U Pitt

[OldManDave]

I will be interviewing at U Pitt on the 26th of this month. anyone else gonna be there? If you will be, certainly introduce yourself!

Regarding the program...anyone know much inside poop? I know that U Pitt is the father of critical care med -- one of the primary reasons I applied there. However, it is disappointing that it is only a CA1~3 program with no PGY-1. I have applied to a few prelim programs in the Pitt-metro, but have heard zilcho! As I understand it, the DO programs in the area are hoarding their internship slots for those who are "dedicated" to the pursuit of FP & will only make them available to folks not following this sacred path after the match the FP-bound. Granted, this info is courtesy of the rumor mill & therefore to be held with a grain of salt. Anyone know more out there?

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[dA pilot]

How did Upitt turn out? Seems like that they have tons of NIH funding...does it translate into interesting research projects for residents? I'll be interviewing there on the 19th. It sucked that USair had such a monopoly on the airport there, made my plane ticket ridiculously expensive, especially for less than 2 hour plane ride.

 

[propofol1]

I will be at U Pitt later this week. For anyone who interviewed there: did they really give you a quiz? Is it about anesthesia or just general step 3 questions?

 

[OldManDave]

UPitt is a superb program, esp if you're intrigued by critical care. Tye proudly proclaimed that they were now #1 in NIH funded research dollars during one of the presentations. We met the residents, some of them, informally for dinner the night before -- they seemed happy, but admitted to working very hard, although it did not appear to be excessive...since UPitt, for some reason, has a reputation for working the hell out of their residents. Anyhow, I did not get that impression from them.

Quiz? No one quizzed me...but their interviews were the most intensive ones so far. Of the 5 attendings I interviewed with, 3 were the standard warm & fuzzy I just want to get to know you better style. I found the PD, Rita Patel, & Dr. Metro to be particularly friendly & enjoyed their interviews. However, a couple of the other ones were felt more like med school interviews. One guy had several ethical delimma questions and a couple of pt management ones...nothing too intense, but I thought we were past that game. Guess not?

My primary chagrin with the program was Pittsburgh itself. I was expecting it to not be too pretty...and it was not. The traffic was absurd! It took us over an hour for the hotel shuttle to go rom the hotel to the restaurant and we did not go very far...a few miles, tops. The infrastructure of the city in now way is adequate to support the population. The residents echoed this...if you start to the hosp at the wrong time of day, it could take you several times your normal commute to make it. And, there is essentially no public transit.

After a number of years communting in and fighting Dallas traffic, I am not willing to return to the heavy urban environment for my residency. Too bad the program is not located outside of town in the burbs!