UVA - what is the "personality"?

[star23]

Wondering for any of you who are training or have trained at UVA - what is the vibe like around there in terms of resident / fellow interaction with faculty? How is the PD / chair - thumbs up or thumbs down? Seems like a very soild AP training program - do you agree? How about living in Charlottesville?

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[DermpathMD]

The UVA residency program has a top notch reputation and top notch faculty.
I have heard the atmosphere at UVA is strict and at times in the past was malignant. link: http://healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/pathology/resident/intro.cfm
The cytopath fellowship is actually a combined surg path/cytopath fellowship.
Most residents take their board exams in May/June of their final year of residency. The results are released in late July typically.
I have heard that in the past Dr. Stacey Mills had a policy of firing new fellows if their results came back and they had failed the boards. I do not know if this policy still exists.

 

[djmd]

Wow, either my impression of the program was way off or something has changed dramatically...

I interviewed for residency there in 2001 (for 2002 start)..
And I thought it was a very friendly place.
There is a lot of research, but the residents didn't seem overworked or pressured...


As for Charlottesville, I had a friend who did residency there. It seemed very nice every time I visited. Small college town kind of feel.
It is a little out of the way... About an hour to Richmond and 2.5 to DC.

 

[star23]

Anybody at UVA currently who knows if this is still true:

"I have heard that in the past Dr. Stacey Mills had a policy of firing new fellows if their results came back and they had failed the boards. I do not know if this policy still exists."

 

[Gyric]

My impression was that the quality of diagnostic training was as good as anywhere else I seriously considered, but I was really turned off by the chair. Since he is research focused residents may not have much interaction with him, your best bet is to PM a current UVA resident.

 

[moodydoc]

I am currently a second year here at UVA. I think it is a great place to train. The attendings (both AP and CP) are very involved in teaching. Here we interact with the entire faculty including Wick, Mills, Stoler and all the others.

The entire faculty has an open door policy (Mills is the expectation with a daily 3pm sign-out).

I have not heard of anyone being fired.

The chair has a strong personality that can be off putting to some.… However, he is a strong supporter of the residents and fellows. He does not signout cases and we do not have much day-to-day contact with him.

Both the residency director, as well as coordinator are strong advocates for the residents.

Overall, we all work hard but I think we have fun doing it.

For those of you that have interviewed here recently, I hope you have gotten that impression that as well.

I will also point out that many of major pathology journals are edited out of UVA.

Charlottesville is a collage town, with all the charms that a small town has to give. A mix of us own house and some rent.

 

[odamae]

I went there as an undergrad- it is one of the most beautiful campuses in America. The spirit of Thomas Jefferson is everywhere. I cannot comment on the residency program at UVa but in terms of quality of life and history, few places compare. Plus, it is close enough to DC and Atlanta and Richmond if you need a more cosmopolitan fix.

This video is a nice retrospective. UVa went co-ed in the early 70's. There are several notables in this video, esp. William Faulkner who was on faculty.

http://im.dev.virginia.edu/video/holiday08/

 

[star23]

bump