Which are the top programs

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bailey-b

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Over and over on these forums I keep hearing references made to the "top" anesthesiology programs but I never hear specifics of which programs these are. The reason I ask is that since it is getting close to application time I have been giving some thought to which programs to apply. I want to make sure I have a good mix of programs with some "top" programs thrown in the mix. Is there somewhere you are getting this info from or is it just word of mouth.
Here is a list of the programs I am interested in and mabey someone could let me know which are considered the top/competitive programs.

University of Connecticut Program
Yale-New Haven Medical Center Program
University of Florida Program
Emory University Program
University of Kentucky Medical Center Program
Maine Medical Center Program
Johns Hopkins University Program
University of Maryland Program
University of Massachusetts Program
Baystate Medical Center/Tufts University School of Medicine Program
St Louis University School of Medicine Program
Washington University/B-JH/SLCH Consortium Program
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center Program
Wake Forest University School of Medicine Program
Medical University of South Carolina Program
Vanderbilt University Program
University of Virginia Program
Virginia Commonwealth University Health System Program
Penn State University/Milton S Hershey Medical Center Program
 
Talk about an east coast bias. UCSF, Stanford, Galveston, little program in Dallas, Virginia Mason, and so on. There is life west of the Mississipi.
 
Looks to me like you're wanting to be in the east outside of a big city? (That's why no NYC programs, No NEMC but have Baystate, No St. Elizabeths but UMass on there...) Just a preliminary look at your list shows that you have a pretty good range of programs with backups. If anything you could skew your list up. Without knowing your stats it's hard to say whether I'd apply to that list. For instance, if you are 240 Step 1 and AOA I can tell you to leave certain programs off that list and not even bother with. If you're less academically endowed and are just hoping to match I can tell you that you'll get interviews at some of those on your list.

When I applied last year I made the mistake of applying to places that I knew I would hate. I had two interviews in a certain city that I hate. Always hated it, probably always will. It didn't matter how good the programs were, I wasn't going to go there, so I wasted two interviews and travel and all that. But I do recommend checking out different areas! That's the great part about applying and interviewing. Travel, bring your skis if it's snowy. Bring your bike and running shoes if you go down south in the winter. Have fun.
 
The list is purely based off of locations I (we - my wife) prefer. We want to stay east fo the Mississippi due to family reasons. Nothing against the western US. We have no desire to live in large cities like NYC, Boston etc. It is hard coming up with a list. I have looked at scutwork.com but all start to sound the same after a while and some are outdated. So it seems at this point in the game to look at programs in regions of the country I desire to spend some time in. Then as interviews progress narrow my choices down. I am getting pretty excited about the upcoming months.
 
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