Rotated there, did the interview, here's what I thought.
What is the internship like? I don't remember
call schedule? Again, sorry I don't recall
didactics? Daily resident run conferences (at 4, yes you get out!) Biweekly or monthly grand rounds by people from all over.
cost of living? I recall it being fairly cheap, lots of residents bought houses, one even had a place 'up north' for the weekends.
atmosphere? Amazing. "MGH-lite" might be one way of putting it. It is a private practice feel, but all of the attendings are subspecialists and work in teams. As I mentioned, most are MGH or similar trained and still have close close ties to those programs in Boston. I'm told fellowships are a snap due to this. Very laid back feel, but the attendings are into teaching as well. Lots of Miller chapters and other books by people that are now at MMC. It's a pretty small program (3-4/class) and seems very close knit.
I was really suprised by the case variety. Lots of hearts, even complex pediatric ones. I thought that those would go to Boston, but they do a great deal there. They also do trauma but it seemed fairly light. ICU is combined med/surg/peds all in one big unit. OB seemed fairly benign, even for MMC being the major referral center for the region.
The UVM presence is very strong at MMC as they do lots of 3rd and 4th year rotations there, so it's got an academic feel as well.
Portland is a pretty cool town. Lots of neat little bars, good restaurants. Surprisingly diverse for Maine. Close by good skiing, hiking, biking, kayaking, etc. 2 hrs to Boston.
Being small and a great place to live, I don't think they have to go very far down their rank list. In other words if you want it, rank it high or not at all. It's definately not for everybody, but for the right person it would be heaven. Probably not for the person bent on huge academics and research. It was definately the best of the community style programs I checked out, so if you're going for this style, check it out.
