]

Hi all,

Hope interview season has gone well for you all. For anyone who knows anything about NW's program, what are your opinions regarding the "cushness" of the IM residency? I really enjoyed the program on interview day, but it seems like this term keeps getting thrown around constantly about the program without much explanation. Even on interview day I really couldn't gage much regarding this.

Obviously I would think that all accredited programs would get you where you need to be, but is there a concern for lack of resident autonomy, not seeing enough of what you need to, etc?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

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[wiloghby]

Hi all,

Hope interview season has gone well for you all. For anyone who knows anything about NW's program, what are your opinions regarding the "cushness" of the IM residency? I really enjoyed the program on interview day, but it seems like this term keeps getting thrown around constantly about the program without much explanation. Even on interview day I really couldn't gage much regarding this.

Obviously I would think that all accredited programs would get you where you need to be, but is there a concern for lack of resident autonomy, not seeing enough of what you need to, etc?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Don't factor that into your decision at all. The best attending I had on general medicine wards was fresh out of Northwestern for residency and ID fellowship. She was incredibly skilled at working with other teams and services at getting things done quickly and efficiently.

Her clinical acumen stood out even among more experienced attendings from our modest northeast program.

You get out what you put into it. But Northwestern seemed SO progressive in terms of approach to inpatient care on interview day and it shows in their alumni as well.

It's high on my rank list for sure.

 

[fasteddie911]

Cushness can be overstated and overexaggerated on SDN sometimes. It's a major academic hospital in a major city, you're going to see and experience plenty to be a highly competent doctor. Autonomy will be fine, I've never heard of any program having outright issues with autonomy, however this can be subjective (some residents want to run the show while others want guidance) and variable, even between attendings. There are programs out there that seem intense but frontload the curriculum, whereas others can seem cush but spread things out, in the end it's the same. A program can certainly adjust curriculum to make it seem harder but add no learning value. Moreover, a 'cush' program with quality teaching that provides you time and energy to learn is superior to an 'intense' program that wears you out, doesn't teach, etc. I know graduates from a variety of IM programs, mostly top-30 and including programs some call 'cush', and I can tell you that there's no noticeable difference in clinical ability between any of them. Bigger differences can be found in non-clinical attributes if anything.

 

[IMreshopeful]

Piggybacking on this...there is little difference between training at a “top 20” and a large upper middle tier program in a tertiary care setting. The only difference is recognizing a programs name. If you liked NW then rank it high. Don’t go based on perception.