Please offer advice on these programs!

[samsoniter]

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Hiya,
new member here, and wanting to know the nitty gritty details on some community programs:
Illinois masonic-chicago
St Francis-evanston
Maricopa- phoenix
St. Joes- phoenix
Sacred Heart-spokane
Virginia mason-seattle

Which programs offer the best IR training? Which programs would you rank higher and why? How much can one read into the number of DOs in programs, how much does fellowship placement matter? How about the number of faculty and where they trained? And, of course, location,...and also moonlighting opportunities?
Please get as detail oriented as you can, or feel free to PM me if you feel the need.
THANKS!

 

[samsoniter]

COME ON!!!!! 100+ views without a single response?...PLEASE POST, oh please.

 

[killinsound]

The applicants that frequent this site usually aren't familiar with these programs... to put it bluntly.

 

[drizzt3117]

You should probably ask on AM. Virginia Mason is probably the best of these and definitely the most competitive.

 

[cowme]

when you're deciding between programs outside of big university hospitals, just go with location and what gives you the best vibe. Virginia Mason does have a good reputation, but I think a lot of that was propagated by p53's arbitrary ranking list he made 7 years ago.

 

[loljkttyl]

You can find more info here: http://radiology.matchapplicants.com/

 

[badasshairday]

I have a friend at Maricopa in PHX. You can do a lot of moonlighting... a whole lot.

I actually interviewed at St. Joseph PHX. They have the Barrow Neuro Institute, so really good neuroradiology. However as a resident you will take a back seat to the neuro fellows. IR is ok, nothing really high end, just bread and butter. No IR fellows so good basic procedure exp for residents.
Otherwise it was pretty decent/strong at all other sections. They do plenty of cardiac CT and MPI, even as a first year you will get your hands on it. They are a level 1 trauma so you will see all that as well. Overall pretty balanced in terms of experiences. Solid program.

The residents are SUPER happy. I think that was the happiest bunch I've ever seen. Really cush in terms of lifestyle if that is what you want. I thought it was actually too cush. The residents stop taking new studies at 4pm, so they are done earlier, most other places have residents take studies until 5 or later. Also they have a short call from 4 or 5pm to 10pm or so, and you get the whole next day off even though you get to go home and sleep in your own bed. So you have potential random 3 day weekends if you have short call on Thursday. Like I said, cush lifestyle, just need to make sure you get the volume, which I think is there as it does not have a large number of residents.