Does it matter where you do your residency?

[Gut Shot]

Per some chatter in the pre-allo forum, I wanted to get some opinions on how much one's "choice" of residency program affects his/her training and career.

IMHO, residency is where it's at, and where you go sets the stage for your entire professional development. Other opinions?

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[turtle md]

Yeah, if you go somewhere that sucks, you won't like it.

Training "should be" comparable across the board. But the feel of a program can vary quite a lot. Matching at a place that feels right is key...

 

[tigershark]

Of course it matters, but how much it matters depends on what your apsirations are.

While interviewing I've seen a HUGE variation in lifestyle, quality of faculty, quality of education, depth and breadth of experience, future career opportunities etc.

I see no reason why training would or should be comparable across the board....yes there are minimum requirements to be acreditted (sp?) but who in their right mind uses the bare minimum as a standard of quality. There are such huge variations in funding, facilities, faculty, lifestlye that it would be virtually impossible for it not to matter.

 

[EctopicFetus]

I think the even bigger difference is for competetive fellowships in certain fields. In EM (like turtle) most fellowships are pretty easy to get into. Now if you go into medicine and want to do one of the competetive fields like Cards or GI I would muchrather be an "average" resident at Hopkins, Harvard, Penn etc than at tiny community hospital.

Dont forget that the more reknowned attendings tend to be at certain places.. But I agree with turtle that as long as you are in the same ballpark of places, Harvard, Penn, Yale, Hopkins (im not going into IM so maybe these arent right) then go where you feel most comfortable!