Just wanted to add a review since this thread is getting active. I got a good impression of MCW. It seems like a really solid place and I interviewed at a mix of top, middle, and lower tier places. I definitely think the interview day could have been better. It didn’t feel cohesive to me. It is lacking an introductory session with a program overview. They also do not print materials anymore so I didn’t leave the day with a folder like I did for all the other programs. However, I liked that it was a shorter interview day and still feel like I had plenty of time to ask questions, especially with all the residents around during downtime between interviews. I thought the faculty were very friendly and easy to talk to. I can think of maybe one who was less warm than the others, but certainly not abrasive. [As a side note, every program has at least one faculty member that is more difficult to work with than the others…whether this person is present on the interview day or how he/she acts on said day is a separate issue.]
Things I liked about this program: tends to the autonomous side, good clinical and surgical volume/numbers, free-standing eye institute (sure, it was not the most cosmetically beautiful eye institute that I saw on the trail, but it is still a highly functional free-standing dedicated eye facility), good research opportunities, good wetlab, well-connected faculty, good fellowship match, residents feel ready to do either comprehensive or fellowship, good VA (10 min away) which is essentially resident-run.
Minuses to this program: 3 residents/yr so a lot of primary call. Also call is busy - busy hospital system, with a lot of trauma. No elective or international time. No county. 3rd year is all VA.
Other features: Annual joint phaco course with U Wisconsin and Iowa. Orbital dissection course. Regular didactics on an 18-month schedule. High salary (57k for pgy1) for a city with a below average cost of living (eg, you can afford to live on Lake Michigan and also start paying loans and saving for a house/retirement/etc!). Milwaukee has some cool neighborhoods for young people (Third Ward, East Side, etc) and has an art and music scene, cute coffee shops, breweries, etc.
Re: earlier comments about U Wisconsin: I interviewed at both Wisconsin programs, and I think they are both solid programs that I would have been happy to match at. Advisors familiar with both that I spoke to placed these in the same tier. Both interview days could use some improvement. MCW’s day is mentioned above, and U Wisconsin’s day is just way too long (6:45 am -> 4 pm) with too many behavioral and otherwise odd questions. The main deciding factor for me in determining which to rank higher was location. Milwaukee is ~3x the size of Madison and just seems to have more going on. Again, location is a matter of personal preference (clearly, the cold does not bother me), and I think both are strong programs that can get you where you want to go.
