Programs you liked/didn't like

[mhdousa]

Hey all,

This discussion has been going on the IM board, and I thought it would be interesting here. Let us know which programs you really liked and which you
didn't. I'll start (though I haven't really found any programs that I outright didn't
like):

Really liked: Pittsburgh, Seattle, Denver
So/so: OHSU, Oakland, Cincinnati

-M

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[KUB]

Hey MHDOUSA,
I love your loggin. Are you a FMG?

 

[gluteus maximus]

Hey mhdousa,
What did you not like in the Cincinnati program? I heard that it was very intern friendly.
GM

 

[mhdousa]

KUB,

I don't think I've seen you on the peds board before -- welcome! Are you interested in peds? No, I'm not an IMG (which I believe is the preferred acronym). My username is a reference to a joke between me and my friends.




Gluteus Maximus,
Cincinnati is indeed very intern friendly. They have incredible benefits, and they have great support from their PD and administration. I just didn't get the impression that they were all that happy or tight -- maybe it comes from being such a big program. They all insisted that they were happy, and maybe I didn't meet enough residents. They didn't look unhappy or overworked by any means.
I am definitely ranking it, but it's not one I would be absolutely ecstatic to end up at. I know people who have been there and loved it, so don't put too much stock in my opinion. If you've got more questions, please let me know.

-M

 

[PediaSure]

Hi all
Glad to see some Peds folks! I did not know if any were out there.

Univ of Chicago: Interns were happy and felt like their opinion mattered. PDs weree Very honest and genuine. Will be building a new children's hosptial. Overall good impression

UIC, Peoria: Smaller program, but residents felt like they see enough. Resident friendly. Residents actually socialize! only drawback: City is very industrial. But on the other hand, quite a few residents were able to buy homes-=family friendly town

UFL, Jacksonville: Beautiful subspec clinic next to free standing hospital. Residents were happy with their program. Recipient of Dyson Initiative. Have to do some rotations at another hospital w/ peds floors. This hospital (Shands) is not as nice, but a good balance. Interns get choice on where to have continuity clinic. Affordable city-some residents live on the beach!

UAB: Great peds hospital and still buidling. Heavy on volume as they cover most of northern Alabama and some of Florida, GA, and Mississippi BUT you get 5 WEEKS VACATION every year!
PDs were resident friendly. But one of my interviewers commented that the residents did not have initiative to think unless forced and that there were too many didactic lectures. But the residents loved it! So sort of a mixed picture.

Well, off to more interviews.

Hope more people start writing on the mesaage board!

 

[Meeko1452]

My favorite three programs so far:

Mayo: great people, great location (at least in my book--probably not a great place for a big city lover), TONS of elective time and freedom to pursue your own interests. I am a little worried about PICU and NICU volume, as it seems that most really sick kids go to the twin cities.

OSU/ Children's Hospital of Columbus: really happy residents, great ER experience, integrated wards seems like a really good idea. Wealthy, nonprofit hospital that treats patients and residents really well.

New Mexico: Can't beat the location, laid back, wonderful people who all seem thrilled to be there. State wide referral center, which means that even though it isn't a free standing hospital, you see a tremendous amount of pathology. Great advocacy training as well.


I interviewed at many of the bigger, academic programs, but that type of environment is just NOT for me. I feel completely comfortable that I will have no trouble getting the fellowship of my choice after any of these residencies, and I really believe I will be a better doctor for training at a less academic program. But, to each their own, right?

I'm not sure how I'll make my final decision--maybe drawing program names from a hat??

 

[nychick]

I'm very excited--after a long time of thinking and weighing my options, I decided to accept a pre-match offer from NY Methodist. I canceled my remaining 3 interviews (all at programs I figured that I wouldn't prefer to it, mainly b/c of their location/neighborhoods among other factors).

What other places did I interview at and what did I think? Here's the dish:

SUNY Downstate: big program, residents seem happy (but then they all put a happy face on for interview days everywhere), very much seems a "trial by fire" learning experience although there appears to be enough support; I just felt it was to big for my taste

Georgetown: on probation due to lack of resources and patients at one point. It appears things got so bad at one time that essentially all the nurses had quit, and there were virtually no more patients coming to peds, and a whole bunch of the attendings etc. also left and things totally detiorated. After they got put on probation, they threw a bunch of resources at recruiting people and start anew and things seemed to have improved a lot. I would say the program was similar to that of a community-type program. Ultimately, I didn't feel I had to take the risk of joining a program that was on probation.

St. Barnabas: this program is a new program in a community setting and is associated with Cornell and Columbia. It's very small, and I didn't meet that many of the residents. Because it's new, it was hard to determine their track record in terms of etting good fellowships, which is important to me. Everyone I met was very nice. The location was also a big drawback: while it's near the Little Italy of the Bronx (Arthur Avenue--a 2-block stretch of Italian places) and Fordham University and the Bronx Zoo and the NY Botanical Gardens, the bus ride to get there was kind of scary--South Bronx warzone scary. Also, they don't have a PICU, but ship all their problem cases to other places.

Monmouth, NJ: this program seemed very strong academically, but it was small and very suburban, and it seemed like a lot of the residents were married and had kids--I just felt like I really wouldn't fit in that well.

OK, more on the rest later. Good luck with your ROLs, everyone.

 

[gluteus maximus]

Hey NYchick,
What other programs did you interview at?
GM

 

[nychick]

for peds:

SUNY Downstate
NY Methodist
Monmouth
Georgetown
St. Barnabas
LICH
Maimonides

I also interviewed for a few Internal Medicine preliminary positions, at St. Vincent's Brooklyn Queens, Jacobi/AECOM, and St. Raphael (which I actually rather liked), but after I got the pre-match offer, and I knew I'd rather go to that program than a prelim medicine year pretty much anywhere, I canceled the rest of the IM prelim interviews. But it was only my second peds interview, so I really felt I hadn't seen enough to help me make an informed decision. The PD was totally understanding and said he'd leave the offer open while I interviewed at other programs. I interviewed at 5 more pediatric programs, but the more places I went to clearer it was to me that I liked NY Methodist best for a number of reasons, so I decided to cancel my remaining peds interviews and accept the offer.

 

[PediaSure]

MAY BE A STUPID QUESTION, BUT HOW WAS NY METHODIST ABLE TO OFFER A PRE-MATCH POSITION?

 

[nychick]

and IMGs and DOs (as well as other independent applicants which I believe may include US MDs that have graduated in previous years) are allowed to pre-match. Current year US MD grads used to be able to, but are not allowed this year (I actually met a US grad that had pre-matched at their home institution in a previous year, so those people clearly exist!).
Say a program figures they want you (i.e. you'd be high on their ROL anyhow), there is no downside for them to offer you a slot. That way they've removed some of the uncertainty, especially if they figure that you are a competitive applicant, as another program could extend you their own pre-match offer and snatch you up. Then, if you prematch, the program removes the slot from the Match (hence some of the adjustments in the number of positions available in the Match; I think the deadline for this was January 31, 2003 (Quota Change Deadline)).
I, as the applicant accepting the prematch offer, also withdrew from the Match. For the applicant, pre-matching really only is ideal if you were going to rank the program you pre-match with number 1 anyway, otherwise you're likely to end up playing...what if. In my experience, a lot of programs that take IMGs seems to offer them pre-match positions. By the quota change deadline, when programs were clearly evaluating their applicant pool--as they had to decide how many positions to put into the match, I had gotten 4 pre-match offers including the one I took. Especially at mixed programs, I sometime wonder to what extent a program uses the pre-match process to fill the spots it has decided to "allocate" to independent applicants and then just ranks predominantly AMGs in the match. I think that this may be one of the reasons that the NRMP has tried to change the rules, because it leaves people that have gotten pre-match offers at programs in the middle of their ROL in the quandary of accepting something that was not their preferred option but having a position versus participating in the match and maybe seeing that position gone (I have a friend that is in this position, and has decided to go through the match).
Modifying the rules seems to be their attempt at resolving this problem, although I'm not sure that it really will (at least not for the applicant.) Starting next year, programs that decide to participate in the Match will not be able to extend any pre-match offers to anyone, regardless of their applicant status (i.e. IMG/DO etc.). Some programs that fill entirely outside the match now may not take part in the match at all. But mixed programs will likely opt to take part, in my opinion. It'll be interesting to see what effect the new regulation will have.

 

[jhug]

as one just getting into the med school mess, how did you all go about finding/selecting the programs to apply to? Are these all places you rotated through? I'll be attending school in the west and am intereseted in good programs out this way--any suggestions? Thanks for the help!!!

 

[Lara]

You can get some idea of existing programs at www.scutwork.com. You select a residency (ex. medicine, peds, surgery) and then search by area.

Congrats nychick on the pre-match!

 

[Mango]

Hey mhdousa, just a quick plug for Cincy. I can tell you after working there for 2 months, that the residents weren't exaggerating. They really are very happy. And like you said, they are treated extremely well. That hospital has so many resources, and so much money, that those residents get treated better than any I've seen so far.

After my rotation through CHMC, I was really considering peds. But I changed my mind because I realized it was peds at CHMC that was attracting me, not peds in general. But if I hadn't changed my mind, Cincinnati would deffinately be the first program I'd rank.

One more thing, working for a month in the ED at CHMC is one of the most amazing experiences I've had in med school. What a great group of people, and what an impressive thing they've got going down there. OK, plug over!

 

[nychick]

...and I just cleared the last hurdle. I found out on Saturday that I passed the CSA. After all the stressing out and nightmares I had over it (I dreamt I had to call my program and tell them I hadn't passed, etc) it was all very anti-climactic--the letter was like three lines long.

 

[gluteus maximus]

Congrats NY chick on clearing the CSA!! Though not considered a very gruelling test for IMGs it does seem to be more subjective in assessing grades. Are you planning to join early?
Also, have you already taken the step 3?
GM

 

[nychick]

I have to take some more exams in Europe before June, and I have to graduate. Plus, my sister's getting married, so I'm going do her wedding and on vacation before I move.

 

[PediaSure]

Originally posted by jhug
as one just getting into the med school mess, how did you all go about finding/selecting the programs to apply to? Are these all places you rotated through? I'll be attending school in the west and am intereseted in good programs out this way--any suggestions? Thanks for the help!!!

Deciding what residency to go into can be difficult. Some of us know we want to do Peds from M1 year, others may decide during the rotation. I have a friend who was convinced that she would hate peds, but is now applying because she loved it during her clerkship. Other specialties, esp the Early Match ones (neuro, neurosurg, optho, ENT) you basically have to know that want to go into them by mid-M3 year in order to get rec letters, etc.

My advice would be to go to scutwork and SDN (of course) to read up on what others are doing. Also ask the residents at your program. They can be suprisingly honest. Hey, they have nothing to lose. And sometimes it is easier to get a more "honest opinion" when the resident sees you as a curious med student vs an applicant.

The only other thing to consider which is unique to peds is free-standing children's hospital vs "Children's hospital w/in a hospital"

Hope my ramblings help.

Congrats NY Chick! Its nice to have a rest after jumping though all those hoops...at least until the next hoop, i.e. intern year!

 

[mhdousa]

Hey Mango,

Thanks for your thoughts about Cincinnati. I think the difference in our opinion just illustrates the difficulty in judging a residency program based on a one day interview.

By the way, how do you like living in Cincinnati? I spent a couple hours driving around after my interview and thought it was okay. I did have the greatest ice cream ever at Graeters (black raspberry chip). So good that it didn't matter that it was the middle of December and about 3 degrees outside.

Thanks again.

-M

 

[Mango]

Well, as far as Cincinnati goes, it kind of depends where you're coming from. It's a fine city, but I'm from Columbus, and Cincy is no Columbus! But then again it's almost half the size, and has a very different population base. But if you're into sports, and teams that never win, they got that here for sure! Plus there's lots of bars and decent night life. Especially in places like Mt. Adams. There's the casino riverboats, which if I had any money, I would spend a lot more time at! And the aquarium is cool.

Cincinnati is a great town to learn medicine in, and having trained at CHMC, you'd probably be able to get a job almost anywhere in the country. Let me know if you have other Cincy related questions, I know there's a few other Cincy natives on SDN that may be able to give you a better description of the city. Like I said, I'm kinda biased.