Post Your Interview Experiences!

[NYC Girl]

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Hi everyone!

Now that the interview season is starting to slow down, I was wondering if we could start up an interview feedback thread? Several of the other forums (IM, Peds, etc) have been going to town on this topic, and I think it'd help us all to get a variety of viewpoints on the different programs. Also, if folks are students at a particular institution, or did away rotations, please chime in also!

My interviews were basically in Massachusetts, and a limited # of NYC:

Boston Medical Center: Going through a *lot* of changes, new chair, lots of new hires brought in from Brigham/BID, new L&D to follow next year. Includes Boston City Hospital, so very diverse, low-income pt pop'n, lots of traumas so ER rotation would be great. Delivery volume reportedly pretty low, but increasing.

Tufts-NEMC: VERY happy residents, fairly bursting with joy. Also very diverse pt population. The residents go to ~4 hospital sites, including a public hospital, and several community programs, as well as NEMC. Commuting would have to be your cup of tea. Lots of surgical training.

BIDMC: Chair is very public health/int'l health oriented, lots of elective opportunities in this regard. Also very happy residents, very relaxed relationship with attendings (1st name basis), also lots of surgery as no fellows (this was the case for all Boston programs except Brigham).

Brigham-MGH: VERY happy residents, they are like a giant family, lots of hugging. They reportedly have great relationships with the attendings, with excellent teaching. Downsides: Presence of Onc fellows pushes everyone down the OR chain, and intern year Gyn/Gyn Onc rotations are mostly floor/consult/clinic. However, OB is busy even in intern with C-sections starting day 1. Also not great Ultrasound training. But overall, can you turn down Brigham...?

UMass: Program director and chair are very into resident training, and have institued lots of interesting didactic programs RE: pt care, surgical training, practice management, etc. Residents are very social.

Baystate/Tufts: A pleasant surprise - beautiful hospital, very happy residents, lots of perks, low cost of living (all residents owned houses/condos). Not the biggest "name", but would be a great place to get trained. Chair/program director is well-connected, as former chair at Hopkins.

Brown: Lovely, gorgeous, new women's hospital! Enormous OB and surgical volume, almost ridiculous (10,000 deliveries with like 7 residents per year?) Lots of didactics, Dr. Metheny is an educator by training and loves that stuff. Shoe allowance! Would be my first choice if not for the Providence location (I have ties to Boston, nothing wrong with Providence itself)

Mt. Sinai: Hmm... Very front-loaded, intern year sucks, with no night float, OB the intern runs triage, and maybe gets to do some deliveries and sections if there is no triaging to be done!! Apparently gets much better with later years, but still... Frank the administrator rocks the house!

Columbia: My home institution, large volume, now a little too large, and they are trying to get another resident per year starting our year. Lost 2 residents this year for uncertain reasons... Huge MFM department, 18 faculty! Tons of neat cases.

Any other thoughts? It'll be great to hear everyone else's experiences!! 🙂

 

[starayamoskva]

Very benign interview day.
Like pretty much everyone there is a get together the evening before (they bill this as a dinner but it is actually just finger food and drinks so eat before you go). They do provide transportation to all the interview functions from the hotel so you don't have to worry about getting lost.
The program itself seems pretty good, great numbers and experience in problem patients like Pre E and HELLP syndrome and advanced cancers.
The residents all seemed to get along very well and the program as a whole seemed very family friendly.
Even though their program director was fired last year, the residents don't think there was any impact on them and some good changes have come out of the whole thing.
Everyone was very nice and as I said, interviews were benign, no "Pimp" type questions more like having a nice chat than actually interviewing.

 

[fuzzyerin]

I think this is a great idea! Good call, NYCGirl! I wonder if I met you on the interview trail... I also did mostly Northeast.

Brown - previously, currently, and staying #1 on my list. Did a rotation there and absolutely loved it. Great facilities, great attendings, great residents. Could go on and on about it.

UMass - Residents here have a great sense of humor. I loved the "virtual tour" they did. Good attendings, seemed easy to talk to. Nice facilities. Don't know much about the area though...

Stonybrook - Nice hospital, pretty location, but concerned because I know they just got dumped with 8 inches of snow...don't really know if I want to go that far out on LI.... Great teaching - resident education is a focus. Hospital expansion in progress.

Ohio State - Here's my random interview. Loved this program. Beautiful hospitals (rotate at 2 - Ohio State Medical Center/Mt. Carmel), 9 residents a year, faculty well written and laid back. Very laid back atmosphere.

Lehigh Valley - "academic community hospital" - Excellent facilities. Hospital is swimming in money. Residents seemed ok. Program director and faculty seem very personable.

North Shore/LIJ - Even though it's not a joint program, there was nothing about either of the hospitals that made me jump for joy. Plus, I've kinda made the decision to leave NYC, so these aren't high on my list.

Upstate - Nice facilities. Question the resident's abilities. Tried to sell me on why FMGs are good to have in a program. I've worked with lots of FMGs at my school and I'm fine with them. But when the other applicants and current residents started talking in a different language in front of me, I felt very left out.

I've got Tufts, Baystate and Uconn next week - then I'm done! I cancelled 3 more interviews for January - I don't need more things to clutter my decision at this point. I still don't see how they're going to decide about us from a bunch of 20 minute interviews....

 

[NYC Girl]

Thought I'd bump this as Rank Order List time starts approaching

Does anyone else have any thoughts on the various programs to add?

 

[jchernan]

Mayo: Awesome program for Gyn surgery. Ob volume seems very low, good if you want to focus on gyn surg. Lots of fellows, but also lots of cases to spread amongst the 4 residents. Hours are good b/c they have lots of help from PA's. Rochester is very, very rural.
Duke: Loved it. Going through lots of transition b/c of new program director and chair, but they seem to have a good understanding of the problems they had in the past. Residents all seemed to be happy. Will rank them high. \


I'll post more if others join along.

 

[kem]

U of Hawaii: Was suprised with how much I liked this program. Everyone there is very laid-back, the program director and new chair seem awesome. They have special guest lecturers a few times a year where they get a top person in a subspecialty to come to Hawaii for a 2 weeks and lecture. It seemed like a very supportive environment for residents.

UC Irvine: Great program! Residents seemed very happy, would joke around with their fellow residents and genuinely seemed to like each other. 5/6 in senior class going on to fellowships in urogyn, rei, and mfm. Very strong mfm, not as strong rei but were up front with this problem and seemed to be trying to fix it.

Cedars-Sinai: There are rumors that this place is very private (and that residents don't get to do much) since there are so many private attendings there. They have started a "teaching service" so that privates who want to teach can do so and residents are only expected to follow those patients. Residents were very nice and friendly.

I'll write more - a few at a time!

🙂 kem

 

[kjh64831]

Thought I'd bump this as Rank Order List time starts approaching

Does anyone else have any thoughts on the various programs to add?

Another "bump." Just posted some thoughts on Hopkins that might be useful to people. It's on the "Magee versus Hopkins" thread (see the list). Summarizes some of my feelings as an insider at JHU.

 

[kdoc2005]

Does anyone have any experiences they would like to share at some of the Southern programs?

kdoc2005

 

[stacyg]

Hey Kem-

I was just wondering if you did a rotation at U of Hawaii.....I am very interested in the program myself.

U of Hawaii: Was suprised with how much I liked this program. Everyone there is very laid-back, the program director and new chair seem awesome. They have special guest lecturers a few times a year where they get a top person in a subspecialty to come to Hawaii for a 2 weeks and lecture. It seemed like a very supportive environment for residents.

UC Irvine: Great program! Residents seemed very happy, would joke around with their fellow residents and genuinely seemed to like each other. 5/6 in senior class going on to fellowships in urogyn, rei, and mfm. Very strong mfm, not as strong rei but were up front with this problem and seemed to be trying to fix it.

Cedars-Sinai: There are rumors that this place is very private (and that residents don't get to do much) since there are so many private attendings there. They have started a "teaching service" so that privates who want to teach can do so and residents are only expected to follow those patients. Residents were very nice and friendly.

I'll write more - a few at a time!

🙂 kem

 

[OBGYN2B2005]

I'm a SE US kind of girl...except for one place. I feel more brave now that ROL are in. Briefly, here's my opinion in no particular order

UNC Chapel Hill--I LOVED this program. The people were incredible. They offer fellowships in all the major ob/gyn subspecialties and have outstanding laparoscopic training. Close to Raleigh/Durham, which has great opportunities for my fiance.

UAB--thought this was going to be my #1 going in. People were really nice, but I wasn't as impressed with Birmingham as I thought I would be. They also have very little in Benign Gyn. I love pathology, but I want a little benign stuff too, seeing as how I will likely be a generalist.

Duke--Going through a lot of change---again, made me nervous. but I think they're making a lot of steps in the right direction. New laparoscopy labs being put into place.

Carolinas Med Center in Charlotte--LOVED this program, too. Community based, but known for being strong in academics despite setting. Residents and faculty were wonderful to talk with. Charlotte is a beautiful, growing city. Gained a 6th resident this year...attributing to the fact that they have lots of patients and are stable.

Wake Forest--Winston Salem is a bit small. They have state of the art OR's with cameras in them. Also approved to perform a new kind of tubal ligation. Plus, on GYN, you take home call. You do a rotation about 50 miles from the campus though...ugh. People were really nice.

Emory--Did not get a good feel from the residents that they were at all happy. Love Atlanta, wasn't impressed with the program in general. Just a personal opinion though...

 

[Jules1231]

Emory--Did not get a good feel from the residents that they were at all happy. Love Atlanta, wasn't impressed with the program in general. Just a personal opinion though...

I just wanted to write something about Emory's residents' happiness for future applicants sake. I did a month there and the residents are very very happy there. The residents are what I loved most about the program. I didn't rank them higher for other reasons.

OBGYN2B2005---hope to see you in north carolina in july, that would be awesome. good luck

 

[blueline76]

Does anyone have any experiences they would like to share at some of the Southern programs?

kdoc2005

My wife, being the med student, and I decided that we were going to stay in the South/Midwest (I'm just going to go through a few of them - good and bad).
IUPUI (Indianapolis) ended up being our first choice. We loved the city and she loved the program. I got to meet several of the residents at the residents' dinner and they seemed to be very nice people.
The residents' dinner in Lexington, KY seemed to be a get together of people (both the interviewees and the residents) that had known each other for years. As soon as people walked in the door it was a continuous conversation. She thought highly of the program as well.
My wife said that Wichita's program seemed good, but the city was an absolute bore. Because of the city, it was the only place she interviewed at and didn't rank.
Austin - great city (though a bit too liberal for my liking) and my wife said that the faculty she met there were great; however, it scares her a bit to think about going into a brand new program.
Oklahoma City - great residents who seem to get along well; however the city wasn't as fun as Indy, Austin, etc.
Kansas City, MO (Trumann) - seemed to be the most competitive program out of the one's that my wife interviewed at; it was the last weekend of interviews and there still seemed to be 25 or so applicants there; was actually my top choice - considering just the city (wanted to live in Overland Park, KS) - prior to going to Indianapolis. It was the only place that my wife said hadn't yet read up on her application. She felt more time was spent on catching up with that than talking to her.
Knoxville, TN - Beautiful city and great people, however, the program is somewhat small for my wife's liking.

 

[OBGYN2B2005]

Perhaps, I was just there on a bad day and got the wrong impression. I was definitely there when a lot of people didn't get to come for a variety of reasons. I certainly didn't mean to deface anyone. 🙂 Thanks for the input, Jules...hope to see you, too! Best of luck to all in the match! I'm ready for this to be over!

I just wanted to write something about Emory's residents' happiness for future applicants sake. I did a month there and the residents are very very happy there. The residents are what I loved most about the program. I didn't rank them higher for other reasons.

OBGYN2B2005---hope to see you in north carolina in july, that would be awesome. good luck

 

[Anxiolytic]

Southern Illinois University-small town (Springfield, 110K) so very affordable, nice women's and children's center, decent vaginal hyst numbers for type of program, not extremely work intensive, good somewhat varied university and private population, extensive surgical training (no fellows) from beginning. INterview was very laid back, residents seem really happy, many having babies.

Washington University-rotated there, thought surgical training was delayed and maybe it showed a little, ancillary staff not very nice, broad experience in subspecialties, large program, good feed into fellowships. Interview pretty laid back, very few questions, asked mostly about my CV etc.

Mayo-interview was nice, paid for hotel, interview only 30 total for the 4 positions, facilities nice. I really liked it from the start. Small town and arctic temps detered some of my classmates from applying.

Univ of Oklahoma-great vag numbers, varied experience, really nice to the point of being almost desperate to get some non Univ of OK grads (so it looks like they don't take only their own) but Univ of OK students really want to stay. It was low on my list because of location. Got some weird froufrou questions about interpersonal reflections on self-improvement from chair.

UT-Houston-I don't really like big cities and this is definitely a big sprawling bad traffic city. PRogram seemed solid, everyone really really nice and seemed happy. Low on my list only b/c of location. I am pretty liberal for Texas. Social time was with residents from both programs (county and traditional program) was a little awkward having to explain to county residents why I didn't apply to their program.

UT-SW- Didn't rank. Big name, but was still not impressed. Heard from two residents that gyne was "mediocre" One of these residents was interviewing me at the time 😱 Ob seemed too much. NO continuity clinic at any time. Midwives take care of all the normal pregnancies, so you may leave residency without caring for may normal pregnant women (pre, during or post partum). VEry protocol heavy.

Duke-Really liked it. Seemed pretty strong overall. New PD and chair are full of all kinds of big ambitious ideas. RAnked highly. Did group interviews (3 applicants, 1 interviewer) but tried to make them as benign as possible. Beautiful area. UNC like 10 miles away.

Ohio State-REally liked. Seemed pretty strong overall. Residents seemed happy. big interview day with like 25+ applicants. ONly interview 2 days out of entire season.

UAB-Great program. Good numbers. Didn't ask me any questions during entire interview except "What are you looking for in a program?" and "Do you have any questions?" Which was a little annoying. REsidents seemed happy and had good camradery. I thought Birmingham was really cute. But it is small and in the south.

I'm open to any other questions. 🙂