Washington DC

[SurgeryChef]

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What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the DC programs? It could be a great location for me and my family and was wondering what the scoop is on GW, georgetown, and even hopkins and u maryland. And Toxic-Megacolon, why are you not happy about matching there? Thanks guys 🙂

 

[njbmd]

What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the DC programs? It could be a great location for me and my family and was wondering what the scoop is on GW, georgetown, and even hopkins and u maryland. And Toxic-Megacolon, why are you not happy about matching there? Thanks guys 🙂

Hi there,
All of the DC academic programs (GW, GT and Howard) are very,very good with excellent experiences and excellent faculty. I loved University of Maryland but was less impressed with Hopkins (I did not like the location) and UM had better surgical experiences even though Hopkins has the national reputation. Hopkins seemed to be a bit on the malignant side when I interviewed there back in 2002. Perhaps things have changed.

The biggest drawback of DC is the expense of living there. If you live in the city (Adams Morgan, West End, Georgetown) rents are very, very expensive and traffic is very bad. You can live in Virginia (Arlington, Crystal City, Alexandria) but the traffic is rough.

I am not much of a fan of Washington Hospital Center's program but GW and GT rotate their resident through WHC anyway and MedStar Health owns both GT and WHC. Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va is the class of the community programs around DC. No other community program even comes close.

All of the folks from the academic programs around DC generally get the fellowship of their choice and the facilites are very nice in all three of the University Hospitals.

njbmd 🙂

 

[toxic-megacolon]

why are you not happy about matching there? Thanks guys 🙂

I guess I'm not unhappy, just very VERY surprised. Anyone can PM me if they want details on that... Just don't beleive what PDs tell you during the interview season, or at least take it with a grain of salt.

For what its worth, I think that GW is probably the best training in DC. I don't know much about Howard. WHC is a good community program, but too many rumors about malignancy scared me away. I'm not sure what Georgetown's current situation is with numbers and the merger with WHC, but matching in DC, GW is where I'd want to be. Again, that said, I was just not expecting to be on the east coast. I also couples matched, which can change everything too. Good Luck!