TY/Prelim info thread for future candidates

[Melkor]

I've always wondered why their haven't been any recent threads written by current TY/Prelims about their programs for future candidates. This is especially true for the more "cushy" positions (both ty and prelim) since I think it's safe to assume that many of the candidates that land these spots are also frequent visitors of SDN. Without these types of threads, I've found that most students must simply rely on word of mouth from their school alumni or friends which was basically non existent for me and I know I would have really appreciated a general thread where current or recent ty/prelims were able to give their input about the program they attended/are attending.


One reason perhaps why there haven't been any new threads like this over the past few years may be just because people think, "it's only a year, you can do anything for a year". While this is certainly true, I knew I would never apply to surgery prelims because although I knew I would survive, why put yourself through it if that's not what you want? With that in mind, why not apply to the easiest/cushiest programs that are out there. I could be completely in the wrong here but I think a lot of the students who are AOA, boards 260+s and multi pubs and who happen to be applying for specialties that require a ty/prelim year are the students who don't necessarily want to kill themselves during their intern year.


Finally, I've been on SDN since my undergrad years and I've found it to be an extremely helpful resource to understand what is important while going through med school in order to get to where you want to be. However, there was very limited info about specific prelim/ty programs on SDN which made it difficult for me to come up with a list of programs to apply to. I know I have leeched way more info than I have given back and I'm sure there are many others who feel the same. Since this is actually a topic that does not have an up to date thread, I think this could be an excellent way for both myself and others to give back to future SDNers.




tl;dr version: It would be great if current or recent TY/Prelims who go to "easier" programs could add their program's info to this list for future candidates.


I'll start and I'm really hoping others can add their programs as well!

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[Melkor]

South Dakota TY program:


The Quick and Dirty:

• 4 months of wards which aren’t great (65-70 hours/week)
• No scut work! No surgery rotations!
• 7 months of true electives=awesome (20-40 hours/week)
• Free food 24/7, low cost of living + decent salary=save lots of money
• Winters are very rough (I've heard), small city, rural state so less events/activities nearby
• Admin wants this to be a competitive TY program and they know how to attract candidates (making sure the attendings you rotate with are friendly, education driven and generally just nice to the residents)
• 15 days vacation, 10 sick days, 5 educational days, good salary when cost of living factored in=excellent

General Info:

• 53K salary, 1k moving bonus, 500 educational/electronic stipend
• 13 four week blocks during year
• Mandatory 4 blocks of teaching service
• Mandatory 1 block ambulatory and ICU
• 7 blocks of electives (just about any type of specialty you want to do they have or you can do it off site if they don’t have it)
• 15 days vacation, can be taken as half or full days
• CANNOT be used during mandatory blocks (teaching service and ambulatory)
• 10 sick days, whole day must be taken I believe
• 5 educational days (can use when studying for boards/taking boards etc)

Pros:

7 months of elective blocks;

• I’ve had 3 elective blocks so far and I have averaged around 25 hours per week. On that note, no one has ever told me I can’t work more if I wanted to but I generally go home when I am told I can. Electives are actually electives, NOT selectives. You don’t have to choose between surgery/er/icu etc. Some of the electives I’ve chosen to do include; Rad Onc, Nuc Med, Rheum, Research month (1 case study is all you need to do for the whole month…), outside elective at another institution, neurology. You can do the same elective twice! Pick the electives you want to twice with one close to the beginning of the year and one close to the end of the year for optimal happiness.
• One stipulation is for certain specialties you must do specific rotations which effectively eats up 1 of your elective months.

Rotate at only 2 hospitals and free food at both;

• All teaching service blocks are at 1 hospital. Some electives may be at different locations I suppose, I haven’t had this happen to me yet though. They are a 5 minute drive from each other. Both hospitals have cafeterias where residents get unlimited free food and it is actually decent food too. You simply show the cashier your badge and you are good, no badge swiping so there is no limit to how much you get. When I leave for the day I stop by the cafeteria and grab a salad and entrée for dinner at home. I have only been buying groceries maybe once every 1.5 months because of this.

Cost of living;

• I am renting a 900 sq ft apartment for 625/month that includes all utilities except electric and internet. Hard to beat that in my opinion. I’m used to living in the Denver where I could easily spend $150+ /night if I went to a show or had a fun night out. I’ve found it is difficult for me to spend even half that amount here. This can be considered a con for some people and I’ll address it in the con section below but in general, this is a great place if you are looking to save money for a variety of reasons.

City Size:

• This is both a pro and a con in my opinion and I will treat it as such. It is extremely nice to be able to live within walking distance to the downtown area at such a reasonable cost. Also, my daily commute is less than 5 minutes to both of the main hospitals you rotate at. I absolutely hate sitting in traffic so this was actually a huge plus for me. Along with that, I've always liked the more small town feel and it may just all be in my head but I've found the ordinary person here to be more friendly than when I was living in a larger city.

Cons:

City Size:

• Sioux Falls pop is around 130k I believe. I personally don’t like big cities so I don’t think of this as a con but I have to believe most people would think of this as a con in general. With a smaller population, there are certainly less activities to do than in a big city. I’ve always enjoyed going to theaters/shows and although I have gone to a few since I started intern year, the selection has been much more limited. This lack of selection is the reason I find it more difficult to spend as much as I did when I lived in a larger city. The town itself has a lot of sponsored events which have been fun (and often free) to go to but if what you want is to go to that new club or professional sporting event on the weekends, you may not like it here as much. You most likely won't see as much of the crazy insane pathology that you would if you did your intern year at a very large prestigious institution.

Weather: (think winter, very cold winter…)

• So far the summer and early fall have been incredibly pleasant but the winters I’ve been told are miserable. I don’t like hot humid areas and love snow/cold so this wasn’t a big problem for me but I assume most of you don’t like the cold…I don’t think I can stress this enough and in my opinion this would be the BIGGEST reason not to rank this program high if you absolutely hate winter.

Teaching Service Blocks:

• I initially wrote a long, very detailed description of the teaching service blocks but I thought a summarized version might be best for now. If people do want the specifics, I can edit it in later. Basically its 4 months total, you work 6 days a week, arrive at the hospital by 6 am, stay until 3-6 pm depending on if you are long or short call and end up working on average around 60-70 hours per week.You are responsible for 4-6 pts (6 is the max) each day and you sometimes will admit 1 pt per day. You don't do any scut work and you do have almost complete control over your patients. Once you go home for the day, you are not responsible for your pts until you come back the next morning (ie won't get called in the middle of the night ever). I am usually busy working from when I arrive at the hospital at 6 am until 1-2 pm each day. At that point if I am getting a new admit I will usually be busy until around 5 but if I am not getting a new admit I often just hang out until afternoon rounds (usually at 3:30) and then go home afterwards. I will say these months are generally not pleasant but I do feel they could be worse. Capping at 6 patients is nice, not having to worry about being called after you leave is very nice and then not having to do any scut work is great. The worst part in my opinion is having to get there at 6 am and not always being able to leave when I get my work done (in case I have to admit someone).

The ward months are not great but at least there is no scut work and you are the one to make the decisions for the patients care. The elective months more than make up for them in my opinion and if you can get past the small city feel and the harsh winter, I would highly recommend checking the program out. I’ve tried to be as non-biased as I could when writing this but I will say I am extremely happy with the program so far and would recommend it to anyone who not only values their free time but also enjoys low pressure rotations with good attendings to work with.

 

[Melkor]

Surely there are lots of other interns with cushy schedules who have plenty of free time to post about their program for future candidates >_<

 

[Crayola227]

Maybe they're too busy using their time off NOT being on SDN. Nothing like internship to make you hate allergic to typing. Haha, they probably are still on SDN, just lurking maybe?

 

[Melkor]

Maybe they're too busy using their time off NOT being on SDN. Nothing like internship to make you hate allergic to typing. Haha, they probably are still on SDN, just lurking maybe?

Yeah, I figured many interns wouldn't be on SDN as much as when they were in med school and since most of these prelim/ty programs are small it's hard to be anonymous but I was still hoping to get at least a few more programs on the list. I guess I could add other programs that I've heard about but that would decrease credibility I think since it is mostly word of mouth.