Vanderbilt vs MUSC vs UIC

[OphKast]

Southern Gal here, currently in medschool at NY.
I'm looking at Vandy, MUSC, UIC, and Stanford for my top choice (how did I get California invite.... Go figure!)

I was amped about Vandy for personal reasons, and am thinking of making it my first choice. I liked the residents (thought that doesn't really matter as 2/3 will be gone when i arrive). I like nightfloat system. Excellent matches past few years, even locking up two ASOPRs spots in one class
Didn't like low cataract numbers, and still dont understand the cause given their large cachement and 2 VAs. Noticed they've had 3 faculty members leave in the past few months.

So warning signs of leaky ship or nothing to worry about ?

Anyone else had any sense there were unaddressed issues at the interview. As far as reputation, I get the sense these four programs are clustered at the same tier. Anyone facing similar decision regarding Vandy vs ??? with some input.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[DrZeke]

Southern Gal here, currently in medschool at NY.
I'm looking at Vandy, MUSC, UIC, and Stanford for my top choice (how did I get California invite.... Go figure!)

I was amped about Vandy for personal reasons, and am thinking of making it my first choice. I liked the residents (thought that doesn't really matter as 2/3 will be gone when i arrive). I like nightfloat system. Excellent matches past few years, even locking up two ASOPRs spots in one class
Didn't like low cataract numbers, and still dont understand the cause given their large cachement and 2 VAs. Noticed they've had 3 faculty members leave in the past few months.

So warning signs of leaky ship or nothing to worry about ?

Anyone else had any sense there were unaddressed issues at the interview. As far as reputation, I get the sense these four programs are clustered at the same tier. Anyone facing similar decision regarding Vandy vs ??? with some input.

How low are the cataract numbers?

 

[Slide]

I would say to be a bit cautious of Vandy if you're intending to do general and/or go into private practice. Well known attendings but surgical training is not up to par. In fact, compared to UIC and MUSC, it's the weakest of the three, surgically. You are also not given a terrible amount of autonomy. I do know a few other things about the place but I would rather keep it private so if you're interested PM me.

 

[Trichromatic]

Storm has the best surgical training of those four, and is actually a rather prestigious program academically. Unfortunately, if it weren't in the south I think it'd be more highly rated, which is a bias not unique to ophthalmology (I wouldn't want to change that fantastic location anyway)