I'm a wee little M3 trying to think about my (not too distant) future, hoping to go into Pathology. I'm willing to apply anywhere in the country, and I'm looking for input on what programs residents would re-rank if they had to do it all over again. Criteria:
-Great education
-Minimal cutthroat personalities
-LOTS of teaching opportunities
-I don't care about the program having a 'big name'
Ok, go.
You're still a little ways from applying, so it might be hard to appreciate some of the info you get here quite yet...but here goes:
Personally, I think pre-application counseling from almost any source is terrible overall, but I'm sure you'll still get plenty of opinions here. I'll tell you what I think/what I did.
I think #1 and 2 are both really important. Great education is arguably more important; however, for a number of reasons, it's somewhat hard to tell where you will be able to best take advantage of educational opportunities during the application and interview processes. There are a lot of good places to go - if you go back to last year's threads, you'll see a lot of programs mentioned, many of which are associated with large teaching hospitals, and that's a good place to start. Part of your education will be a function of volume, part will be a function of your attendings, but I think the largest part is probably a function of you yourself.
As for #2, sure, you can suck it up and deal with people you dislike for 3-4 years, but having done this for a few years in a previous incarnation in the working world, I can tell you that it's miserable. You can try, but it's hard to totally shut yourself off from your colleagues. How can you tell if you'll get along with your future co-residents? You can't. But getting a general feel for the social atmosphere at a program during your interview/second look might give you a feel for the kind of resident the program likes. This is why I think the best advice I got during my interview process was "go with what your gut tells you."
So what most people do (and what I hated) when you ask the questions you mentioned, is tell you what to look for during your interviews. I don't think anyone gave me a straight-forward answer (I got a lot of sneaky implications, but not a straight answer) as to which programs to apply to in the first place. So I did the best I could, and I think I would do the same a second time:
1) Choose 2-3 regions of the US where you would like to live (I *know* this sounds stupid, and I convinced myself that I would live anywhere in order to obtain a good education, but it MATTERS - I am *so* happy I ended up in a geographical area that I like)
2) Find a list of all programs in the states included in #1. Go here:
https://freida.ama-assn.org/Freida/user/viewProgramSearch.do
3) Sift through the FREIDA info to whittle the list of programs to a manageable number that you think you might want to go to. You can always go back to the original list.
4) Visit each program's website (this takes a while) to whittle the list down further.
5) Obtain further information packets and talk to residents at your favorite programs in order to come up with your final list.
6) Continue to agonize about where to apply, perhaps make an excel spreadsheet if you're neurotic enough, and finally hit the button.
7) Interview --> spend a ridiculous amount of time, money and effort, get burned out, and decide you've had enough interviewing. Cancel the rest of your interviews, much to your regret.
8) Agonize over making a match list --> hit the button --> agonize until match day --> surprise!
If you want a couple of personal opinions about certain programs, feel free to pm me, but to tell you the truth, personal opinions about programs vary and may be entirely meaningless.
