It's hot in heerre

[Pippieson]

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Been lurkin' for a while and figure it is time to lighten up this forum. Programs are evaluating applicants and deciding which ones they want, i.e. which ones are hot. For fun, we should turn the tables and evaluate them. So, first up: Clayton Wiley, Director of Pittsburgh's MSTP. Hot or not?

😀

 

[surge]

LMAO!! That's really good, guys

Damn it, my nick is entirely too obvious for this ****!


But either way, my vote goes to Jim Jamieson at Yale - we were cracking up during the orientation.
Actually, Dan Goldberg at WashU was really funny, too. And with him, you just don't see it coming .

Whaddaya think?

 

[Naphtali]

OK, maybe someone could back me up on this one...

Harold Strauss, program director at SUNY Buffalo: I swear this guy reminds me of Ben Stein. I swear it. Can anyone back me up on this?

-Naphtali

 

[dark_scientist]

I'm also going to put a vote in for Jim Jamieson at Yale; but only second to the program director at University of Minnesota - one of the funniest, coolest, and most-laid back investigators I've come across.

 

[marq_bme]

a certain assistant coordinator of the mstp program at vandy is .... HOT 😳 ..err...okay im still under consideration there, lol🙂

 

[marq_bme]

Originally posted by Neuronix
ROFL, great idea! I will go with a big NOT on Clayton Wiley. Everyone says he looks and acts slippery. I'm glad I don't go to school there, he's probably a total a**hole.

On the flip side, Dr. Engman of Northwestern is probably the most outgoing/personable director of the whole lot of them.

Dr. Engman is AWESOME!!! (i also like him bc he accepted me lol). but seriously, unqualifiably..he is hilarious

 

[Pippieson]

It looks like David Engman and Jim Jameson get props among MDPhD directors. Not much love for Clayon Wiley, tho. Anyone want to testify or joan on anyone else? Sal Pizzo (Duke), Jim Salzer (NYU), Olaf Anderson (TriInst), Nancy Andrew (HMS)?

How about the MSTP administrators? Haven't seen the woman at Vanderbilt that someone mentioned, but Christy at WashU is phyne. 😍

 

[surge]

Definitely Christy at WashU 😀

And Brian & Andrew are 'cooler than ****' 😉


Hey, also, Roya Shirazi from Mount Sinai....
😎

 

[surge]

Originally posted by Neuronix
Cept the way they give so many people false hope be sending them books full of people to interview with and then rejecting them (me). Or even better is bringing them there, telling them how great they are, and giving them every *nudge* *clue* *wink* before they reject them (heard this story a couple times).

Anyways, I'm not bitter... noooooo.... 😡

Sal Pizzo - I kind of liked his style
The other guys I didn't apply to cept for HMS, which of course, didn't interview me.

BTW, Adi at Baylor is pretty nice looking. It's interesting that at so many schools the MSTP administrator(s) reminds me of my grandmother (CWRU, Duke, etc...). That's not a bad thing, maybe they'll make me hot chocolate if my research goes sour! 🙂

OK, I'll admit I may be biased when it comes to Brian and Andrew. I just had a really fun experience - and they accepted me 😀 I might be singing a different song had they not 😳

Hmmm... I dunno, Adi at Baylor wasn't my type. But I know others thought she was nice. Oh, well.

 

[Habari]

the admins at these programs are pretty awesome - susan sansone at yale gets top honors for super-friendliness.

olaf at cornell was the most ... diginified hah - nice guy but reserved, whereas sal pizzo@duke was the most chummy.

 

[CaNEM]

Originally posted by Habari
the admins at these programs are pretty awesome - susan sansone at yale gets top honors for super-friendliness.

olaf at cornell was the most ... diginified hah - nice guy but reserved, whereas sal pizzo@duke was the most chummy.

Yeah, Susan rocks. She'll rock even more if she can convince those Yalies to let me in! 😉

 

[surge]

Originally posted by CaNEM
Yeah, Susan rocks. She'll rock even more if she can convince those Yalies to let me in! 😉

Couldn't agree with you more.
Verbatim 😀

 

[gonflable]

Actually, Clayton Wiley is an interesting and personable guy. He and the rest of his staff seem to really look out for all of the MSTP students at Pitt... so I have no idea how the guy came off as a "slippery" "***hole". I just don't see it. I got to know more than 20 of their students pretty well, and I heard only good things.

Sal Pizzo is cool. His Philly-gone-Durham style is certainly different, and he is quite involved with his students as well. Although nothing like the team at Pitt.

One I did not like was Bob Siliciano at JHU. He gave us a quick and meaningless spiel that was actually in stark discord with most of the input I got from the students there. He should consult with the existing students and then represent the place honestly to applicants, even with a positive spin.

 

[Habari]

Beyond just the general feel I and some others got from him... Part if it has to do with his interview style, which is him first being completely nice to you, then going completely blank the whole time, then him going back to normal.

he basically does this when he really wants you to convince him that you're doing mstp for the right reasons. for some poeple who it looks very obvious, he doesn't badger you, and even if it does look obvious, he may play the devils advocate a bit. its a style of interviewing, obvsiouly not everyone is a fan. i thought he was ok, not my favorite, but seemed to have the best interests of his students in mind

As for JHU... I never seem to hear much good about the MSTP admissions there.

in there defense, they run a really great mstp program, its purposefully small, and they produce excellent grads. though i wasn't a fan of silicano (hes very well respected, and a nice guy) - the admins (thommie and bernadine) were really nice. the only complaint seems to be the location, but once one gets over it, the schools itself is pretty awesome. the med school wasn't my cup o tea, nor were the med students i met (personal pref) - but the mstp's were all around great.

 

[Neuronix]

Nevermind. Every MSTP is great and for me to post my real opinions about the way they are run only reflects negatively on myself.

 

[pathdr2b]

Originally posted by gonflable
I have no idea how the guy came off as a "slippery" "***hole". I just don't see it. I got to know more than 20 of their students pretty well, and I heard only good things.

I may be reaching here but MAYBE Neuronix gave her views as a WOMAN MSTP applicant. If this is the case and you're a guy, it's possible that you'd NEVER get it.

Common guys, it may be the 21st century but in some professions especially research, views about the roles of woman have not changed that much.

Not to mention if Neuronix happens to be a very attractive woman MSTP applicant.......

 

[CaNEM]

Originally posted by pathdr2b
I may be reaching here but MAYBE Neuronix gave her views as a WOMAN MSTP applicant. If this is the case and you're a guy, it's possible that you'd NEVER get it.

Common guys, it may be the 21st century but in some professions especially research, views about the roles of woman have not changed that much.

Not to mention if Neuronix happens to be a very attractive woman MSTP applicant.......

As for JHU, I have to agree with Neuronix which is why the school in no longer on my list. Quite frankly, the program at Maryland is more "friendly".

Neuronix is Male

 

[pathdr2b]

Originally posted by CaNEM
Neuronix is Male

Like that make a diffference in this day and age!

Just kidding, I though he was a she for some odd reason so my apologies to Neuronix. However, I still appreciate HIS honest opinions because that is what these forums are for, right?

 

[Neuronix]

No offense taken pathdr2b. So much of MSTP is opinion. I can give you at least 10 different reasons why I didn't like Pitt. The thing is, some other people may think it is the perfect school for them. I bet at least one person on these forums will end up there next year and will become a quality physcian-scientist. Some day, maybe I will need to work with that person. Are they going to know it was me who was trashing THEIR alma mater? JPaikman said it best, politicking starts now.

Nobody I've ever met is dissatisfied with their choice, even if they only got accepted one place, for a number of reasons. I think one reason is that all MSTPs are so highly regulated, that the programs have to keep us happy for a number of reasons. Even beyond that, if you go to a school for eight years, it becomes very difficult to focus on your goals if you hate the school you go to. It's much easier to ignore/downplay any problems with the school. This is a strategy for eliminating cognitive dissonance for any of you who took social psychology.

You see it for every school. For example, Ophtho_MudPhud is a Hopkins graduate. He will admit that the admissions people are bad to the applicants, but argues that the school is still great and that they are really nice to the current students.

So anyways, I will go back to politicking. This is a public forum, and as much as I'd like to play program/NIH director and run/fix my own program, I'm just an applicant--the low man on the totem poll.

 

[Gradient Echo]

Originally posted by gonflable
Actually, Clayton Wiley is an interesting and personable guy. He and the rest of his staff seem to really look out for all of the MSTP students at Pitt... so I have no idea how the guy came off as a "slippery" "***hole". I just don't see it. I got to know more than 20 of their students pretty well, and I heard only good things.

I agree. I didnt notice anything like a slippery persona attached to him, he seemed very nice to me.

One I did not like was Bob Siliciano at JHU. He gave us a quick and meaningless spiel that was actually in stark discord with most of the input I got from the students there. He should consult with the existing students and then represent the place honestly to applicants, even with a positive spin.

What did he tell you that the Hopkins students disagreed with?