I interviewed at Minnesota a year ago, and was interested in the program.
As far as negatives I had seen: The program director is currently an "interim" director, and apparantly has been in this holding pattern for a few years. So they have been stable with this person; but it seemed unclear to me what the future would hold and they could not give me an idea of what his plans were. The other issue was that several years back the Hennepin Co. split from the University psych program to start their own program. I was told this was due to internal issues and disagreements (but do not know the specifics). Anyway, it still seems that the pt population is decent at University, but I think a lot of the indigent pop ends up at Hennepin and might be missed out on. Another concern I had was I only got to meet the chief resident when I interviewed...the other residents were mysteriously missing when I was there...I took this as a red flag.
Positives I had seen: Though he was interim director, Dr. Mankenzie was a super guy. The facilities were great, including a very nice VA hospital. I really like Minneapolis-St Paul. Despite the winters, there is tons to do there; it is clean; safe; and a great place to raise kids.
