Perhaps "malignant" was strong wording on my part...perhaps OPD could clear up what a truly malignant program is so I don't misapply the term in the future. Irregardless, I stand by my previous statement. Though I personally have not had any kind of interaction with Mayo, recent graduates from our school have not had much positive feedback regarding their personal experience. And as I noted, one of our attendings/clerkship directors who keeps in contact with past graduates, and advises students on the matching process was the one relaying the information.
I am at this program now and it is not malignant at all. Yes, there are some residents/attendings that are mean but the majority are not. My sister is in residency in NY in anesthesiology and she hates it, so I can't really complain when I compare my program to hers.
Rochester is quiet but to me that is a plus: First and second year are busy so I spent the majority of time in the hospital, which is the case I believe anywhere you go. I lived on the East Coast the majority of my life and I didn't want the traffic or the high cost of living. I am almost done and I have to say that life has been difficult but I do not think it is from being in Rochester. I think residency has been tiring, which I feel would be the case at any program. One of my friend's is at a psych program in NY and it is the same deal. I mainly chose Mayo because my goal was to go into a medical based fellowship like pain or sleep and wanted to train at a strong med/surg hospital.
I have a feeling that some people may not be able to handle Mayo but it is definetely do-able. I think too many people focus on the negatives without realizing that the hospital is awesome and it is only for a short amount of time (3-4 years). Whereever you go, you will be busy and tired. So why not go somewhere where you can afford to live comfotably and get a great place on your resume?
The cold is only really bad in Jan/Feb, I thought the rest of the months were manageable. The other months, including the summer is just beautiful. I thought the winter in east coast wasn't great and I thought it snowed more on the east coast.
It maybe difficult if you are living alone but I feel that there are enough people here to make friends. I was in a relationship the majority of time in residency so I always had someone with me.
The "negatives" or drawbacks from my perspective is that it seems most residents in the program are family oriented and I think it would have been nice to have some more single guys/gals to go out with. I also think that some residents were pretty serious. I am more laid back so it would have been nice to have someone kinda like me. I think psych residents are kinda "quirky" so that is something to take into consideration.
Our second year class has two Mayo Medical School graduates and there have been a few through the years. Many of the Mayo Medical graduates get offers at a lot of the great programs in some other places which is why they may not stay for residency. They already did their "time" and have that on their resume. many go to on harvard and the like. i don't think their are a lot of Mayo med school graduates in the other fields as well. When I rotated on Peds, IM and Neuro, many of the residents were from other places.
I think it is a good program. Very medical based if that is what you are looking for. It is also heavy in research. Mayo is also very international (in terms of where is does business and who works there) which is great from my perspective. More so than the other medical centers from my point of view. It is also a treat to have the occasional celebrity/politician hanging around. This is where people like the Dali Lama and the president of Iraq come for their "check up". I thought that is kinda cool, if you care about those things. We occasionally get some in psych even...seem to be businessmen/politicians and their family.
Many of our program graduates do well from my perspective. For example, In terms of the mutildisciplinary fields: When I started, one resident went to Brigham for C/L. Two residents last year stayed for Mayo C/L. One resident stayed for Mayo Sleep. This year one resident is staying for Mayo Sleep. ANother is going to Cleveland Clinic for Sleep and another to Vanderbilt for sleep.
I am applying to pain medicine and only time will tell...
PM me if there are more questions.
