i believe the only reason why i would have chosen to be at ut-houston was for location, for family, for friends. and although those are important aspects to think about when ranking a program, i had to consider other things like happiness of the residents and opportunities for fellowship.
the one big thing ut-houston has is being in the medical center. that being said, the pain service was cut a few years back, i believe, for budgeting reasons. the only exposure you will have to pain (if that's important to you) would be as a ca-2. even then, it's at md anderson.
the houston program is so large (10 advanced and 10 categorical), which can be good and bad. the good is that call starts at 3pm as opposed to 24 hour call. the bad, well, it's been known that the program doesn't treat its residents all that greatly. that can be subject to disagreement, but i have many resident friends who are not all too happy. some of the faculty really should not be there, but then again, there are some great faculty there as well.
i can honestly say that as a student rotating there (i did three months there), i loved it. i became friends with many residents there and established good relationships with the faculty there. had i ended up matching there (i ranked them second) i would have been happy. but the downside is that i am interested in a pain fellowship, and being there would have probably made it more difficult for me to pursue that, if i decided i wanted to.
i did not interview at baylor, so i do not know much about the program, but i have a friend who's a senior resident there and likes it. there have been major changes in administration there, but overall, the residents are happy, and they get taken care of by their program. there has been talk about baylor and UT merging, but if it does happen, i do not believe it will be in the next year or the year after, so i don't think there is anything to worry about.
as far as utmb-galveston, i loved their program, although i did not rotate through. they have an integrated intern year, so you do not have to worry about finding an internship elsewhere. you have a few months of anesthesia as well as pain. the program takes care of their residents and all of the residents are happy. it's close enough to houston to where you can still live in houston if you choose, but away from the hustle and bustle of the med center.
i have much more to say, and if you have any questions feel free to PM me. hope that helps! 🙂
