My experience is off a one day interview at UMDNJ Robert Wood Johnson. To be honest with you, I think the intern who wrote the review in early January of 2006 is dead on.
From talking to residents at the program, it appears that they work about 80 hours per week. Luckily, there is minimal scutwork.
Several things I noticed are that interns have three months of electives while residents have four months of electives plus one month of vacation. Life as an intern appears nice. This program seems like a "resident heavy" program. There is only resident and one intern per team. The resident sees half the patients and does all of the work for them PLUS overseas the intern's patients. The issue is when there is about 12-16 patients on the census (which happens sometimes). It appears that the resident has a lot of work to do when that happens which makes managing the team that much harder.
Teaching
It is probably the greatest strength of the program. There is mandatory morning report and noon conference. The board review course appears nice with the program director spending a lot of time with the residents. The morning report appears to be an okay atmosphere. The program director likes to pick on certain individuals to ask them questions which keeps everyone on their toes. I can see how some people would consider that stressful while others might enjoy it.
Atmosphere
This is probably the biggest minus of the program. New Brunswick is kind of a boring town with its greatest asset being only one hour from New York City. The problem is that most residents stated to me that they rarely go there (maybe on weekends during electives). So, if you are single, you are pretty much screwed. Some of the residents appear to go out to dinner on occasion. So for the most part, you have no social life for three years if you are single.
Conclusion
This program is a decent program with a strong reputation in the northeast. The biggest issue with it is it is very structured. You have to go to morning report and noon conference. You have to go to board review at 6:45 AM during elective. You have to take certain selectives. You cannot sign out before 4:30PM. Some people need the "military" style approach while others will hate it. The atmosphere is okay with the residents looking out for each other. I think some of the faculty appear aloof but that is at most places. The attitude is one that is expected from living in the northeast (most residents come from medical schools in New York and New Jersey). Another minus is that the residents work hard here and do not have much of an outside life. On top of this, it is not a great city to live in. The reputation is okay but if you find another program with a similar reputation in a better city, then the big question is why would you come here? Finally, the biggest minus is the fact the program refuses to change. The ICU month is hellish which is well known fact (one intern and one resident for 30 patients). If it is a well known weakness, why has it not been changed in the last four years? It brings to question whether it is worth going to a place that is not "resident friendly" or "resident responsive". I am sure the program director knows that this needs to be changed but refuses to do so.
