top prorgrams in chicago

[Hope2BnMD]

I am interested in doing my anesthesia residency in chicago. I was wondering if the top 4 anesthesia programs in chicago were: U. Chicago, UIC, Northwestern, and Rush?? If so, which would you say is the best (i know it's a very subjective question--but i'd appreciate any opinions), and which of the 4 offers best lifestyle as a resident (2-3 weekends off per month is my primary request!) I would like to apply to a top program for my 4th year away rotation. thanks.

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[VentdependenT]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=51901&highlight=chicago+programs

Check out link for a quick review of chicago programs. U of C is a great program with good mix of didactics and clinicals with wickedly good ICU training. NWU is a solid program with a decent balance between didactics and clinical training. Heavy hours though. Rush is the clinical program in the city. Tons o' work, long hours, and plenty of pressure to study on your own. Those are the big three in town.

Keep in mind that graduating from ANY program and passing your boards makes you an MDA. In addition I'm NOT saying the other Chicago programs aren't great. UIC undoubtedly has the happiest residents with perhaps Ill Masonic for a close second. Good peeps.

Give the thread a read and do a search as well on all of the chytown programs.

N'joy!
Vent

 

[cchoukal]

For what it's worth, chairs at two of the big west coast (read: northern CA) programs told me U of C was the "only" program in Chicago. I interviewed there and at Northwestern, and I felt the 2 programs emphasized different things, but that either approach was valid. U of C marketed themselves as educating "consultant physicians" with, in addition to a full clinical volume, a well-developed didactic curriculum and an emphasis on being involved in things (education, research, politics, administration) outside the OR. Northwestern, on the other hand, marketed themselves as having a really high clinical volume from which to learn. The debate between "heavy clinical" vs "heavy didactic" is as old as training programs themselves, and the "better" approach depends on the person. How these marketed differences play out in the real world of the program remains to be seen. Regardless of what you get training-wise, the name behind either program will get you pretty much whatever you want. I know nothing about any other Chicago programs.

Also, take this perspective with a grain of salt because I matched at U of C.

 

[VentdependenT]

For what it's worth, chairs at two of the big west coast (read: northern CA) programs told me U of C was the "only" program in Chicago. I interviewed there and at Northwestern, and I felt the 2 programs emphasized different things, but that either approach was valid. U of C marketed themselves as educating "consultant physicians" with, in addition to a full clinical volume, a well-developed didactic curriculum and an emphasis on being involved in things (education, research, politics, administration) outside the OR. Northwestern, on the other hand, marketed themselves as having a really high clinical volume from which to learn. The debate between "heavy clinical" vs "heavy didactic" is as old as training programs themselves, and the "better" approach depends on the person. How these marketed differences play out in the real world of the program remains to be seen. Regardless of what you get training-wise, the name behind either program will get you pretty much whatever you want. I know nothing about any other Chicago programs.

Also, take this perspective with a grain of salt because I matched at U of C.

A bit of bias perhaps. Congrats. UofC is an excellent program.

 

[amnesic]

Take it with a 2nd grain of salt because the chair of one of those Northern California programs trained at U of C...

 

[cchoukal]

bias acknowledged and declared. And which chair are you thinking of that trained at U of C? I wasn't aware.

 

[amnesic]

bias acknowledged and declared. And which chair are you thinking of that trained at U of C? I wasn't aware.

It's the one 30 min. south of UCSF...PhD, MD at U of C....bias?

 

[cchoukal]

yeah, well, sure enough; that's probably why he said it. I'm glad I stated from the get-go that they were their words, not mine. Like I said, I just matched there, so I am waiting to see what the truth is. Anyway, I'm sure the OP would be interested in more opinions on programs, although I found the link posted by Ventdependent to be helpful.

 

[xjohns1]

I am interested in doing my anesthesia residency in chicago. I was wondering if the top 4 anesthesia programs in chicago were: U. Chicago, UIC, Northwestern, and Rush?? If so, which would you say is the best (i know it's a very subjective question--but i'd appreciate any opinions), and which of the 4 offers best lifestyle as a resident (2-3 weekends off per month is my primary request!) I would like to apply to a top program for my 4th year away rotation. thanks.

i am a fourth-year at uic, applied to and interviewed at only 2 programs in chicago: uic and u of c. i don't have direct experience with the other programs in the city, but have looked into them quite a bit and talked to many faculty, students and residents about them. i'm not comfortable posting publicly about programs i don't have first-hand knowledge about, but if you'd like my opinion, pm me.

uic: it is an excellent department. there is good case volume and complexity. all the depts in the city are a bit on the low side for cardiac and vascular cases because there are so many academic centers among which the cases are distributed. the faculty-resident comraderie is very, very nice at uic. the faculty buy dinner for all the residents on call, every night and then eat with the group. the practice has a nice private-academic hybrid feel to it. there are faculty from all over (mass gen, ucsf, u of c, penn, michael reese, stanford, etc.). many of the faculty are eager to teach in the or. according to one of the ca-1's this year who did a rotation at ucsf, there is more teaching in the or's at uic than at ucsf (i matched at ucsf). there are a.m. conferences every morning that are very well attended by the senior faculty; even the chairman shows up and they actually get into debates about the topics of the morning, which are very good to hear. there's an active research program with nih funding (at least a few years ago, it had the most nih funding in the city; not sure if this is still true, but the chairman says it is). there is a good mix of older and younger attendings. the residents are very happy. the program director often runs the board and at a.m. conference they see who were the last residents to leave the night before, and they are the first to leave the next day. graduating residents have had very nice sucess with excellent fellowship placement. truly, as a pretty skeptical person (especially re: uic), i've been very impressed with the dept. it is, in many ways, a hidden gem of a program. perhaps its biggest drawback is lack of a brand name, though it certainly hasn't seemed to affect fellowship placement. further, if you're interested in joining the faculty (they like to take their own), from what i've heard they are nicely paid (again, some sort of private-academic hybrid) and have retirement benefits from the state. it's also just west of downtown, so one could stay in the city. if you'd like any more info about this program, pm me.

as for u of c, it certainly has the best brand name in the city. some feel it is better for placement in academia and northwestern (and possibly rush) has better private practice placements. u of c used to be considered a fairly malignant program, but my feeling is that this is no longer true. u of c no longer does livers (uic does a ton). new peds facility will probably increase peds numbers. the icu is medicine-run, but outstanding (clearly the best in chicago and one of the best in the country). the program director rubbed me and many of my fellow applicants the wrong way, but the chairman seems to be a nice guy. program seems very responsive to resident needs/concerns/suggestions (they added a month of ent rotation at resident suggestion so that they could get more surgical airway experience). some faculty from my school have told me this is the only other program in the city (uic is the other) that does not treat its residents as cheap labor, but rather as trainees. my impression is that the residents work harder here than at uic, with more call. the morning conference is not as good as at uic (very few if any faculty), but teaching, when it happens, is very good.

hope this helps.