Rank list Thoughts

[ophtho1234]

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Just trying to finalize my rank list as well, and I'm really struggling with putting a few of the programs that i really liked into a final order. Any thoughts on UTSW, Baylor, UAB, and Wake Forest?

Thanks, and best wishes to all for a great match in 2 weeks!

 

[thickglasses]

I actually rotated all UAB, UTSW, and Baylor. I'd definitely take UAB over the Texas schools, and UTSW over Baylor. Don't know as much about Wake. UAB residents got plenty of hands-on experience in every subspecialty, get their top fellowships ALWAYS, and were very happy.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[Jake the Snake]

I actually rotated all UAB, UTSW, and Baylor. I'd definitely take UAB over the Texas schools, and UTSW over Baylor. Don't know as much about Wake. UAB residents got plenty of hands-on experience in every subspecialty, get their top fellowships ALWAYS, and were very happy.

GOOD LUCK!

Why UTSW over Baylor? Just curious.

 

[IOP]

I actually rotated all UAB, UTSW, and Baylor. I'd definitely take UAB over the Texas schools, and UTSW over Baylor. Don't know as much about Wake. UAB residents got plenty of hands-on experience in every subspecialty, get their top fellowships ALWAYS, and were very happy.

GOOD LUCK!

Actually, my question is more of why UAB over UTSW or Baylor?
People are going to argue over UTSW vs Baylor and having interviewed
at both and trained at Baylor (and knowing people who trained at UTSW and UAB), both I believe are superior to UAB.
Not to say anything about UAB..it certainly is a very good program
but doesn't have a national reputation of UTSW or Baylor.

 

[fatman41]

I ranked UTSW over UAB and Wake, reasons why I prefered it to the other programs:
1. UAB- ranked it over UAB b/c UAB has in-house call with an eye ER. I rotated at another institution with an eye ER, and you deal with red eyes and other trivial stuff all night that could be handled by a regular ER, but is sent to the eye ER b/c the ER guys don't want to deal with it. Furthermore, there is no reason why you should have in house call as an ophtho resident. After my intern year, I intend to never spend another night in the hospital unless it's doing surgery, which I won't mind as much b/c I'll be doing surgery. You don't need to be there all night just in case somebody wants to have a red eye examined at 4am.
2. Wake Forest- You should not rank highly places that make you drive to another campus that's >45min away. Wake made you drive a considerable distance to some place >1hr away to get your cat numbers. Second, they had 2-3 person class. If you don't like the other guy in your class, you're stuck for 3yrs together. UTSW will have 9residents in each class soon. Also, you're in Winston-Salem and not Dallas. Winston-Salem seemed more family oriented, and does not have the Dallas Cowboys.
3. Baylor- did not interview at Baylor, UTSW vs Baylor debated in other areas. Baylor is certainly a great program.

On UTSW, you will see everything possible there with great autonomy and great surgical experience. I ranked it above the "ranked" programs b/c it:
1. does not have saturday lectures (Iowa)
2. does not have an eye ER or in house call(MEEI, UAB etc).
3. you're the only show in town for 5million people in the DFW area. St. Louis, Boston, New York, Houston etc all have other programs to compete for referrals. The only places I noticed that did not have to compete with other programs in major cities were Atlanta (Emory), Miami (BPEI)

Just my thoughts, hope it helps.

 

[Mye Eye]

I ranked UTSW over UAB and Wake, reasons

On UTSW, you will see everything possible there with great autonomy and great surgical experience. I ranked it above the "ranked" programs b/c it:
1. does not have saturday lectures (Iowa)

to my understanding...Iowa doesnt have Saturday lectures any more...if it does, they're MINIMAL

 

[ophtho1234]

Just wanted to inject a few more programs into this discussion. I'm especially curious about others perspectives on Wills Eye relative to the other programs. Its obviously a great program with great reputation, but it seemed to have lower surgical numbers than programs like UAB or UTSW, and its in Philly. Any other thoughts?

Also, thoughts on Emory or MUSC relative to those programs? Emory residents seemed rather overworked, with great clinical experience, but not significantly better than that at UTSW.

Regarding Wake, they do in fact now have three resident classes for all 4 years, and the Salisbury VA is roughly an hour South of Winston-Salem, depending on where you choose to live.

Best of luck to everyone, and thanks for the helpful input!

 

[IOP]

Just wanted to inject a few more programs into this discussion. I'm especially curious about others perspectives on Wills Eye relative to the other programs. Its obviously a great program with great reputation, but it seemed to have lower surgical numbers than programs like UAB or UTSW, and its in Philly. Any other thoughts?

Also, thoughts on Emory or MUSC relative to those programs? Emory residents seemed rather overworked, with great clinical experience, but not significantly better than that at UTSW.

Regarding Wake, they do in fact now have three resident classes for all 4 years, and the Salisbury VA is roughly an hour South of Winston-Salem, depending on where you choose to live.

Best of luck to everyone, and thanks for the helpful input!

Wills Eye is obviously a great program ranked in the top 5 every year.
Because of the number of residents, you are not going to get the number
of surgeries that other programs offer. However, few years ago, they
did have a program where four of their residents went to Arizona every
year to boost their cataract numbers. One thing that I had a question
about was how many retina lasers (PRP, focal) the residents got to do
since it was such a fellow driven retina dept back when I was applying.

Emory is a great program that is very busy...which I think is good for residency. Busy but not malignant. I think Baylor and UTSW fall into
this category as well.

 

[PDT4CNV]

The advantage of a place like Wills is the reputation, the attendings you work with, and the zebra's that you see. Whether or not that translates into better training..who knows. Surgical numbers may be lower, but are probably adequate and still above average.


You cant go wrong with Wills, UAB, or Baylor. Baylor and UAB have excellent surgical numbers and good attendings.

There is no other competing program in Alabama.

In-house vs. home call should not be your basis for choosing a program.

 

[kikomei]

How about UCSF, CPMC, Davis, UCSD, UW, Casey, Stanford?
Here's what i think so far:
UCSF--prestigious, good for academics, great location, very formal
CPMC--great for surgery, private/HMO practice, great location, very informal
Davis--great for surgery, private practice with good academic connections, very intense, not much research, location ok (lots traffic in not so great town)
UW--up and coming program, hard to get feel for this as so much is changing but promising
Casey--haven't heard anything bad about this program yet, very academic
Stanford--not sure, national rep not bad, great location, not as formal as ucsf

Also wondering how UPENN Scheie compares to west coast programs and if someone interested in research would get equally good training on the west coast.

I am struggling with my rank list too, and realized a heck of a lot of decisions are made on location! Would appreciate any advice, esp since these programs have such different styles.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Consider this article published by Dr. Sanchez:

http://www.medrounds.org/ophthalmology-pearls/articles/Sanchez-Match-Pearls.pdf

 

[ayfucius]

Emory seemed like a solid program. Does anyone know if that stuff with Grady shutting down is resolved?

 

[liverboy]

Just wanted to inject a few more programs into this discussion. I'm especially curious about others perspectives on Wills Eye relative to the other programs. Its obviously a great program with great reputation, but it seemed to have lower surgical numbers than programs like UAB or UTSW, and its in Philly. Any other thoughts?

Also, thoughts on Emory or MUSC relative to those programs? Emory residents seemed rather overworked, with great clinical experience, but not significantly better than that at UTSW.

Regarding Wake, they do in fact now have three resident classes for all 4 years, and the Salisbury VA is roughly an hour South of Winston-Salem, depending on where you choose to live.

Best of luck to everyone, and thanks for the helpful input!

My time spent at Baylor and Emory is limited to the interview trail, but I especially like both programs and UT Southwestern for the clinical experiences they can offer (county, VA, and university settings with very high surgical volume and solid academic reputation).

However, I have done a rotation at UT Southwestern and was very impressed with the clinical ancillary staff there, which is a difference maker for me. The resident clinic is very busy, but time spent is seeing patients and not ancillary work. Thus, even though UTSW residents see the same number of patients as other high-volume programs in the resident clinic, the day usually finishes around 4:30 or 5:00 because less time is wasted working up the patient.

 

[Vballguy]

How about UCSF, CPMC, Davis, UCSD, UW, Casey, Stanford?
Here's what i think so far:
UCSF--prestigious, good for academics, great location, very formal
CPMC--great for surgery, private/HMO practice, great location, very informal
Davis--great for surgery, private practice with good academic connections, very intense, not much research, location ok (lots traffic in not so great town)
UW--up and coming program, hard to get feel for this as so much is changing but promising
Casey--haven't heard anything bad about this program yet, very academic
Stanford--not sure, national rep not bad, great location, not as formal as ucsf

Also wondering how UPENN Scheie compares to west coast programs and if someone interested in research would get equally good training on the west coast.

I am struggling with my rank list too, and realized a heck of a lot of decisions are made on location! Would appreciate any advice, esp since these programs have such different styles.

Penn is top tier in terms of research and NIH funding. Top 20 in terms of ranking. Somewhat overshadowed by Wills. Name carries a lot of weight all around the country.
UCSF program has excellent reputation and is in beautiful SF. Program rebuilding with rather new chair.
CPMC does not have the research or reputation that UCSF holds, and that hurts their applicants for the ultra-competitive fellowships.

Residents I met at all locations were all quite happy (most ophtho residents are....)

 

[jacksroy]

My time spent at Baylor and Emory is limited to the interview trail, but I especially like both programs and UT Southwestern for the clinical experiences they can offer (county, VA, and university settings with very high surgical volume and solid academic reputation).

However, I have done a rotation at UT Southwestern and was very impressed with the clinical ancillary staff there, which is a difference maker for me. The resident clinic is very busy, but time spent is seeing patients and not ancillary work. Thus, even though UTSW residents see the same number of patients as other high-volume programs in the resident clinic, the day usually finishes around 4:30 or 5:00 because less time is wasted working up the patient.

Reply:
I just wanted to second that I also have heard that UTSW does a good job making sure the work time is educational and organized.

 

[smiegal]

Wills > UCSF =/> Baylor > UTSW > UAB