I was curious to see what this institution was going to be like. On paper, it sounded like really great training but few faculty or residents I talked to about it could tell me much of anything at all except for recalling the dark period a number of years ago when the chair and many faculty left and the interim chair was an ENT doc. There was also some controversial comments about the program in one of the yearly interview date threads (I think) left by someone who may or may not have had an axe to grind. In any case, below are my mostly subjective thoughts (w/some facts thrown in) of interview day and the vibe I got from the program.
My first impression upon arriving to interview day was somewhat negative. Mostly because the residents didn't seem to be particularly interactive with applicants. They were willing to talk to you if you approached them, but did not actively solicit your company or conversation it seemed to me. There was a point after the interviews where all the applicants and residents were in the conference room together and the residents sat amongst themselves chatting about random personal stuff rather than engage with applicants. I thought this was pretty unfortunate and it left a bad impression on me, but I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt and thought that maybe they were just burnt out from interview sessions (this was the last slot I believe). The residents who gave the tour were much more present and I felt a little better after spending some time with them. The meet and greet after interview day was infinitely better. In this setting, the residents seemed much more relaxed and ready to chat with applicants than they did over at their medical offices.
In any case, everyone I talked to was somewhat enthusiastic about the program, especially about Dr. Jeng, their (sort of) new chair. I did not like that neither the chair nor the PD spent time giving any sort of presentation about the program to the applicants. This was left entirely up to the chief resident who read off a powerpoint. At many of the other programs I interviewed, the PD, chair or both would speak anywhere from 10-30 minutes each about their programs. To me, this left an impression that they cared more (in general) about the program and their recruitment. It almost felt like lack of effort when they didn't. Whether or not that's true is besides the point. That's just the vibe it gave me, personally.
Pros:
- Nice assortment of practice environments! --> GBMC, U of M midtown campus, VA, UofM, with resident run clinic at midtown campus
- shock trauma
- seems like there was some reasonable research opportunities if desired.
- dedicated consult rotation first year.
- free loupes as gift for residents.
- active recruitment of new faculty.
- Chair rounds with dr. Jeng.
- Baltimore (I like it)... others will not.
- Pretty good fellowship matches.
- Busy, busy busy, (perhaps a con for some)
Cons:
- numbers weren't particularly impressive, but not bad either. Middling.
- interviews were a little less fun/engaging than some others I attended. Interview day was a little ho-hum in general. Did not feel like it was a recruitment event. (see comments above).
- still plagued by memories of past department disarray (i.e. in the larger academic ophthalmology community), despite what seems to be a solid and stable situation now.
Overall, I was very into this program in theory, but my gut feeling was that something was off about it. Despite that, I think that it likely offers fantastic training and I would have been glad to have matched there despite my qualms about interview day. They ended up in the top 1/2 of my rank list ultimately based on my strong conviction that the training was top notch, Dr. Jeng was a great chair, and the resident's were friendly and seemed very satisfied with their program. Location was a plus for me, others will not like Baltimore.
). Overall it's a nice program with friendly people and you'll get trained very well if you come here.
