Dartmouth

[skwaemus]

Hi all.
I am applying to pathology residency programs and wondered if anyone had an opinion or specific information about the program at Dartmouth. Thanks.

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[mlw03]

it's a pretty small program, and hanover is about as isolated as it gets. just traveling to the area was a pain in the arse. that said, when i interviewed there for med school i loved the area - it's beautiful, quiet, and because of dartmouth gets far more culture than a town its size should. the dartmouth-hitchcock med center was very impressive - it looks like a mall on the inside, and is one of the only big academic centers (along with vermont) in northern new england, so i'm sure they get some good variety of cases. i considered applying but didn't because it's small, doesn't have too many fellowships, and the geographic isolation would be a problem for me as a single dude. but if i were married i'd have given serious thought to applying.

 

[yaah]

It is definitely a smaller program, but large enough to train you well. It is also expanding and probably adding fellowships. Many of the faculty are there because they want to specifically be there (which is sometimes hard to find at many academic centers) and they enjoy teaching.

It is not that quiet during the school year though, the downtown area gets very congested and full of cars.

 

[skinknee]

Does anyone have an idea of how many sections they do per year?
Do you get good exposure to rare stuff?
Do they take their own residents for fellowship?

 

[yaah]

I think if I remember right they see around 20-30k specimens per year, but a lot of it is complicated stuff, they see bone and soft tissue stuff, it's a large cancer center. You might not see as much bread and butter stuff but you'd see some.

I suppose they take their own residents for fellowship, but they don't have that many fellowships. I know they have dermpath, maybe hemepath also.

 

[WWTWD]

I think if I remember right they see around 20-30k specimens per year, but a lot of it is complicated stuff, they see bone and soft tissue stuff, it's a large cancer center. You might not see as much bread and butter stuff but you'd see some.

I suppose they take their own residents for fellowship, but they don't have that many fellowships. I know they have dermpath, maybe hemepath also.

bone and soft tissue? um, no - sorry - not much
we have bread and butter coming out of our rectums.

this is our first year for fellowships - derm & cyto. heme next year. no in-house resident for any of the spots.





what do you think crep?

 

[WWCMD]

we have bread and butter coming out of our rectums.

i ain't no pathologist or nothin', but maybe you should get that checked out. i done heard that condition ain't good for the old ticker, can't imagine it's good for private bits.

 

[docmike1983]

WWTWD, would you recommend people come interview there or might they just as well cancel their interviews there?

 

[levels x3]

I can't comment on other aspects of their program (as I'm not there), but what's wrong with bread and butter? Why should that make anyone consider canceling an interview?

Rare and unusual cases are fun and all, but that's not how most people make a living. I'd rather learn the common things cold than spend my residency with esoterica I'll never see again.

 

[leewa]

F.Y.I.
I Happened to see the following post on internet, just wanted to share it with you guys.

Well, you need to like the snow. I mean you need to love it; don't mind is just not enough. There is going to be a lot of snow, and not too much to do besides playing with snow. The place is almost 2 hours away from Boston. There is a smaller airport somewhere around 50 miles away, but don't really count on it. Now imagine out a huge shiny hospital in the woods, basically in the middle of nowhere. The closest living place (college town) is 2 miles away. so you will have a chance to enjoy that 4-block village. There is a bus running from-to Boston every day; you might check it out. I rented a car and happened to drive at 8 pm after a 12-hour night shift in the ER without any sleep with the worst in the season snow storm on an unknown mountain road. The place is expensive. You can be qualified for a subsidized housing with income around 45k. It's not as good as you might think. It means that with income less that 45k, you basically can't rent anything. There were some sandwiches at the conference, so don't hope to get in a fancy French restaurant for lunch. Well, my impression that there was only one restaurant in the reasonable distance and it wasn't French cosine. There was a night club "Electra" somewhere around. That day residents were making fun about that place a lot; one of the previous applicant asked about night life in New Hapshire - a perfect reason for a good laugh for a couple of weeks.

 

[LADoc00]

The biggest thing when deciding is throw away any undergrad ranking misperception or Ivy league consideration and evaluate Dartmouth "as is". There is no halo effect in terms of path residencies folks aside from maybe a very select few places.

 

[docmike1983]

LADoc00, are you saying that when it comes to pathology residencies, the name of the institution is irrelevant? That you can have an ivy league status and still have a crappy pathology residency. That doesnt seem to be true with IM residencies, so why is pathology so different?

 

[WWEddieD]

it wasn't French cosine.

I prefer wild caught rambling tangent.

 

[docmike1983]

From FRIEDA:

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left>[SIZE=-1]24[/SIZE]</TD><TD vAlign=top align=left>[SIZE=-1]Maximum consecutive hours on duty during first year (excluding beeper call)[/SIZE]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

This mean the residents say in house for a complete 24 period? Aren't pathology residents supposed to take home beeper calls?

 

[leewa]

They do take home beeper calls, but the chances of being called in the middle of the night is rather high as I heard. But it is a very safe area, you don't need to worry about getting out of home in the middle of the night.

 

[levels x3]

This mean the residents say in house for a complete 24 period? Aren't pathology residents supposed to take home beeper calls?

Ask these questions of the current residents when you show up for an interview...the one that you hopefully didn't cancel because they do too much bread and butter. Call is very different from program to program.

Just go there if you've been offered an interview. This forum is useful, but there is no substitute for seeing a place and meeting the people. That's the only way you can really decide if a program is for you.

 

[WWManHandsD]

WWTWD, would you recommend people come interview there or might they just as well cancel their interviews there?

um, why would you cancel your interview??

I prefer wild caught rambling tangent.

damnit - we just started serving secant from the ethiopian "restaurant" for lunch

They do take home beeper calls, but the chances of being called in the middle of the night is rather high as I heard. But it is a very safe area, you don't need to worry about getting out of home in the middle of the night.

we do home beeper call. and i wouldn't say the chances of being called "IN" in the middle of the night are high - i would say it's more the exception. i would however say the chances of being PAGED (without having to come it) in the middle of the night are rather high.

 

[LADoc00]

LADoc00, are you saying that when it comes to pathology residencies, the name of the institution is irrelevant? That you can have an ivy league status and still have a crappy pathology residency.

That is EXACTLY what Im saying.