Reputation vs happiness????

[gomezjl]

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Hello, everyone! Happy New Year! I wanted to ask everyone's honest opinion about a serious dilemma involving my residency options. I only interviewed at 7 peds programs, as I have a fairly limited geographic area that I am sticking to (New York area, but in suburbs). I have a 5 year old son and would like grandparents nearby. Thankfully, I am finally done with interviews 🙂.

I have been told that I am very competitive (AOA, 99%ile boards) and should have my choice of the programs I have interviewed at. My career plans are to persue fellowship and I'm now considering neonatology. This, of course, may change. I can say, honestly, that I only really disliked one program that I visited and don't plan on ranking that one. My tops right now are LIJ/North Shore, Winthrop, and SUNY Stonybrook. Obviously, the best reputation nationally is LIJ. And I truly can say that I liked attendings that I met and thought the place was quite phenomenal. But, very big. And it DID seem that the work load was outrageous. I expect to work hard in residency, don't get me wrong. But compared to Stonybrook and Winthrop, there was a major difference. Q4 all 3 years with only 3 call free months in the three years. I would like to see my child grow up, thank you. Another major drawback was the subsidized housing situation. I had thought this was quite readily available. Turns out I found out yesterday that last year they only had one apartment to offer the incoming class of 41. The extra money they give you if you live off their housing is $1200/year. This barely puts a dent in the difference in cost. This is an issue...
#1. I have a child and need a 2 BR apt, at least. Very expensive in this area. There are less residents with children at LIJ than other programs I have interviewed at.
#2. my husband will most likely be going back to school and we won't have that extra income to help. He will also need to be there as a Mr. Mom of sorts for our son.
#3. Don't ever hear of anyone else in med school with this problem, but I have it....really bad credit. We're talking in the gutter. Can't get residency relocation loans and my parents aren't exactly rolling in money either. The reasons for this are numerous, but stem from poor decisions in college and adding to that raising a child with almost no income (medical bills, credit cards, etc. ) It is NOT easy to find somewhere to live with bad credit. I need residency income to repair the credit, and cheap subsidized housing (available to all at Winthrop, even some houses for families at $650/month!) definately helps. I'd like to buy a house sometime in the future!

I love Winthrop for other reasons as well. Hardly any fellows, lighter schedule, and awesome, very personable attendings. The residents were great and happy, much more family friendly. Benefits far exeeded all other programs I have seen. Plus a new peds ward open this March. Residents did get fellowships, but not as many staying in the NY area.

This said, I plan on staying in NY for fellowship and worry. Am I selling myself short? Will going to a less renound place (where I would probably be happier) reduce my chances of getting fellowship and will I be less respected by my peers when I come out? How much does this really matter? I am leaning to Winthrop at this point. I think family is the bottom line for me. Any opinions?

 

[notstudying]

I may be biased on this one, but I'm in a similar situation (competitve applicant, with kids, limited geographic area), and I really think you should go where you'll be happy and less stressed. You'll be a better mom, and a better doctor. As long as residents do go into fellowship at least sometimes, I think you should be OK (this I'm not as familiar with). I'm going with the program that makes me happy, and where other residents are happy too, rather than dragging my family halfway across the country to be in a program with a big name, where I won't know the other residents well, and where I'll be worked to death.

 

[Bernardo_11]

I'm a 3rd yr pediatric resident here in the Aloha state. I can tell you if it had to be a choice between happiness vs competitive programs, go for happiness. A good home life is ESSENTIAL in getting through residency.

As for fellowships... don't worry. Pediatrics is a field where most of the residents go into primary care of some sort. So there's usually a ton of spaces if you apply. The only fellowships that are pretty competitive is Peds ER, Allergy, and Cardiology. Most other specialties you'd be able to get in somewhere.... especially neonatalogy.

Basically, go where you're happy. It really DOES matter.

 

[FunnyLookingKid]

Originally posted by gomezjl
Hello, everyone! Happy New Year! I wanted to ask everyone's honest opinion about a serious dilemma involving my residency options. I only interviewed at 7 peds programs, as I have a fairly limited geographic area that I am sticking to (New York area, but in suburbs). I have a 5 year old son and would like grandparents nearby. Thankfully, I am finally done with interviews 🙂.

I have been told that I am very competitive (AOA, 99%ile boards) and should have my choice of the programs I have interviewed at. My career plans are to persue fellowship and I'm now considering neonatology. This, of course, may change. I can say, honestly, that I only really disliked one program that I visited and don't plan on ranking that one. My tops right now are LIJ/North Shore, Winthrop, and SUNY Stonybrook. Obviously, the best reputation nationally is LIJ. And I truly can say that I liked attendings that I met and thought the place was quite phenomenal. But, very big. And it DID seem that the work load was outrageous. I expect to work hard in residency, don't get me wrong. But compared to Stonybrook and Winthrop, there was a major difference. Q4 all 3 years with only 3 call free months in the three years. I would like to see my child grow up, thank you. Another major drawback was the subsidized housing situation. I had thought this was quite readily available. Turns out I found out yesterday that last year they only had one apartment to offer the incoming class of 41. The extra money they give you if you live off their housing is $1200/year. This barely puts a dent in the difference in cost. This is an issue...
#1. I have a child and need a 2 BR apt, at least. Very expensive in this area. There are less residents with children at LIJ than other programs I have interviewed at.
#2. my husband will most likely be going back to school and we won't have that extra income to help. He will also need to be there as a Mr. Mom of sorts for our son.
#3. Don't ever hear of anyone else in med school with this problem, but I have it....really bad credit. We're talking in the gutter. Can't get residency relocation loans and my parents aren't exactly rolling in money either. The reasons for this are numerous, but stem from poor decisions in college and adding to that raising a child with almost no income (medical bills, credit cards, etc. ) It is NOT easy to find somewhere to live with bad credit. I need residency income to repair the credit, and cheap subsidized housing (available to all at Winthrop, even some houses for families at $650/month!) definately helps. I'd like to buy a house sometime in the future!

I love Winthrop for other reasons as well. Hardly any fellows, lighter schedule, and awesome, very personable attendings. The residents were great and happy, much more family friendly. Benefits far exeeded all other programs I have seen. Plus a new peds ward open this March. Residents did get fellowships, but not as many staying in the NY area.

This said, I plan on staying in NY for fellowship and worry. Am I selling myself short? Will going to a less renound place (where I would probably be happier) reduce my chances of getting fellowship and will I be less respected by my peers when I come out? How much does this really matter? I am leaning to Winthrop at this point. I think family is the bottom line for me. Any opinions?

I did my neonatal fellowship at one of the top 5 or 10 best programs in America ( Baylor )
I sat on our fellowship ad com for 18 months, and was in on the meetings of who we would interview and who we thought should get a spot.

I can tell you that neonatology is a pretty wide open field at this point.
AS far as I am concerned, based on my experience, it is less important where you did your residency than perhaps other fellowships. LOR's, your board scores, and your interview are just as important.
Peds fellowships , in general, are easy to get.

From working with people from other places, I can recommend a few programs which were excellent
Cincinatti
CHOP
Baylor
....and a lot of great people from Baylor ended up at Ohio State. Apply there. I think that place has a lot of potential, especially if you are interested in the lung.
I know you wanted to stay in New York. I know a few perinatologists at Cornell, and I know the director at, I think Long Island Jewish med center ( I think that's where he went---he just left Baylor )

in terms of your night call dilemma. residency is tough. fellowship is tough. neonatology practice can be tough in terms of hours worked
you will be doing a lot of night call for the rest of your life ( and there is no 80 hour rule once you are an attending )

you should do what's best for your family. bottom line !
residency is stressful enough. do what you can to make as less stressful as possible.
***also ask if there is moonlighting at any of the programs.
I made an extra 1-2000 bucks a month extra by moonlighting the last 2 years of my residency

perhaps your husband ought to defer school fr a year and work an extra job to make things easier.
sounds like you need to make some tough choices.
best of luck

 

[BPKurtz]

Originally posted by FunnyLookingKid


From working with people from other places, I can recommend a few programs which were excellent
Cincinatti
CHOP
Baylor
....and a lot of great people from Baylor ended up at Ohio State. Apply there. I think that place has a lot of potential, especially if you are interested in the lung.

Yeah, this is interesting. First of all, FLK is exactly right that Baylor is a top top Neonatology program. Regarding Ohio State: As a med-4 who did a NICU Sub-I at Columbus Children's Hospital (the OSU program), I can tell you that there are a number of EXCELLENT attendings who have come there from Baylor. Ohio State's Peds Chairman was Neonatologist at Baylor and has recruited people from that program to come to the NICU at OSU. He also is trained in pulmonary physiology and he and the rest of the people who migrated from Baylor have a very strong physiology-based approached to lung care in neonates. The reason this is important is, among other things, to try to understand and control BPD, which can vary in babies coming from different NICUs.

bpkurtz