Hey guys,
I'm finishing up M3 in the next month or so and I've decided I want to go into anesthesia--so naturally in my youthful exuberance I've been spending a good bulk of my free time asking around about where to apply. I've talked to my school's deans and a bunch of anesthesia attendings, but the deans don't seem to know a lot about anesthesia and the attendings don't seem to know a lot about Maryland's program (different area of the country and no one from the dept. at my school has any direct experience there.)
The reason I am writing this is that I have a lot of family in that area and even a few who have worked at UMMC and are twisting my arm to apply, although none of them were actually physicians and so don't know a lot of the nitty gritty about really any the different departments. However, doing some web browsing on my own (as I mentioned already no live person has been able to help so far), there have been quite a few negative things said about the program. I believe someone here on SDN once commented that it may have been the most malignant program in the country, based on work hours and unsubstantiated reports of resident abuse. From what I have researched the quality of cases are outstanding, perhaps better than many bigger-name programs. Scutwork's reviews have been more positive lately but there haven't been any since 2008, and prior to the last few reviews there were some really scathing ones. Furthermore, the 2010 match data by hospital that one of you kindly posted a link to showed that they only filled 10/13 spots in a specialty that fills almost completely every year.
Sorry for the longwindedness of my post, but my main question comes down to this: Is UMD's malignant reputation a thing of the past, still present to some degree but improving, or gone altogether? I want quality training and am willing to sacrifice for it by working a few more hours than the average resident, but I don't know if it's worth suffering through any malignant program when there are so many nicer ones out there.
P.S. Since they seem to have categorical as well as advanced spots, would any of you also happen to know anything about the intern year? Thanks a bunch.
I'm finishing up M3 in the next month or so and I've decided I want to go into anesthesia--so naturally in my youthful exuberance I've been spending a good bulk of my free time asking around about where to apply. I've talked to my school's deans and a bunch of anesthesia attendings, but the deans don't seem to know a lot about anesthesia and the attendings don't seem to know a lot about Maryland's program (different area of the country and no one from the dept. at my school has any direct experience there.)
The reason I am writing this is that I have a lot of family in that area and even a few who have worked at UMMC and are twisting my arm to apply, although none of them were actually physicians and so don't know a lot of the nitty gritty about really any the different departments. However, doing some web browsing on my own (as I mentioned already no live person has been able to help so far), there have been quite a few negative things said about the program. I believe someone here on SDN once commented that it may have been the most malignant program in the country, based on work hours and unsubstantiated reports of resident abuse. From what I have researched the quality of cases are outstanding, perhaps better than many bigger-name programs. Scutwork's reviews have been more positive lately but there haven't been any since 2008, and prior to the last few reviews there were some really scathing ones. Furthermore, the 2010 match data by hospital that one of you kindly posted a link to showed that they only filled 10/13 spots in a specialty that fills almost completely every year.
Sorry for the longwindedness of my post, but my main question comes down to this: Is UMD's malignant reputation a thing of the past, still present to some degree but improving, or gone altogether? I want quality training and am willing to sacrifice for it by working a few more hours than the average resident, but I don't know if it's worth suffering through any malignant program when there are so many nicer ones out there.
P.S. Since they seem to have categorical as well as advanced spots, would any of you also happen to know anything about the intern year? Thanks a bunch.