UMass vs UPMC (AP/CP residency)

[sunner78]

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If you have a choice to go to UMass or UPMC, which pathology program would you choose? (and why??)

Thanks

 

[yaah]

1) What are your goals?
2) Do you care about location?
3) What was your experience at both places (as in how do you think you fit in there?)
4) Why is it a choice between these two programs only?
5) What experience do you have in pathology?
6) What kind of career do you want?
7) What are your personal strengths and weaknesses?

These are only some of the questions I would want answered before I would begin to think about answering your question.

 

[mlw03]

is it time of year for this already? people asking these X vs. Y questions? i just don't think you're gonna get any more info on here. presumably you've interviewed at both places. if there's specific questions, contact the residents or PD. but as yaah wrote more eloquently above, there's simply no way to answer that question generically - every program is great for some candidates, OK for most, and inadequate for others. we each have to categorize the programs into one of those 3 groups ourselves.

 

[pathomatic]

I am currently a resident at UMass and I agree with Yaah wholeheartedly, you will have to be more specific. UPMC is obviously a bigger program with more residents and faculty members. However, one difference that I noted was that UMass is general signout while I believe UPMC is sub-speciality signout (I think the pros and cons have been discussed extensively in previous threads). Also, we have a 2-day cycle (gross day 1, sign out day 2)

About UMass, the positive points are that the program is growing in size, we have a brand new location with great facilities, an excellent chief and PD who actually care about their residents (Dr. Woda and Dr. Khan), every resident has a brand new microscope and computer this year, 5 very helpful PAs and while most faculty members enjoy teaching, you would always find one or two who would rather be left alone. We rotate between University Campus, Memorial campus and Biotech 3-B3 (our headquarter). the CP year is spent in a separate location called Biotech 1. and because most of the conferences, unknowns and didactics are held in B3, we recently got video-conferencing facilities reinstated at all campuses so that residents who are rotating at University and Memorial can attend these conferences. Research is very easy to do (translational that is, even though we have a strong basic science research group in pathology, we hardly interact with them). Almost all of our senior residents are presenting at the upcoming USCAP, I think a couple of first year residents are also presenting.

The Cons include WORCESTER (the city is a dump!), costs of living comparable to Boston. We probably need more didactics on the AP side. The CP side, however is stacked with didactics. (I think a few years back they decided to have more unknowns instead of didactics on the AP side and we currents have multiple general unknowns and sub-speciality unknown conferences every week). Very limited exposure to bone, soft tissue.

In conclusion, I would say that we belong to the medium-sized, Tier-2 program category (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=3797393&postcount=8). If you have specific questions let me know.

 

[mlw03]

that was a lot of useful info. i apologize if i came across sounding rude last night. my point was simply that the applicant should know most of what you wrote above already from his/her personal research into the program plus what was learned on interview day. in the end we applicants have to decide for ourselves how each important each factor is, plus what we prefer.

 

[jux]

Q2 seems challenging for getting everything done. How do the logistics work in terms of previewing and signing everything out?

 

[pathomatic]

Well, the slides comes out early morning, we preview them and they get get signed out late afternoon. Most of the attendings either let us select the cases we want to or they themselves give us some cases they think is interesting (especially for large cases). For biopsy and smalls rotation, we get the entire pile of slides and previewing them can be challenging. Almost every time, you see the micro for the cases you gross (which is nice). But yes, previewing in the morning and signing out late afternoon doesnt give you a whole lot of time to read. But what i do is, that when you gross a specimen you have a pretty good idea of differentials and I just read about them the previous night, so that previewing the next day morning doesnt take that much time.

 

[sunner78]

Thanks for replies.
I guess my intention was to know your opinion. "what would YOU choose" and WHY that was my question. I didn't ask what should I choose (personally I don't like threads "PLEASE HELP WHAT TO CHOOSE").

My priorioty is to get the best possible education during my residency. Size and big names not always go with quality. Research yes, but most based on histopathology ( I'm not kind of person who likes to spend 24 h studing telomerase in rats) - I am diagnostician focuse more on academic career (AP). I have experience in AP. (currently yet resident in my home country).


I wonder how this sub-speciality signout in UPMC works.