Help ranking PA, CT, and NY programs

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surg4me

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:confused: I'm having trouble ranking some of my PA, CT, and NY programs for general surgery.

UConn
URochester
SUNY Stony Brook
SUNY Upstate
NS-LIJ
Temple
Thomas Jefferson
St. Luke's Roosevelt

I know that these will not be my top 5-6 programs but still want to rank them. Can anyone offer their impressions about these programs and how you'd rank these? Perhaps there's something that I missed and am currently not considering...thanx :)

I'm giving considerable weight to academics (ability to obtain fellowships, quality of attendings/chairman), and overall happy place to work/camaraderie.

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I give up... :sleep:

Edit: I take it back, I'm not giving up.

Even if these programs are not your top 5-6, you still need to figure out where you felt you will be happiest for the next 5+ years. I looked at each program as if I could be there and I ranked (or didn't rank) them based on where I would most want to be.

You attended the interviews there and I'm sure they gave you the data on their fellowship match rate. If not, and it is something to which you are giving considerable weight, then you should have asked them at that time, and thus should have this data already.

The qualilty of the attendings/chairmen is something based on what you want; do you want a research nazi as a chairman, someone whose sole purpose is to ensure resident happiness, a figure-head surgeon with no real involvement in the residency program, etc...? You should have been able to tell how they are based on your meeting with him/her at your interview. That's the reason they make themselves available to interviewees. Same holds true for the rest of the faculty. If you have a particular research interest, go with the program that has the strongest research in your interest. Again, you should know this from questions you asked during your interview.

The camaraderie at each program is based on you; will you mesh with the residents at the program? The residents may get along great with each other, but so do members of the KKK. You have to go where you felt you could be a part of the team. No one on this forum will be able to answer your question better than you can.

Am I the only person who interviewed this year that (1) asked questions of the programs geared toward my interests (2) was able to evaluate the personality of the programs' residents and faculty in relation to me and what I want (3) did the background research on each program to know their vision of their residency and (4) has the confidence in my gut reaction to know where I should rank the programs that granted me interviews?
 
I think that the aim of this often repeated question is to gauge what our peers think of the programs we are going to apply to. It actually makes sense that we might care what others think about the programs that we might eventually find ourselves at. Socialist...every time you give these tired explanations, you are still not answering people's questions. Get off of your "you should've asked this during interviews" trip and relax... :scared:
SocialistMD said:
I give up... :sleep:

Edit: I take it back, I'm not giving up.

Even if these programs are not your top 5-6, you still need to figure out where you felt you will be happiest for the next 5+ years. I looked at each program as if I could be there and I ranked (or didn't rank) them based on where I would most want to be.

You attended the interviews there and I'm sure they gave you the data on their fellowship match rate. If not, and it is something to which you are giving considerable weight, then you should have asked them at that time, and thus should have this data already.

The qualilty of the attendings/chairmen is something based on what you want; do you want a research nazi as a chairman, someone whose sole purpose is to ensure resident happiness, a figure-head surgeon with no real involvement in the residency program, etc...? You should have been able to tell how they are based on your meeting with him/her at your interview. That's the reason they make themselves available to interviewees. Same holds true for the rest of the faculty. If you have a particular research interest, go with the program that has the strongest research in your interest. Again, you should know this from questions you asked during your interview.

The camaraderie at each program is based on you; will you mesh with the residents at the program? The residents may get along great with each other, but so do members of the KKK. You have to go where you felt you could be a part of the team. No one on this forum will be able to answer your question better than you can.

Am I the only person who interviewed this year that (1) asked questions of the programs geared toward my interests (2) was able to evaluate the personality of the programs' residents and faculty in relation to me and what I want (3) did the background research on each program to know their vision of their residency and (4) has the confidence in my gut reaction to know where I should rank the programs that granted me interviews?
 
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SteadyEddy said:
...every time you give these tired explanations, you are still not answering people's questions. Get off of your "you should've asked this during interviews" trip and relax... :scared:

That's because my opinion doesn't matter (and don't let anyone fool you into thinking any response posted on this thread is anything more than just an opinion, which just proves how worthless any reply would be). I can't offer anything of value to surg4me's decision anymore than anyone else. I realize this, and I think everyone else should realize it, too. It doesn't matter what you or I think, it just matters what surg4me thinks.
 
SteadyEddy said:
It actually makes sense that we might care what others think about the programs that we might eventually find ourselves at.

Why?
 
"The camaraderie at each program is based on you; will you mesh with the residents at the program? The residents may get along great with each other, but so do members of the KKK."

Socialist MD
 
Sometimes it is hard to judge how well you will fit into a program in only one day of interviewing (or 1/2 day). Or sometimes you might think you'd fit into two programs about equally well and it is important to know which program is more highly regarded by your peers.
 
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