UCLA or Michigan

[OphthoApp]

Which would you rank higher?

Michigan - Incredibly nice faculty, everyone is happy, all facilities are within 5 minutes of each other.

UCLA - Drive all over the place in LA and are overworked/tired however no one can deny how competent and comfortable the residents are with anything. Everyone always says they are incredibly impressive residents.

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[alleyesonme]

It depends on the style of training you prefer. UCLA is one of a handful of programs where residents have a ton of autonomy and "learn by doing". Michigan had more supervision and less autonomy. It all comes down to what kind of learning you prefer. Reputation wise, you cannot go wrong with either one. Finally, LA or Ann Arbor, there are pros and cons of each, which do you prefer.

Good luck to all on the 15th! I enjoyed meeting everyone on the trail and was impressed by the caliber and incredible personalities of many applicants I met. I look forward to being colleagues with all of you in the future!

 

[7ate9!]

bump!

 

[Pinkertinkle]

"learn by doing"- learn by blinding. Good for the residents, bad for the patients. But it's okay, they're illegal immigrants.

 

[LightBox]

"learn by doing"- learn by blinding. Good for the residents, bad for the patients. But it's okay, they're illegal immigrants.

Geez, where did this comment come from. A bit uncalled for if you ask me.

Anyways, my personal bias is for UCLA. I think that both are great programs, but UCLA is probably on a slightly-higher level.

 

[dantt]

"learn by doing"- learn by blinding. Good for the residents, bad for the patients. But it's okay, they're illegal immigrants.

It's interesting this is how many of our older attendings learned...and they turned out great and everything was fine. In any case, there is a true need for physicians at locations where residents are seeing patients with a high level of responsibility (think southern areas, areas with a shortage of physicians, etc with the exception of UCLA). Nobody is willing to see those patients without compensation except through charity care sponsored by teaching institutions.

Pro tip. Immigrants are great patients. They don't have this thought that they can just not pay their bills.

 

[TheLesPaul]

I think people don't realize the choice is between resident care and no care, not resident care vs attending care. Moreover, residents (usually) are quite conscientious in their practice -- although mistakes are made, usually someone oversees before something too terrible happens.

 

[dantt]

Very rarely do truly bad things happen in ophthalmology due to residents "doing" versus watching. Many programs have attendings see all patients afterwards, others have the attendings see "high risk" patients. Many programs at the very least chart check. Any conscientious resident or physician for that matter should know when they are in over there heads or when things don't make sense and then to ask for help.

Likewise with surgery. Your first complication is disheartening. But then you find the vast majority of patients do fine anyway though they may not be seeing 20/40 1 week postoperatively or may need additional surgery.