Vanderbilt
Started by Derek Zoolander
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the topic has definately been discussed in the past - do a search and you should find some stuff.
My search revealed that Vandy is viewed as a more strenuous program, in regard to work hrs on certain rotations, and there is some concern about exposure to biopsies. However, the consensus seems to be that you get good training there.
Anybody have any other perspectives or new input? I really appreciate any responses.
Anybody have any other perspectives or new input? I really appreciate any responses.
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I think the best way to learn about a program is to do an away rotation there (and I would highly recommend doing one at Vanderbilt). I think you would find that lots of what you hear on this board about programs is a myth.
I think that's a little extreme. A lot of the info posted about programs here is by people who are at or recently attended the programs, so it's not myth. A better term would be biased. People have biases and these come out when they talk about programs, whether it is speaking highly of them or speaking poorly of them. When people discuss specifics as in work schedules, etc, that's not really mythical.
One should always be careful about taking one opinion of a program as gospel truth, you have to make up your own mind, consider other opinions but don't let it force your hand. Also consider the source, of course. If someone registers and their only post goes like, "Program X sux they wrk u hard," then that is probably not the greatest source of information.
Thanks for starting this thread, I'm interested in Vanderbilt, too. Here's what I know that you can't get off the website -- surg path is general signout, and the residents have lots of little perks (like a laptop and new microscopes). They have a new chair who is CP-only and has hired 22 new faculty in the last year, many from Seattle, Wash U, other large academic centers. Apparently the PAs on staff are recent hires and help out in the gross room.
Anyone else know anything?
Especially the big question -- are the residents happy?
Could you give some pointers on searching -- like how to search path only discussions and not the whole site?
I agree, a month elective there would give you the best possible experience and make you much more of an expert than me...but here is my 2 cents anyway. I interviewed there, liked the faculty and the residents, really liked the residency director and found everyone to be very pleasant, but a little 'intense' perhaps. It certainly was not a good fit for me, but more of a compatibility thing.
I found it also a little worrying that they had apparently been breaking the 80 hour work week rule a couple of years back (although I am putting in about 70 right now.) I am not afraid to work hard, but I also want time to read and to have a life outside of medicine. At the same time, I think that it would be a great place to train and you would be very well qualified at the end of it all.
Good luck this year,
Chumpmonkey
I found it also a little worrying that they had apparently been breaking the 80 hour work week rule a couple of years back (although I am putting in about 70 right now.) I am not afraid to work hard, but I also want time to read and to have a life outside of medicine. At the same time, I think that it would be a great place to train and you would be very well qualified at the end of it all.
Good luck this year,
Chumpmonkey
when you're in the pathology forum towards the top right of the page there's a button that says "search this forum" (or something really close to that). click that and a little box comes up and you can enter whatever search term you want. any thread that has that word in it will come up. hopefully the ones focusing on what you want will give you some clue in the subject line because you'll get plenty that really don't talk much about Vanderbilt, but someone may have said, "and my friend who goes to Vanderbilt said..." and that'll come up same as a thread titled "why Vanderbilt rules". 😀
