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Not sure if anyone ever responded, but here's my take...
The New Bolton Center and Penn's equine department and caseload was the biggest deciding factor for me to attend Penn, and that was pre-Barbaro 😉
When you get out there, it is in PA horse country and the area is very pretty. The NBC itself is very pretty, too. Theres the front area with reception, radiology, the pharmacy, and outpatient area, an auditorium/class room type thing, post room, some treatment rooms, and probably some other areas that I haven't seen. Behind that there are 4 inpatient barns, one of which is for ruminants and other non-equines. To the right of that is Sx, the NICU (neonatal ICU), ICU, etc. The NICU is very nice, I was just there the other day and it was very up to date and spacious. There's also a colic barn and an isolation barn. Scintigraphy/Imaging, the treadmill, Podiatry all have their own little buildings/areas, too. There is also a house used for various events, a dormitory for students who are out on rotation that don't live in the Kennett Square area, a trailer for residents and interns to hang out, some offices, a library, and probably some other stuff that Im missing.
When you get away from the main hospital, there are several different operations. There is a working dairy farm, a working swine production unit, a poultry unit, an aquaculture farm, and the Hoffman Center. The Hoffman Center is the repro center for horses, cows, alpacas, goats, and pretty much anything that needs to get pregnant. A lot of student labs are held there. There are probably some other goings on away from the main hospital that I don't know about either.
From the schools I've been too, the New Bolton Center is definitely the most spacious and spread out. I feel like a lot of other schools have their LA hospital crammed in onto their campus and dont have the ability that NBC has to spread out and offer so many different programs. By splitting the campus, the SA hospital is able to be in an urban environment and reap that caseload and the LA hospital is able to be out in horse country with the ability to spread out and have the space needed to run effective LA programs. The drive out there is, of course, the price that has to be paid, although I find that it isn't too bad, especially if you plan it so you're not heading out or back at rush hour.
They have all the fun new toys (MRI, DR, treadmill, scintigraphy, recovery pool, etc, etc.), fantastic clinicians, great techs and staff in my experiences, and one of the largest LA caseloads. There are also many opportunities between the equine club, repro club, food animal club, labs for classes, foal sitting program, and shadowing programs to spend time out there for students who are interested, just because you live in Philly doesn't mean you can hang out with the ponies 🙂
Hopefully that helps!
but that's completely selfishly motivated so ignore me..) or decline the invitation? I hope!!
