Thomas Jefferson University/Wills Eye Institute

[Andrew_Doan]

Ophthalmology Residency Program Compendium Table of Contents

Wills Eye Institute
840 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107

http://www.willseye.org

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[Andrew_Doan]

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Anybody have any comments on Wills in terms of how the program will be affected in the coming years with the recent purchase of the program by Thomas Jefferson University and the inevitable stepping down/retirement of the longtime chairman (he told me this during my interview)? I asked about these on interview day but residents seemed to know little about it or dodged the question altogether. Wills is a great program but interested to see how these changes will affect the program

 

[JimBeezie]

I interviewed at Wills Eye in 2006.

Pros: Some of the happiest residents I saw on the interview trail. See and do a lot in the Eye ER. Wills faculty are probably the best out there from a clinical perspective. They tended to focus much more upon the quality vs quantity for surgery. Seemed to make sense. By training here, you become apart of Wills, which is definitely a good thing. Philadelphia is affordable Wills is in a great part of Philadelphia. Residents even got business classes!

Cons: Resident pay was low. Philadelphia can suck. Average surgery numbers for such a strong program. Other than that, Wills is awesome.

 

[VikingFavre]

Interview Experience
-Two interview days with a cocktail reception/dinner meet-and-greet in between
-3 panel interviews back-to-back-to-back
-Tour of facilities
-Lunch with residents
-In between you hang out with any residents around

Pros:
-Outstanding reputation and options for fellowship
-Very happy and close-knit residents
-Truly a family more than institute, with faculty treating residents exceptionally well, they really seem to care about the person based on the questions they focused on in the interview
-Huge alumni support network=connections and $$$$ funding (including brand-new simulator!)
-Progressive responsibility and difficulty over the three years
-Resident education is a real priority
-Freestanding Eye ER across the street from Wills
-Philly has all 4 major sports, great public transit, and Wills is in the nice part of town

Cons:
-Philly can be a tough place to live in terms of crime and parking
-In-house call including off-site facilities
-Off-site rotations (about 10-15% of resident education)
-Arizona rotation, although to me it honestly sounds like a great deal. They fly you down to Arizona and put you up for free as you work one-on-one with a Wills alumnus cataract surgeon.
-Volume not as high as some places, focus on quality as mentioned in previous post
-Diversity of pathology? IMO not at the level of other top places (e.g. Baylor, UCLA)

Overview:

Wills is obviously well-regarded and well-known for its resident training. The biggest pleasant surprise to me was how truly appropriate it is to call it the 'Wills family'. They support their residents during and after residency and they seem to have a terrific network set up for graduates.

Besides that residents seem to have a good mix of learning by doing and academics. They are not the research powerhouse other top places are, but it seems that residency is not really the time for research.

I got a great feeling from faculty and residents. This was perhaps the happiest place I visited on the trail. Fellowship match is terrific. Overall I would say that it would be hard to find the applicant who would not be happy here besides geographic reasons. The only qualm one might have is if one prefers a more independent environment with a wider variety of pathology.

 

[CAMD2014]

Can any current or graduated residents (or past applicants) provide any more insight into the program? The posts above are from a while ago, so I wonder how/if things have changed. How does the Wills residency compare to places like Bascom, Jules Stein, Duke (?more academic centers?) ?

 

[OpthoForMe]

Can any current or graduated residents (or past applicants) provide any more insight into the program? The posts above are from a while ago, so I wonder how/if things have changed. How does the Wills residency compare to places like Bascom, Jules Stein, Duke (?more academic centers?) ?

Wills is awesome. I interviewed at all of those programs except for Jules Stein, as well as a number of other big places like Iowa and MEEI, and I felt that Wills and Bascom Palmer were the best overall programs for residency. The major differences would be the locations (Miami is a major lifestyle change for many and has a huge Spanish-speaking population) and Wills has more teaching/guidance/graduated responsibility. Neither program has the same resident research output that programs like Wilmer and MEEI expect because the clinical training is the primary focus, but both obviously have strong track records for fellowship match and job placement into private practice and academics. The facilities, leadership and culture at Wills were all exceptional and I ranked them first as a result. As others have mentioned, the residents seemed to be the happiest of any who I met at the top programs. I agree with the points made by VikingFavre above.

 

[victsing]

Anyone have info on where the recent graduates have matched for fellowship? The packet on interview day and the lunchtime presentations didn't include this info

 

[xyz34486]

I have heard mixed things about this place from people who trained there. Sometimes I got the sense that faculty weren't that helpful with post-residency plans (probably depends on what your plans are in all honesty), but on the flip side I also heard the alumni look out for fellow wills graduates.

 

[justinbaily]

Anyone have info on where the recent graduates have matched for fellowship? The packet on interview day and the lunchtime presentations didn't include this info

Retina:
Bascom Palmer
Tufts
St. Louis Retina Institute
Vanderbilt

Glaucoma:
Wills

Plastics:
UTSW

One went into private practice and one wanted to do international work for a year before applying into retina. This was an unusually retina-heavy year. One second year currently applying for plastics.

Edit: Just saw the above-posts. Wills is great! Excellent sense of camaraderie and people here are really nice. Really amazing group of clinical mentors to have access to. Huge alumni network and lots of teaching along with very high clinical volume with lots of surgery.