Interview impressions

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SUNY Downstate-Brooklyn: So the location in general means that you will be in a busy area if you like that. If I remember correctly, residents rotate at 4 sites with the 2 main facilities being SUNY downstate hospital in brooklyn and the county hospital across the street. The county hospital department was much nicer and updated compared to the downstate dept which looked like it may have been last cared for 20-30 yrs ago. I think another facility is a private practice setting and rotate at another major hospital in NYC for peds experience which the residents really seemed to enjoy. Dr. Rotman is probably the biggest name at the program and Dr. Choi there is very nice to talk to. There is research availability, but predominantly clinical like lots of programs. The residents seemed to be very happy with the program and didn't really have any complaints about attendings or teaching. The biggest positive that they talked about was that they have a lot of independence, I believe that clinic didn't even start until they returned for didactics to run the lectures. That being said, one of the biggest hang-ups for me was that they seemed to spend a lot of time traveling between sites (in other words lecture and away site). Although I agree with an earlier poster that the residents seem to value the experiences at outside hospitals, especially peds at MSKCC and time at Beth Israel. Overall, I think that you would get decent clinical training, but probably not great if you're interested in basic research or aren't a big city lover.

SUNY Upstate-Syracuse: I'll start out with my biggest gripe about this program, info is hard to find! There was no information on this program on the web and then to make matters worse, there was no printed material given at the interview, not even an overview presentation of the program, we just went straight into the interviews. The lack of printed materials anywhere was really strange and I'll be honest, kind of annoying. My interview date was held on a saturday, so obviously there was no one in the department. They seemed to be undergoing some remodeling when I was there. Overall, the facilities were relatively nice--on the 2 minute tour we had. All of the attendings were very pleasant during the interviews, but I felt like I was interviewing them most of the time, which may be due to the total lack of info available so they were really there to talk about the pgm? Overall, I think that there was decent equipment and clinical training. The PD seemed to be interested in getting more basic science research going and seemed flexible with time for research, but it was hard to know how concrete that wasy. probably would be easier to do clinical research. The residents did seem very happy with their training during our brief lunch with them. they were very positive about some one of the satelite clinics that they rotate at that has great equipment. The residents were also excited about the amount of autonomy they have. Syracuse seemed like a middle-sized city that would be very liveable, most of the residents are able to buy a house. I'm sorry to dwell on this, but I did leave Syracuse disappointed because it was very hard to get a good grip on the program with the total lack of information given on the program.

Henry Ford: In Detroit which obviously has some negative associations, but I did like this program more than I thought I would. The facilities were nice, pretty standard. My most positive interactions were actually with the new physics director who was very eager to have residents get involved with research as well as the radiobiologist who had an infectious enthusiasm for his research. All of the faculty were extremely nice, and it seems that the whole department is really pushing for more of a basic research focus. Biggest strengths were treating spinal tumors and gene-therapy for prostate ca, both areas of which they do a lot of research. The residents all seemed happy with their training and the program with the exception fo one disgruntled resident who seemed mad about being given less research time than another resident...pretty much he just had a bad attitude. The other residents were very happy here and said that if you are interested in research, basic or clinical, there is support to do that. Overall, I liked this program a lot more than I thought I would, the biggest disadvantage though was that the program is in detroit.

CPMC: Located in San Francisco, which is obviously a huge plus. I expected not to rank this program, maybe because I had so little info about it, but I acutally liked it. The residents were all really cool guys. I got the feeling that the attendings really like to teach and were very pleasant to spend time with. The residents do mostly clinical research and are required to publish at least one manuscript during their training. The deparment was undergoing remodeling, but looks like it will be very nice when finished. The residents do rotate at 2 other hospitals, but they said that the traveling isn't too strenous and very doable. Obviously housing in the bay area is expensive but they all seemed to really enjoy their quality of life. Overall, I think this program would offer solid clinical training, but if your long-term goal is academics, this might not be the best program...however quality of life is very good and the residents seem very content with the program.

Sorry if some of these aren't totally complete...I'm going off memory & general impressions.
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Impressions said:
Location: What can I say about Detroit? It is probably one of the worst, if not THE worst, big city in the US.
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Being from the greater metro-Detroit area, I must take exception to this statement. We have our problems, but I really don't believe that Detroit is as bad as people from the rest of the country believe it to be. Unfortunately, I can't really come up with a city that I actually deem to be WORSE than Detroit, so I guess I can't disagree with this statement altogether.

Touche, sir/madame.
 
That's funny. I'm from Metro Detroit and I get so righteous and indignant when comments like that are made ... but, I can't really think of any city worse, either.
 
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I think Newark could give Detroit a real challenge as worst city in US.
 
newark is pretty bad, though detroit was the backdrop for robocop and the crow. it seems lots of cities get a bad rep but most residents seem happy--ability to buy a house, money to travel. beaumont (though beyond 8 mile) was really impressive and think training there would be great. interesting how an interviewer there asked our thoughts about the mass exodus of ppl out of michigan (hint hint)...
 
koolaidkid said:
newark is pretty bad, though detroit was the backdrop for robocop and the crow. it seems lots of cities get a bad rep but most residents seem happy--ability to buy a house, money to travel. beaumont (though beyond 8 mile) was really impressive and think training there would be great. interesting how an interviewer there asked our thoughts about the mass exodus of ppl out of michigan (hint hint)...
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But Robocop was an uplifting story of hope and rebuilding. So, you see, it really reflects nicely on Detroit.
 
just like The Wire makes you feel all warm and fuzzy about Baltimore.
 
Cleveland Clinic –
Faculty: Very engaged in resident training. Dr. Suh, the chair, is known for asking the residents in the hallway about the results of such and such study, even if they are not rotating with them. The PD, Dr. Videtc, was super friendly, and has training in FP.
Clinical: Cleveland Clinic is a private hospital, more or less, and the overall paradigm seems to be to see as many patients as possible. The rad onc department also sees a lot of patients (20-30 on treatment for a service). The residents are working hard, but didn’t seemed overworked – They seemed very happy. I got differing reports on what the intern year is like, but apparently some months are “right at the 80 hour work week” and others are super easy. 1 month rotation at St. Jude’s (apparently not being cut).
Didactics: Most mornings start with case presentations or case conferences, the faculty quiz you all the time. We went to one conference, and the questions were probing, but I did not sense any malignancy. I was very impressed with how well the residents knew their stuff. There is a lot of self-motivation and group motivation to learn. The residents also produce a high-yield packet every year which is sold to alums.

Emory-
Faculty: There are a lot of faculty, I didn’t feel like I got to meet a lot. No strong impressions about them. Dr. Curran should be a great addition as chair.
Clinical: Spread throughout the 4 sites – Emory, Crawford Long (more of a private practice environment), VA, and Grady (downtown, county hospital). A few days a week still start at Emory for conferences, before going to the clinical sites. The prelim year is combined, with almost all of it occurring at Grady (8 months inpatient, 1ER, 1 ICU, 1 amb, 1 elect). They have improved the hours on the program, and you now take very little call during intern year, but residents still seem frustrated after working there.
Research: All residents get involved in research, and you have to present something every year (except PGY 2) at a research fair. Dr. Fox, the physics chief, has done some great work developing computer programs for planning and image analysis, and is commercializing them (Velocity).
Teaching: According to residents, Dr. Jani (PD) has improved the presence of faculty at the conferences, and then number of conferences. But I got the sense that residents felt they wanted more teaching than they got.

Iowa –
Faculty: Dr. Buatti, the chair, has built the program from the ground up since coming 7-8 years ago from FL. He is an expert in SRS, and the entire faculty’s focus is in image-guided treatments.
Clinical: New facilities, about 2 years old. They have a PET/CT for treatment planning and a 3 Tesla MRI (!!) with cine loop capabilities in their department. The see an average number of patients (10-12 on a service). Iowa has top-notch surgical subspecialties (especially ENT), and apparently there is good collaboration with them.
Research: There are a ton of physicists involved in image-guided research. The physics chief, Dr. Bayouth, is very engaging. Also, the free-radical department is very well known and productive - they research persistent oxidative stress as well as glucose deprivation. There are also strong research ties with Nuclear Medicine, which has a strong department.

Jacksonville (Mayo) -
Faculty: Extra nice, especially Dr. Buskirk, who is the current chair. They seemed to be very concerned about the residents well-being. However, they might be overly protective of their patients as well, not allowing the residents to have enough autonomy over decision-making.
Clinical: You do see a lot of bread and butter here (not as many weird cases as Mayo Rochester). Most faculty have 10-15 patients on treatment at any one time. Residents say “the department could run without us”. Peds is done at CHOP in Philly and GYN is done at Wash U.
Research: There seems to be a strong collaboration between the three Mayos, and patient data is often pooled, and pathology can be reviewed and tests can be run centrally. Funding to go to pretty much any conference you want to. One resident had 3 abstracts (?) last year and is planning on academics.
Teaching: Daily conferences. The core curriculum and the radiation biology conferences are broadcast from Mayo Rochester. The current residents don’t seem to participate very much.

North Carolina (UNC) –
Faculty: A lot of well-known, stable faculty, many were Harvard-trained and came down to UNC with Dr. Tepper when the program was started 20 years ago or so. They are getting a great addition in Dr. Marks as chair. Some faculty might be nearing retirement, but all are still seeing patients. There are more faculty than residents.
Clinical: They also have a new cancer center opening in the fall of 2009. According to faculty and residents, rad onc tends to have a big presence in the tumor boards (which are currently held in the department, physically). A little less prostate cancer than you would expect, because the urologists are really pushing robotic surgeries.
Research: They have a lot of good technology: Cyberknife, CT on rails, Calypso, and they have a major contract with Siemens. Dr. Rosenmen is an expert in deformable registration, and I had a great talk with him about this. A very dynamic guy with a MD/PhD in physics. And they have their own planning system (PLUNC) which all the residents thought was great. It ran so much faster than ours. Dr. Tepper has a SPORE grant, and they are getting millions from the state of NC to do cancer research.
Teaching: Apparently, you have to be proactive for a lot of teaching to occur (i.e. they won’t spoon-feed you), but faculty are happy to answer questions, and very knowledgeable.

Rochester –
Faculty: Very stable. Dr. Constine is well known in Peds and for late effects, and Dr. Okunieff (chair) does a lot of work with SBRT and oligometastases.
Clinical: They will be moving into a new cancer center in May. This will give them a lot of updates – CT sim in the department (which they don’t currently have) and Tomotherapy. A lot of multi-disciplinary tumor boards to attend, almost every day of the week. They have P.A.’s to cover some services when residents are not on them, and the residents can take a lot of outside electives (palliative care, pathology, radiology, etc.)
Research: They have a large bioterrorism grant, and do a lot with late effects (they host the CURED late effects conference every year). Their Radiation Biology department seems to be productive. We did not meet with them, and it seems residents are not involved with their bench work. Physics research does not seem to be an emphasis.

San Antonio (UTHSCSA)–
Faculty: Dr. Ha has done a very good job recruiting faculty and I think San Antonio’s reputation will increase in the future. I was impressed with most of the faculty that I met with, including Dr. Ha. I felt uncomfortable with some other faculty, who spent a long time explaining why they were better than certain other schools in TX or why they knew more than other department. On the whole, though, they are a dedicated group.
Clinical: The department was in a free-standing private cancer center with ties to the University, but has just become part of the university system. They did not seem overly busy.
Research: One of the residents is very involved with physics research, and seems to get ample time and projects. Their physics chief, Dr. Papanikolau, was one of the original developers of Pinnacle, and every likes him a lot a as a teacher (I didn’t get to meet him).
Other: I felt like the interview day, and the communication before and after, was kind of disorganized, although always friendly. The residents were the most laid back of any I meet with on the interview trail.

UT Southwestern –
Faculty: Dr. Choy (chair), is very intense, and is always working on a grand or a paper or something. He can be very intimidating during the interview, but I think that he justs wants to see that you will stand up for yourself (for your reason for going into rad onc, or your rationale behind your research, etc.) He has a great vision for the department. Dr. Timmerman had a very opposite approach, very encouraging and genuine. The residents really like him, and say that he is a very good teacher.
Clinical: 30-40% of the patients people speak only Spanish (but there are interpreters). They do a lot of SBRT, and are pushing a lot of new protocols in hypofractionation (like 5 fractions (?) to the prostate). Have Gamma knife, and Cyber knife.
Research: Again, SBRT and image guided stuff. The bent seems to be more toward radiation biology than physics at the moment, but they are getting a new physics chair from Nebraska, who everyone speaks very highly of.
 
City Has enough to do to keep you busy with pretty good mix of restaurants, bars, professional sports teams etc for a mid-size city. Wouldn't be the end of the world if you end up here and are single. Rumor has it the SimulD is very popular with the ladies in Pitt!



Program

Had high expectations given the UPMC name, but was relatively dissapointed. A purely clinical program with no residents to date who have done any significant research or gone into academics. I think one of the residents managed to use his "research time" to get an MBA instead (he did some other projects during clinical rotations or something). Didactics seemed like a weak point here. Program is pretty new so it seemed like they were still trying to figure out the best way to do the rad bio and physics teaching.



The fact that the residents and even some of the attendings have to warn you and say "ignore the chair, he's not involved the residency" is not a good thing and probably means that he's not a good chair. During interview chair did mention that they have an "obligation to take care of their own students first" before considering "outsiders." He also asked why radiation oncology was a competitive specialty and would not accept any answer until salary and hours were brought up. The chair does have a lab and is extremely proud of his research, despite a complete lack of Cell/Science/Nature publications.



Minor Issues

Applicants had to pay for the dinner the night before the interviews. Parking was not validated. Resident computers were apparently slow and no flat screen monitors (ok i know, really minor, but still!)



Residents were a great bunch and extremely friendly and the best part of the program. They all seemed happy. Dr. Heron, the vice-chair, seemed like a great person to work with and probably should be the chair.
 
if folks could add to the impressions thread now it would be very helpful.
 
MDACC: phenomenal program. hot and humid city, even in December and January. probably one of my most stressful interviews. you sit around a table and are first asked to do a five minute presentation of something that's not related to work. after that, it becomes even more fun where the interviewers ask you some tough questions. going out for drinks afterwards was great. probably one of the most well-organized days i had attended. they really made you feel welcome (including a gift bag in your hotel room). having Dr. Cox take us to the proton center was also really appreciated. houston as a city leaves something to be desired. some inflexibility in program. felt like basic things that you may learn at a smaller program may not be learned at anderson (so streamlined that you have exceptional physics support for planning). more streamlining = less scut (but also less "hands on" doing).

Sloan: also phenomenal program and vies with anderson for top program. a much smaller feel. odd that there was no dinner / drinks but rather a lunch with residents. no name tags. had heard previously that residents worked really late but it seeemed like they could leave by 6pm or so. however, seemed like residents were happy and were probably some of the best trained. good combo of brachy and external beam. will only get better with Powell. Dr. Wolden seemed like a fantastic PD. not as strong in terms of physics as other programs such as Michigan. individual interviews. enjoyed doing a tour first since that gave us a good idea of questions to ask the PD etc.

Hopkins: excellent program with happy residents though interview day was not the most organized. lots of difficulty in scheduling with conflicts. Dr. Deweese seems like a very supportive chair. Dr. Wong is also very impressive. believe this program is very strong. exceptionally impressive residents who are friendly. would probably rank higher except for baltimore. ability to buy a house was attractive. would have been nice to either go to a bar / restaurant to explore the city some more.
 
MSKCC
Amazing. Most of the attendings here are like celebrities in the Rad Onc world. Wolden was truly inspirational. All of the residents seemed to look up to her. Runs a busy clinic, heads many protocols, but is still down to earth and friendly. Heard one resident say that she is the "only low maintance" of the high profile attnendings. Other attendings were nice and friendly. Zelefesky was extremely nice. McCormick, formed interim chair, was a little stand-offish and hard to read, but don't worry Simon Powell is in charge now! Only other attending that seemed like she could be trouble was a new one from Stanford who is now in charge of GI service. Residents dont get much research time but still publish top-notch papers. If you're single, like the big cities, then this program HAS to be your number 1 in my opinion!

Penn
Steve Hahn is amazing. If only he and Wolden (MSK PD) could be a team!! He's energetic, friendly, resident oriented, and has a vision for what he wants penn to be. PD seemed OK...had an ivy league attitude. apparently got a full scholarship to UPENN med and is now PD only 2 years out of Penn residency. She seemed very proud of her contributions to oncolink, a penn website. But steve hahn is enough to make up for her and more! Steve Hahn will ask you wehre you are interviewing. be careful with this answer. he takes notes on this. PD will ask you for an example of criticism you received while on the wards or from parents etc. another will ask you standard questions like what is the last book you read. and another will ask you for an exmaple when you were in the minority and had to convince the majority that your opinion was valid, with the preface that rad oncs often have to convince hem and surg oncs that they may not be right in tumor boards. they were very open about having scut here. protons could be a plus in the next few years, but who knows who it will pan out. dont let this influence you either way. if you really want proton training, you can do a couple months during residency at MDA, etc. you will have to occasionally work saturdays here.

Yale
Has the potential to be what U Penn is now in 10 years. People either loved this one or thought it was "good but not for me." At some programs where they ask you where you're interviewing, some would say this about yale when i listed it-- great rad bio program, but the residency's claim to fame in the past several years is Lynn Wilson....but have otherwise not produced any other big hitter academic rad oncs. Lynn wilson has a great personality and does race car driving and has foreign exchange hockey players (?) live in his house-- makes for interesting small talk! super rad bio program, with peter glazer doing amazing reserach. Just as a note-- LYNN WILSON WILL EMAIL YOU AFTER YOUR INTERVIEW. Sarah donaldson will do this as well (stanford PD). This is just a marketing gimmick in my opinion, nice but I think it makes some people think that their interview went well! TRUST ME, IT GOES TO EVERYONE, YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL, so dont let this influence your rank list! residents didnt seem to be taking advantage of glazers lab, with the exception of maybe one MD PhD. 2 PGY 5's were going into private practice. 2 other residents were pretty open about only wanting to do private practice. Good group of attendings, but not the dream team like MSKCC or Harvard. Weidhass seemed like someone fun to work with and very bright. Otherwise research going on here (outside of rad bio) seemed OK. Lynn Wilson does cutaneouc T cell lymphoma research, but this is something not so common, so wan'st going to influence my ROL just based on that. During introduction they mention that one of the resident's was publishing research in JCO and Cancer ? i think. But when i talked to the residents later, 1 of them mentioned that a lot of the papers that they did were simply "milking the SEER database." New cancer coming can only help this program. New haven is a HUGE negative in my opinion. If you're single and want that to change, this is probably not the place for you! NYC train is about 1 hr 40 mins for $15 or so each way.
 
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My impression of the reason Wilson emails people (and he did it the day of the interview) is because he takes an interest in each applicant, and appreciates the time, effort and money people spent to make the trip. It is a simple thank you note and did seem slightly personalized. One of the PGY 5 residents is indeed staying on faculty at Yale and not going into practice-but most people from the very top programs go into practice right? Regardless of whether it is SEER or not, the residents are academically productive, publish a lot respectable journals, and between this year and last submitted i think nearly 40 abstracts to ASTRO (residents and faculty). I think the important thing is that the environment supports productivity for the residents and that seems to involve a variety of faculty. Likely the most impressive thing is that they seem well trained and are HAPPY and enjoy their job. I guess there is some self selection for New Haven. Regarding grads of the program, Wilson finished about 12-14 years ago so the current state of affairs does not really relate to him in terms of a training product but he is the PD. Recent grads are at Fox Chase doing translational work '05, MDACC as adjunct until out of the Air Force '06, UMDNJ '06, Yale faculty '07. Bruce Haffty trained at Yale and he is a huge big shot in the rad onc academic community(left Yale to become chair at UMDNJ), plus others I likely am not aware of. And as for the hockey players.....it is a NY Islander who is originally from Canada :)
 
i was typing late at night and wanted to clarify some of the things i said, as the previous poster already did. I think Lynn Wilson emailing people after the interview is a nice touch and in fact programs should be sending us thank you cards after we leave since we spend time and money to visit them ;) but we all know that is not going to happen. i think the problem is APPLICANTS reading into these emails. i heard a couple applicants mentioning wilsons and donaldosns emailing thinking that it was a "good sign." i'm just posting this so that next year's applicants don't read into the email. my info on the PGY 5's was based on what they told me back in interview season, so i guess that changed!

yale is no doubt a great program with AMAZING rad bio going on. anyone who matches here will get good training. but just like programs have to distinguish between amazing applicants from amazing schools, applicants also have to distinguish between amazing programs and point out some of the negatives...
 
A vigorous defense of our progam is somewhat pointless, but I think that some clarifications should be made. I think the unfavorable views of our interview day, the role of the chairman, and of the (lack of) utilization of our potential will only allow us to become stronger - I think we need that kick in the pants.

I do think that being an established cancer center and NCI designated site that has only recently instituted a residency program creates an incongruence - i.e. if UPMC is a world-class cancer center with sites, why is the rad-onc residency program not on the same level? That is a relevant question that should be asked.

Our residents have produced - one of our first grads won the basic science prize at ASTRO. One of our recent graduates had nearly 20 publications as a first author AND obtained an MBA - I don't view that as a negative. All of last years residents had at least a poster at the most recent ASTRO, and I think that the same is expected of us this year and we will probably deliver. Currently, our senior is in her research year, and she has put together some nice work. Two of us will be on research next year, and again will likely produce. We have had only four graduates, and not one went into academics. The caveat is one has military obligations and all of the others were recruited by and well qualified for academics. They just happened to choose private practice. If only one had take an academic postion, our percentage of graduates choosing academics would be higher than the national average. The n is too small.

I don't know what to say about the chairman commentary. The structure of the department is somewhat unique, in that Dr. Heron is the clinical chairman, and for all intents and purposes, he is our boss. He is loyal to the residents and supportive of ANY endeavor, as long as it is within reason. The residency program is only funded partially (1 of 6 positions is ACGME). Dr. Heron and the department are financially responsible for the other 5 positions and that, to me, shows dedication to resident education.

We are a decidedly clinical program with fairly high volume, have a wealth of technology (CyberKnife, 2 GammaKnives, Trilogy, Synergy, in-department PET/CT simulator), and opportunties for both clinical and basic science research. We are not in a major American city, and that will not change. Our curriculum is still being developed and improves weekly, thanks to the efforts of our faculty and chief resident. The interview day will be much better next year - thank you for pointing out our shortcomings. I am embarrassed about the schedule, the parking thing, and that the department did not pay for dinner. If the dinner thing does not change, I still hope applicants will join us the night before, because we are still happy to have dinner and a beer with you. We now have sweet computers and flat screens in our office - and there no block on YouTube, so you can watch the chimp fall out of the tree as much as you want. Our faculty are supportive of our interests and interested in our growth as physicians, regardless of the career path we choose. The residents are the best part of our residency, and that will not change, regardless of other improvements. As for the rumors about my social life, I am not sure what to make of that.

S
 
I hate to do this because Simul was so nice on interview day, but I'm going to have to agree with the previous poster.

Let me first start this by saying the most shocking thing of the interview day at Pittsburgh for me was the fact that SimulD's real name is actually Simul and that "simul" did not stand for simulator or something!

I too left Pitt not thinking the residents do much research. That's great that the one resident published 20 or so papers, but if you don't give us any information on this or a folder about your dept how are we going to know. It would like an applicant doing tons of research and not putting it on his ERAS application. That would be stupid, right? Also, the fact that the one resident published 20 papers and then used his research time to get an MBA is weird to me. At MSK et al, I'm sure there are residents who publish that many papers, but that doesn't mean that they will go use their research time for something else. Still not sure how this was allowed based on ACGME guidelines?

The dinner thing was very irritating, as already pointed out by the previous poster. The email the night before said something to effect of 'this is not an official dept event, so not coming will not count against you." So we go to dinner, residents even ask if we want to order appetizers, etc. And then at the end say that we have to pay. This is something that was talked about at other interviews for sure. Residents at other programs were shocked when they heard about this. If the dept is not going to pay for it, then maybe an attending should give his credit card to a resident and pay for it. Or maybe the residents could pay for it. Is it ridiculous to even say that residents making 50k or so should pay for the dinner the night before? Probably. But isn't it ridiculous to make medical students who are taking loans and spent time and money to come to Pitt to pay for the dinner the night before?

As for the whole chair, vice chair issue. Actually Pitt is not unique in that structure. Yale has the exact same set-up, or at least that was my understanding from the interview day there. Wilson is vice chair and in charge of clinical affairs. Glazer is the real chair and mainly runs his lab and residnets don't really work with him (ever?) in the clinic. But they still respect both of them and only had nice things to say about the two of them. Glazer was nice and friendly on interview day and an ASSET to the program. Greenberger was a turn off and is clearly a liability, at least from the point of view of residency.

Didn't notice that the computers didn't have flat screens, but good to hear that they do now! I did however notice that they had 5 desks and that as of this july would have 6 residents. Where is the 6th one going to sit?

Simul please add to the Who's Who 2009 for Pitt! Thanks!
 
location Columbus is probably the best mid-size city in the midwest (even simul agreed!). Lot of young people, pretty progressive. Must love OSU football and hate Michigan if you come here!

program I was expecting more. A lot more. Program is relatively small. One of the attendings has some type of social anxiety disorder. He is in charge of peds at OSU. I think his name is Dr. Montebello. The interview with him literally lasts 3 minutes. He says hi and then looks at the ground and smiles the rest of the time. It was by far the weirdest interview I have ever had. Just made me think-- if this guy cannot talk to me during an interview, how will I ever work him. I'm guessing he does no teaching either. The fact that he is still an attending there shows how weak the program is there. They have one knew attending from case western who seemed like he would be nice to work with. And another attending who left private practice who recently joined the department who also seemed normal. The PD interview was also VERY odd. He spent at least 15 minutes bashing Detroit and his previous job at Wayne State. He even told me not to waste my time interviewing there. Never had any other program bash another program at an interview other than OSU. He also mentions that OSU "used to be one of the worst programs, but is now getting better." The newly appointed chair seemed nice, but didn't really get a sense that she had any vision for how she wants to change OSU. And get this-- another attending just forgot to show up for the interview! He was on vacation, but the program coordinator said that he spoke with him the day before and said he was going to come in for the scheduled interview. The residency was clearly not a priority for them.

When I found out that 1 midwest program didn't match, I honestly thought it was OSU. Even the home school candidate was open about not wanting to stay here, though I think he wanted to go to Canada.

Hate to bash a program, but give me a break...an attending who cannot he carry on an interview??!
 
Any thoughts on OHSU's program after the last interview season?
Strengths, weaknesses?
 
Impressions said:
location Never had any other program bash another program at an interview other than OSU.
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I experienced this from the chair at Buffalo. While I think that the program at Roswell is improving and becoming more stable, I was turned off by this unprofessionalism. The younger faculty show promise, but the chair is not academically productive.
 
UCSF: What an amazing city. Program has all the toys (GK perfexion, Cyberknife, rumors of heavy particle treatment), though one of the more unorganized days I've been to on the interview trail. Tour of both Parnassus and Zion were ehhhhh. The surroundings (rooms etc) looked okay, not quite as shiny/new as MDACC, MSKCC, or Harvard, though I'd say the city and sights more than make up for that. The residents were all great, down to earth, and friendly. No one I would have thought was really "out there"--on the rad onc trail you will definitely meet these oddities who seem abrasive, condescending, or socially awkward in a bad way (not the geeky nerd who most of us are but the kind of mean nerd). Good and bad: seemed like attendings were -slightly- interested in didactics. That being said, learning is very independent, which is great for self-starters and also less pressure than the talks at MDACC in front of all bijillion faculty members or the Hellman style beatdowns at Harvard or Chicago. However, come boards time, it could be pretty painful to pony up. Supposedly one of the most competitive residencies to get into due to location and "laid back" attitude. Exceptional placement for jobs both academic and private (esp. Nor Cal and Pacific Northwest). Expensive city. Difficult interview day (a few painful interviews with either direct antagonism or apathy). if you interview there, check out the various facilities including the library and exercise room, amazing views. CNS and prostate are exceptionally strong. Other things like GI and breast less so. Quite a bit of scut but supposedly everyone gets out by 6 to enjoy SF.

Stanford: Home of cyberknife. Beautiful campus. Amazing though seemed like residents had a lot of lousy scut. Stories of people staying until 9pm, which is fine given it's still in beautiful Palo Alto (nicer weather, sunnier than foggy SF) but unless all you like to do is run around the big satellite dish and try to relive your college years, San Fran is a much better location. Ridiculously expensive. Don't think any of the residents bought. Rumors of some attendings still renting. Nice and collegial though interview day felt a bit odd. Couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it didn't seem like all residents were exceptionally enthusiastic or engaging. However, that also may be the case for UCSF (?we're hot stuff, we know you want to come here? kind of attitude at both places or what?). I guess the thing is, unlike MDACC which has to sell Houston and MSKCC which has to play down "too much volume" and Harvard which has to play down (or live up to) haughty reputation, places like Stanford and UCSF know they're particularly desirable due to lab, location, and prestige. That being said, for some reason, the attendings, residents, and interviewers at UCSF and Stanfrod in general were less engaging (or less willing to say, oh you'd fit in perfectly here). Strengths here include lymphoma, GI, CNS, and anything with Cyberknife. UCSF (urban, expensive) seemed more fun than Stanford (suburban, expensive). PD seems really engaged with resident training, perhaps too much as issues of possible smothering. Overall, seems like more academic bent that UCSF, though brachy experience and city expereince seem better at UCSF.

University of Washington: Ahhhhh, Seattle. What a city. The Hutch is affiliated and probably draws patients but the strength at UW is still non solid tumors. Only place with neutrons (what does that mean, don't know). Chair and prostate guy are very well connected. They sent a recent grad to MDACC for faculty. Great private practice placement also. Since PD was prior peds, perhaps look more favorably upon people re-applying from other disciplines. REally nice people, collegial. Getting more up to speed with IGRT. Rumors of protons but still rumors. Not a place for basic science. Not on cutting edge but recruited lots of new faculty who are enthusisatic and can probably teach a ton. Interview day was really benign. REsidents were much more engaging than either UCSF or Stanford, though as the program is not as hot reputation-wise, perhaps more desire / need to "recruit" people. Had a better overall "people feel" for this place than either UCSF or Stanford. The attendings actually came to the dinner and were down to earth. However, just wasn't quite up to speed yet with techno as much as UCSF or STanford (nor did it have the same kind of rep or opportunities for research). Holman, think not. Oh yeah, non-ERAS application was a pain but worth it. brachy will be great.
 
Thanks for the awesome posts about some of the major programs in the west guys. Does anyone have anything to say about OHSU, either interview or even student rotations? thanks!
 
This is a very solid program. The leadership at the top is outstanding with Dr. Thomas. The new facilities are gorgeous. They have a stable group of very capable and well-regarded UCSF-trained faculty members. I believe they recently recruited a prominent radiobiologist althought I'm not sure. The volume is high and the training is also excellent. In terms of negatives, the residents do seem to have a lot of scut. Also, the program is a virtual unknown outside of the west coast. Their residents have a lot of interesting research going on and seem like nice people. Portland is a very nice, quaint city. Overall, a solid program on a definite upward trajectory. If invited to interview, check it out, you will be very pleasantly surprised.
 
My format: I will break these down by the 5 most important things to me (education/program, faculty, residents, location, and facilities/technology). I actually made my rank list by thinking of these 5 things (plus a category that I called intangibles…don’t think that needs to be shared with you all). I tried to be unbiased as possible.

Emory:
First off, Emory doesn’t seem to get much of a reputation on this board, either positive or negative, and I really don’t know why. It’s a big name place with a big name chair in a cool city. Here are my observations, judge for yourself.

Education/program: It’s a relatively large program with 3 residents per year. Standard 3 mo rotations in all disease sites. They have 6 mos protected research time and allow either clinical or lab based projects. One project per year is actually mandatory in PGY 3-5. Sometimes the residents have to “double cover” attendings (I think that’s what I remember), and this is obviously a downside. Residents seem to work relatively hard, but see a good volume. The didactics seem weak, and the residents themselves even told me this. They are purportedly addressing this in the coming year. The PD quotes a stat on interview day that pass rate is 65%. Everyone asks about this and freaks out. Apparently this is a 5 yr average that includes people that are long gone. Recent years are close to 100%. He told us that even the dismal number of 65% puts them above more than half the programs. I guess other PDs just don’t mention these stats b/c they are misleading. And last but not least…GRADY. You have to do your intern year at Grady in medicine. Ouch. When asked, the PD told me that they had some folks come thru that were lacking in clinical skills, so, apparently, they are attempting to fix the problem by putting all residents thru hell for a year.

Residents: The residents I met were all cool, but the downside is you don’t meet all the residents on interview day. This is b/c you spend the entire afternoon with the same 2 residents and don’t meet the others. Most residents seem to go into private, but I think one is a MD/PHD who is going academic. Overall, everyone I met was happy with Emory. There was no interview dinner so I really don’t know more than that.

Faculty: The faculty are really nice people and seemed like they would be great to work with. The physics guy stands out as one of the nicest I met on the trail. In general though, attendings are unremarkable. BUT, they have Curran coming in as chair. This should prove to put Emory on the map as he is RTOG chair and very involved in clinical trials. The PD, Jani, is a nice guy who seems genuinely interested in resident education. He does seem kind of boring in person though. The jury is out on this b/c we haven’t seen what Curran will do yet…but I doubt he would rock the boat.

Facilities/equipment: They have 4 clinical sites, which I think is a good thing…well, the driving between them part sucks. (as an aside, Atlanta has some of worst traffic I have ever seen). The good part is that you see a variety of pathology at the different sites (locally advanced at grady, vs zebras at emory hospital). Emory hospital is very nice and the rad onc dept is one of the cushiest I have been in. Seems like a nice place to spend your days. Plus, they have great toys, as it is a Varian beta site. The downside to that is there is no tomo or cyberknife on the horizon (don’t really know if that even matters, but people think it sounds cool). Grady is a bit more run down and has old school equipment. The other two are more unremarkable, but seemed fine.

Location: ATL is a nice southern, metropolitan city. An interesting mix of rap and country music will be heard when going out here. Overall, there is lots going on here—sports, museums, outdoors activities, etc. The residents will show you some cool neighborhoods really close to emory. Traffic sucks. Its hot in summer, but has 4 seasons.
 
Curious to recent interview impressions of houston area programs
 
Copied from my post elsewhere:

worst programs that I saw, IMHO:
Baylor--residents seemed somewhat unhappy (if not unhappy, then certainly not enthused about Baylor), no faculty leadership that I could see, crappy interview day with decent Chinese food at lunch that NONE of the residents ate with us, some A-hole faculty members that residents told me "ahh, dont worry, no one pays attention to that guy." If you are on his service, you have to pay attention to him. Its in the shadow of the Death Star. Baylor lost Methodist affiliation hospital in every specialty except rad onc...this seems like a very tenuous situation that could fall apart soon, despite the faculty's reassurance that it will be fine. Residents work at like 4 different sites. It's in Houston (see other threads). need I say more? well, better than not matching I think...
 
Does anyone have some inside information on any of these programs? I haven't seen any posts about them yet...

UCLA
USC
UC-Davis
UC-Irvine
Oregon
Ohio St
Pitt
U of Virginia
UNC
U of Florida
 
UC-Davis is in a bit of a.... ummmm.... transitional period currently....

According to a very close friend who is a Med Onc fellow at Davis, the Rad Onc department has lost all of its faculty over the past couple of years. From what I am told, they currently have one faculty member who has come on who essentially has a career of locum positions. Another is a bright, brand new graduate.

That said, they're pouring a lot of money into the cancer center right now and are supposedly aggressively looking for faculty with a strong academic bent to them.
 
UNC--
small program at a great university, would be a fine place to train. after interviewing there I didnt really like it, but that was b/c of the small prog size and the fact that a few attendings rubbed me the wrong way. Other than that, i would have loved it. (in fact, I wanted to love it, but just didnt). There are a few big wigs there who treat you like you're wasting their time during the interview, and I didnt appreciate that (ie Tepper and the other guy who is interim chair). there are only 4 residents and that is very small. what if the other residents suck? then you're screwed...best to go for a prog with at least 8, imho. chapel hill is nice, but a bit like stepping into the set of Truman Show. It feels very fake due to all the zoning requirements and very restrictive ordinances. Most residents live in Durham, actually. The chapel hill social scene is not stacked in your favor, either--very undergrad heavy, at least from what I could tell from Franklin St bars the night prior/after the interview (at 26 I was likely the oldest there). On the plus side is the huge cancer center, cyberknife, and all the state money they get (50 million). Plus they just got a new chair (Larry Marks), which is prob a good thing once the transition period is over. Bottom line: apply, and if granted an interview, go to it and judge for yourself.

UF--
historically strong prog that may not live up to its reputation. Its like the Sony of rad onc programs. everyone talks about it, but anyone who has sampled it knows that its all hype. seems odd to say that since they are one of the few with a proton ctr, but even that is a controversy here as it is nearly 2 hours away in Jacksonville (and not in a good neighborhood to boot). faculty are extremely nice and would be a joy to work with. trouble seems to be getting enuf patients thru the doors. gainesville is in the middle of nowhere (you will realize this when you try to find a flight there), and private groups from all around have marginalized their business. The proton ctr is going to help that tremendously, though. The place is nutso about clinical research and puts out a high volume of quality clinical data. most fun interview day by far. Gainesville is another college town--like chapel hill but with football crazed rednecks instead of the charm (but either way its annoying). Bottom line: Again, same as for UNC...if you get the interview take it and see for yourself. I think most would agree that its really good program, but just maybe not a top 15 like often said here.
 
UCLA
USC
UC-Davis
UC-Irvine

All of these programs are in transition and essentially non-academic at the present time. For clinical training, they are probably fine places, but none are known for their research productivity.
 
I went to college in Florida and medical school at UF. I didn't match at UF. Don't get me wrong-- I'm happy where I am, and things worked out for the best-- but I feel the need to defend my former town. The stereotypes are rampant so I tried to find some research that was objective as these things can be: Rankings. Because its clear that SDN readers love rankings. Here's what I learned: Gainesville is the number one city in the 2007 Cities Ranked & Rated written by Bert Sperling and Peter Sander and published by Frommer’s. Of the 400 cities in the United States and Canada cataloged, examined, analyzed and described in the 850- page book, Gainesville ranked No. 1. It has previously been ranked “Best Place to Live in America” by Money magazine, the “Most Technologically Advanced City” in Florida (30th in the nation) by Popular Science magazine and 12th on Forbes magazine’s list of the best places to do business and have a career. So yeah, it may not be right for everyone but to describe it as" football crazed rednecks" Please. That's not true, and not particularly helpful to anyone trying to sort out this confusing process of matching in radiation oncology.:)

And yes, like many academic departments today, UF has a satellite center. However, their satellite is a $150 million proton beam. The comments about the patient load and private groups are something I know nothing about (I didn't hear anything of it when I rotated through) but I imagine its no different from challenges faced by other departments, including my own. I'm pretty sure the radiation oncology department at UF lives up to its reputation, and I'm pretty sure the city of Gainesville exceeds its reputation.

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UF--
historically strong prog that may not live up to its reputation. Its like the Sony of rad onc programs. everyone talks about it, but anyone who has sampled it knows that its all hype. seems odd to say that since they are one of the few with a proton ctr, but even that is a controversy here as it is nearly 2 hours away in Jacksonville (and not in a good neighborhood to boot). faculty are extremely nice and would be a joy to work with. trouble seems to be getting enuf patients thru the doors. gainesville is in the middle of nowhere (you will realize this when you try to find a flight there), and private groups from all around have marginalized their business. The proton ctr is going to help that tremendously, though. The place is nutso about clinical research and puts out a high volume of quality clinical data. most fun interview day by far. Gainesville is another college town--like chapel hill but with football crazed rednecks instead of the charm (but either way its annoying). Bottom line: Again, same as for UNC...if you get the interview take it and see for yourself. I think most would agree that its really good program, but just maybe not a top 15 like often said here.[/quote]
 
UF--got waitlisted (= rejection) on the interview offer. a surprise at first, but after a while, you get used to it during the interview process. wished I interviewed there though as had heard initially really wonderful things. don't believe there's hype, but have heard through the grape vine that there are some programmatic / organizational problems that detract from the program. this may be more true for faculty than for residents, so I don't know. however, i've just heard grumblings / complaints from people that were there. you may want to contact recent grads to find out what the dealio actually is.

Cleveland Clinic--had to cancel due to scheduling conflicts. they had 3 or 4 interview days, and when I contacted them (2 days after I received the offer) there was only 1 day left. Cancellations do occur, so keep your eyes open.

U Michigan--what a great program. Ted Lawrence must be one of the nicest guys ever. great physics. great research. cold city. poor brachy. they interview in batches. they will say, we would like to offer you an interview on X day. there's no choices. it seems rough, but they can do it and you will attend. Harvard and Stanford also do this sort of thing where they send out interviews in batches and give you no choices. Would not miss any of these.

weirdest "stock" interview questions = Beaumont
harshest interview experience = UCSF
smoothest interview day = MDACC
most stressful interview experience= MDACC or Harvard
best interview dinner / most scenic dinner place = UW Seattle
best interview boozing = U Wisconsin
"coolest" PD = Yale
most impressive chair to change a "50 pound weakling" to a "Conan the Barbarian"-like program without the use of steroids = UT Southwestern
most down to earth chairman = U Wisconsin
 
what made harvard stressful? They desperately want it to be a friendly experience so im curious if you felt comfortable to say why.
 
I think that on this message board, as well as on the interview trail, the post-residency career decision is typically viewed as a choice between “academics” and private practice. And, as a general rule, I think that most training programs can prepare you adequately for either of these options. Moreover, it’s my impression that the skill-set needed to start in either of these jobs is fairly similar (hence the large number of graduating residents deciding between the two).

However, there is another career option that a small but growing (?) number of applicants wish to pursue: that of the basic science physician-scientist. I think that most people simply lump this choice in with the “academic” career track, but there is a HUGE difference between the training you need to be a clinically oriented academic physician and the training you need to be able to run a basic science lab. And while I think that most places can train you well for “academics” or private practice, there are relatively few programs that are structured and equipped to train future basic scientists.

For those of you who wish to run labs in the future, I think that there are a few basic features of a program to pay attention to when interviewing: 1) How much continuous dedicated research time are you guaranteed (incl. possibilities for Holman)? 2) Are there productive labs doing the type of research you are interested in, either in the department (ideally) or in the institution? 3) Does the chairman and/or program director have an understanding of/appreciation for what it takes to run a basic-science lab? 4) Does the program have any recent graduates who are now (R01) funded basic-scientists (the answer to this question is almost always no)?

With all that said, I’m posting my interview impressions below. These aren’t my full impressions of the programs overall (which are generally in line with what has been posted by others), but rather are focused on the basic-scientist track possibilities available at these programs…
 
FOX CHASE- I think as a program in general, Fox Chase is great and I liked what I saw (though I don’t know how I would have felt without Dr. Pollack there…). However, from the basic science standpoint, I definitely felt that the program was limited. I actually had high hopes (it’s a small institution but has multiple nobel laureates and THE Dr. Knudsen of the two-hit hypothesis), but the sense I got throughout the day was that, although they liked the idea of basic research, they didn’t have much experience training residents to become basic scientists. On the plus side, you can have a full year of protected time (I think the standard there is six months, but they’ll give you the year), you can do research with anyone in the institution, and they currently have two MD-PhDs who are going into their research years (which means they may have a track record down the line). One story – on my interview day, I was asked how I see my career down the road, and I said I’d hope to find an 80-20 position, at least in the beginning, to help me get my lab up and running. My interviewers (they’re all panel interviews) asked me which was the 80 and which was the 20, and that question said a lot to me.

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO- This is among the few programs across the country well known for their basic biology research and it clearly showed during the interview day. A full year for research is not only available, but required (in the fourth year). Dr. Weichselbaum is a dedicated researcher and a lot of the residents spend a year in his lab. The research going on in the department seems really interesting – including a lot of novel therapeutics designed to be radiation response modifiers (viral therapies, small molecules, etc.). The only concern I had about the research here came from the residents. The sense I got from a few of the residents was that they ‘had’ to do a year in the lab, rather than that they ‘got’ to do a year. Maybe I was just talking to the wrong residents (and I can’t fault non-scientists for not wanting to do science), but that was the impression I walked away with. Again, research is a major selling point of the program and if you are considering a basic science career, you should definitely check the place
 
MD ANDERSON-OK, so I’ll start with the caveat that I agree with everyone else that MD Anderson is an amazing institution, the training is out of this world, and the residents are fantastic. I did an away month there and really loved it. But that having been said, the basic research training at MD Anderson may be one of the weak points for the program. In terms of research time, 7 months are mandatory, but you can get 12 if you want, no problem. They also had one Holman resident while I was there (he is now on faculty, I believe), which is more than most places. However, the two problems that they have in terms of basic research are: 1) none of the people in charge of the department and the residency program are basic scientists and 2) the basic science opportunities in the department and in the institution aren’t the greatest. Many of the residents looking to do basic science were planning to spend their research time at Baylor since Anderson itself didn’t have what they were looking for. Again, on the whole, MDA is a phenomenal place for residency, and they certainly seem eager to accommodate those who wish to pursue the basic sciences, I’m just saying it’s not necessarily the strength of the program.

MOUNT SINAI-I want to start off by saying that I think that as a residency program overall, Sinai is second in New York only to MSKCC, there are many opportunities to do great clinical research, and the people in the department (residents and faculty) are all very nice. That having been said, if you want to come out of residency prepared to run a basic science lab, this probably is not the right place for you. You are only given 1-3 months for research (which could possibly be extended up to 6) and the basic science opportunities in the department are limited. Again, this is purely my impression of this program for someone who wants to have a basic science career; overall I think if you are looking to train in NYC, Sinai is a great place.

 
VANDERBILT- In contrast to pretty much any other residency in the country, basic science research is the MAJOR focus here. So much so, in fact, that if you don’t want to be a basic scientist, you probably shouldn’t even apply (they only interviewed MD-PhDs who had published papers). Most of the interview day was spent hearing about the research being done, seeing the lab space they have dedicated for research, and talking to the applicants about their research. In fact, the tour was 3 hours long just so that you could see all of the toys they had in the labs (I thought their monkey MRI was pretty cool). The department puts a strong emphasis on mentorship and grant writing and really wants to see its residents getting K-awards and R01s when they move on to faculty positions. 5/6 residents are Holman pathway (there are only 20 Holman spots in the country). 3 of their faculty members have R01s (by their count, only 12 Radiation Oncologists in the country have R01s). In short, if you want a basic science career, you definitely have to at least consider Vanderbilt.

WISCONSIN-This may have been the most realistic of all the programs when it comes to training basic scientists. First of all, they recognize that not all residents will (or should) want to become basic scientists, and are sensitive to the differences. However, for those who are interested, there are some great opportunities in the department, plus an enormous institution full of outstanding labs (I was really amazed to see how many labs I had personally heard of at Wisconsin). Also, this was the only program that discussed paying you for a fifth year of residency to allow for an extra year of dedicated research time. While that may sound crazy to some, it’s much more in line with our med-onc counterparts who go on to become basic scientists (6 years of total residency+fellowship) and is probably more consistent with the realities of what it takes to become a scientist. Moreover, Dr. Harari seems to truly understand the challenges for the scientist in training, which I think is extremely important. Lastly, outside of the science, I just want to echo what has been stated on the board many times – the residents seem like a really fun group of people.

 
YALE- The sense I got from this message board was that Yale is a ‘historically’ strong program for radiation biology – as in, they had made research contributions in the past, but not so much anymore. However, having seen the program for myself, I was extremely impressed – in fact, I considered them the strongest basic science program I interviewed with. As with all other good research programs, they’ll give you a year of research time, no problem. On top of that, though, they had Science and Cell papers that had recently come out of the radonc department (the only places I heard mention those journals), in addition to the many outstanding basic science labs in the institution. Dr. Glazer runs an active basic science lab and clearly understands the needs of growing scientists – this is one of the few departments that seems to treat its physician-scientists as equals with the clinicians in the department. Also, during the interview day, we heard a talk about work in the department using C.elegans as a model system, which was one of the only (if not THE only) basic science talks I heard on the interview trail. Again, I was extremely impressed with Yale as a basic science training program and highly recommend it.

WASH U- This was another program where I felt the comments on this board didn’t do the program justice. Most of my pre-interview impressions of the place had the word ‘malignant’ in them. However, based on my interview day, I was very impressed with what Wash U had to offer. This is another Holman-friendly program, with basic science opportunities both within the department as well as the many options in the greater institution. This is also one of the few departments that has trained radiation oncologists who are now active basic scientists. However, one of the big question marks during the interview day was what will happen with the departure of Dr. Powell. He is among the small group of chairman who are also good basic scientists and he is the only person on the entire interview trail who talked with me about my research in the same way I would discuss it with other scientists. I don’t know who will be taking his place at Wash U (has it been decided?), but that may have some impact on the nature of the residency. Still, overall, Wash U is certainly one of the strongest places for a future basic scientist to train.
 
Impressions said:
University of Washington: Ahhhhh, Seattle. What a city. The Hutch is affiliated and probably draws patients but the strength at UW is still non solid tumors. Only place with neutrons (what does that mean, don't know). Chair and prostate guy are very well connected. They sent a recent grad to MDACC for faculty. Great private practice placement also. Since PD was prior peds, perhaps look more favorably upon people re-applying from other disciplines. REally nice people, collegial. Getting more up to speed with IGRT. Rumors of protons but still rumors. Not a place for basic science. Not on cutting edge but recruited lots of new faculty who are enthusisatic and can probably teach a ton. Interview day was really benign. REsidents were much more engaging than either UCSF or Stanford, though as the program is not as hot reputation-wise, perhaps more desire / need to "recruit" people. Had a better overall "people feel" for this place than either UCSF or Stanford. The attendings actually came to the dinner and were down to earth. However, just wasn't quite up to speed yet with techno as much as UCSF or STanford (nor did it have the same kind of rep or opportunities for research). Holman, think not. Oh yeah, non-ERAS application was a pain but worth it. brachy will be great.
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Having just met up with some of the current residents at ASTRO, I would say that the department is slowly moving in the right direction in terms of technology but the resident program continues to lag behind. Teaching is clearly not a priority for the department. The current program director continues to be a major thorn in the side for the residents and had no interest in improving the educational program.
 
After lists in today...let the impressions begin!
 
Here are my impressions of the programs I interviewed at (in no particular order)

UCSF: San Francisco is a great city to live in. Unfortunately that is the best thing I can say about UCSF. Are they a poor program? Not at all, but they leave much to be desired in comparison to their traditional peers. A lot of young energetic faculty who are heavily involved in research and seem interested in resident education. Allotment of research time is atrocious unless your only interest is doing small clinical projects. We were told by attendings that they could squeeze together the time if you wanted it but per the residents that never happens. The only way to do a translational/basic project would be to do Holman (which they seem to support). Dr. Roach was absent on my interview day so I cannot comment on him. Facilities are nice but not as nice as I would have expected given their age. Also, I have nothing against the Asian-male-MD/PhD demographic, but to have that demographic representing 80% of your residents makes those outside that demographic a bit uneasy. That being said, this ended up high on my list for reasons unrelated to the program itself.

Stanford: Wins the award for information overload with their ridiculous interview packet and number of interviews. Obviously very strong in certain areas (lymphoma) and weak in others. New program director can come off a bit cold but it seems like she looks out for the residents. The program does have a bit of a complex with UCSF being so close but I don’t think it’s well deserved. Great place if you want to cyberknife it up. Amazing Rad Bio; in my opinion the best in the country. Beautiful facilities and the quiet life in Palo Alto may appeal to some.

U Chicago: I’m always wary of a program that doesn’t include their chair in the interview cycle. Program director seems very interested in resident education but seems to be fighting against forces not in his control. Great basic research and lab opportunities but having the research year in the last year seems almost worse than having no research time at all. I don’t believe for a second the claim that “we’re trying to move it to the third year.” Some of the residents seemed visibly unhappy, though no specific complaints were made in my presence. Chicago may be a plus or a minus depending on what you’re looking for.

Yale: I was very surprised about how much I liked this program. When the new cancer center comes online it’s going to be awesome. PD is very invested in resident education and an all around nice guy. Great research opportunities and support from the attendings. Residents seem like a happy productive bunch. New Haven is a small place but it is quite nice and you’re not that from from NYC should you need a dose of the city.

Mayo Rochester: Cold, cold and more cold. Obviously as Rad Onc docs we’re used to being underground but not sure I could spend 6 months of the year never emerging into the sunlight. Decent program, nice facilities. Residents all seem to be going into private practice these days. Research opportunities available but somewhat limited time to take advantage of them. Interviews are ridiculous as most interviewers are reading off a list of random questions that don’t seem well thought out.

MSKCC: Incredibly impressed by this program. You will work your butt of but come out a fantastic attending on the back end. With the addition of the new chair resident research is going to blossom. Residents were typically well-published when they had 0 time for research, can only imagine how productive they will be with a full year. Attendings all seem nice and residents can name their price at any academic or private practice job they want. Subsidized housing near the hospital is amazing. Pair this with the in-house TY year and you’ve got a match made in heaven.

Hopkins: A solid program that has the potential to be top-notch in the coming years. That being said, not quite there yet. DeWeese is an amazing chair who has really taken the bull by the horns and is hiring new people left and right. A mix of dynamic young faculty and a few not-so-dynamic older faculty. Rad Bio is going to be huge and physics has always been incredibly strong. Residents seem to make full use of the research time they’re given. Seems like there’s plenty of free time and workload is neither too light nor too heavy. Baltimore is a total hole, there’s no way to sugarcoat it.

Harvard: I thought long and hard to try and come up with a weakness of this program but couldn’t think of any except that Boston is expensive (but amazing to live in). Huge names all over the board with strength in every site. There’s obviously politics with the merger of two very strong but very different programs, but none of this seems to spill over into the residents’ laps. In fact, it seems each side works hard to make the residents love them more! Didactics are the strongest I’ve seen at any program. Residents are happy even though they work very hard (especially on the MGH side). Facilities are nice and between all the hospitals you have any toy you want to play with. Research opportunities are limited only by your imagination and you can expect to publish top quality papers whether you want to or not.

MDACC: Could we please just suck this entire place up and dump it on one of the coasts? Amazing facilities, top-notch attendings and a huge investment in resident education continue to make this one of the top programs in the country. Despite all the amazing things that go on here everyone seems very laid back. Wins the award for program-selling with their free hotel and even a little gift bag when you check in. Residents all seem very cool and are very productive in any kind of research they get involved in. Houston isn’t a hole in the same way Baltimore is, but it’s not exactly a great place to live.

U Michigan: Wins the award for most time wasted at an interview day (you basically sit around for half the day while everyone else is getting interviewed). Dropping the required intern year was a good choice. Decent research opportunities, facilities seem to be under constant improvement. Ann Arbor is a tiny place, but inexpensive to live in. Ted Lawrence is an all-around great guy.

U Penn: AMAZING new facilities with protons coming online soon. Steve Hahn is a dynamic chair and was a pleasure to speak with. Endless research opportunities and motivated faculty in almost every site. PD rubbed me the wrong way a little bit, I’m not sure how great of a resident advocate she really is. That being said, residents seem happy despite the required PGY1 beat down. My main concern with this program is how they intend to double their clinical load without doubling their faculty. This may spell huge trouble as resident education may dwindle if attendings are run ragged with too many patients. I could also foresee this being the first program in the country to require residents in-house every Saturday (or a majority thereof).

Fox Chase: Definitely #2 in Philly and they know it. That being said, amazing facilities, great tumor boards and happy residents. The departure of Pollack was a huge hurt to the program. They still seem to be picking up the pieces in many ways. Good research opportunities should you seek them out (the best are likely outside the department). Wins the award for worst interview lunch (though taking us to the cafeteria was apparently secondary to a secretary forgetting to order the lunch).
 
We also encourage anyone who interviewed at other various schools to post their interview experiences. Not everyone will have the opportunity to interview at all of the top tier programs, and MSKCC, MDACC, Stanford, UCSF, Yale, Hopkins tend to be overrepresented in this thread. I welcome anyone to talk about Oregon, Mayo-Jacksonville, Louisville, Loma Linda, etc! :)
 
I hope you all find this useful

Suny Downstate

Had dinner with the current residents on the night prior to the interview, consisting of wine, delicious pizza, and some other appetizers. All of the residents seemed to be very laid back and had no major complaints about the program. In fact, they almost seemed too happy to be true. Regardless, they were all very nice and seemed like they would be easy to work with. They had a lot of high praise for the attendings, particularly Drs. Rotman, Choi, and Han.

It seems like the residents receive a lot of autonomy. Apparently, they run the clinics and, “if [they] don’t do it, it doesn’t get done.” It seemed to me like the attendings’ teaching styles are very variable, ranging from excellent to not-so-much. The residents do all the dictations, treatment planning, and see the patients, and the attendings oversee for errors. It seemed like there was not much bedside teaching.

The residents seem to be mostly married and don’t do much socializing outside of the department. Residents don’t seem very interested in research. Their days generally start at 8:30 and they’re done before 5. Clinic does not start until the residents arrive (including days involving didactics. Workload does not seem too intense… they may see roughly 10-20 follow-ups on a follow-up day, depending on the site; 20-40 people on-treat; 0-3 consults. First year residents have 8 weeks of “first call” during PGY-2.

SUNY Downstate hospital located in a ~rough area of Brooklyn. The 2 and the 5 trains will run to this destination, followed by a <5 minute walk. We were greeted by the residents and were sat down to await the arrival of breakfast (muffins, scones, bagels, coffee, juice), listen to a sales pitch delivered by a senior resident, and hear some opening remarks from Dr. Rotman. Dr. Rotman immediately came off as a genuinely nice and sincere person. This was followed by a series of interviews/tours.

Attendings
I first met with Dr. Choi. He was very easy to talk to and we spoke very informally. I next met with Dr. Lange, the radiobiologist. He primarily spoke about the radiobiology curriculum and his research endeavors. He is working on extracting stem cells from tumors and calculating the radioresistance of those cells on a case-by-case basis. While involvement in his lab is welcome, apparently nobody really takes advantage due to time constraints. Residents present on radiobiology topics so that by the time they are seniors, they will have presented every topic in the curriculum. 2 months are set aside in the senior year to become more acquainted with lab techniques (not sure why this is done since none of the residents truly express any basic science interests). Dr. Rotman went over my application while I met with him (old-school interview). He seems like a leader devoted to education; hope that he will be around for awhile longer. Dr. Han and Alexandropolous were a joy to talk to; very laid back. Did not get to meet all of the attendings at all of the sites.

Tour
The tour only included SUNY downstate (older facility, small) and King’s County (newer, nicer). Both sites have CT-Sim and Linacs. Other sites include Beth Israel in Manhattan (only rotate their in years 3 and 4), Long Island, MSKCC (for one month of peds in senior year with Dr. Wolden). Did not get to tour all of these sites. They seem to push the notion that you get very good clinical training at their institution because you rotate at 4 sites, with 4 populations (ranging from the indigent to the insured), and get to learn various treatment planning systems and hospital systems. Considerable time is spent commuting, but would be possible to study on the trains/subways.

Research
Small possibility of radiobiology research if you can commit time to the lab after your clinic days. Other students in the lab include high school and college students. There does not seem to be any time devoted for research. There is no research done in the physics department. Most of the research would be clinical, but the attendings are not really devoted to any original research endeavor (they currently have 34 active RTOG protocols that they offer their patients). I do not know if they provide funding for conferences/presentations. Though, the research component of this program is weak, I think there is always still a possibility for getting into academics. One of the current seniors is considering a fellowship in academics at MDACC.

Overall
Desirable location (would live in Manhattan), like the variety in population and sites, laid-back residents and attendings, not good for research and sub-par if you’re interested in academics. No major complaints about ancillary services. The program seems stagnant but would offer a good education to someone interested in private practice.


Rush

The day started off very early and very cold. As usual, I didn’t sleep well on the night before my interview, waking up about every hour to check the time, afraid that I might sleep through my alarm. I bundled up and made the cold trip (I think it was below 10 degrees that morning) towards the Chicago Medical Complex, which is roughly 15-20 minutes outside of downtown Chicago and easily accessible by public transportation. This seems to be a generally clean and safe region of Chicago, surrounded by lots of graduate programs.

Rush medical center is currently under construction, one of the first things I noticed as I was walking towards the facility. They are building, among other things, a new inpatient hospital.

The interview began with a welcome breakfast (coffee, bagels, muffins, etc.) and a short presentation given by Dr. Abrams, the department Chair. He briefly gave an overview of the program, introducing the faculty, highlighting the equipment at the department, and talking about some of the research. One thing they have that I thought was appealing is the possibility to concurrently earn a masters in medical physics. This is something that is useless unless you go into academic medicine and have an interest in the physics side of the field.

Dr. Griem, the program director, then did a quick little overview of the program. Unbeknownst to me, there are actually two spots for the program, one categorical (which includes a transitional year) and the other advanced. After this, I began my interview marathon (9 25-minute interviews!)

The first was with the department chair, Dr. Abrams (primarily interests include GI, biliary, and skin). I had heard some negative things about him on studentdoctor.net (that he was malignant, etc.) so I was glad to get this one out of the way first. From my end, I think the interview went well. He was definitely probing and formal, but overall I got the sense that he is a driven person, with patient care being his first priority and resident education a close second. After speaking with the residents later in the day about him, I kinda get the sense that he likes to lead by “tough love.” Initially, in the first year or two, he may not treat his residents with the kind of respect that they think they deserve; afterwards (in the 3rd and 4th year) I get the sense that he starts to treat his residents like equals. This is definitely one of the major pitfalls of Rush and one that may ultimately be beneficial for challenging me to excel and do more for my education than I would have normally done. Overall, he has apparently made the program a lot better since his arrival and I didn’t find any real complaints about his presence. Apparently some of the older posts on studentdoctor could have been made by disgruntled ex-faculty (of course this is coming from one of the residents, but how mature is this for an attending?)

My next interview was with Dr. Griem (treats primarily breast). She is very peppy and an overall nice person who I think I could get a long with well (this applies for all of the attendings, actually).

Afterwards there was chart rounds, which was run similar to elsewhere. There was a bit of questioning to the residents but it did not come across as overly aggressive at all.

Four more interviews > Lunch (really nice buffet lunch in hospital restaurant!). The residents are very tight knit (finally a program where the residents actually hang out and go for drinks outside of work). I felt like I could fit in here. The residents were very happy. They didn’t seem too overwhelmed with scut work and the calls weren’t bad at all.

Drs. Zusag (treats primarily lung cancer) and Herksovic (who has a lot of experience in HDR for prostate) were very informal and laid back, no doubt a breeze to work with. Dr. Coleman, a recent graduate from UCSF (who specializes in Head and Neck, CNS, and peds) was very nice and seemed to be the closest with the residents because of her youth. Apparently, the program had traditionally sent students to St. Judes in Memphis for the pediatric experience. This is no longer the case and the residents are expected to get all of their exposure at Rush. This was stated to be one of the main negatives about the program since there are only about 0-2 pediatric cases seen per month. Another negative is a required commute to Evanston for a community practice experience (it is 10 miles away, but could take as long as an hour depending on weather and traffic). I don’t remember how many months of each year this commute is required. Otherwise, the entire experience is at the Rush Rad Onc Center, a huge plus because you have all the residents and attendings at the same site. Apparently, the department finds itself to be very closeknit, but as with any close family sometimes they can get on one another’s nerves. I found their honesty about this issue to be refreshing and not really problematic.

My next interview was with Dr. Chu, the director of Medical Physics. Finally we got to speaking about some of the research interests of the department (which were mainly clinical applications since there is no affilation with a Rush undergraduate or graduate program (since such programs don’t exist)….these would provide collaboration from engineering and other physics subspecialities). I was really intrigued by a lot of his work, most of which was focused on IGRT and adaptive RT. I consider the physics department to be one of the strong points about this program. All of the residents raved about the didactics and their performance on the physics boards.

Dr. Levenson is a new recruit who teaches the Radiobiology course. None of the residents have seen him in action yet so they couldn’t comment on the quality of the course, though they had positive things to say about him as a person. His research interests are primarily in screening for disease through the use of DNA markers in the blood. He was very candid about academic research and the opportunities for residents to get involved.

Lastly, we were given a tour of the department. It had recently been renovated (within the past 2-3 years) and hence was very beautiful (with wood floors throughout). The resident room is nice, with 8 cubicles and a desktop computer at each. There is one computer for treatment planning in the resident room. The equipment included Tomotherapy, Trilogy, with plans for addition of a PET/CT scanner in the future. The nurses at Rush are “among the top in the country.” They see a lot of sarcoma as the Orthopedic group at Rush is top in the region. Also overrepresented is Head and neck and Gyn. There is a good variety in the patient population, though they don’t see any uninsured. The fourth year is set aside for 6 months of dedicated research time and 6 months of electives (apparently you can fulfill some of the elective requirements during the transitional year, if that’s the track you do, and can hence increase the amount of research time). Dr. Abrams is apparently very supportive of resident presentation and travel to conferences though I didn’t hear any mention of an established travel allowance for such purposes. The program has a recent track record of putting about 50% of its graduates in academics over the preceding several years.


City of Hope

Negatives: far from home, large city pollution, young, small program, lack of other residents at COH

Their website is great:

http://www.cityofhope.org/education/fellowships-residencies/radiation-residency/Pages/default.aspx

The program was just recently accrediated and has funding for one resident/year (including one to start in ’09). This may seem as a drawback but apparently they have been affiliated with U-Cal Irvine for the past 15 years or so. Apparently the UCI residents “love” their rotation at COH – have not had a chance to speak w/ them personally as of yet. UCI also now on probation for reasons unknown to me.

The medical complex was somewhat old, though it had new facilities sprouting up. It had a very nurturing, tranquil feel to it (lots of statues, gardens, etc.). The department is in the process of expanding into a larger wing. We were given a tour of this – seemed very nice. COH apparently does a lot of charity work.

I could never live in Duarte, has too much of a rural feel for my likes. Pasadena is a different story (old city, home of the Rose bowl, Encino man). Just a 10-15 min. drive away….nice small city feel with clean streets, shopping, restaurants, etc. Roughly 30 min from the coast (Malibu, Santa Monica), though I think the rush hour commute would be considerably longer, thus prohibiting a feasible lifestyle on the beach.

I really enjoyed talking with Dr. Wong and Dr. Vora. The program director seemed intimidating and ? the possibility of him being somewhat malignant, though he did warm up towards the end of the interview day. The program seems very progressive with its NCI/NCCN affiliation, though a literature search does not reveal too many publications. Dr. Wong is working on total marrow irradiation (very cool) as they do a lot of marrow transplant. They’re involved in monoclonal antibody research, radioimmunotherapy. Physics professor is amiable and has aspirations for putting out research (apparently he has a huge database that could produce multiple pubs).

Tomotherapy is their pride possession and they seem devoted to its expansion. Claim to acquire treatment planning MRI and PET/CT in 2010.

Many unknowns remain about this program because no residents were available to comment.
 
CHICAGO
Excellent (but potentially malignant) morning resident-lead didactics. Program has an excellent history, and still has heavy weights. However, it is doubtful that these heavy weights will still be very active by the end of our residency, so there is that inevitable void that is waiting to reveal itself. The program is definitely commitment to basic science. They did not give us a tour of the facilities, or else I forgot. As a city, Chicago is great!

CLEVELAND CLINIC
Very busy department. Very clinically (go figure) oriented department. Not a lot (any) basic research going on in this department. They do offer that year of research, but if you are a basic scientist, then you are on your own to make the best of it. Dr. Suh did mention to me that he was trying to recruit a clinician-scientist; not sure how attractive Cleveland Clinic will be to a clinician-scientist though. For training it is fine, as long as the department is willing to let you go away for research. Cardiology rules at Cleveland Clinic. I actually liked Cleveland. One of the more affordable cities where I interviewed.

FOX CHASE
Stand alone cancer center in North Philly. The department is busy. Former chair’s departure is still felt. Fox Chase as an institution recently lost the chairs of Medicine, Surgery, and Rad Onc. The only other departments at the institution are Pathology and Radiology. Institution is also in need of a Chief Operating Officer (or something like that), so I was obviously weary. I liked the attendings, but was not too sure I would mesh with the residents.

HARVARD
GINORMOUS! Larger than some internal medicine programs. So large that you will not work with every attending by the time you finish the program. However, working with different attendings on the same body site does allow you learn what is personal dogma by specific attendings and what is agreed upon within the field. If you have a research interest, you can find a mentor doing it at Harvard. Great basic and clinical research in the program, and great research opportunities outside of the program. Size of the program does risk are resident becoming lost; but this is a general problem with programs at HMS that span the multiple institutions. There is probably some tension between the institutions, but things were relatively harmonious for the two day interview.

JOHNS HOPKINS
Beautiful cancer center. Excellent cancer biology with real heavy weights like Bert Vogelstein in cancer genetics and Elizabeth Jaffee in tumor immunology; physics is very strong with John Wong, I think that he built his a small animal radiation machine, so that should assist the radiobiology program which is lacking compared physics are cancer biology. Not a lot of clinical trials going on in the department, but as everyone has mentioned about Hopkins, this will likely change. Ted DeWeese seems like an awesome guy to work with; he is definitely the heart and soul of the very young and growing program. They just hired the MSK chief resident as their new pediatrics attending. They surprisingly have not been able to find a clinician-scientist, but it seems to be on the agenda.

MARYLAND
On many posts on the this forum I heard of Maryland’s radiobiology program, so I applied to this program thinking that it would have some good basic science opportunities. Really nice residents. The chair, Bill Regine has a surgeon’s mentality, and he has a very straightforward approach to everything that I really love and appreciate. Mohan Suntha is another great guy out there who will likely become chair of a program at some point. He was one of the finalists for the Thomas Jefferson chairmanship that ultimately went to the internal candidate. They have really good young clinical faculty. This is a very strong, underrated program. One obvious weakness is the eventual departure of Suntha. Another weakness is that basic science is not really supported by the program I felt. They have a strong radiobiology program, but there was a huge disconnect between the basic scientists (all Ph.D.s) and the clinicians.

MEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING
WOW! Clinically, out of this world. Maybe the best that I interviewed. Busy, busy, busy, and I loved it! The faculty is very engaging and residents are very nice. Not traditionally known as a program that supports basic science, but the new chair, Simon Powell is a basic science guy and has mandated that residents get a year of protected research time. We will have to wait and see if this becomes a reality in a couple of years. The Sloan-Kettering Institute is a great place to do research, but I think that maybe only Simon Powell and Timothy Chan (another very recent addition, from Hopkins I think) have basic science labs.

MICHIGAN
Great program with very cool residents. I think that they were wise to dispose of the required internship. I really see no point for this. I had one of my best conversations on the interview trail with Dr. Lawrence. The program is definitely supportive of both clinical and basic research. Michigan is cold, and snowy. It is also pretty affordable. Pfizer recently closed-up shop in Ann Arbor, so the housing market is very low…just don’t try to sell it in the next ten years. Michigan also plans to buy the 100 acre Pfizer site, so labs and space will be plenteous.

PENN
This is going to be a very busy department. Steve Hahn is a really nice guy; a bit intense, but you probably have to be to become chair. This program really surprised me; in a very good way. They support basic research, and are quite supportive of the Holman Pathway, but if you choose not to do the Holman Pathway, then they will only give you 9 months of protected time, and I’m not sure if those 9 months are even contiguous. And yes, they will have protons soon. If you are interested in pediatrics, then this is one of the best probably for training since they have CHOP next door. Brutal internship definitely a negative.

VANDERBILT
Dennis Hallahan is one of the few chairs that really get it when it comes to training clinician-scientists, especially basic scientists. It is appalling when you compare the number of medical oncologists who have R01’s to the handful of radiation oncologists that have R01’s. Appalling and sickening. Vandy is definitely preparing its trainees to compete scientifically with oncologists from other disciplines. With that being said, making the Holman Pathway the default for a program is scary. They may have only interview 1-2 external candidates who did not have a Ph.D.

YALE
Evening before the interview there was a cocktail with faculty and residents…this was a “must-go-to” event unlike other programs where it does not matter whether or not you show up to it, especially when it is just the residents. Dr. Wilson makes mental notes of who is and is not there…at least that is what the residents and current Yale students told me. Residents were happy and personable. This is a real Rad Bio program. They tried to sell the new cancer center really hard…even gave us a tour of the unfinished facility and took us to the top of the unfinished construction site via a lift (15th floor). Once again this is another strong Rad Onc and Rad Bio program with an extremely weak medical oncology and cancer program (if they even have one). A new cancer center will not necessarily fix this problem. Faculty seem to be very stable at this point for the long-term.
 
Since there's only so many things you can say about Anderson and Michigan...

SUNY Downstate
Dr. Rottman is an amazing asset having been on the ground floor of so much of the history of radiation oncology. He seemed to truly care about me as an applicant and tried to “steer” me toward programs that I might be better served by. I think he knows that someone needs to come there to train, but the opportunities there are not what they once were. I feel like the department is still churning out well-educated residents, but there isn’t much research and the residents pretty much run the place on their own. It seems like the residents were the ones to screen all the applications and I’m pretty sure no one opened my application until I was sitting in front of them. There was a very good sense of camaraderie between residents and faculty. The residents were incredibly happy, out almost every day by 5. There’s a lot of didactics, but they seem to be driven by residents doing the prep work and giving the talks. Every morning there is something at the central site and then the residents have to travel to one of five hospitals. Two of them, Downstate and Kings County, are across the street from each other. The latter has a brand new department with EMR and is a better place to work. Downstate itself looks like a place time forgot. There are plenty of patients on protocol and you can do clinical research if you take the initiative. I think they just discovered SEER this year and are trying to write some papers out of that.

Rush
Training seems adequate. Past residents went to Beth Israel NYC, Brigham, Rush, Kaiser, Tulane, and a community hospital. Offers 2 positions, 1 with an attached transitional year (allows you to get radiology and pathology requirements out of the way early and frees up time for research). The chair, Dr. Abrams has a strong view of what he wants from the program and probably won’t stop until he gets it that way. He is trying to turn the program into a much more academic place, but I think that the direction of this program should really be its clinical training. He cleaned house when he first came in, but it seems like things are starting to mellow out. He definitely has an East coast, high-intensity personality which might be an odd fit for this kind of small department. Residents definitely need to be prepared for chart rounds… but shouldn’t you be required to know your patients? There were questions asked of the residents, but nothing aggressive or belittling... Frankly I’ve seen much worse at other institutions. Peds is an obvious weakness here as the residents no longer go through St. Jude’s… though I hear this is happening at many of the programs. The residents just hit their minimum number of cases and it seems likes a sizeable number of those are something like thigh sarcoma in an 18 year old. There seems to be a lot of hand-holding and not a lot of resident autonomy, though apparently this gets better by year. Physics is taught in-house and seems to be a real strength. It sounds like the physics group has some very interesting ideas regarding intensity modulation along beams instead of just at field edges, but I’m not sure they have the resources to pull off complex/expensive research. Anyway, it’s Chicago. Chicago is awesome. Rush is in a large area of medical complexes with lots of new construction, but the surrounding neighborhoods are rather suburban. The residents pretty much live wherever they want and it’s an easy commute. All in all, I’m not sure where this program is heading. It seems like the place is stable, but I’m not sure where this program is going. Everyone was nice enough.

Rochester
This place seems almost too good to be true. They have a brand new interdisciplinary cancer center that just opened in July (the place still has that new carpet smell). The residents are very happy. Everyone here seems to love Rochester, even if they were somewhat reluctant to living here at first. It seems like there’s a very high quality of life. Lots of people buy houses, the schools are good, and if you can stand the winters then the summers are supposed to be wonderful. The program has 6 residents and they’re only taking 1 this year. They seem to have an absurd amount of grant money for a department their size. There was talk of the development of some new assays and growth factors that would be bringing even more money into the department. This place could turn into a massive research machine in the near future if everything goes right (but I’m certainly not going to guess at the future) The chair and program director both seemed like great people that seem very committed to giving the residents what they want/need. The residents echo this sentiment. When I asked them what the program was lacking their answer was something along the lines of: “well we really needed a fridge in the residents’ office, but we got that.” They buy all your books for you, they pay for you to go to conferences if you get an abstract in, even as a PGY-2. They want to be the foundation onto which residents sculpt their own future. Graduates seem to go 50/50ish into academics and private practice and there doesn’t seem to be any bias among the administration. The clinical training seems to be the strongest point, though they are still building their GYN experience. Right now the GYN experience is done offsite in 2, 3-month blocks (something to do with politics and referral patterns in GYN-onc in Rochester). In terms of research there doesn’t seem to be a lot of basic research going on right now, but Dr. Chen just got a big grant so she’s going back into the lab fulltime. In terms of clinical research there are plenty of projects that are ongoing so there’s not just potential, there’s production. One of the most interesting things that I heard was the idea of using their growing database of survivor data to look further at late-effects and the overall health of curative patients who survive many years out. Overall the residents seem like they get great training, have ample autonomy, the faculty are outstanding and a pleasure to work with. If you are open to moving and want to live in a great family town, then I don’t know many places that would be better to train.

NYU
The department is divided between a new outpatient cancer and treatment center and the older department in Tisch hospital. The program is small at 6 residents and they’re only taking one resident this year. They usually have around 120 patients on treatment, which seems very out of proportion to the number of residents. Add in the fact that they have a Holman pathway resident and it’s even more out of balance. They keep petitioning for more spots, but so far no luck. The chair, Dr. Formenti, said flat out that they are incredibly busy and slightly over-extended, but she believes this just improves the clinical training. The residents have good things to say about the program, but they are worked very hard. It seems like there’s a lot of scut and with the number of patients that are on treatment, the days are long. They routinely put in 12 hour days and sometimes much longer. There’s ample opportunity for research and they support Holman pathway if you’re interested. The interview day was kind of strange, the program coordinator and the residents were incredibly friendly and easy-going. The chair showed up for 15 minutes in the morning and then disappeared for the rest of the day. Maybe it’s just me, but this is the only program I’d been to where the chair didn’t interview. Everyone was polite, but the interviews were pretty uncomfortable, everyone just seemed kind of stiff. It was abundantly obvious that the people had not opened my application before I got there. I mean really? You’re a small program and you can’t even be interested in the 15 people you’re interested in having join you? Maybe they weren’t that interested in me. Maybe they had decided who they wanted, but it was just an odd feeling for the day. The only person who I enjoyed speaking with was the head physicist. Very friendly, interesting guy. Anyway… the departments have decent technology. No bells and whistles that you won’t see anywhere else. Seems like they should have more linacs for the amount of patients they treat, but all in all, they manage. I think the only thing they’re lacking is a brachy experience, which they often rotate at Memorial to get sufficient numbers in. They see large numbers of peds and then they also rotate at Memorial. They have a gamma knife, but in talking with the residents they don’t get to be involved much in the SRS planning, it’s more observational. Ultimately, strong clinical training, but they will make you work hard for it. Supportive faculty who insist you be involved in some research, but I’m not sure I really want to spend 4 months working one on one with these attendings.

Cleveland Clinic
I’m not sure how to sync up my interview day impressions with what I want to believe about this program. The quality of the education seems absolutely top tier; their clinical training is rigorous to say the least. The residents all seem to love the place and talk openly about the camaraderie in the department between residents and faculty. Everyone is on a first name basis. My interviews seemed somewhat aggressive at times except with the PD who was just a really nice guy. The attached internship sounds like a real bear. The medicine months sound pretty solid with a real heavy focus on oncology and preparation for the rad onc portion. The surgical months sound hit or miss. Pretty much everyone said the colorectal month was terrible, though it seems like GI is a weaker point of the Clinic in general. The faculty told me that GI is probably their weakest point as a rad onc department as well. The residents seem to have great autonomy coupled with very strong teaching and oversight. The morning teaching sessions were done in a Socratic method, but there was nothing harassing or malignant about it. One attending leads the sessions with the other senior faculty on the side chiming in as necessary. Each session is accompanied by the resident leading the session writing a DETAILED review of the topic from epidemiology through clinical treatment and setup. These are collected over the year and assembled into a manual which is then made available for purchase to alumni. The funds for this get funneled back to the residents to spend as they see fit. The services are 2 month blocks and are organ system based. The attendings are able to function without a resident assigned to them. The residents do not seem overwhelmed. The facilities are comfortable, with windows in the residents’ room. Though you have to go to the dungeon to contour, so I guess it’s a tradeoff. They stress clinical research and the opportunity to do whatever you are interested in, though there is a very strong interest in you doing research of some type while you are there. The chief year is done as a fourth year to free up more time during your PGY5 year for electives, research, etc.

Columbia
The program being on probation may be the best or worst thing that ever happened to this place. It definitely gives them a major inferiority complex that everyone is trying to overcome. Chao coming in led to major changes and the residents are very pleased by how responsive he is to their issues. The PD gave me some line about how impressed he was by me, yada yada yada and asked what he could do to sell me on the program. Apparently he repeated this to several of the other applicants as well, which I just find somewhat excessive. Great physics program, great radbio, everyone was extremely nice. They are making promises of this massive renovation, new technology, new faculty, new everything. They want to grow the program big time, but the question is how much of this is the future and how much of this is pipedream.

Albert Einstein
This is a program that I think is a real hidden gem of the NY programs. Five years ago a big shake-up began there with the bringing in of a new chair (Kalnicki), PD and a couple staff members. This is one of the friendliest programs I have visited. The PD has more energy than anyone I’ve met in the field – coming straight from her training at Memorial she knows how to work hard and keep moving. She wants this to be a resident-driven experience. I think the real strength of this program is the clinical training which is top notch. The way that they achieve this is through high patient volume and large resident autonomy. The residents work hard, they put in some decent hours, but they know their stuff cold and are able to do everything. They do the a majority of the sims and put beams on. They do pretty much everything IMRT at this point which might be a negative for some people. The brachy experience has been growing and there are no major holes in the clinical training. There is only one real basic science oriented lab, but there are a variety of projects coming out the lab and the department is very interested in translational research. The residents they get are top notch -for the last three years they have sent 1 graduating resident to Anderson for a fellowship. Very friendly, very young department with a lot of energy that will do a lot of good work over the next decade.

Jefferson
The home of the RTOG, where every patient is on a protocol if possible, the department is dedicated to clinical trials and phase 1 trials. They are still in the midst of a chair switch over, but their interim chair is likely to stay on. The residents work hard, 11 hour day standard perhaps, but the place seems to be improving in terms of the niceness. The clinical spaces are large, but in need of a makeover. They’ve been losing faculty in this changeover period, but the department will probably grow rapidly again now that the chairmanship is secured under Dr. Dicker. There still seems like a bit of a wild card to the whole process right now though. Will be interesting to see where this place is in a couple years.
 
Impressions said:
Regarding the last post on the Yale cancer program/medical oncology-
besides the new 15 floor physical plant, looks like they are getting serious on talent and program building on the med onc side as well.
http://www.yalecancercenter.org/news/2009stories/lynch_announcement.html
Click to expand...

I think that far too often places advertise facilities and future projects/programs. It is good to have a vision and a clear direction; however, a vision is hardly the reality on the ground. For future applicants, do not get enamored with fancy buildings or grand plans (i.e. buying a proton machine in 2012). This is something that our parents have taught us since we were toddlers, "don't judge a book by its cover." In my opinion, new facilities are just fancy covers.

Yale's Rad Onc Department kicks butt! No question. However, it is clear that Rad Onc Departments benefit when people are also attracted to a cancer center because of renown medical oncology and surgical oncology programs. Building a cancer center will not necessarily attract good people away from other cancer centers like Dana Farber, MDACC, MSK, Hopkins. Now, getting a proton machine is definitely a game changer; its basic economics of supply (low) and demand (high).
 
Impressions said:
After lists in today...let the impressions begin!
Click to expand...

How many programs did you apply to to get so many great interview offers? Also, was it difficult logistically to schedule all these interviews without forfeiting any interview offers because of scheduling conflicts?
 
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