Need help with ROL

[colchicine]

ROL are due soon and I need help sorting out between some programs...I can't decide how to rank these 3 programs: 1) University of Arizona 2) Albert Einstein and 3) SUNY Downstate...in a random order
Also I cant decide how to rank: 1) Henry Ford 2) Baystate 3) Drexler


Location is not really an issue for me as I'm very flexible....help me sort out between these 6 programs just based on: quality of training, depth of clinical experience, program's reputation, residents' hapiness, their placement after residency... and if possible tell me how you would objectively rank them based on these criteria... I would like to get input from as many people as possible…

PLZ help...

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

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[2ndyear]

I don't know much about your first 3. Don't discount location, really. You need to be happy to be a good resident. Don't be afraid to be a little selfish.

Ford: Pros: Really not a bad hospital. National reputation in research funding without a university center at all. They do good (heart, lung, liver, panc, renal) transplants, get good trauma, and do many big cases. Compensation is well above par, and so are perks such as employee Ford discount on cars. I got the feeling that residents worked pretty hard, but I can't really quantify that much. I would say good/great clinical exposure. Peds at Childrens in Detroit (part of DMC/Wayne). I really don't think you'd miss much clinical wise at Ford.
Cons: Location, location, location. Sure, you can live in Ferndale or Royal Oak which are actually kinda cool, but it's still Detroit and the kinda is still just a kinda. If you like Michigan, Ann Arbor is the only place to be in terms of location. Don't really bother with the rest. I ended up not ranking this one based on location only. That's just me.

Baystate: I really liked the hospital. It's a nice community place, not unlike Ford. 600 beds, Level I trauma. I know they do kidney transplants, but who doesn't. I got the feeling it was smaller and less research oriented than Ford, and they did less big cases. Program director seemed cool, residents seemed pretty happy.
Cons: Location, location, location. Northampton area is nice, but 20 something miles away. You're not that far from Hartford, CT. Springfield just didn't strike me as a great place to be. Again, didn't rank it.

As for the others, I don't know

 

[sevoflurane]

For what it's worth... I wasn't particularly impressed by drexel. They had to pull out of the match last year because they lost a hospital that contained most of their neuro cases. PD said that they were going back to "basics" a few to many times, however as far as PD's go I thought that Dr. Harding was one of the coolest PD's out there. Why wasn't I impressed... Location. I thought I'd like Phili more than I did. Also, the hospital seemed a little run down. The program is going through changes and probably will be back on it's feet very shortly. I would prefer to go to a program that is already grounded.

Albert Einstein I thought was a good place to train.
Pros: They have some perks that are quite nice (ie, $15 a day to eat with, parking, housing, good hours). I did like the fact that they get you to do difficult cases early on. I also thought the facilities/OR's were pretty nice. If you like manhattan, you can live there if you want.
Cons: THE BRONX is not my cup of tea, nor is the traffic associated with it. If you are into off-pump CABG's, then probably not the place to go since they only do 1-2 a year...
Overall, I think you will get great training at Albert Einstein. If you don't like the bronx you can easily live in manhattan, which is what I would do. I will rank them.

How would I rank the above...

1) univ. of arizona 2) baystate 3) henry ford 4) albert 5,6) ??

-mostly based on training, location and overall happyness , although I feel that Henry ford is the stronger institution (+ good moonlighting opportunities)

Hope this helps and best of luck in the match!

 

[colchicine]

For what it's worth... I wasn't particularly impressed by drexel. They had to pull out of the match last year because they lost a hospital that contained most of their neuro cases. PD said that they were going back to "basics" a few to many times, however as far as PD's go I thought that Dr. Harding was one of the coolest PD's out there. Why wasn't I impressed... Location. I thought I'd like Phili more than I did. Also, the hospital seemed a little run down. The program is going through changes and probably will be back on it's feet very shortly, but I don't like palying the chances game.

Albert Einstein I thought was a good place to train.
Pros: They have some perks that are quite nice (ie, $15 a day to eat with, parking, housing, good hours). I did like the fact that they get you to do difficult cases early on. I also thought the facilities/OR's were pretty nice. If you like manhattan, you can live there if you want.
Cons: THE BRONX is not my cup of tea, nor is the traffic associated with it. If you are into off-pump CABG's, then probably not the place to go since they only do 1-2 a year...
Overall, I think you will get great training at Albert Einstein. If you don't like the bronx you can easily live in manhattan, which is what I would do. I will rank them.

How would I rank the above...

1) univ. of arizona 2) baystate 3) henry ford 4) albert 5,6) ??

-mostly based on training, location and overall happyness , although I feel that Henry ford is the stronger institution (+ good moonlighting opportunities)

Hope this helps and best of luck in the match!

Thanx for the help to both of u...

I kind of got the same feeling about Einstein...the Bronx off course and also the fact that there is no trauma exposure at all...I don't know how to weigh that in when it comes to ranking ???
As far as Drexler, the faculty seemed great. Dr Hardy and all the other people I interviewed with were all extremely nice...it really seemed like a great environment to do residency...too bad that the program is unstable...it really is a gamble...I'll probably rank them really low myself

As far as Henry Ford, the clinical experience seems great but there were some red flags: some of the residents seemed unhappy and overworked...one resident pulled me apart and told me he felt totally overworked and had no time to read...and more importantly I didn't get very good vibes from the attendings that interviewed me...they were pretty unfriendly and didn't seem too interested in getting to know me...except for Dr Brown, the chairman, who was very nice and really seemed to have his act together...

The residents at Baystate seemed really happy...but do they get enough complex cases with really sick patients ???

As far as SUNY Downstate...it seems that no one really knows about this program...scutwork does not have any comments either...it is a big unknown...I really don't know what to think about it ?????
Can anyone come to the rescue about Downstate or give me more input about some of the programs allready mentionned ???

Thanks and good luck to all of you for the upcoming match...

 

[2ndyear]

As far as Baystate, I'd be willing to bet you would get enough complex cases there. They do sponsor an ICU fellowship in the dept. of anesthesia. It is a tertiary care type center. You won't get the weird transplants, but if you want to do private practice it would probably be more than adequate.