Thoughts on UPenn?

[Pfannenstiel]

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Please tell me that someone else here interviewed at Penn ... or maybe someone who's in school there?

I liked their program a lot, love Philadelphia, and I'm considering ranking them first... but I found it difficult to get a good impression of the atmosphere of the program on their super-crowded interview day. I realized after the fact that I didn't get to talk to any junior residents - only 3rd and 4th years. Does anyone know more about how happy/nice the residents are there? I know that they tend to be ambitious, but are they a bunch of hard-core, Type-A folks?

Any input would be much appreciated, since I'm not sure that I'll have time to schedule a second look.

 

[SurgeryChef]

Check your PM box Pfannenstiel - I sent you something!😀

 

[obbyjobby]

Hi surgery chef -- I would love to hear your thoughts on UPenn's program also...I didn't know too much about it before I interviewed there but I was really, really impressed. I also left without feeling like I got to know the residents -- there were way too many people there.

 

[SurgeryChef]

Hi surgery chef -- I would love to hear your thoughts on UPenn's program also...I didn't know too much about it before I interviewed there but I was really, really impressed. I also left without feeling like I got to know the residents -- there were way too many people there.

I interviewed at Penn and liked it as well. And I feel like I talked to several junior residents on my tour (don't know if you were there Friday or Sat) and they appear happy to me. But there were issues with the program that I didn't like. For ex: they are the ONLY program I interviewed at where there's no continuity clinic. The residents say you just see patients from a stack of charts and no patient is really "yours". I thought it'd be really fun to have my own patients and didn't like hearing that. Also, seems like the residents do a lot of scut like blood draws and IV starts on call. Not that I'm opposed to doing those, especially in an emergency, but it doesn't necessarily seem like the best use of time. As good of training as I think I'd get there, I feel like there are other programs that don't have the above disadvantages...

One of my residents at my home program did a month at Penn 2 years ago and thought it was miserable. Not that I'd go on that per se, but it's just another opinion...

Hope that helps - again just my impressions.

 

[Wednesday]

Does anyone know more about how happy/nice the residents are there? I know that they tend to be ambitious, but are they a bunch of hard-core, Type-A folks?

From what I've heard (and this is from several people who have rotated there as students) hard-core, type-A would be putting it mildly. I have ONLY heard that it's malignant. Why don't you do a second look and see if you can talk to more residents. I suspect that the advantage of Penn is the name (as I found that many residents pointed out to me during the interview day). Philly, however, is an awesome city.

 

[HUP OBGYN PGY2]

Hey guys- someone referred me to this website when they saw that there were possibly mixed reviews on the penn program. I'm a second year resident here, and have to say that it's been an extremely positive experience for me. I don't know if you had a chance to meet a lot of us at the interview days, but the 24 of us who work here are a closely knit group of people. We do work very hard, but the news is that you are going to work hard at any good program. But, we do go out a lot, do things together, and are very supportive of one another. I'm sorry that you may have felt that interview days were crowded, but I encourage you to contact our program coordinator if you want to come for a second look. We would be glad to answer any questions that linger.