UT Southwestern

[domino]

Can anyone comment on how much respect UTSW gets outside of the south? Where does it stack up when comparing the best programs in the country irrespective of location. Top 5, 10, 25? I am deciding b/w that and some other big name places.

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[Kalel]

UTSW gets a lot of respect out of the southwest. My IM chairperson ranks it up there in the same league with Hopkins, Penn, etc. I'd place it in the top 10 IM programs, reputation-wise.

 

[frodeaux II]

domino,

you know UT Southwestern is a perfect fit for you... stop worrying about its reputation amongst the east and west-coasters who domninate this board, and rank it first because you know that you will get the best training and have the most fun of any of the programs that you've applied to... you already know your answer, get over your ego 😉

frodeaux II

 

[domino]

Anyone else have any thoughts?

 

[ninin]

Match is over, but for next year's class:

I went there for school, so I know extensively about the place.

It's got the Hopkins' malignancy but without the Hopkins reputation.

Now as a resident, I find my training somewhat lacking vs my colleagues. There really is a lot of time devoted to the basic sciences as this is a powerhouse research institution, but light on the clinical skills. It's nothing you can't make up quickly, but I still found it surprising.

The IM residency IS good, no doubt. And if that's all you care about, then that's really the end of discussion. I do feel that it is a top 10 IM program, as US News consistently ranks it, training-wise. Reputation-wise, I think it's somewhere in the top 30. Why? Because outside of the south, people haven't really heard of the school other than program directors. Interviewing outside the south, I had about 50% of my interviewers not know about this school, seriously, let alone know that IM is its core strength.

If you don't expect the WOW reputation to follow you when you say you went to UTSW for IM, and can rest assured that your actual training and qualifications are top-notch, then UTSW is the place for you.

The program director is retiring. While a smart guy, he is overly proud of his accomplishments and not a great teacher. But his name looks good if you actually get to know him well enough to write a letter for fellowship.

The program does not attract name-brand residents, even though the program is top-notch. What I mean is, most of the residents are UTSW and Texas school grads, and very few of the big name schools are represented. I'm not saying that Texas residents are poor, but I'm just saying that for a top 10 IM program as ranked by US News year in and year out, they aren't able to attract people from name-brand schools on the two coasts, probably b/c the med school is young and it's in Dallas. Fellowships that are obtained, though, are at namebrand schools more than one would guess--i.e, MGH, Duke, UW, UCSF, UCLA, Columbia, to name a few. I thought the list of fellowships obtained was considerably more impressive than the list that shows which med schools residents came from.

Last, the place in general is pretty malignant with residents being grossly overworked. That, though, is likely par for the course at a county hospital, although this one inspires comparisons to the infamous LA County Hospital. The faculty there seem to exude an arrogance that their program is right there with the very best. It pervaded the atmosphere to my ear, and I didn't care for that. It was as if the more you say it to justify your own ego, the more apparent it is that the program's reputation is not what the faculty thinks.

Bottom line: good training, ok reputation. If you are looking for a reputation that will follow you outside the South, you're kidding yourself. Probably about 30 years too early still.

 

[coolmavs]

BUMP......

I know that this thread is 4 years ago....but what do other feel to the cooments made in the last post? How many concur with and how many dispute this opinion?

 

[Danbo1957]

The new IM PD and the 80 hour rules have had a positive effect - UTSW is top 10-15. Parkland Hospital is to be torn down and a new $1 billion facility will be built.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kera/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1324072&sectionID=1

Texas residencies are for future Texas doctors, Texas PD's consider this first when deciding who gets the slots.

 

[Myostatin]

Having applied for cards last year and being at a well known east coast program, my take is that UTSW is very well respected even outside the south... especially by fellowship program directors - which is really what you care about anyway.

 

[dragonfly99]

My impression is basically congruent with what is posted on this thread...though I'm not sure about the top 10 thing, it's definitely top 25 or 30 or so. It would not/should not be a problem to get a good fellowship. It is a big busy hospital and did have the rep. for being very basic science heavy and perhaps a little overly intenseand image conscious (?malignant, depending on your point of view) but I think that fellowship program directors know which programs work residents hard and which are famous for their research, and like to pick fellows from those, and UTSW fits the bill on both accounts.

 

[BaylorLion]

Top 25-30? I respectfully disagree. Painful for me to say as a former BCM medical student, but UTSW is widely known to be the best IM program in Texas and one of the best in the country - outclassed only by MGH, Brigham, Hopkins and UCSF (and just barely). I'd put it on the same level as the Penn/Columbia/Duke/Vanderbilt/UW/WashU/Michigan's of the world (I know I left off a few that are also at that same level, so don't get mad if I left off your program). After the above 4, there's probably another 10-11 programs that are evenly matched in terms of reputation/fellowship matching. *shrug* Doesn't matter in the end, but I think if you can handle the stress of working at a ginormous county hospital, UTSW is awesome.

 

[FutureIMdoc80]

UTSW has had trouble matching residents in GI lately. In 2007, only 5 out of 12 people matched. Apparently they attribute this to the change in the GI PD who came from Duke. In 2008, they matched 5/6 and the majority of people matched at UTSW. One is going to Indiana and another is doing research at MGH so he can get into their Gi program there.

 

[souljah1]

UTSW has an excellent reputation as a rigorous internal medicine residency program that provides a ton of clinical experiences. I'm not sure how fellowships are there, but their IM training is great.

 

[Wrigleyville]

I don't know anything about the program's reputation, but the residents in IM work pretty hard around here. This being a county hospital, the patients range from sick to "train wreck". After three years of managing them you will be able to handle just about anything. The residents in all programs here are given wide latitude by the attendings to run the show. If you are looking for a lot of hand-holding or coddling, this is not the place for you.

 

[endocarditis1]

anyone know about the program's accreditation?? i saw on another thread something about only 1 yr.

 

[CanIMakeIt]

anyone know about the program's accreditation?? i saw on another thread something about only 1 yr.

Here is data on UTSW:

Original Accreditation Date: May 15, 1977
Accreditation Status: Continued Accreditation
Accreditation Effective Date: May 19, 2008
Accredited Program Length: 3 years

Program Format: Standard

Last Site Visit Date: October 2, 2007
Cycle Length: 1 years
Approximate Date of Next Site Visit: May 1, 2009

But why are people so worried about accreditation of a strong program like UTSW .......

For comparison, here is data on Brigham and Women's, theirs is for 2 years ... most standard programs have it for 5 years:

Original Accreditation Date: February 26, 1958
Accreditation Status: Continued Accreditation
Accreditation Effective Date: September 29, 2006
Accredited Program Length: 3 years

Program Format: Standard

Last Site Visit Date: May 15, 2006
Cycle Length: 2 years
Scheduled Date of Next Site Visit: November 11, 2008

Program Requires Prior or Additional GME Training: NO
Program Requires Dedicated Research Year: NO
Government Affiliation: Veterans Administration

These things keep on happening for minor things as well so don't worry about these things (at least not for the strong programs) ... Good luck with ROL

 

[viostorm]

I hope aProgDirector might be willing to comment on the significance of a 1 year cycle length (NOT specifically the situation at UTSW) and what it might mean.

There are some benign reasons like major changes in the program, new PD that can trigger a one year site visit ...

I guess should we as applicants consider the cycle length as a metric of health of a program and should we be concerned about programs with 1 or 2 year cycle lengths?