Posted on behalf of another member wishing to remain anonymous.
Baylor
TMC is HUGE - has everything. Excellent group of residents, congenial. Lot of elective time, lot of research. Proximity to MD anderson.
Hx of financial/organizational problems; story still developing in this aspect. I'm less concerned about loss of methodist, as they traded for st lukes, & i happen to agree baylor's own hosp. would be redundant. Appell is still involved in teaching baylor. Progress notes on paper. I personally consider this the premier TX program
Houston felt like an international city to me. Somehow, I liked it more than Dallas. But I've heard ppl say otherwise also.
Beth Israel -
Very academic focus, the only prog. I i-viewed where they stated outright a goal to create academicians. Excellent hospital. Boston is a big plus, but is expensive. complete EMR. Residents were very friendly. Top notch teaching.
Duke:
Dr. Morgenlander is awesome, very resident focused. Excellent place to train if you want to go in private practice, option of 6 mos EMG/EEG --> certification? Research was less that what you might think given Duke's name, but still quite strong.
I actually thought Duke & UNC were quite similar. Duke tends to draw more int'l patients, whereas UNC draws pts from all over NC. Both places have a good volume (not huge) with diverse patients. BTW, faculty at both duke & unc had a lot of respect for each other - not a lot of veiled 'trash talking' that you tend to see in nyc / boston / chicago / sf etc ... awesome!!
Research triangle is awesomely affordable, and seems like an awesome place to live. Friends tell me it's somewhat liberal & educated, in contrast to much of NC/ E. tenn.
Emory:
Excellent research oriented program, excellent clinicals with emory & grady. New ICU being built with unusual (pt friendly) layout. Transitioning to complete EMR. Categorical.
However, only has 5 mos of electives. Some areas of neurology are not well represented, though this may change.
Atlanta is an awesome city to live in ... there's a reason it's called NYC of the south.
Mayo:
Is this a hospital or hotel??? Foley teams! Lot of translational research. Moderate to low volume program, but residents create 'thorough differentials and reading'. Lots of money. Extraordinarily insular & they're proud of it. Single in rochester in my late 20's .
Miami
Awesome program, 2nd largest in the country w/ 10 a yr. High volume. Draws patients from all over central & s. america. Very supportive department, lots of $$, lots of research. South beach. Jackson Hosp. has some financial problems (google it) but per PD, the neuro dept is financially very well off. Chair came a few years ago from Columbia; PD is a young guy from MGH. Lot of residents from S. America/Central America, but not from the carib schools that us students go to. Apparently the IM dept has a partnership to take a certain percentage from Central/S. America & maybe this informallly carries over to neuro?? But they get the best of the best from there. Miami project to cure paralysis. Very high volume program, but spread b/w lots of residents.
Michigan
Excellent hospital, about 1/2 hr outside detroit. Competes for pts (in some ways) with other huge hospitals in detroit city (henry ford; beaumont). Only 4 mos elective, but will carve out more time if u want to do research. Preponderance of affluent private patients means the hosp. has a (+) cash flow... they bought off pfizer's abanddoned bldgs and are slowly converting to research lab, etc, space. Live patient conference.
Choice of prelim at U of M or St Joe's. St joe's is community prog. in an average-income suburb, more bread&butter medicine with MICU & neurosurg rotations. UoFM has more zebras, no micu, ?no neurosurg.
NYU -
Excellent hospital. Pays you well enough (starts 60k) to afford manhattan, but not housing allowance as such. Good volume, but competes with other NYC hospitals for pts. Rusk institute (Dr Rusk was founder of PM&R). No international experiences during residency. No dinner the nite before, but got to meet w/ residents during lunch & during breaks b/w interviews.
Partners - mgh/bwh
It's reputation & history carries itself... You can do anything you want anywhere in boston. 10 mos elective time. lot of opportunities for residents to teach, but faculty teaching to residents was not as strong "residents teach each other" . You can create your own subspecialty. 140 neuro faculty. Progress notes still on paper. Lot of commute between sites. Very high volume prog. >80 hrs/wk? website itself has 75 h/wk planned out. Per one of my boston friends "every prog is well above 80 hrs regardless of specialty", but he's an ortho resident...
U Rochester, NY
PGMSTP program for academics. Strength in neuromuscular diseases, with a big (although unconventional) alzheimer's guy and the father of neuroregeneration. Excellent, top notch teaching is a priority. MOderately high volume. 5-6 mos of electives. Home of the biopsychosocial model.
UCLA
#1 in NIH $$, broad pt. base, high volume program. You do 1 mo/yr out in the valley - traffic . up to 6 mos of research. Translational research. Limited physical space for expanding the dept. 8-10 mos electives? LA is expensive, but they don't make up for it.
UCSD
Excellent research goes on there, but the program itself struck me more as one that generates ppl interested in going to private practice. only 4 residents/yr --> can get pulled from electives to cover wards. I didn't really "click" with the PD as I had some other places.
UNC:
See what I wrote for duke. Lot of research at UNC, almost as much as duke. This place is really a hidden gem. Large hospital with mod-hi volume. Very friendly faculty,with lots of research, but no real research prog. for residents. They offered to create one. Excellent place to train to become a good clinician, though.
UTSW:
Moderately high volume program, 7 mos elective time. applying for R-25 grant. Leadership change in the future, will bring the prog. to the next level. Very friendly group of residents. Right now, has a lot of old buildings but they will be rebuilding parkland hospital (expected completion 2014). VA affiliated. Mod-high volume. Has the potential to become a truly great program w/ the new chair and construction. very friendly residents.
As I understand it, austin is a separate med school / department. not a lot of exchange b/w the two sites. Initially you may officially be from UTSW-dallas until they are up & running on their own?? I'll let someone who is from texas confirm or clarify this.
Vandy:
Outstanding EMR .. residents like it better than the VA EMR (which says a lot). Lots of computers. 5 mos electives. Awesome PD & chair. Rapidly expanding their program. Building a new neuro-icu tower without net expansion. 55 faculty. Some areas of neuro are limited. Moderately high volume. Strong in epilepsy. Apparently well known for peds-neuro.
Wash U (St Louis)
Tons of elective time. Somewhat insular. Huge volume, but has a private attending service so that resident's aren't overwhelmed. 11 months of electives!! Great place for budding academicicans. Lots of $$, insane amount of construction/remodeling. One of the best places for neurodegeneration. Lots of TBI work. Moya moya clinic.
Pitt:
Excellent hospital, large volume. Lots of research $$. Lots of neurodegeneration as well.
U washington-Seattle:
Large volume, covers 5 states. Affilated w/ fred hutchinson centre. Awesome city, awesome ppl, really laid back w/ mt ranier in your back yard. lot of neuroscience research. PD is supportive of clinician scientists
Northwestern
funded PSTP program for academicians. Moderate volume. Lots of competition for patients in chicago. They say 50% public patients, this figure probably includes VA. Strong neuro-rehab (RIC is one of the premier rehab progs in the country). Lot of neuroscience research. Dr. Kessler is old school in the New York tradition...
Loss of Evanston hosp (now called northshore). is a good thing, as the commute out there is hell.
U Chicago (Pritzker)
small icu. competes w/ northwestern, rush & uic/christ hosp. for patients. U of C hospital has had some financial issues but I think they're getting over it now. Unclear what plans are for incorporating northshore hosp. The med campus is physically on the same campus as the undergrad campus.
Stanford
Moderate volume, but quite impressive considering stanford is stuck away in palo alto. va is slower. Stanford has a policy of not expanding its faculty & only recruiting the "best". Friendly residents. bay area is expensive as hell to buy, but very affordable in terms of rents (now). A fair amount of translational research.