**Official 2014-2015** - Diagnostic Radiology Program Reviews

Started by RadsonRads
Physicians and veterinarians: Turn your expertise into action! Explore CDC’s Epidemiology Elective Program and Epidemic Intelligence Service today.
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

Browse articles Compare schools My application plan Read Interview Feedback
Practice for interviews Ask an Advisor
R

RadsonRads

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Post your reviews of programs you have interviewed at this season!

Please only post program reviews here and if you want to know anything else about a specific program, just start a new thread.

DUPLICATE REVIEWS ARE WELCOME!! It's helpful to have many opinions about a program, so please post away.

You can see over 100 reviews from the 2008-2010 seasons here (the old thread): http://www.auntminnie.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=168108

You can see several 2007-2008 reviews here (the even older thread): http://www.auntminnie.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=116807&mpage=1


Please copy the following format and paste it into your new post:

Program:

Location:

Travel:

Pre-interview dinner:

The Hospital and Facilities:

The Interview:

Didactics / Conferences / Other Teaching:

Residents/Staff/Attendings:

Resident Satisfaction with Program:

Call Schedule:

Moonlighting:

Fellowships:

Special or unusually good aspects:

Red flags:

Notes:



Post anonymously:
Radiologyreviews2015
reviews1
 
Last edited:
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Creating an anonymous account that everyone shares may help generate reviews.
 
The problem with interview review threads is something someone inadvertently says might be used to identify them.

People might be willing to post after the match/and or after graduation but by that time I'm guessing everones already forgotten about sdn.
 
preDoGuy24 said:
It's still prematch. No one is going to spit out anything (at least negative) publicly until after match day.
Click to expand...
Agreed, even if someone posts under an anonymous username they don't want to hint at who they are from their review/interview experience for the faint chance that someone on the selection committee would identify them from this thread before rank list are due.
 
I guess I'll try to get the ball rolling... this interview was obviously months away and I didn't write any notes down, so I can't remember everything. Anyone can feel free to amend/correct my post!

Program: St Joseph's

Location: Phoenix, AZ

Travel: Drove. There were plenty of inexpensive hotels nearby.

Pre-interview dinner: None

The Hospital and Facilities: Decent - your Neuro rotation is at Barrow, and your Peds rotation is at Phoenix Children's. They're building the Univ of Arizona cancer center (to be completed this year). The MSK rotations (particularly MRI) is done at an outside facility as well. Volume is not an issue at the actual hospital itself, except for the Peds and MSK.

The Interview: Program director, an attending, and interestingly, a first year resident. The first years interview the applicants because they want to maintain a certain culture in their residency and they will ultimately be the ones interacting with us the most in the future. They took us out to a restaurant nearby for lunch and we could order what we want.

Didactics / Conferences / Other Teaching: 730-830 AM conference and noon conference. 1st years get their own dedicated lecture series.

Residents/Staff/Attendings: 3-4 residents per class. Met all the 1st years, and a couple of other residents here and there. The program director was extremely nice and personable. Per the residents, they really appreciate the staff (techs, nurses, etc) and get along with them well.

Resident Satisfaction with Program: Moderate to high. I only say this because I mainly interacted with the 1st years, who will of course be really happy (no call/weekends, more time). However, the one upper-level resident I met seemed a bit tired, and I can imagine having only a few residents per class could stretch you thin.

Call Schedule: I honestly don't remember. Call is 14 hours overnight and short call is 4pm to midnight. In either case, you get the next day off.

Moonlighting: Realllllly good moonlighting. Unfortunately, I can't remember the specifics, but moonlighting, especially babysitting scanners, is ample and available to all residents (even 1st years!).

Fellowships: Decent. If you're interested in Neuro, Barrow is right there, so you can position yourself really well to get a fellowship there.

Special or unusually good aspects: AIRP paid for/free parking. Moonlighting! The residents all mentioned that even though they don't get meal money like their 'rival' residents at Maricopa do, they get ridiculously good moonlighting during all their years to way more than make up for it. In terms of location, Phoenix is a really nice city to live in - cheap cost of living, access to a lot of the amenities of a metropolitan city, great weather (except maybe the summer).

Red flags: Community program, so funding and fellowship placement may be less than ideal. Though I don't remember the call schedule, I'd imagine it could get pretty rough if there are only ~4 residents per class with 1st years not taking any call.

Notes: Nothing else to say.
 
Program: Penn-State Hershey Medical Center

Location: A bit in the boonies of PA. Drove through some farm towns and some corn fields and then all of the sudden there is an enormously huge and beautiful hospital. The location is an issue for most people since very few people like to live in the middle of nowhere, but for others, it is perfect. Not too far from Philly (1hr 45min), NYC (2.5hrs), Baltimore (1.5hrs). It's also about 10-15min from Harrisburg (the state capitol).

Travel: Rented a car and drove a few hours to get there. You stay on one highway that goes East and West across PA. Mostly farmland on the drive in and out.

Pre-interview dinner: Nice restaurant in downtown Hershey. Casual dress. Can order alcohol but the program doesn't pay for it. However, the PD actually pays for everyone's alcohol out of pocket, which gives her a million cool points in my book.

The Hospital and Facilities: The hospital is absolutely awesome and very clean. It's an enormous tertiary-care 551 bed Level-1 trauma center with a children's hospital on-site as well. It pretty much gets every single patient in central PA as it is the only major hospital in the region. It has all the bells and whistles radiologically speaking -- equipment is all new and nice, monitors and reading rooms are all A+.

The Interview: The interviews involved 1 with a rads faculty, 1 with the PD for 30 min each. In between each interview, you spent 30 min with a resident, at their station in the reading room. So basically, it was 2 interviews, with 2 sneaky resident interviews as well. All were laid-back in usual rads fashion.

Didactics / Conferences / Other Teaching: 1 x 1.5hr didactics lecture every day from noon. They have a nice conference room and the lecture I saw was pretty good. Sometimes they do 2 x 45min lectures, or just 1 1.5hr lecture. All of the residents got involved and even the applicants got to participate.

Residents/Staff/Attendings: Most of the residents were in exclusive relationships and/or married. They were all extremely nice and I never met any odd-ball residents. They all seemed down-to-earth and fun to talk to. So I guess the reading-room interviews with the residents seems to be working out just fine. Attendings I met were very nice as well. Ancillary staff is on-point, aka the opposite of any NYC/Chicago program.

Resident Satisfaction with Program: They all seemed largely satisfied with the program and feel they are trained as well as any resident could be trained. They have graduates that go straight into PP w/o fellowships and feel more than prepared to do so. The training and teaching here really is top-notch and I definitely got that vibe. It is completely resident-run and they give you autonomy for sure. A few IR fellows as well, but they don't get in the way.

Call Schedule: I can't remember exactly, but I know they do call alone with no attending in house. Obviously, you can call and wake them up if you need to and they are fine with that.

Moonlighting: Moonlighting for R2 and above at affiliated locations.

Fellowships: Residents get in strong fellowship programs. They also have any and all fellowship options available at Penn-state

Special or unusually good aspects: If you want some of the best training, then go here. This place has everything you could want in a residency in terms of teaching and training.

Red flags: None

Notes: I think the only reason this program isn't competing with the top ones is because of location. People will forgo better training for a better location, and this is what hurts Penn-state the most. If you don't care about location or love small towns, I can't think of a better place to train.



Post anonymously:
Radiologyreviews2015
reviews1
 
First of all, I will add a 2nd to the Penn. State review - awesome program really not talked about due to the location

Now then,
Program: Dartmouth-Hitchcock

Location: Rural. Beautiful scenery. 2 hrs from Boston, 3 hrs from Montreal, 4 hrs from NYC. Not for everyone obviously with cold weather but an abundance of outdoor activities.

Travel: I drove up from Hartford, CT. A lot flew into Boston or Manchester (closest major airline hub - little over an hour)

Pre-interview dinner: Very casual. Wore jeans and a collared shirt. At Murphy's on the Green in downtown Hanover near the college. Very quaint, Ivy league feel and everyone was nice and laidback. Mostly PGY2s at the dinner - not sure if this was by design.

The Hospital and Facilities: BEAUTIFUL. The hospital is set up like a mall and is honestly one of the nicest facilities I've been to. The radiology facilities were great considering it is a smaller program and they had 4 IR suites, 4 MRIs, etc. whereas I remember some bigger programs having less. Some of the reading rooms have been upgraded to the new fancy things, some were "old" meaning a few years.

The Interview: Program director, chief resident, and another attending. Very laid-back. Focused a lot on why Dartmouth and if you could see yourself living in the location. They seemed to screen for people that would actually be interested in coming there. No hard questions. They spent a lot of time selling their program.

Didactics / Conferences / Other Teaching: Noon lecture everyday, lots of high profile guest speakers throughout the year. Seemed like most residents showed up. A few times a week they have other subspecialty didactics in the morning. They also said you were open to going to other morning lectures in other departments and that some took advantage of that.

Residents/Staff/Attendings: All were very friendly. Seemed to be a mix of married and single as far as the residents were concerned. Had a very "small town" and "close-knit" feel. Seemed like you would really get to know your attendings. Not a place that you could "fall through the cracks."

Resident Satisfaction with Program: Extremely high from what I saw. Power of an academic Ivy with a high level of community feel.

Call Schedule: Night float. Seemed to be no problems despite 5 residents/year. Residents were not responsible for "clearing the list."

Moonlighting: Comes and goes. Depends on resident's desire apparently. Not sure.

Fellowships: IR, Neuro, MRI available at Dartmouth and seemed to be filled internally pretty often. Otherwise, the residents seemed to get any fellowship they wanted including VIR at MIR, etc.

Special or unusually good aspects: HUDA! on staff for physics...he's the man and the residents get him all (mostly) to themselves. The hospital is the only level I trauma for adults and peds for most of New England. Basically the only show in town from western VT to Maine and down to Boston.
Also extremely cool was a 3 month track in the 5th year in either business, IT, teaching, or international that gave you a chance to work with Dartmouth college to expand your resume. Also included was an opportunity to obtain a master's degree from the business school while doing residency. It wasn't an MBA but some kind of policy/business/finance degree that Dartmouth had invented I guess.
Pediatric hospital on-site that serves a large area and also a 3 month stint at Boston Children's. Cancer Center on site (1 of 41 in the whole country that is "comprehensive")

Red flags: Location. Coldness.

Notes: Went to a lot of places and really can't see much better than this place. Gets a bad rap due to location but there actually are people out there that don't want to live in NYC/Boston. Definitely a place for a "doer" and not for someone who wants to slide by or coast into an academic lifestyle. Lots of procedures. Community and Academic in one.
 
Since you all asked here were my final/lasting thoughts on programs...

UPMC - great program, perfect size IMHO, but wasn't a huge fan of Pittsburgh (city seemed gritty and almost everyone I passed on the street smoked - google agreed it has one of highest smoking rates in US)
IU - Indy > Pittsburgh IMHO, program had the most well polished graduating R4s on the trail. Very impressed. Cold winters.. burr
Vanderbilt - Awesome city (but very much landlocked), perfect weather IMHO, residents were some of the best on the trail... really was bummed about location so far away from salt water
Emory - Driving, driving, driving... in Atlanta... no thanks
Duke - Awesome in almost every facet. Seemed to attract a very research based applicant
MUSC - Awesome city, residents, and faculty. Facilities could use a facelift in some parts
UF - You'll either love the idea of living in Gainesville or hate it... not telling which way I leaned
MCG - not a huge fan of Augusta with so many 'cooler cities' (Savannah, Charleston) close by.
WF - meh, wasn't overly impressed but definitely not a slouch program either. Solid
UVA - loved it, affluent town which most will love, though some may not
USF - very underrated, couldn't find many negatives when dissecting it post-interview (bias: strong family ties here)
Mayo Jax - could do yoga on those ward floors they were so tranquil. Impressed. Wish it would partner up with Rochester to allow a few rotations at the "mothership"
Mercer - awesome awesome awesome residents

These comments are strictly my own 'last thoughts' and I urge everyone reading this who has yet to apply to interview for yourself and make your own decisions. Comments from others can help but they can not take the place of actually getting your feet wet and visiting a program.
 
Radiologyreviews2015 said:
Since you all asked here were my final/lasting thoughts on programs...

UPMC - great program, perfect size IMHO, but wasn't a huge fan of Pittsburgh (city seemed gritty and almost everyone I passed on the street smoked - google agreed it has one of highest smoking rates in US)
IU - Indy > Pittsburgh IMHO, program had the most well polished graduating R4s on the trail. Very impressed. Cold winters.. burr
Vanderbilt - Awesome city (but very much landlocked), perfect weather IMHO, residents were some of the best on the trail... really was bummed about location so far away from salt water
Emory - Driving, driving, driving... in Atlanta... no thanks
Duke - Awesome in almost every facet. Seemed to attract a very research based applicant
MUSC - Awesome city, residents, and faculty. Facilities could use a facelift in some parts
UF - You'll either love the idea of living in Gainesville or hate it... not telling which way I leaned
MCG - not a huge fan of Augusta with so many 'cooler cities' (Savannah, Charleston) close by.
WF - meh, wasn't overly impressed but definitely not a slouch program either. Solid
UVA - loved it, affluent town which most will love, though some may not
USF - very underrated, couldn't find many negatives when dissecting it post-interview (bias: strong family ties here)
Mayo Jax - could do yoga on those ward floors they were so tranquil. Impressed. Wish it would partner up with Rochester to allow a few rotations at the "mothership"
Mercer - awesome awesome awesome residents

These comments are strictly my own 'last thoughts' and I urge everyone reading this who has yet to apply to interview for yourself and make your own decisions. Comments from others can help but they can not take the place of actually getting your feet wet and visiting a program.
Click to expand...

Thanks for helping us out with the first hand info, its really kind of you to share.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
what about an account where you had to PM someone for the information? If you make the log-in publicly available, there's the possible for a) bogus reviews b) people trying to prop programs up
 
Duke: great all-around place. liked the walking interviews, the PD was really cool. kind of liked the guaranteed fellowship. seemed like the program had no weaknesses.
Mallinckrodt: great program. liked the residents they seems pretty chill, not arrogant. St. Louis honestly isn't that bad, its not crazy expensive to live there which is good.
U of Florida: liked most of the residents. seems like they work hard. gainesville can be a downside if you don't like college towns.
MGH: About what I expected...has anything you want in a program. I didn't love boston though.
Brigham: comparable to MGH. rank it highly.
Wake: nicest PD in the business. seems like they really emphasize clinical training. cool residents who know their stuff. winston-salem can be a downside for some ppl.
MUSC: I liked charleston. really strong program. didn't have 100% pass rate on core which was odd.
VCU: didn't expect to like this program so much. really good IR, seems like residents do a lot. didn't hate richmond.
Emory: PD gave off a weird vibe, but he's stepping down i think. cool residents. really not a fan of the multi-hospital thing. they just cut their recruiting class from 16 to 14...probly b/c they had to soap for 3 spots last year. but otherwise great program.
Knoxville: I really liked the place. smaller, so call seems like it could suck. but still it didn't really have a lot of weaknesses.
Mayo Jax: Cool PD, ridic hospital. mayo resources. seems like they have low volume, but lots of zebra-type cases. no trauma which sucks. categorical which can be good.
UVA: solid program. good IR.
Georgetown: I really liked the PD here, she was awesome. Smaller program, and living in/around DC can be a good thing or bad thing depending on your style.
SLU: was pleasantly surprised. This program is really rebounding from some problems they've had in recent years. nice people. laid-back residents.
Mercer: meh. small program. i think it's a private group of radiologists employed by the hospital? didn't think the program was that great. looks like they basically only take mercer kids.
Medical College of Georgia: i think i was one of the only several US MD grads on my interview. lots of IMG and DO's. the PD is from Caribbean, seems like he interviews a lot of Caribbean kids.
 
I'll share my thoughts on places I went. I was one of those people who "nerded out" with a ton of weighted criteria and came up with a numerical score (1-10) for each program. Two disclaimers though: 1. These rankings are based on a mixture of both the program and MY PERSONAL thoughts/experiences/wants such as geography, etc. and 2. I actually did not rank my top 8 in the way they came out in the numerical system

1. UPMC (7.88) - huge program with never-ending volume. If you wanted to do it or see it, then this would be the place. I can't imagine any program offering more in regards to the sheer amount of what they see. Moderatelly academic. No section is weak. No section is super strong except maybe mammo. I personally didn't like going to multiple hospitals but others seemed to like it

2. Dartmouth (7.79) - small, academic with also a community feel. I really like a rural setting so this place was high for me. They seemed to have all the resources they could want with the university behind them. Lots of people outside of radiology are impressed with an Ivy name. They all got good fellowships. Huda is on staff there. They have a unique business/Master's degree program.

3. CCF (7.63) - hospital is ENORMOUS and radiology lives in the basement. I felt like I would be overwhelmed and always an "employee" rather than really feeling like a close-knit member of the team. On the plus side, they see and do everything given the world-class name and facility. Cleveland wasn't so bad either especially since most lived in the suburbs.

4. Penn State (7.60) - really underrated program. Has everything you could want honestly. Again, I like rural so this was higher on my list.

5. UF-Gainesville (7.49) - Probably the best program I went to in the SE but I don't like the summer heat/humidity. They seemed to have a lot of residents and fellows for a city of 150,000 and addressed "volume" a lot. Heard rumors they spent a lot of time reading and a more academic approach to doing cases. Not sure about that though. Really tight-knit group of residents which I liked a lot. They have the "hot seat" conference which was a plus.

6. Beaumont (7.41) - Technically a university program now but I really saw why it was regarded as one of the best community programs beforehand. They have everything to offer and at top 20 hospital as well. Great place to train. Name is well known in radiology but probably not outside of that. Was moved down a bit due to being in Michigan.

7. USF (7.22) - Liked this place way more than I thought I would. The only real downside is the commute between hospitals which can be bad given Florida traffic I guess? They made comments like "the VA lets us leave at 3 so we don't get stuck in traffic." Lectures seemed decent. Teaching and case volume seemed excellent. Lots of well-trained faculty.

8. Yale (7.12) - Honestly, I just didn't fit in here. Not really anything bad to say. Just has a certain academic feel that wasn't me.


And all the rest I will leave off. Like I said, my top 8 in my rank list was different then how these panned out and honestly it's splitting hairs on these programs. Go with your gut and where you want to live/where you were the best fit. At the end, I chose the place I felt most "at home" and where I thought I'd have the best chance to personally succeed.
 
jsustakethewheel said:
Yale is a weird program. I don't understand why they have so many IMG's.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I thought maybe it was because the program director is an IMG. At least I think he is given the MBBS degree. You could see it as maybe perhaps they just want the "best" candidates no matter where they come from...but then they don't have any DOs...so I don't know.
 
Cubsfan10 said:
Agreed. I thought maybe it was because the program director is an IMG. At least I think he is given the MBBS degree. You could see it as maybe perhaps they just want the "best" candidates no matter where they come from...but then they don't have any DOs...so I don't know.
Click to expand...

Their IMG's are St George...
 
PL198 said:
is that a bad caribbean school or what, don't understand the reference
Click to expand...

I can't speak for him/her but I think he/she meant that their residents are from the Carib instead of IMGs from India/Pakistan/etc. There are some extremely smart, high board people from other countries and the program director at Yale was from Pakistan I believe with the MBBS. Sometimes programs want "the best" regardless of where they come from but who knows what they really think. I can say that Yale does give a list of residents when you attend an interview and there were multiple from St. George and many from other countries as well. It certainly felt like a world assortment of applicants and maybe they truly are going for just the best of all the best there is...just found it odd they would exclude DOs in that case.
 
Maybe they're looking for people who work hard and fit in with the program? Does it really matter?

Anyway, that being said. I"d be interested to hear more thoughts on the Jersey programs. I don't think that I've seen a lot about those yet.
 
For what it's worth... where I am doing my surgical prelim year, the two guys in the program who have gotten 95%+ on every ABSITE exam are carib IMG guys.
 
I think it's time to get back to the program reviews. I know we can do better than this! Seems like some Dartmouth and Penn State love this year though outside of the normal high profile places which everyone always gushes over.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
coat0023 said:
Maybe they're looking for people who work hard and fit in with the program? Does it really matter?

Anyway, that being said. I"d be interested to hear more thoughts on the Jersey programs. I don't think that I've seen a lot about those yet.
Click to expand...

Some thoughts on NJ programs I interviewed at:

Morristown: Moderate sized community hospital. Residency is run by 2 private practice groups. So time is split between 2 hospitals each run by a different private practice group. Almost all DO/Carib grads. 1-2 residents have left the program each year for past few years, but their spots have been filled from other residents transferring in. There is a mammo fellowship that usually fills internally. 1st year core pass rate in 2013 was 2/5. 2nd year core pass rate in 2014 was 5/5. Not sure of what that means for future.

Barnabus: Moderate sized community hospital. Residency run by private practice group. Seemed similar to Morristown, with high number of DO/Carib grads. Has a mammo fellowship internally. Area seemed nice and within commutable distance from NYC.

Monmouth: Smaller community hospital. Its on the beach in a nice area and commutable distance from NYC, which may be a positive for some. Facilities seemed slightly dated. Residents we met were nice and seemed happy. No fellowships at Monmouth. Most residents seemed to do fellowships at big places in the NE region.
 
Program: Rutgers-RWJ

Location: New Brunswick, NJ -- This is the Robert Wood Johnson Hospital located right on the Rutgers undergrad campus. The area is a pretty cool college town. Nice area, but not sure how much there is to do around these parts. A good mix of college bars and restaurants though.

Travel: Took NJ-transit train from NY Penn Station to the New Brunswick station. total travel time from NYC --> New Brunswick was about 50min. The train station is a short 5 min walk to the hospital. Extremely convenient

Pre-interview dinner: No dinner

The Hospital and Facilities: The hospital is VERY nice. Level-1 trauma center. New and clean everything. Fireplace in the main lobby is a nice touch. The main reading room was cool; it had a cut-out/cubby for everyone to sit with their own desk/reading area. It seemed nice and private and a good place to get work done. Nice monitors and chairs and all that stuff. You spend time at RWJ and another hospital right around the corner (SPU). I believe there is a peds hospital where you do that rotation which is also close by.

The Interview: PD, and 2 other faculty members. Each interview is around 10-15min. Very casual. PD asked slightly more formal questions such as; 'What makes you a leader?' 'How do you learn best?' etc. Not bad though. I think we were done about 12:30pm or so. Quick day, which is awesome...especially towards the end of your interview season when you are ready to be done.

Didactics / Conferences / Other Teaching: I can't remember too much about the conferences but I know they have lectures everyday. Mostly attending run.

Residents/Staff/Attendings: They have a large fellowship-trained faculty that is primarily private practice based. There are a few teleradiologists as well that usually help read the list when you are on-call. You can reach them at anytime during your call shift via online instant messaging chat. The residents seemed to praise this a lot because they would read cases and then get immediate feedback from the attending if they missed anything, or had questions about anything. It also speeds up everything so you don't have to go a whole night of call and then read out for a few hours with an attending in the morning (like you do at some places).

Resident Satisfaction with Program: I spoke with a lot of residents and they all seemed very happy with the program. I believe they take 4-5 residents a year, so it is on the small side. They say that they work pretty hard and are more than confident in their training.

Call Schedule: Not really sure. Nothing out of the ordinary compared to every other program

Moonlighting: They have some contrast reaction baby-sitting that you can get compensated well for.

Fellowships: They all land great fellowships at top programs: UCSF, Hopkins, etc

Special or unusually good aspects: They have a unique mentor type thing that they do in order for you to get your required 'scholarly activity.' It feels to me that they are trying to get more involved in research and have quite a few publications per resident. They have a big name in IR that does a ton of IR related research as well. I wish I could be more in-depth on this stuff, but my interview was so long ago that it's hard for me to remember.

Red flags: None

Notes: Overall I think it is a great program and wouldn't mind being a resident here. I'm not too fond of the state of NJ, but the Rutgers area isn't too bad. It's very close to NYC, so that's also a plus. Some residents actually lived in Manhattan and take the train over everyday.



Post anonymously:
Radiologyreviews2015
reviews1
 
Last edited:
Program: Emory

Location: Atlanta, GA. Emory University is located in Atlanta and the university hospital is smack-dab in the center of the campus. This is good and bad. Good, because you are right in the center of everything (undergrad campus, cancer center, peds hospital, etc) - Bad, because as you may imagine- parking sucks on a college campus. The residents usually park in a deck that is about a 10-15min walk to the hospital. A few residents said that they hated the long walk, especially in rain. It's not too bad in my opinion.

Travel: Flew in from out of town. Rented a car and stayed at a hotel in midtown. Hotel and hospital are about 30min from the airport. My hotel was about 5min drive to the hospital. The campus is a little confusing to navigate, so give yourself some extra time in the morning before the interview

Pre-interview dinner: Was at a local trendy restaurant close-by. I couldn't go due to traveling, but people mentioned that they enjoyed the dinner.

The Hospital and Facilities: Ok, so here is where I think Emory has the most issues. The problem is that the residents rotate at many different hospitals. Anyone who has been to Atlanta knows that traffic is horrible and getting around to different hospitals ~20min away can be tough at certain times of the day. However, the residents didn't seem to care since you don't ever really have to bounce around to different hospitals in the same day. Here are the hospitals you go to:
1. Emory University Hospital - about half of your time is spent here in residency. It is a gorgeous hospital with all the bells and whistles. You really can't deny the awesomeness of this place
2. Grady Memorial Hospital - this is located in downtown Atlanta in a not-so-good part of town. Actually, it's one of the worst parts of Atlanta, but this is where all the crazy trauma is. 935-bed Level-1 trauma center, knife & gun clubs, MVAs, insane pathologies, etc etc. It's a really amazing training environment in terms of what you see, however the hospital is pretty crappy. It's your typical inner city, under-funded hospital with lazy ancillary staff. About 35% of residency is spent here. There is an optional tour at this hospital at the end of your interview.
3. Emory Midtown Hospital - never been here but another 500-bed hospital in midtown Atlanta
4. CHOA - peds hospital/rotation
5. Winship Cancer institute

The Interview: 4 interviews about 10 min each. 1 with PD, 2 with faculty, 1 with Chief resident. All were very laid-back. PD seems really cool and genuine. Residents seem to really like him. He was recruited from Harvard many years ago.

Didactics / Conferences / Other Teaching: noon conference everyday. Usually conference is held at the university hospital campus and everyone else video-conferences in at the alternate sites. This was honestly the best didactic session I've ever seen. Everyone was engaged and having a good time. It was actually fun to be a part of.

Residents/Staff/Attendings: Not much interaction with the residents except for conference, but not much time to talk. They seemed pretty cool. Some were nerdier than others, but they seemed to get along. The program is pretty big (16 people per class, except for this year they are taking 14) so it's not as cohesive as other programs. Attendings are all very well trained and are really good at teaching you.

Resident Satisfaction with Program: They seemed to be really satisfied from what I could tell. However, there are a ton of fellows at Emory - especially in IR. One resident stated that this isn't the place for you if you want to do IR and get your hands dirty throughout residency. Apparently the fellows take most of the cases and you don't really get the chance to get your IR on unless you are a R3/R4 and are interested in IR. One resident said that they wish they knew this before ranking. This was a bit of turn-off for me.

Call Schedule: Very confusing, because of all the locations. Call is pretty tough when you are on because there is no attending in-house. The residents said it's extremely tough, but where you learn how to make decisions yourself, and how you grow as a radiologist. Since class is so big, call really isn't that bad.

Moonlighting: A few options of contrast reaction baby-sitting

Fellowships: All residents get very good fellowships. They take a lot of in-house fellows, but the ones who want to go elsewhere get top matches

Special or unusually good aspects:

Red flags: If you want to do a lot of IR in residency, I don't think this is the place for you.

Notes: Otherwise, it's a great program and I personally know current attendings who went there and speak very highly of it.



Post anonymously:
Radiologyreviews2015
reviews1
 
Figured with the comments above that I would post this one...

Program: Yale-New Haven

Location: New Haven, CT. Suburban/Urban. Not the nicest city but near the Yale undergraduate campus is pretty nice. Close to NYC.

Travel: Flew into Hartford, CT. Super easy commute. Some did the NYC thing, but that wasn't for me.

Pre-interview dinner: VERY nice at a fancy hotel downtown. It was about a 30 minute cocktail scene followed by a fancy buffet-style dinner. Probably the nicest dinner I had but also the most "upscale" and formal.

The Hospital and Facilities: Big hospital - 1000 beds I think. The hospital has its new and its dates areas. I would rate it as a medium as far as overall. Radiology facilities were a mix of old and new, they have all the technological bells and whistles though. The other hospital across town they go to apparently is much nicer since it used to be the private hospitals and it's around 500 beds.

The Interview: 3 faculty members and then a group Q and A with the program director which was a bit awkward. The interviewers were supposedly chosen based on feedback you gave them about what specialties you were interested in, however mine didn't match up. Maybe this means I was "down the list" on their applicants 😛 One of the interviewers in particular I think had some form of Asperger's and asked really odd questions like "What hotel did you stay at, how much, and why did you choose that one?" "Who did you talk to at dinner last night, what were there names, what were your conversations?"

Didactics / Conferences / Other Teaching: Big conference room for large lectures and another for smaller ones I guess. Seemed to be high quality, attending-driven. Moderate level of resident attendance.

Residents/Staff/Attendings: Seemed like a very heterogeneous group. Most didn't seem to be friends or hang out, but rather had an academic, peer-like relationship. Everything seemed to be very formal.

Resident Satisfaction with Program: They all loved it.

Call Schedule: Not bad. Lots of residents.

Moonlighting: I forgot but I know they had good moonlighting.

Fellowships: Almost everyone stays at Yale for fellowship. Lots of fellows.

Special or unusually good aspects: High resident salary...like 75k/year. Very awesome library. Ivy league name probably 2nd famous to Harvard. A lot of very smart people around and seemed to be a conglomeration of people from all different backgrounds.

Red flags: Tons of fellows. Seemed like a great place to do fellowship...maybe not for residency, especially for something like IR. Lots of Carib and FMG residents as mentioned above in previous posts. I don't know why this is. No DO residents but there were some interviewing.

Notes: Agree with posts above. Awkward feel overall. Can't really put my finger on it. I think the name is extremely powerful but for some reason the radiology program has never been regarded as a "top" place.
 
Last edited:
In reply to that Emory Review, I went into Emory really wanting to love it (I was hoping it'd land in my top 3 at least). Atlanta is a really awesome city to live in - lots of things to do for everyone, low cost of living. Unfortunately, my interview day at Emory was extremely underwhelming - none of the residents I met were remotely enthusiastic about the program, and most seemed pretty overworked/tired. Having to cover multiple hospitals makes the workload heavier and commuting is a pain in the rough Atlanta traffic. Parking is a pain at the hospital, per the residents, as well. In general just didn't get the sense that the program/PD (who is now changing) really look out for their residents.

That being said, the heavy workload and varied pathology almost ensure you will get a great clinical education, and you will almost have a fellowship guaranteed at Emory if you wish. The large class size is a plus/minus, depending on how you look at it (big enough to easily switch call and find some friends vs. too big to know everyone well, not as close of a class).
 
Program: Brown University

Location: Providence, RI

Travel: Drove. Plenty of affordable hotels nearby. I would recommend The Dean for anyone traveling here.

Pre-interview dinner: Went to a bar and grill-type place in downtown Providence. Everything about it was very generous food-wise, and the conversations with current residents were down-to-earth and comfortable. This may be just me, but with the city's reputation for arts and food, I was a bit surprised by the choice of venue (could've been somewhere very impressive), but that's not an actual criticism.

The Hospital and Facilities: Mixed. The reading rooms are nice. Some of the hospital facilities are quite out-dated, while other parts are brand new. Overall, I think it would be a fine environment to train in.

The Interview: Fairly standard procedure. Met with three attendings, two of whom were the PD and assistant PD. Very comfortable atmosphere, didn't feel on the spot, no awkward or inappropriate questions. Some people were interviewed by a chief resident, but I didn't experience this.

Didactics / Conferences / Other Teaching: Daily noontime lecture, plus various other conferences scattered throughout the month. The speaker on my particular day was very engaging and clearly enjoyed teaching. Resident attendance seemed high.

Residents/Staff/Attendings: All very approachable. I got the impression that this was very much a work-hard-play-hard sort of place, where there is a certain formality (residents wear business professional attire, no scrubs) that exists alongside a basic down-to-earth atmosphere. Said differently, people seemed to take their jobs seriously and genuinely work hard while not being overly serious about it.

Resident Satisfaction with Program: Everyone seemed very pleased with their training. The volume is high (busiest ED in New England, among the busiest in the nation), the cases are varied, and the procedural training is very strong even outside of the formal IR division.

Call Schedule: I don't remember the specifics, but I do recall that Brown is somewhat unique in requiring residents to start taking evening buddy call in the fall of their first year. Don't really know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Night float is solo after midnight, I believe.

Moonlighting: Huge perk here, great scanner babysitting opportunities. Heard residents in previous years substantially supplemented their base incomes through moonlighting.

Fellowships: Program leadership provides a list of recent fellowship matches for the past few years. With few exceptions, everyone goes to "brand name" places or stays internal for IR. I've actually heard off-the-record from some of my advisers in Boston that Brown residents have historically made some of the best fellows given their strong clinical skills.

Special or unusually good aspects:Moonlighting.

Red flags: Providence isn't for everyone for sure. It is a medium/small city that is currently in the early stages of a revitalization. That being said, it'll probably be a more attractive city for 20-somethings in 10 years. I've heard it is great for families.

Notes: As has been mentioned elsewhere on this forum, I'm not sure why Brown isn't talked about more. It certainly isn't MGH, but there is a lot of academic stuff going on in the department. I honestly feel like it is partly bad marketing on the program's behalf, because they presented a lot of stuff during the interview day that I don't think people really appreciate (and that isn't available on their website in any form) such as the magnitude of their presence in academia e.g. editorial positions, publication records, ongoing trials, etc.
 

I know this program gets a lot of bad press....

Program: Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Location: Cleveland, OH

Travel: Flew into Akron/Canton on Southwest because it was cheaper. Only like 30 minute drive into the city.

Pre-interview dinner: Honestly, I can't remember where the dinner was because I wasn't able to make it. I think I remember people saying it was a nice dinner.

The Hospital and Facilities: World-class. Cleveland Clinic is the no. 4 hospital in the country for a reason. I think it's probably the biggest/nicest hospital I've ever been in. There's a mall-like area. Robots that carry trash and supplies around. Just a lot of excess awesomeness. The radiology department just got a remodel as well. I think they have something like 13 IR suites and 5 bi-plane rooms. More than 10 MRI, etc. Basically, anything you could ever want.

The Interview: Met with three attendings, two of whom were the PD and assistant PD. Very comfortable atmosphere. The PD is a bit deadpan in some ways but seemed to just be his personality. Didn't interpret it in a bad way. The other's were attendings who had been in Cleveland for 20+ years and had nothing but good things to say. A lot of it revolved around talking about the Clinic rather than asking me too many questions.

Didactics / Conferences / Other Teaching: Two 45 minute lectures in the morning from 7:30-9. Noon hour is free for lunch for everyone. Most residents seemed to either take the whole hour or take like 30 minutes and then spend some extra time in the reading room/IR suite/etc.

Residents/Staff/Attendings: All seemed very happy. I didn't see any bad attitudes or low moral. There was also a mix of senior and junior residents.

Resident Satisfaction with Program: Everyone spoke very highly. It's a place where you will see anything and everything. The residents all seemed to love being at the Cleveland Clinic. Seemed to be all positives, especially with a "small" class size compared to the size of the institution. I think they quoted 2.2 million studies total.

Call Schedule: I know there's a night float but I can't remember much more than that. Didn't seem to be any issues.

Moonlighting: None that I am aware of. I never paid much attention to moonlighting though. Not important to me.

Fellowships: Most stay at Cleveland Clinic, but that seems to be due to more of love of the program/strong fellowships rather than they couldn't go elsewhere. There were others that went to Washington, Mallinkrodt, etc.

Special or unusually good aspects: Volume and Pathology of the institution. Great name that everyone knows.

Red flags: I didn't see any but there has always been hearsay about attendings being more focused on cranking out lists than teaching. The residents said this wasn't a problem. The hospital is very large and not easy to navigate and also very busy so that's not for everyone I guess.

Notes: I think CCF has gotten an unfair rap, especially after Dr. TLM left. The new PD seems to be settling in. I found it odd that of the top 4 hospitals in the country (MGH, Mayo, Hopkins, CCF), that CCF is the only one not rated highly in multiple different residencies. Not sure why this is. They do have a lot of DOs/FMGs in some of their residencies (a few in radiology also), but it seems to be that they would rather have rockstar DOs than mediocre MDs.
This was one of the best places I interviewed at and honestly after all the bashing on AM, I thought there would be problems but all I could see were positives. The opportunities are endless.
 
I mean, I love my residency alma mater (which was not CCF), but I know there are some flaws in it.
A review that sounds like it was written by the PD is probably not too helpful.
 
Last edited:
Gadofosveset said:
I mean, I love my residency alma mater (which was not CCF), but I know there are some flaws in it.
A review that sounds like it was written by the PD is probably not too helpful.
Click to expand...

These reviews are also based on interviews and hearsay. I'm sure that most flaws are unknown until you actually are in a residency. I know this was true in my case. Everyone looks shiny and awesome on interview day 😛
 
What the hell, match is over...

Program: Mt. Sinai Beth Israel

Location: NYC. Location, location, location is what sets this place on people's radar, just east of Union Square, East Village-ish area. Either it's awesome or you couldn't stand it for 2 seconds.

Travel: Flew into JFK. Took the train.

Pre-interview dinner: None

The Hospital and Facilities: Big hospital - 1000+ beds. Main hospital from 21st on down in NYC. It's a decent hospital by NYC standards. Nothing that stood out either good or bad.

The Interview: 2 faculty members and 2 Chief Resident interviews. Standard interview questions. Resident interviews more laid back.

Didactics / Conferences / Other Teaching: Big conference room/auditorium, share Megaconference with SLR.

Residents/Staff/Attendings: Everyone seemed nice and to get along well. Residents stated collegiality was good in Rads department compared to other departments with typical NYC nursing and staff issues.

Resident Satisfaction with Program: Resident vibe was a huge factor here. They all seemed to be very happy to be at Beth Israel, living and working in that part of the city. Made me want to live there too.

Call Schedule: Not bad IIRC.

Moonlighting: Don't remember.

Fellowships: Not many fellowships in-house, mainly IR. Good matches to NYC fellowships and top programs.

Special or unusually good aspects: Very high resident salary. Essentially-guaranteed hospital subsidized housing nearby (basically halves the price of comps at Stuy-town).

Red flags: Besides the fact that the food was good, and the residents attitudes were really high on the program, the faculty and staff seemed overall disinterested in the interview day process. I say this being one that interviewed in the first part of the season (don't want to give myself away). I didn't expect the red carpet, but the disinterest was palpable compared to every other interview I attended. It made me rank them lower overall, though I loved the residents and location. It left me with an awkward feeling for a program I wanted to love.

Notes: see above.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

icecreamballs
Open to Switch Diagnostic Radiology PGY2 (Starting 2026) Position- Top 20 Cali program
Replies
0
Views
3K
icecreamballs
icecreamballs
W
A Note From A Non Diagnostic Colleague
Replies
48
Views
7K
maxxor
M
C
Open to Diagnostic Radiology Residency swap - Currently PGY2 near LA seeking Dallas area
Replies
0
Views
2K
Calvarium
C
WildWing
FAQ - Radiology
Replies
2
Views
5K
guytakingboards
G
B
Any info on Houston Methodist Diagnostic Radiology Residency?
Replies
0
Views
3K
bshaklaaa
B