Ok, here we go. Sorry mine are shorter and not so well organized. I should have taken better notes at the interviews.
MCW:
My home program, I'll start here. Of course rotating through here and loving it was a big part of convincing me to go into radonc, so it makes sense that I love just about everything about this program. I have always said, for a "midtier" program, they have one of the most all-star groups of faculty you will find. Most of them could easily move on and take positions at more prestigious locations but they love working together so they stay put. They are all great about resident education and research. Dr. Lawton is just about the friendliest PD around and genuinely invested in the residents. Dr. Wilson, the chair, is great too though he is getting on in years and will likely retire sometime soon (though I think rumors like that have been going around for a while and it still hasn't happened yet). The technology is great, they are getting an MR-sim this year and already have tomo, gamma knife, SBRT, respiratory gating, cone-beam and CT-on-rails. Gyn and prostate brachy are very strong as also is peds with the children's hospital on campus. You also spend time at the VA and a few months at a community hospital nearby. Milwaukee is a great mid-size midwestern city. There is lots to do but without the big-city traffic, and of course if there's something you can't find here, Chicago is only 1 ½ hours down the road. The cold is tempered a little by the lake, but it's still not going to be the best location for you if you don't like winters. Another possible downside is that you generally work with two attendings at once, although the clinic schedule is such that only one of them is really ever in clinic at a given time so you aren't really being pulled in two directions at once. Also, let me clear up once and for all that the skirts-dress-code for female residents WAS an official policy once but has since been abolished.
Mayo Rochester:
Much has been said about these big name programs, so I'll keep it short and focus on the programs with fewer posts. I did my away rotation here so I got to know the department pretty well. Your research opportunities here will be endless. Supposedly the proton facility has been approved and is on its way, although Dr. Brown told me that he had mixed feelings about the residents spending too much of their time there when there is so much other stuff to learn. They also just got the Perfexion and have IORT. One thing that can be a little scary about this program is the morning conference, which is very intense and you are really expected to know the literature inside and out, but it is more of a resident-on-resident pimping than attending-on-resident, and all the residents know the rules and don't take it personally in grilling each other. Rochester is not as bad as everyone says...I'll leave it at that. No seriously, great place for a family and lots of good fishing nearby which is important to me.
Cleveland Clinic:
Again, this has been discussed at length. The teaching style is much like Mayo's, very intense, but more attending-on-resident. The included prelim year is supposed to be fairly rough, yet all the residents swore that they were glad to have done it that way. They do give you more oncology-relevant rotations and surgery than your average medicine prelim, really making it more like a rigorous TY. I think. 9-10 months research.
Johns Hopkins:
Another great program, with very strong basic science and physics opportunities. Much has been said about Dr. DeWeese, which I would agree with, he was great. Other faculty were also nice. Scut level somewhat high, as has been discussed. 6- 12(?) months research. Baltimore is perhaps not the prettiest place I interviewed. I really liked the program overall though.
University of Miami/Jackson Memorial:
I agree with what has been said about this program. A smaller program, all the residents were happy here. Faculty were mostly nice but they were looking for a chair. Having a private cancer center across the street from public Jackson, they see a good range of cases with an even split between the two hospitals. I think lots of more advanced stuff, especially cervix, comes up from the caribbean to Jackson. Lotsa peds also, good head and neck, sarcoma. Prostate brachy was the weakness most people said they wished they could get more experience with. Busy days, but with an academic day during the week. The physics interview here was a little crazy, with such "let's see how you think" questions as "how many piano tuners are there in NYC? how many people die every day in the world? how far can you see to the horizon from an airplane at cruising altitude?" Miami traffic reminded me of South America.
Mayo Jax:
Also a small program and fairly young, but the residents all seemed to like it. Also chairless at the time I interviewed. Away rotations at Wash U for Gyn, and they weren't sure at the time where they would be going for peds. 6 months of dedicated research time. The new hospital was nearly done when I interviewed and supposedly was equipped for IORT. The TY is basically included if you want it, which is cool; they do the TY interview the same day. I liked this program, but was unhappy about their interviewing 40 people for 1 spot.
Loyola:
I left this program not very excited, but mostly because I don't really have any interest in moving to Chicago. The program seemed pretty good. They do a month off-site but I think in town for GYN and a month at St. Jude's for peds. They had a couple slightly more odd attendings but not really unfriendly. I believe they typed all their notes rather than dictating. Oh yeah, the interview day was horribly unorganized and ran very long, despite the fact that a blizzard was beginning outside and many of us were eager to get on the road.
Ohio State:
This is one of seemingly many programs that interviewed me which has recently had some rough times but is moving in the right direction over the last couple years. Dr. Lo, the PD, seemed very resident-friendly, as well as the chair, Dr. Mayr; most of the other attendings are new within the last 2 years. A small program, only 4 residents. Research opportunities are a bit more limited here. Perhaps 10% of the patients coming in are from the prison, which is a bit unique. I believe the residents get football tickets guaranteed. Housing is cheap and Columbus (and especially the area surrounding OSU) had a fun college-town feel.
University of Minnesota:
This was a program I knew little about prior to my visit, but was very impressed by on interview day. Everyone was cool here and more laid-back than most places. Well-rounded training including a VA. There was also talk of organizing international rotations in places like Mexico and Tanzania, which would be extremely cool. Strong physics department with lots of enthusiasm for physics research. They were currently looking for a radiobiologist. There was also no CT-sim at the time I interviewed, which I thought was very weird, but supposedly that will be in place before the beginning of residency.
Indiana University:
Likewise I was somewhat surprised here by how much I liked this program. The new chair, Dr. Johnstone, was one of the cooler chairmen of any of the places I visited. Like Miami, they have a private and a county hospital, so the range of cases is good. They also rotate at the proton facility 50 minutes away in Bloomington. Peds and Gyn are strong, not as much prostate though but increasing. Housing is cheap in Indy and I think everyone owns.
Henry Ford:
Detroit was also not high on my list of places I've always wanted to live. This program was pretty good though, especially some of the radbio stuff going on by a particularly enthusiastic radiobiologist. Dr. Movsas and others are doing interesting gene therapy stuff. Strong SBRT. Decent exposure except no peds. Also, currently looking for Gyn staff, so that's in a lull right now too. They do have a moderate amount of pimping though not malignant. Most of the residents seemed very happy, but there was this one resident who gave us such memorable quotes as, "they treat us like small children," "the teaching is woefully inadequate," and, regarding morning conference, "don't fall for that dog-and-pony show; morning conference is usually nothing like that." But I didn't really get this feeling from the other residents so maybe this was just one really pessimistic resident.
Wayne State:
Again, not thrilled about Detroit, but this program was better than I expected. Everyone was very laid-back. A good amount of HDR and peds, as well as tomo and a spooky old cyclotron which hasn't been used for a while, which they literally showed us with a flashlight because even the lights in there didn't work anymore. 3-6 months protected research. Attendings were nice for the most part. They are currently chairless. The department is accessed by a system of tunnels between the hospitals that reminded me of waiting in line for Space Mountain.
University of Louisville:
You know how they say it should be a huge red flag if they don't give you time alone with the residents? I sorta thought that scenario was a myth before my visit here. But the one resident who was released from clinic to come to lunch with us was not really free to be frank with us for most of the time because one of the attendings came too. When we did get a moment alone with him in the car on the way back from lunch, he said that they are definitely very busy, with a high level of scut, long hours, and poor didactics, but he insisted that it was not malignant and that he was happy there. One of the attendings, on the other hand basically told us all during interviews and during the debriefing that the residents were all somewhat unhappy. Others I talked to on the interview trail said they did get to talk to the other residents, and were told they were unhappy. Needless to say I was disappointed, but I still ranked them.
Thomas Jefferson:
After having read all that has been said about this program, I almost cancelled my interview, and when I did go I expected to see malignancy just dripping from the walls. I was surprised, however, to really not get any sense of malignancy whatsoever. Like many of the places I went, the residents spoke of busy clinic and moderately long hours, but overall good teaching. There was one interview I was not impressed by, which has been written about previously, in which the attending was totally disinterested and basically struggled to stay awake the whole time. Also, they are currently chairless with the departure of Dr. Curran, so who knows how things will change in the next few years. Otherwise, I thought the program was fine, and Philly is a great location. I ended up ranking them much higher than I expected to.
UVA:
I ended up really loving this program. Part of it was the fact that like 18 inches of snow had fallen the previous day at home and it was really nice in Charlottesville. The program itself reminded me of MCW in a lot of ways, everyone was really nice and laid-back, but enthusiastic about teaching. They don't have automatically dedicated time for research but said that it could easily be arranged. The department is currently pretty old and worn down but they have a new cancer center going up which is supposed to open in late '09 or early ‘10. Two (?) Trilogies going in there, they currently have Tomo and lots of HDR cases, Perfexion gamma knife. They rotate at a satellite about 35 minutes away. Peds didn't sound particularly strong but they split up the cases among themselves and don't typically have to go elsewhere, and they are hoping to get some peds heme-onc people in the new center which should attract a few more cases. Charlottesville is a pretty small town, but with enough to do because of the big undergrad program. Housing is on the expensive side for such a small place, sounded pretty comparable to suburban Milwaukee. Overall though a nice location with a great program.
. Expensive, but worth it.
