Perhaps Mehul_25 would like to post some of his feelings on the program, now that he has been there for 6 months. Whaddaya say? This might be a more valuable review than those of us who only interviewed there.
For my part, I was very pleased with my interview at NRH. I thought Dr. Miller was by far the best, most hands on and most interested program director that I met. Moreover, I felt that the interviewers were very well acquainted with my application, and had very specific questions for me. They were interested in me and my motivations for getting into rehab. (One of the interviewers was a shrink!) In a nutshell, I do not believe a person going into rehab for the "plenty of money and relaxation" aspect would do well there, or even get through the interview.
Everyone I met there was very excited by NRH and about what they did there. The interviewers and staff were really interested in saying why they thought I ought to come there. In short, they tried to sell the place. They were enthusiastic. This was a sharp contrast to other top tier programs I interviewed at, who seemed more interested in expecting me to throw MYSELF at THEM, because of their reputation. In my book, that is a big turn off.
I cannot speak too much about the curriculum at NRH, as I have never rotated there. However, it seemed as strong as anywhere else, and the morning lecture I attended was very well done, well attended, and there was a good discussion afterwards. When questions were asked, the residents were right on the ball with answers. If you are interested in research, you can do a 6 month rotation at NIH, which I am sure looks good on a CV. You also get to rotate through Georgetown, Walter Reed and I believe Bethesda. According to Dr. Miller, they are putting together a program in cancer rehab, which is something most places I interviewed at either simply paid lip service to or ignored entirely. NRH seems like a place interested in growth, and they seem to have a plan in that regard.
All in all, NRH came across as a very collegial, nice place to work. They have several attendings who have national and international reputations, and the residents seemed happy. I cannot imagine you would get a bad education there. While they may not have the raw name recognition that some of the bigger places do (i.e. RIC/Harvard/Baylor/UW/etc), I only ranked *one* of those places higher than NRH, and then only for reasons that were unrelated and had to do with geography and employment of my spouse rather than quality. If there were no other factors to be considered, I would have ranked them #1 by far.
I'd really encourage people to check out NRH if they get an interview. I hate to be overly enthusiastic, but I felt the previous poster sold NRH a little short. (And he may be right, since he rotated there. What do I know?) I thought I'd throw something in here, since I found it very attractive. As I said, the most valuable opinion would likely be that of the above Mehul, as he has been there for a solid 6 months.
