There is no formal ranking list for the chicago programs, only others' personal opinions. In general, I believe several of the programs are good to train at, although none, even Children's Memorial, carry a strong reputation out of the midwest, unlike other strong midwest programs like Cincinatti, St Louis Childrens, and Rainbow Babies in Cleveland.
I would say that the highest regarded programs in the academic world are Childrens Memorial and U of Chicago. Children's Memorial has a very good reputation but their overwhelming weakness is their outdated facilities and the constraints on expansion due to their land-locked location in Lincoln Park. It seemed that almost every peds program I applied to was in the process of building a new hospital or adding to the current facility (ie, building currently). CMH has plans for a new hospital in the future but do not look for it to break ground for at least another year or two, meaning a possible 2010-2012 opening date. In the meantime, CMH will continue to provide excellent training, I just think it will be difficult for it to emerge as a national leader in pediatric medicine until they are able to update their facilities.
Because of the recent opening of a new children's hospital at U of Chicago and the current expansion of the hospital and building of a new peds research facility, the gap between CMH and U of C is narrowing, although CMH still has a better reputation based on the significantly larger volume of pateints seen, especially in heme-onc and the surgical subspecialties. I rotated at both hospitals and the culture is dramatically different between each place, and determining which is better is based purely on your own personality. Personally, I felt U of C was a warmer and friendlier environment, focused more on family-centered care and child-life, while CMH was more focused on the academic aspects of pediatric medicine, although neither hospital was lacking in either one. I feel that U of C offers a more diverse education, preparing you to practice in a variety of settings, both in primary care and subspecialty, while CMH provides an education geared more towards subspecialty. Several of the CMH residents that go into "general pediatrics" work as a hospitalist in a tertiatry care setting rather than primary care, and many of these eventually go for a fellowship after working for a few years as a hospitalist. One desireable aspect of U of C that CMH could never match is the training in the care of kids with chronic disease at La Rabida Children's Hospital.
Well I am kind of getting tired of writing so I am not going to talk about other Chicago programs, but other good programs to consider are Hope, Rush, Lutheran General, Loyola, and Cook County. They are discussed in other threads so take a look and post any other questions you have later.
