Tell us how your interview went

[doc_strange2001]

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Alrighty i was browsing and i found that alot of other specialties have this thread and its pretty damn interesting and helpful. Below is and example from the Optho forum.

My first interview is @ Loma Linda....ill tell ya how it went!!

Originally posted by Light
Wash U had a pretty chill interview day that went something like this:

Dinner and social the night before the interview (very laid back and fun).

8-8:30am: Breakfast and talk by chairman.
8:30-9am: Talk by program director.
9-12pm: About 4-5 or so 25min. interviews (including one 15 min. interview by chairman where he just asks you if you have any questions).
12-1pm: Lunch.
1-3pm: Tour.

They also have an afternoon interview group for which the the tour is in the morning and interviews go until about 4pm.

VERY chill...no curve balls...people here are super nice and the facilities are fantastic. Overall, I was very impressed by the program and its organization.

 

[ecf1975do]

i too, will be embarking on the anesthesia interview journey shortly . As a reader and poster on SDN, I plan on giving my feedback and opinions on programs I visit. I think its only right and fair for people to take 5 minutes out of their day and type a few sentences... we're all going to be anesthesiologists....no reason to be discreet.. its just your own opnions anyways.. peace

 

[2ndyear]

My interview here was different because I was doing a rotation, but they said it was similar to what 'real' interviews are. I won't describe every detail, I imagine that most anesthesia interviews are the same. Meet with program director, then faculty interviews, lunch with residents, closing statement by program director. Very laid back interview at Maine Med, they encourage a lot of questions.

Impressions: MMC is great! Basically all of the faculty are fellowship trained, mostly from MGH, and many have written a great deal of papers, etc. At least one Miller chapter is done by an attending at Maine Med. It's a small program with no fellows so clinical experience is second to none. They do many hearts here, even pediatric. Seems like many residents choose fellowships and the faculty are well connected so that if you do choose to go this route it is only a phone call away. The faculty are very approachable and love to teach. Most simply like Portland better than Boston and chose to live 2 hours away for quality of life.

 

[2ndyear]

Baystate is in Springfield, MA. The interview was typical. Program director, faculty interviews, tour w/resident, lunch, closing with PD. Low stress, got to ask a lot of questions. Baystate is a nice hospital. They are connected with Tufts at least for med students, I'm not sure how much affiliation the residency has. Residents are happy here, solid program. If you have been, you will know that Springfield as a city isn't that great, but there are some really nice areas surrounding (Northampton, etc.) and western Mass would be a cheap place to live. The program director seemed very pro resident and this was echoed by the residents. Baystate overall is pretty good.

 

[gaseous]

Northwestern:

Dinner the night before was great. We drank a lot of wine and mixed drinks. They just kept them coming.

Fitzpatrick hotel was incredible. I plan to head back to stay there agin someday.

Interview day: Pretty standard, morning orientation with several speakers. There was then 4 interviews, most of them with normal questions and willing to answer any questions you had about the program. One interviewer Dr. Malloy (sp?), the PD asked some wierd questions. The residents warned us the night before that he asks the same question to everyone just to make sure you're not crazy. (All the questions were answerable, no pimping, just reflections of your values/personality.) After there was the standard tour and lunch. Very laid back. The residents worked hard but were happy.

They really pushed their new and improved regional program which appears very strong. They likened it to Virgina-Mason, HSS, U of Washington.

They spent the day letting us know they were weak in CV. They kept mentioning it over and over and also they tried to let us know they were trying to get another CV surgeon to increase the case load. (They did say that they get the minimum numbers required......just not a lot)

Overall, I was very impressed with the program. Hospital is like a hotel. Definately not a county hospital. The hospital is only a block from Michigan Ave where there is tons of things to do. The program is light on trauma for good or for bad.

 

[pany29]

UNC

Reception with chairman, PD, and many faculty members the night before followed by dinner with chief resident and many other residents

7:30-9:30 mobile tour of hospital complex and the whole univeristy with PD and chief resident

9:30-12 noon: interviews with chairman, PD, one faculty, and chief resident

12-1 lunch with residents

1-2:30 tour of OR's, ob floors, ICU's with chief resident

UNC really tries very hard to put a "personal touch" into their interview day. They only interview about 4-5 applicants each day, the PD and chief resident stayed with us the whole day giving us the tour and answering our questions. The interview is non-stressful.....mostly just what you like about their program, about the location, and try to answer more questions we may have. All the residents and faculties are very friendly and enthusiastic about UNC. The hospital is very modern and nice. Definitely a great program if you like the location 🙂

 

[timtye78]

This is how my interview went on the first day of interviews at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas went for me:

Dinner the night before with two current residents-Upscale Italian restuarant.
8:00 am Met with administration staff and faculty for a nice overview of the program, including a video overview of the program from the resident's perspectives, produced by the residents.
9:30, 10:30-Two faculty interviews- Low stress interviews held in each faculty's office, no panels, no other students in the rooms. The faculty are given a list of suggested questions to ask, but neither really utilized these much. These interviews didn't seem much more than them wanting to know about you as a person. The sessions are about one hour long each, but time really flew and they didn't seem to ask any really difficult questions.
12:00 Lunch with more residents
1:00 Exit Interview with Dr. Johnston (PD)- Extremely outgoing, and friendly. Very energetic and excited about UTSW Anesthesiology. This meeting did seem more like recruiting, but he did ask a few questions about class rank, board scores. After that, there was a little more about the UTSW program, then thanking me for applying and interviewing at UTSW. For the other future D.O.s out there, Dr. Johnston recognized that I will be a D.O. and mentioned right off the bat that "I want you to know that some of the BEST residents I have ever had were D.O.s"

Hospital: Massive, plenty of volume, residents mention that they will have liver transplant experiences, as well as plenty of bread and butter caseload. Residents mentioned also that CRNAs take the "simple" cases, e.g. sedations, and that as upper levels, they get plenty of opportunity to "cherry-pick" their cases.

 

[dukeybootie]

UCLA

Dinner the evening before with two CA-3's. No liquor (ground rules). Relaxed, informal, got to find out a lot about the program from the residents. Conversation mostly centered on the residency, not chit-chat.

Interview day began with a 1-hr presentation on the program. This was followed by four separate interviews with various members of the faculty lasting 15-30 minutes. I did get pimped but did not mind. Definitely know your CV, esp any research you may have done. No trick, off-the-wall questions.

After this was a tour and lunch with any residents who wanted to stop by (quite a few). All in all my impression was that it was an extremely strong program with friendly residents, some very approachable attendings, lots of emphasis on didactics, very few (if at all) drawbacks. I mean, traffic on the 405 is terrible.

Good luck to everyone.

 

[Skrubz]

Rush

Weekday evening interview. Small group of applicants (only 4). Started off with a presentation by the vice-chair of the department highlighting the impressive clinical experience/training the residents get. Followed by 3 faculty interviews, nothing particularly malignant in the questioning.

Then was dinner with a couple of the residents (CA2s). Actually, two of the interviewing attendings ate with us for a part of the time and were joking around a lot. Eventually the attendings left and two more of the residents (CA1 and CA3, both in the unit) dropped by to eat and help answer questions. Finally came a quick tour of the ORs, preop, recovery, and the SICU.

Never met the PD/chair, though the residents say he has a lot of money (a portion of which flows into the department) and has the mentality of a businessman.

Overall, a very strong clinical program with a lot of experience and autonomy as a CA3. Lots of connections both in private practice and academia. CRNAs and SRNAs are present, which relieves the residents of much of the more mundane cases per the residents.

dukeybootie, what kind of pimping did you get? Was it stuff from your CV? Or random anesthesia/medical knowledge?

 

[dukeybootie]

Skrubz,

I was asked whether I had seen any interesting cases and was asked approximately 5-10 questions about those cases, specifically anesthesia concerns and approach, why we did what we did, what we might have done had certain difficulties arose (desat, etc.). Hope that helps.

 

[aparikh1]

Drexel (what used to be MCP/Hahneman/Allegheny) is an up and coming program. Everyone there is super nice, the Chair and PD especially. There were 10 of us at the interview, we got split into two groups. One group went on the tour and one group went to interview, and vice versa.

The interview consisted of 5 15-20 minute interviews with 5 different faculty, including the chair and PD. Very relaxed, they just want to get to know you as a person. Lunch afterwards, followed by a demonstration of their simulator, and then finished.

Hospital is part of Tenet's system in Philadelphia (for better or for worse). Program is up and coming, residents only had positive things to say. Philly is a fun town, lots of young professionals all over town, lots of activites. All in all a good experience.

 

[Skrubz]

U of C

Dinner the night before was pretty nice. Very good restaurant with a fair resident turnout (around 10, I think). Surprisingly, there were about 20 applicants there, all interviewing the next day.

Interview day was pretty standard. Powerpoint presentation and welcome in the morning by the chair (Dr. Apfelbaum) and the PD (Dr. Klafta). Then split into 2 groups, one to interview first, the other to tour with the chiefs first. Hospital is decent - about on par with Rush IMO but nowhere near Northwestern.

4 15 minute interviews, including one with either the chair or the PD. Overall very laid back. I think I was just unlucky to have one that was more difficult to click with. I started getting a weird vibe the first time she said "It must be hard leaving your home program" that intensified when she repeated twice more. Nothing particularly malignant though.

Lunch with the residents followed, with a good turnout by the residents (15 or so showed up, many different from the ones at dinner). Ended with a wrap-up session with the chiefs and the PD.

Overall, pretty impressive. Very dedicated to didactics with conference every morning. Ample research opportunity but it's in no means pushed. Overall clinical experience is good, probably not as busy as Rush or Northwestern, with more time to read. Recent decrease in livers 2nd to both the liver transplant "scandal" in Chicago and the fact that their Hepatology department (from IM) up and defected to Rush. New pediatrics hospital should be open by next year. Level I trauma for peds only, but there's a new rotation at Cook County for trauma (stabilization rather than OR).

 

[aparikh1]

Pany29,

I am interviewing @ UNC Mon/Tues and wanted to know how formal/informal the reception the night before is (i.e. what to wear, what it's like). Thanks!

[sorry if this is on the wrong thread]

 

[fish]

Did anyone interview at Mayo Clinic Rochester? How is this program compared to other top programs?

Thanks in advance.

 

[pany29]

Originally posted by aparikh1
Pany29,

I am interviewing @ UNC Mon/Tues and wanted to know how formal/informal the reception the night before is (i.e. what to wear, what it's like). Thanks!

[sorry if this is on the wrong thread]

it's pretty informal, most people wear shirt and khakis without tie or jacket. The faculties stay only for a drink and only residents stay for dinner. However, the 2 host residents do stay with you the whole interview day and you also have to interview with the chief resident who will be at dinner so be careful!

 

[ecf1975do]

this was my first interview and I am currently rotating here. Today was the first day they have held interviews. Interviews began at 9 am. you might as well leave your suit at home becasue you will immediatly change into scrubs once you get here. There were 5 interviewing total. Dr. Levine, the PD was on time. Walks into the conference room and greets each person on a first name basis. He obviously looked at the ERAS pictures and knew everyones names. I thought that was a nice personal touch (unlike the Upenn interview after talking to another candidate who said there were 40 interviewing on one day which is rediculous and very informal). Next followed a comprehensive review of the program. Selling points were the one month difficult airway rotation, research and fellowship opportunities. The whole transition from intern year was quite impressive. Very rigorous lectures with alot of time spent with the human simulators. another selling point, apparently, thisis the only program in manhattan with a simulator and other programs come here to use it. Next was lunch and a tour of the facilities. The ORs are very modern. this is a huge hospital , over 1000 beds. I guess that doent matter from an anesthesia standpoint. The residents were readily avaialble for questions. they all seemed to be happy here and mentioned that htey work hard, but less hard than the other big name programs in manhattan. of course manhattan isnt cheap, there is hospital housing but it seems a good portion of your salary will go right towards rent. there is opportunites to moonlight statring halfway thru first year. Every one speaks very highly of the PD. He is really an outgoing , energetic and a resident advocate. Just a really personal guy. Openly admits that the chairman is stepping down this year but the program is very stable and it shouldnt have any affect on their recruitment, etc.
3 -20 minute interviews followed. very chill and laid back. will highly rank.. oh by the way, those of you that are interviewing, reading this thread , and not posting?? come one.. take 5 minutes and share your experiences
peace
any questions about this program, PM me...

 

[aparikh1]

Excellent program and presentation, very organized, agree on all points made above by pany29...not a big city like NY/Phila/DC but great if you like slow pace small town USA.

 

[pany29]

Dinner the night before at the Inn at Penn. Big group....over 30 applicants and around 10 residents

7am - 8:30: overview of the program by PD, new chairman, research director, and director at children's hospital

8:45 - 11am: interview with chairman, one faculty, and one senior resident. also group question session with PD and tour of hospital with resident

11am-12pm: lunch with residents

12pm-3pm: mobile tour of philly

Overall the interviews were not stressful. Just know your CV well and you'll be fine. The program director and residents were all fabulous. The hospital is very new and nice. My only dislike was the new chairman Dr. Fleisher from Hopkins. I found him to be very impersonal and doesn't seem to be listening to me. He asked me the same question 3 times! He also continously wanted me to ask him more questions but because he is new at PENN he had no answers to any of my questions and just made the situation very weird. Anyone else interviewed at PENN feel that way?

 

[drlard]

I felt the same way about Dr. Fleisher! He was also so arrogant and at times a little condescending. I am not ranking their program high because of him.

 

[jmgs2m]

Here's my 2cents:

NYU: People there pretty friendly, interviews were laid back and residents for the most part happy but several of us interviewing that day noticed that there were a few residents who were less than thrilled with the program. One chief resident stressed many times that the program is not "cush" and residents work very hard at NYU.

Harbor-UCLA: If I hadn't heard anything about the program from the outside, I would have been pretty impressed. Residents were among the happiest I've seen, probably the weekends and holidays off has something to do with that (CRNAs work on weekends and holidays). One faculty interview, one resident interview, all chill. I asked about the financial situation, apparently the hospital has enough money to stay open at least until we're done with our training.

USC: Favorable impression on interview day, Chairman Dr. Lumb is a good guy. Chief resident sold the place very well, but nearly all other residents mysteriously MIA. Get amazing experience with traumas if that's your thing. I am somewhat worried again, in that I have heard some not so stellar things from the outside. I've heard mixed reviews from USC students who've rotated through, and attendings I've talked to usually do not have the best things to say about Harbor or USC in anesthesia. Don't worry about the interviews, I was asked superficially about my research but that was expected.

 

[Chillio]

Recently did Drexel and Henry Ford

First, I agree w/ the above post on Drexel so refer to that.

Henry Ford- There were 20 of us. We got split into interview and tour groups. I had three 20 minute interviews, 2 with faculty and one with one of the chief residents. All in all, they werent too bad. The chief asked me the toughest questions.
This is a very large hospital and anesthesia is very busy. You're guaranteed to be working all through call nights. Nice facilities (we didnt see the OR on the tour). It looks like they do a good job of keeping up the hospital. Residents were friendly and informative. PD gave us an overview at the beginning of the day but he had to leave so we didnt get a chance to meet him personally. For you future DOs, recently, they got an AOA approved internship w/ an affiliated hospital so you can now match for the 4-year program if you're interested in being AOA approved. If you have any questions, holler

 

[doc_strange2001]

Chillio--what tough questions were you asked by the chief resident?

 

[Chillio]

It wasnt that he asked hard questions to answer, he was tough in that he wasn't too impressed w/ my letters and other things related to my file

 

[thegasman]

mcg

resident dinner the night before with 2 residents, both seemed pretty happy. One theme that continued to be echoed was that there was not much to do in Augusta, GA, but that it was a nice place to raise a family. Four 30 min interviews with faculty and lunch with residents on interview day. Everyone was pretty relaxed, no pimping etc. I started to run out of questions after a while. No tour, but hospital seemed reasonably modern, standard state med center. Anes has new chairman from Mass Gen who over past year has made a lot of changes. He was very nice and seems highly motivated to build the program, has recruited lots of new faculty, etc. The new dean of the med school is very supportive also and has chipped in financially. They kept talking about the state of the art equipment in the ORs including automatic computer vital charting, and all monitors being networked and information accessible throughout department. He's also brought research from Harvard and is recruiting for basic scientists for the new lab.

Cases seem adequate, a little light on hearts but there is now a new ct surg chairman and cases are picking up. Also not heavy on trauma (I was told you get enough to be comfortable) and light on tx (only kidney and pancreas). Residents out by 4-5 most days with postcall day off. Anes in process of taking over SICU which is now an open unit. crna training program here but I was told residents get first dibs on cases.

Overall seems like a decent clinical program that has been mediocre academically. The new leadership seems very interested in improving this. Residents seem pretty happy, but if you're looking for a fun and exciting place to live this is not it.

 

[doc_strange2001]

LOMA LINDA:

Pre-interview dinner the night b4 with 6 residents including chief resident. Very relaxed and fun. Got opportunity to get alot of questions answered but mostly just got to know each other. Residents we had dinner with were extremely happy with the program the senior residents had great jobs and fellowships lined up. Teaching is emphazied and the residents do very well on boards. They admitted to being weak in lung transplants but get losts of hearts and peds experience. Call schedule is great. Work hours average 50-60hrs/wk (excellent!). Located in Loma Linda not much to there but none the less it still sunny southern california. LA just ~45 min away and the mountians and Vegas are in driving distance. Overall it sounds like they would make a great clincian out of anyone accepted. I was impressed.

8:30-9:30ish Breakfast with the other applicants and introduction by chairman and PD. Re-empahzied great teaching, board scores and clincal experience.

9:30-11:30- 2 interviews. Very relaxed, no curve balls, no pimping. The interviewers were nice, easy to talk too and simply wanted to get to know us and get a feel for our personality.

11:30~12:30- Lunch with other applicants and some residents. Got more questions answered. Again residents are very happy and seem to get along.

12:30-1 Tour of hospital..Pretty standard facilities didnt see OR. Anestheisia runs ICU. Hospital is owned by 7 day Adventists so there is no meat, coffee, mustard or pepper available but doesnt effect training otherwise. Call rooms are nice.

Overall program was pretty impressive

 

[ecf1975do]

9 am- welcomes and introduction by Dr. davidson, the program director. this lasted about 45 minutes. the were 9 of us interviewing that day, half of whom were DO's. We all received a letter from the PD a few weeks ago stating that the program is currently on probation. So obviously, alot of this focused on that. Apparently didactics were very weak in the past with the old PD resulting in low board score pass rate. There is a new chairwoman, Dr. Delphin from Columbia who has been there afew month and has made some radical changes in terms of the didactics. It seems very strong now. The PD could have done a little better job "selling " the program in my opinion.

10-11 am interviews. there were 4 interviewers. however, everyone met with the Chairwoman. I met with the PD. benign interview. This is only my second interview, but I would think that the PD should interview everyone??? they are supposed to be the resident advocator. maybe im missing something. unless its just not possible with time constraints. while the interviews were going on the chief resident and a 3rd yr resdient answered all of our questions. one admitted that if he had to do it all over again, he would not have come to the program. but stated that with the new chairwoman. things are much better. however, the next review by the ACGME is not for another yr or 2. call is about 6x a month.

1130-tour of university hospital. nice facilities for a state hospital.

next was a 20 minute bus ride to hackensack medical center. this is a private VERY busy hospital. they do i think 30,000 cases a year. basically non stop.

we had lunch with the same 3rd yr resident who drove down with us. he was a great guy. i ran out of questions and wanted to get another person's perspective. you think they could have pulled one out of the OR while we were there. their cafeteria food is amazing. on thursdays is sushi day. very nice hospital

we got a little tour of the library and other areas. A group of nutritionists walked past us and there was alot of talent there. They have a spa there, that they had to show us. no tour of the OR. am i interviewing for derm residency??? sure it was impressive, but unnessesary.

met with the anesthesia director there. nice guy. half of the program you will be at hackensack. day ends at 530. very busy here. will train you great for private practice.

315 bus back to university

interestingly, i dont think they have ever had a DO in the program but are starting to open up now. also, i question why more resident were not around to ask question instead of the 3rd year who stayed with us the whole day. in retrospect, i question why the 20 minute drive to another hospital. after speaking to a surgical resident i know, it was basically to show off the really nice hackensack hospital. this made for a longer day that i would have liked. obviously, the probationary status will turn off alot of applicants. with the new chairwoman from columbia.this program has alot of potential, but miracles dont happen overnight. one this i liked is the university inner city experience seeing alot of sick patients then the private high maintanance hospital for your private practice expereince.
just my 2 cents...

 

[docsleep]

I agree with the above concerning UMDNJ-Newark. That is pretty much how my day went, except I only interviewed with 1 person - the PD, Dr. Davidson, due to time constraints. I believe that the majority of the other interviewees only interviewed with 2 people. Once again, I would comment on the probationary status of the program and how that deters me from ranking the program high.



I also recently interviewed at University of Maryland at Baltimore.

Night before interview -- Dinner at Roy's Hawaiian. I did not get to make this dinner, however, I was told that it was an incredible dinner. (dinner for 8 was over $700).

Day of interview: 8-9AM -- meet with PD for overview of program
9-12PM -- 3 interviews:
1 with PD, 1 with faculty, and 1 with
chairwoman (who is also very
influential in the ABA). The PD spent
the majority of the time with me (at
least 45 minutes), and asked about
specifics on my CV.
12-1PM -- Lunch and tour with residents.

I liked the fact that the University of MD interview started early. However, I didn't like the fact that the residents were always "looking over their shoulder" when they were telling us about negatives. They were blatant in saying that they work really, really hard...but then again, that's just expected. But it just seemed like they were weary of anyone hearing them tell us the truth. That was just an odd component that I have not seen in my other interviews. In most circumstances, the residents are not afraid to tell it like it is.

 

[Thoinga Thoing]

U of Miami

No pre-interview dinner, which initially didn't seem to bode very well. Arrived at the enormous hospital complex around 9am on a beautiful, sunny 75 degree day.

There were a total of 5 applicants that day with a total of 3 interviews, 2 in the am and 1 in the afternoon with either the PD or Chair.

Interviewer #1: After making some small talk, launched into a pimping session involving anesthetic knowledge and ethical issues. Not very long but left a bad taste in my mouth.
Went on a small diatribe against a recent post/review written on "doctor.com" (likely meant scutwork) about work hours and cRNAs.
Interviewer #2: Very pleasant. Had obviously read my CV beforehand and asked thoughtful questions. However, also engaged in some mild pimping but stopped quickly after I responded (apparently) well to her queries.
Interviewer #3 (PD): Rather hurried and very basic interview.

In between the morning session and afternoon interviews, we were given a nice little tour of the hospital, provided lunch, and also allowed to view the ORs in the free-standing trauma building. The senior resident guiding the tour allowed us to ask as many questions as we wanted, and also dropped each of us off in a separate OR to talk to the resident running the room, which was a nice touch.

Lunch was provided with only applicants and residents (~5-6)present. Some had volunteered for the occasion and others just happened to drop by. All the residents were very helpful and forthcoming about their work hours as well as relative strengths/weaknesses of the program. I felt they were able to speak candidly without fear of retribution.

The chair also gave a dynamic talk in the afternoon about where the program was heading in the future and what recent changes had already been within the 2 years of his tenure. Very impressed by his candidness and plans he was making.

 

[ecf1975do]

interviewed at maine med recently. i agree with everything the previous poster said about the program. there were supposed to be 3 applicants but a recent snow storm brought the number down to 2. met with 2 residents for dinner at a mexican restaurant in portland. the margaritas were flowing. both were very pleased with the program. one was a first year and one was a second.
this is a small program. 4 residents a year. there are a couple DOs in the program. the residents said that the attendings are are very friendly, willing to teach and felxible with anesthetic plan. a majority trained in boston programs are came to portland for the quality of life, relatively inexpensive living. if you are not an outdoors person, maine aint for you. there are no fellowships here. but it isnt a problem getting them since the faculty have good connections. the plus is that there is no competition with fellows for cases. you will go a ****load of hearts here. they have an extrodinary number.
met with PD in AM. change immediately into scrubs. he talked to us briefly about the program. great guy, down to earth. ORs nice, they all look the same after a while. typical day 630 to 5. the PD just brought us to different rooms to chat informally with diffrent attendings. lunch around 1130. me and the other applicant ate in the PD office and residents just came as they could be releived to talk to us while was good. they all mentioned that the didactics are lacking. other than that no complaints. a tour followed of the hospital. this is a private practice run OR. its all about the benjamins. so quick turnover. you will easily do over 600 cases a year, no competition for cases., wide variety and very sick patients. negatives: if u are big into research this aint the place and if you need didactics up the yin yang, this aint the place. you will be an excellent clinical anesthesiologist coming out of here.
i talked to the secretary.. she said 350 applications for 50 interviews for 4 spots.. i may be wrong but if you dont rank this place number one.. you have no shot coming here. pleasant experience. i welcome inquiries. btw... i think there are about 110 other programs that people have interviewed at? how about writing a blurb??

 

[ecf1975do]

this is a small residency with 8 residents a year. you get lots of clinical attention. they have a tremendous clinical caseload here. the program is divided between 4 hospitals within a 7 miles radius. hartford hospital has one of the largest surgical volumes in the counrty. st francis has a large cardiac service. conneticut childrens hospital has.. well you guessed it alot of peds and peds trauma amd john dempsey at uconn health center has a large regional anesth volume.
there was 3 applicants. one other DO and one MD. there are a decent number of DOs in the program. the PD, Dr. Peluso is a great , personal friendly guy. he reviewed the programs in detail. no call first 4 months. one on one teaching in 2 month blocks with 2 diffrent attendings. call about 5-6 times a month. about 5000 OB cases a yr. one thing that was interesting is that in the 3rd yr there is a one month rotation where you assume the role of an attending an supervice rooms with crna's and junior residents.
2 interviews, one with PD and one with faculty member . very laid back. changed into scrubs. the PD personally gave us the tour of OR at hartford which was nice touch. they renovated the ORs and they are really amazing.
had lunch with the chief , one 2nd and one 1st year. all are very happy. this was their first choice. the chief said he has done 1700 cases to date which is well above the average. they are not the workforce of the hospital. there are alot of crnas here and they do the **** cases. alot have famikies and there is adequate time for family life. one resident mentioned how she interviewed last year at that big name program in boston that begins with a B
and was not impressed. too many residents and u get lost in the crowd. also one other mentioned the other program in CT that begins with a Y had too many residents for the number of anesthestics that are given annually. but as they mentioned, there are people that are suckers for a name.. just their 2 cents.
all of the attending are fellowship trained. in terms of weaknesses, the residents said that they arent big on research here. didcatics- 2 hr lectures every monday and one full day of lectures one day a month. grand rounds once a week.
you will be an excellent clinical anesthesiologist coming out of here. lots of cases. no competition casue there are no fellows here. good life outside of hospital. they have periodic airway workshops with a renound airway expert who is on staff.
if u are looking to do research this isnt the place. the 4 different hospital are very close to each other. overall, excellent program.
PM me if have any questions

 

[Arch Guillotti]

No dinner the night before. Balls. Show up at 10 am. Valet will park your car at the ER and secretary will validate your ticket. About 8 of us total. Start of with about a 30 minute presentation powerpoint by the pd. Nice guy, pretty informative presentation. Next is off to a tour of the hospital. Saw a lot of different call rooms. Tour guide (CA-3) didn't seem real interested. Didn't get to go in the main OR (sucks) bit we saw some of the OB OR's. Pretty standard. The OR's apparently are split into a couple of areas on different floors of the hospital. No big deal. Then we had a paltry lunch of sandwiches and chips. A number of residents filtered in and out. A couple were very cool and talked a lot, but a lot just seemed to be there for the food only. Just my humble opinion. Then there were 3 interviews after lunch. Chair, pd and 1 of 2 clinicians. All were benign, no pimping. 2 of them started off with "Questions?" Ugh. Chair had nothing with him, not sure if he read my file beforehand or he was just trying to keep it on the downlow. Anyways, the residents were ok, didn't seem like they worked that hard. Call sounded like it wasn't too bad. A couple of things - they are light on hearts (I think, interviews are starting to run together) but it is changing. Pain service is in flux. Apparently they fled with the fellows to somewhere else. They are recruiting to fill the spots. Didn't sound like a big deal. The ICU experience also sounded like it was pretty weak. Not a bad program, you will be a good clinician coming out of here.

Also did anyone else who interviewed here get a follow up email. Just curious.

Jus my .02

 

[voltron]

I actually thought that Dr. Fleisher was a pretty nice guy. He was real chilled out when he interviewed me, we talked about philly, the eagles, a little bit about my app, and he answered any questions I had about the direction of the program very knowledgebly. I really liked the program a lot, the residents were cool, fun city, awesome reputation, great teaching and research.

 

[nchhabra]

Originally posted by timtye78
This is how my interview went on the first day of interviews at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas went for me:

Dinner the night before with two current residents-Upscale Italian restuarant.
8:00 am Met with administration staff and faculty for a nice overview of the program, including a video overview of the program from the resident's perspectives, produced by the residents.
9:30, 10:30-Two faculty interviews- Low stress interviews held in each faculty's office, no panels, no other students in the rooms. The faculty are given a list of suggested questions to ask, but neither really utilized these much. These interviews didn't seem much more than them wanting to know about you as a person. The sessions are about one hour long each, but time really flew and they didn't seem to ask any really difficult questions.
12:00 Lunch with more residents
1:00 Exit Interview with Dr. Johnston (PD)- Extremely outgoing, and friendly. Very energetic and excited about UTSW Anesthesiology. This meeting did seem more like recruiting, but he did ask a few questions about class rank, board scores. After that, there was a little more about the UTSW program, then thanking me for applying and interviewing at UTSW. For the other future D.O.s out there, Dr. Johnston recognized that I will be a D.O. and mentioned right off the bat that "I want you to know that some of the BEST residents I have ever had were D.O.s"

Hospital: Massive, plenty of volume, residents mention that they will have liver transplant experiences, as well as plenty of bread and butter caseload. Residents mentioned also that CRNAs take the "simple" cases, e.g. sedations, and that as upper levels, they get plenty of opportunity to "cherry-pick" their cases.

just wanted to add a couple of things. the day i interviewed, the interviews were only meant to be 30-40 min. also no tour. one faculty took both the students that interviewed w/her (myself and 1 other on a mini-tour of the ob area). otherwise i had pretty much the same experience as the op.

 

[NYGasGirl]

Interviewed there last week. There are 8 applicants on that day. We had dinner at a steak house the night before with two residents (one first year and one second year). Dinner was very decent and residents were very candid about the programs. They seem to be happy about changes in the programs.
The interview day started at 9AM with the introduction about the program by the PD, then the group was divided into two. One group had AM interview then hospital tour and the other had the hospital tour then PM interview. The hospital tour to my group was given by a first year resident. He didn't seem very happy that day. maybe because of the snow storm and we had to walk outside to the Ambulatory Care Center.
I had interviews with the PD and two senior attendings. Interviews were quite relaxing, mostly about the CV and personal statement. I only got pimped by the last interviewer about bradycardia during surgery. Overall, I felt that the program went through a lot of good changes, but the board passing rate is very low there. I'm not quite sure if the didactic program is as good as they said it is. Residents told us that they did a decent number of cases in all field except transplant anesthesia. They only do kidney transplant there. They have CRNAs to release them and anesthesia tech to set up rooms for them, so it's quite nice. The typical day there is 6:30 to 5 and call is Q4-5.
The hospital is in the North shore of Long Island and is very close to the Hamptoms, and the living expense is much less than NYC.
I think they have decent program, but the PD seems not so interested in DO applicants. She told me that they have large number of DO applicants and they interviewed so many of them, so go figure.
Go luck to you all!

 

[thegasman]

this is a small program 4 residents a year. It is also very new. This will be the second match the program has participated in. There are currently only 3 ca1s in the program who all transferred from other specialties (im). They have four interns scattered around who will start as CA1s, and then the class from this match will complete the program. All this being said, it seems to have the potential for being a quality program: good fellowship trained faculty, adequate caseload etc. Peds is at separate hosp in town. Trauma is light. Facilities are very nice, call rooms look like a hotel room, etc. But new=uncertain for me.

Interview: No dinner the night before, but decent hotel provided
7-8 grand rounds
8-9 presentation by assoc pd
9-10/10:30 4 20-25 min interviews with faculty - very laid back
1030 1145 tour of hosp
12-1 lunch with resident
1-230 tour of mayo clinic

resident was working like 45 hr/wk or so with minimal (2x month) call, crnas take cases without learning potential. St lukes hosp is where they are mostly with mayo clinic being mainly outpatient facility 20 min away. Didn't meet with chair/pd as he is in kuwait on active duty.

 

[thegasman]

Excellent program, residents seemed to work hard but didn't mind. Pd said he plans to hire 12-15 crnas to help with workload.

Dinner the night before for 7 applicants at home of attending, also present were several residents and the pd. We did have time to talk to residents alone, however. I was told they usually go to a restraunt instead.

7-730 conference, this was excellent
730-830 presentation on program and city
830-930 simulator presentation
930-1230 interviews. Interview with chair very relaxed. Also interviewed 2 of us with 1 res, very relaxed. Two other 1 on 1 interviews with faculty. Then strange 4 on 1 interview with emeritus chair. He went around the room for 45 min having us ask questions one by one.
1230-130 lunch with residents
130-230 tour
230-3 wrap up with pd

Overall relaxed atmosphere with great didactics and cases, workload maybe a little heavy but that seems to be improving.

 

[thegasman]

Program with great education, laid back residents and faculty, residents on first name basis with faculty. No dinner the night before for us.

830 -900 presentation with breakfast by chief res
Then half of us (there were 7) interviewed and the other half toured. Then lunch, then vice versa. Interviews with chair, pd, and two other faculty. All about 25 min. Pretty relaxed, all would do a lot of talking except pd. He was sort of short with answers and ushered me out before the time was up. He did this with everyone however. He also seemed a little cocky about the program when I asked about RRC etc. He also couldn't explain why the program didn't fill quite a few slots last year. Possibly a computer glitch was one thing he said (whatever) I was done about 230. Residents were all really cool and happy, they seemed to think that the program last year was complacent about recruiting and didn't rank enough people, plus some negative comments on scutwork etc.. This I believe. This is an excellent program and no one I talked to had anything negative to say. My only complaint is that they, especially the pd, are a little too aware of the quality of the program.

 

[ecf1975do]

interview day began at 9 am . there were 9 applicants, all guys, and one other DO. one 2nd yr resident was there hanging out and seemed to be happy with the program. there was no intinerary of what the day would be like. suddenly, the secretary/administer started blabbing about the program. she has been there for many years. apparently, i was a little late and it was up in the air whether we would meet with the PD or chairman. this woman kept on talking and i was getting rather bored. she gave a folder about the program with some nice pictures of brooklyn. next followed the interviews, 2 faculty members, benign about 15 min each. i eventually met with the PD and chairman rather briefly. the PD asked me what other new york programs i applied to. lunch was good, then a tour followed. the usual OR's, etc. overall, there are 4 different hospitals to rotate thru, alot of pathology and diverse patients. the chariman, is former ASA , Dr. cotrell who has crazy connections, for fellowships, etc. However, i was really turned off by the "selling" of the program. having no presentation by the PD or chairman was a negative for me.. anyone else have the same experience??

 

[C.P.]

this is my home institution.
dinner the night before.
Early start. .. they'd like you to see a bit of how their residents work throughout the day, so you meet at 6:15 am after the shuttle takes all of you from the hotel to the hospital.
Morning conference with a light breakfast, then you're treated to a brief talk by the PD, Dr. Robotham, and then the rest of the time is mixed between doing two interviews and hanging around with the residents in the OR's until a casual lunch at abot noon-ish.
The interviews were very relaxed, a few questions about you personally, and a couple actual questions about you and anesthesia.
They were all very congenial, took the time to answer questions, and for the most part we're rreally just tryig to see if your personality fit what they're looking for.

A side note: they put you up at the holiday inn by the airport, which unfortunately makes rochester seem like a giant parking lot if all you see is the hotel and the hospital. Rochester does have some fun and funky areas, so take some time to check it out if you've got the opportunity.

Here's my impressions (as an insider):
Teaching: rocks. . . the attendings here really like working with the residents, and there's a huge amount of cases. There's a decent amount of autonomy that goes on, but not so much that you're feeling abandoned. Talking with friends that have graduated they all echo the same sentiment: finishing here and transitioning into the role of being an attending only takes a couple days becuse of how well they're trained. Simulator. . . loved this. Yeah, schools talk about having a simulator, but I love what they do with theirs. You spend a few weeks doing crisis management, where they plop you in the simulator and throw scenarios at you till you're able to handle emergencies in your sleep. For anyone ever caught in the middle of a code, or have someone try and die on you on the table, this is an invaluable experience that you'd much rather learn this way than waiting to learn by experience first-hand.

Clinical: Rochester used to be liver transplant central, but their main transplant surgeon flew off a year or so ago. But, they've just started things going again so you're bound to get some good liver cases. Thing is, there used to be so many livers people started viewing them like whipples: long and painful, but now there seems to be a perfect amount to get you the teaching and experience but without sending you into convulsions when you find out you're scheduled for one.
Cardiac, peds, pain, regional, OB: they've got a good solid mix of it all.

Atmposphere: very friendly,esidents all get along and have a great relationship with the attendings.

Work: The ORs are numerous, and they've just added another dozen or so in the last two years, which are amazing. The hours are very well structured, with a night float team taking care of you, CRNA's there to make sure you're out when you need to be, but they never take the complicated cases away from you. Call is very reasonable, and I'm not sure if I was dreaming this or not, but I believe they have this funky system where, if you're in an OR past a certain time, then you're automatically given the next day off. . . I just can't remember what time is the cutoff.

Living: here's the upside/downside: Rochester is a great place if you're in famiily mode. They give you a great salary, with which you can EASILY buy a house and a car, never have to worry about traffic on a commute if you decide to live farther away, has five of the top public high schools in the nation, and a very reasonable standard of living.
The downside is that it's Rochester, which has lots of snow, long, grey winters, and if you're single, the main redeeming factor is that Toronto is only a three hour drive away.

Rochester gives you the chance to be excellently trained, and have a great life. . . you've just got to decide if the kind of life available in Rochester is what you want.

Overall: a very solid program that will leave you well trained, well supported by the administration, and ready to hit the clinical world without concern.