I think that DeKalb has a legit claim as the best pod surg residency in the country... certainly consensus top 5 in the nation no matter who you talk to. It's a very competitive program that draws a lot of good student interest based on great training and popular southern location. I would have given the program very serious consideration if I was planning to be single during residency.
There are many other good pod surg residency programs out there, but DeKalb has very few weaknesses in terms of training. Their emphasis is elective and reconstructive foot and ankle surgery (and educating others of that subject area), but they get adequate exposure to trauma, limb salvage, office, etc also. They learn basically everything outside of ankle implants, but your surgical fundamentals will be so rock solid you could easily take a course and learn them... and honestly, who knows how long those will be around anyways? The grad residents there get good numbers and very
high quality instruction. What really sets them apart is the teaching quality from their attendings and how committed the PI core faculty are to teaching. They will drive across Atlanta to bring their good cases to DeKalb, and they will spend the time to teach well. You will not be able to find a better set of core attendings together on faculty at a single residency program, and many of their past grads who left the region have also gone on to assemble other high qualiy residency programs (Kaiser SF, Penn Presby, Scripps, Gundersen Lutheran, etc). Also, the amount of education the DeKalb residents are invoved with through the Podiatry Institute is pretty amazing. They have great cadaver labs, PI seminr lectures, and a host of other pod surg writing/editing responsibilities.
All of that training comes at the price of pretty much eating, sleeping, and breahing podiatry for 3yrs, though. As was mentioned above, their days are LOOOOONG. If you like sleeing in on Saturdays, this is not your kind of program. If you value being home to your family/spouse by 6pm more often than not, it's not for you. By 8pm? Still probably not for you. They do many weekend seminars, evening/weekend cadaver labs, evening dinners or journal clubs, etc. The residents I met at PI there were all bright and hardworking, but many of the highly demanding programs do tend to attract the perfectionist and competitive "type-A" personalities. It all varies year to year, though. It's a great clerkship since the whole program is fantastic at teaching, and it's good for learning anatomy since they do most forefoot surgery with no tourniquet. It's sorta a "love it or hate it" month for students since the hours are quite long (my month was circa 6a-6p on weekdays and maybe 7a-1p on weekends... one day off during the month). Also keep in mind that their residents' hours are even worse than the student hours. Even if you don't decide that the residency is for you, you'll still definitely learn a ton during the rotation. I don't consider myself a lazy person by any stretch, but I decided that with the many good programs out there today, you can probably get similar numbers with a bit more free time elsewhere. You won't get the comprehensive PI seminars, labs, etc which the DeKalb residents get... but you can always read McGlamry's, go to their seminars, or buy and watch their surgery videos.
Atlanta-VA is mostly clinic and wound care from what I heard from classmates who rotated there, but it can probably get you decent training if you apply yourself. Most of their best surg cases are the ones that Dr. Jimenez (from PI) brings over to them, and they get to attend some PI academics. You can't really compare the program to PI residency unless you want to compare a cat to a pit bull, but that's the same that could be said for many programs. Always visit /clerk any program you are seriously considering to see how it fits you and how you gel with the residents/culture there. Your best bet might be clerking at DeKalb and then visiting the Atl-VA for a day or two at the beginning/end of the month in Gaaw-jah.
