Thoughts on Washington University (St. Louis)

[DaBigDawg]

What do you all think about the IM program at WashU? I've heard they have a lot of private attendings. I've heard the hospital is beautiful. I've heard that they match well for fellowships but they match locally. Any thoughts about the program would be much appreciated. If anyone has a link to their fellowship match then could you please post that also.

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[DrNick2006]

Don't know anything about them other than people make a big deal about getting an interview there, so they seem to have a good rep.

 

[coldfeet]

What do you all think about the IM program at WashU? I've heard they have a lot of private attendings. I've heard the hospital is beautiful. I've heard that they match well for fellowships but they match locally. Any thoughts about the program would be much appreciated. If anyone has a link to their fellowship match then could you please post that also.

WashU does have a lot of private attendings numerically, but the ward service is huge. The hospital is actually big enough that almost a third of the patients are covered by the hospitalist service; private patients without much going on get sent to the hospitalist service first. It looked like about 2/3 to 3/4 of the list on any typical general medicine month were private patients.

 

[medstud03]

As a current IM resident at WashU I can assure you that I have received top notch training. That is not to say that you will not receive equally excellent training at other top institutions, but I am certainly glad I chose to do my residency here.

Barnes-Jewish Hosptial is HUGE! While there are a number of private patients, there is an even larger number of patients admitted to the ward service everyday. Private attendings are, for the most part, easily accessible. On average, I would say that interns generally have equal numbers of private and ward patients at any given time. I think it is a nice system.

As for fellowship placement, WashU residents tend to do very well. I'm not quite sure what it means to "match locally" but if you mean that a number of residents every year decide to stay at WashU for fellowship, then you would be correct. The nice thing about this IM program, though, is that it attracts people from all over the country. While there is a large number of midwesterners, there are also a number of residents from both coasts and a surprisingly large group from Texas. So, there is also a good number of residents each year that match outside of WashU at other very good programs. I believe they hand out a list of "Where Are They Now" when you interview.

If anyone has any specific questions about this program, just let me know!
medstud03

 

[Mumpu]

Spoke to a cards fellow today who graduated from WashU IM residency. He spoke very highly of it, particularly in preparation for a cards fellowship, and said private attendings were largely a non-issue. I'll see for myself soon...

 

[BStein76]

What do you all think about the IM program at WashU? I've heard they have a lot of private attendings. I've heard the hospital is beautiful. I've heard that they match well for fellowships but they match locally. Any thoughts about the program would be much appreciated. If anyone has a link to their fellowship match then could you please post that also.

One of my classmates interviewed there last week and he raved about how nice the faculty and Barnes Jewish were. The ancillary services seemed great (social work, nursing, patient transportation). The cost of living is so cheap many residents own houses and have families. He didn't seem to think the private attendings were a hindrance to education. Most interns slept about 4-5 hours on call and were pretty happy (even the ones he randomly met in the MICU). Furthermore, the residency is extremely supportive of doing research so that you match well for fellowship and time is built in for that in the second year. Negatives that he seemed to notice was that the computer system seemed a little confusing (some computers were on the BJH network and others were on the Wash U network). He also felt there was little outpatient experience relative to other programs (but that is fine with me, I like the wards). I looked over the sheet he was given and it seemed like the fellowships were dominated by cards and GI (seemed like they go most places East, West coast). I'll be interviewing in Dec. so I'll update my own thoughts later.