Umichigan vs Beaumont

[tricophyton]

Hi everyone,
I am brand new to this site. I am AOA with a strong resume who is torn on where to do Residency

My situation is that my wife works in the detroit area, therefore, I am only looking at programs within range of her work. There are several residency programs that would be close. These include Michigan, Henry Ford, Beaumont, St John's, Wayne state, and a few others which I probably won't end up at.

I have interviews at all. U of M is within range ~45 miles, while there is a good hospital: Beaumont real close to her work. I would like to pursue a cardio fellowship.
Would I be making a big mistake in not choosing U of M?

Beaumont is community-based, univers. affiliated and has a good cardio fellowship, It has a smaller class size: 16 vs 40 at U ofM. I have heard U of M is an old school program that is a little malignant. People I have talked to have mentioned, that I may be able to stand out better at the less prestigous/arrogant beaumont

Any thoughts on what I should choose?



Thanks


ps. match day is on St patrick's day

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[bof]

hmm...if Michigan is "within range," i think the answer is clear. much easier to pursue a cards fellowship from academic vs community hospital, not to say that the latter is not possible. you have to figure out if the location is going to work, but choosing Michigan over Beaumont is a no-brainer.

Hi everyone,
I am brand new to this site. I am AOA with a strong resume who is torn on where to do Residency

My situation is that my wife works in the detroit area, therefore, I am only looking at programs within range of her work. There are several residency programs that would be close. These include Michigan, Henry Ford, Beaumont, St John's, Wayne state, and a few others which I probably won't end up at.

I have interviews at all. U of M is within range ~45 miles, while there is a good hospital: Beaumont real close to her work. I would like to pursue a cardio fellowship.
Would I be making a big mistake in not choosing U of M?

Beaumont is community-based, univers. affiliated and has a good cardio fellowship, It has a smaller class size: 16 vs 40 at U ofM. I have heard U of M is an old school program that is a little malignant. People I have talked to have mentioned, that I may be able to stand out better at the less prestigous/arrogant beaumont

Any thoughts on what I should choose?



Thanks


ps. match day is on St patrick's day

 

[deleted4401]

Trico,

Beaumont is not your typical community hospital. Huge volumes, strong emphasis on teaching, and a kick ass, renowned cardiology program. And, it's radiation oncology program (my hopeful specialty) is nationally known, as well. My hometown neighbor did his internal medicine there, and is starting cardiology there this summer - so they obviously recruit from within for fellowships. If you are going to end up staying local anyway, Beaumont's rep in Southeast Michigan is top-notch. It's pretty much where anyone in Macomb and Oakland County gets treated, from professional athletes to upper level Big Three executives, to the common folks like us (that's our family's hospital and where my baby sis was born).

I know being AOA, it's hard to convince yourself to go to a community program, but this isn't Oakwood (Jokewood?) or St. Joseph's ... It sounds like you are local, and if you are - you know what lay people think about Beaumont - they act like it's the freakin' Mayo Clinic!

Anyway, good luck with that one - you have a tough decision!

Simul

 

[doc05]

45 miles isn't a very big deal. perhaps you could find a house midway between UM and her work so you both have reasonable commutes?

 

[Pikevillemedstudent]

Pick the program that fits you best. Beaumont is top notch, but less prestige compared to UM. However, 45 miles, Detroit traffic and IM do not mix. If you do decide to go to UM, I would definitely try to live as close to Ann Arbor as possible.

 

[jimmybee]

Hey there,

I am a 4th year at Wayne State, which I presume you are too. I did my sub-I at Beaumont this year and I am a big fan. My senior is actually going into cardiology next year. According to him, he thought he was going to have a bit of advantage to getting a cards spot by going to Beaumont for residency, but he complained that this was not the case nationally. He thought that it was good for doing a fellowship at the Beau, but not other places.

Let me tell you what I think.......I do not have that great of grades myself, but I do have decent board scores. The way I see it is that you worked way too damn hard to be AOA and then go to Beaumont. I think you are selling yourself short if you go to Beaumont with those grades, especially if you want to do a fellowship. Just go to Michigan. I guarentee that you may be working hard there, but it will be a lot better than the work that you already have done to be AOA.

 

[tricophyton]

Thanks everyone for the great advice.
I especially appreciate the advice from the people in the area.
Today I had an interview at Henry Ford. I was very impressed by the fellowships that their grads were receiving. They gave us a list of all their recent grads and what they are doing now. For the past 4 years almost 75% went to fellowship. About 3 per year went cardiology. Its is true that most of the cardiology fellows ended up there at Henry Ford, but several also went elsewhere in the nation.

I met with assoc. director and asked him directly why I should choose Henry Ford over beaumont or UofM. He provided a pretty good argument involving the patient population, the research funding and the past success of grads getting fellowship.

When compared directly to Beaumont, he stated that the majority of pts in beaumont are private patients who are upper class. At Henry Ford, he said that it is a closed system, therefore all patients are staff. He also said they have pathology there that you won't see at UofM or Beaumont.
The other thing that impressed me about Henry ford was their computer program for patient tracking. Everything is accessible via the web. This would be ideal for conducting research at home. Also you can enter notes directly into the computer using templates. Some of the Wayne students at the interview had bad things to say about the Beaumont computing abilities.

I still have not had my interview at Beaumont, but as of today, I think Henry Ford has taken over the lead. Again, I still keep debating about U of M. I do think that if I was going into anything other than INt Med. it wouldn't be that hard of a choice. A part of me believes that despite prestige, it would be a better learning experience at the institution that treats the underserved.

I realize that it would be a gamble giving up UofM and taking Henry Ford. I have several more months to ponder this. 😕

By the way, I am currently a 4th year at MSU-CHM.

Thanks, again for everyone's advice, and I appreciate any more.

👍

 

[MidwestMD]

Hey Trico,

Not having come from Michigan (Illinois, baby), I'm rather ignorant about the whole Beaumont vs Henry Ford debate. What I do know is that U of M is an incredible program. I'll admit, I had heard rumors of it being fairly malignant too...some of the stories I've heard from 2nd yrs even made me cringe. But it is by NO MEANS malignant now. I don't think I could have asked for a program more caring and dedicated to its residents (yes, interns included). There is a great comraderie here, between both the faculty and residents. There is no hierchy/bias against the underclassmen either. I come from a small, hold-your-hand med school in IL, and I was still surprised at how well people get along here and how supportive the program is towards its residents. Granted, you work pretty darn hard...I even wondered at times if I had made a wrong decision by coming here. But looking back over the last 6 months, I realize that I've learned a ton and have actually had a lot of fun along the way. So take this for what it's worth...if you were afraid of this place being malignant, don't be. If you want great fellowship placement, this is one place that will help you out. My only advice: unless your wife's job requires constant travel during the day between work and home, try to live as close to Ann Arbor as you can. Traffic is surprisingly busy and you don't want to have to drive too far post-call. Good luck with whatever decision you make.