soliciting comments about particular programs

[mlw03]

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It seems kinda slow on these boards lately, so I thought I would ask for comments about some programs in medium-sized towns that I'm considering and haven't seen too much discussion about them. Call this a free-for-all. I'm interested in pretty much any info about these programs: strong/weak? competitivess? lifestyle in those places? particularly good/bad aspects of their programs? best looking women? (just kidding)

anyway, here's some of the programs:

UKentucky
UVermont
UUtah
USouth Dakota
UWashington (I know Seattle's a big city)
Oregon Health Sciences University (yeah, I know Portland is pretty big too)
East Carolina U
UNorth Carolina
Dartmouth
Penn State
West Virginia U

I would especially love to hear from actual residents at the above programs and their opinions (feel free to PM me if you'd rather keep your comments private), but all informed and even semi-informed thoughts are desired.

 

[PathOne]

UWashington is a very good program, and by far the most research-oriented of the ones you list. UNorth Carolina (at Chapel Hill) has a very good reputation, Dartmouth's nice and cozy, as is Vermont. I have no idea about the others.

The thing you'd have to look for, when looking at smaller programs, is if they'll give you adequate exposure towards all kinds of subfields in pathology. That can sometimes be a problem, especially at community-based programs. Also, in all programs you'd want to examine how they're structured. At some, there's just too much scut work and/or your exposure to different subfields is limited. I know of at least one semi-known program, where they simply abuse residents as scut monkeys and for grossing, and that's certainly not where you want to be (no names will be named, as it might have changed).