UT at Houston vs. U. of Wisconsin

[fitzara]

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Hi everybody,

I am interviewing for 2008 residency in Pathology. I've had a good lineup so far, and UT at Houston and U of Wisconsin are at the top of my list. I'm having trouble deciding which to rank first.

Madison pros: I liked the city a lot; it would be a tad better for my husband; the program is small and my perception was that the residents are well taken care of.

Houston pros: residents do rotations and take electives at M.D. Anderson, which is #1 in cancer research, a field I'm very interested in. But I didn't like the city that much.

The question is, is the quality of resident training in UT Houston significantly better than that in UW Madison? If the programs are about as good, I'd choose Madison. If UT is much better, I'll forgo Madison and put Houston at the top of my list.

Any information is welcome. Thank you!

 

[hurthlecell]

UT-H also rotates in Methodist. i will definitely go UT-H.

 

[Ale]

Go wherever your family is going to be most comfortable and the city you liked the most. A squamous cell carcinoma is a squamous cell carcinoma in all medical centers. Believe me, after your four years you will hate the place no mater where you go or how nice they are. At the end, the only thing you have going for is whatever you have outside the residency. Forget about fancy names and fancy places. If you work hard during residency it will take you as far as any fancy place.
Having said that, both programs are very good and will give you the training you need to be a competent pathologist.
If the only pro you see in Houston is Anderson, remember that anyone from anywhere can rotate there. You just need to call in advance to reserve your spot (a year). The only caveat is that some programs don't pay for electives outside of their medical center. For that the ASCP gives one month grants for subspecialty elective training, very easy to apply for.

 

[fitzara]

Thanks for the reply, and for the information. I did not know about the grants.

 

[yaah]

Those are pretty different places and you may be the only person in history who has asked or will ever ask about a choice between only these two programs. For me I would go with what area you like and where you want to be when you end up. If you want to live in Texas after residency it would probably be better to do residency there.