Please help rank my top 3 (CCF, Duke, Mayo AZ)

[sofabed]

Hi everyone,

I'm absolutely stumped with my top 3 ranks (Cleveland Clinic, Duke, Mayo Clinic Arizona) and can't decide... aspects which I value most are:

• outpatient exposure
• work-life balance
• name recognition

I believe that in terms of # of outpatient weeks: MayoAZ > CCF > Duke (though all 3 provide above average outpatient exposure)

I'm unsure of how they compare in terms of work-life balance and name recognition. I envision myself doing more clinical work rather than research, so perhaps name recognition wouldn't matter as much?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

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[Thama]

Name recognition is pretty similar at all 3, IMO. If you were to split hairs it's CCF > Duke > chipotle Mayo, but all are roughly in the same tier of program reputation.

Work-life depends on a lot of things. If you like outpatient, more outpatient weeks is better for this. Being in a better location also helps this, and for my money NC and AZ are >>>>>>> Cleveland in every conceivable way as places to live. It's also easiest to end up practicing in the same area where you train, so you should really consider whether you prefer RDU, greater Phoenix, or the Rust belt as your future practice location.

 

[sofabed]

Name recognition is pretty similar at all 3, IMO. If you were to split hairs it's CCF > Duke > chipotle Mayo, but all are roughly in the same tier of program reputation.

Work-life depends on a lot of things. If you like outpatient, more outpatient weeks is better for this. Being in a better location also helps this, and for my money NC and AZ are >>>>>>> Cleveland in every conceivable way as places to live. It's also easiest to end up practicing in the same area where you train, so you should really consider whether you prefer RDU, greater Phoenix, or the Rust belt as your future practice location.

Very insightful, thanks a ton!

 

[curiousneuro]

I interviewed at Mayo AZ and CCF and loved them both, ended up ranking them 1 and 2 on my rank list when I applied to residency. Feel free to PM me if you want any more details. 😊

 

[sofabed]

I interviewed at Mayo AZ and CCF and loved them both, ended up ranking them 1 and 2 on my rank list when I applied to residency. Feel free to PM me if you want any more details. 😊

PM sent, thank you so much!

 

[xenotype]

My impression of Mayo AZ was that the stroke exposure was of significantly lower acuity and volume than other places (granted this is quite a few years ago). Always a trade off to be made with more outpatient exposure as well. I wouldn't be comfortable with acute stroke without fellowship had I not gone to a program that had very high volume, a high tPA/thrombectomy treatment rate, and in house NIR/neurosurgery but my call days in residency admittedly were pretty terrible and I had to get used to triaging multiple simultaneous stroke alerts alone on a nightly basis. Depending on what one's goals are more outpatient exposure would certainly be useful if you already know you prefer this up front as many, many programs are too heavily weighted towards inpatient for the reality that most of neurology is outpatient. AZ and NC are great places to live. Cleveland not so much and that alone would drive me away from CCF. An additional downside to both Duke and CCF- certain patient populations/subspecialties you won't get as much exposure to because of strong competition 10 minutes away (Case and UNC) diverting them away. Overall I would try to decide what type of neurology you see yourself going towards (outpatient or inpatient), then just decide where you'd rather be living (remember Phoenix is 76 F and sunny in January...).

 

[sofabed]

My impression of Mayo AZ was that the stroke exposure was of significantly lower acuity and volume than other places (granted this is quite a few years ago). Always a trade off to be made with more outpatient exposure as well. I wouldn't be comfortable with acute stroke without fellowship had I not gone to a program that had very high volume, a high tPA/thrombectomy treatment rate, and in house NIR/neurosurgery but my call days in residency admittedly were pretty terrible and I had to get used to triaging multiple simultaneous stroke alerts alone on a nightly basis. Depending on what one's goals are more outpatient exposure would certainly be useful if you already know you prefer this up front as many, many programs are too heavily weighted towards inpatient for the reality that most of neurology is outpatient. AZ and NC are great places to live. Cleveland not so much and that alone would drive me away from CCF. An additional downside to both Duke and CCF- certain patient populations/subspecialties you won't get as much exposure to because of strong competition 10 minutes away (Case and UNC) diverting them away. Overall I would try to decide what type of neurology you see yourself going towards (outpatient or inpatient), then just decide where you'd rather be living (remember Phoenix is 76 F and sunny in January...).

Thank you, really helpful - interesting point on competition in the vicinity... never thought about that before.