Thanks a lot. I think there are a lot of new guys here who are interested in your comments on your program. So it would be a great idea to let us share this information. By the way, I have heard that Chicago downtown is the best downtown among all the big cities and Northwestern program is located in the best area of Chicago downtown.
Sure, I can summarize some of my thoughts on the program:
Strengths: Teaching second to none. Drs. Rao and Laskin are great teachers, and we have daily conferences at the multiheaded scope geared towards board prep (conferences are optional, but well attended). Most of the attendings take teaching pretty seriously.
-Great diversity of pathologic specimens, especially the more unusual stuff (soft tissue, neuro, endocrine, renal, cardiac).
-Very resident-friendly program director, who genuinely cares about your wellbeing and career goals.
-Great location, right off the magnificent mile in downtown Chicago. Despite being in an expensive area, there are affordable housing options nearby if you dont want to commute. I'm living in a pretty spacious 1 bedroom in a highrise, right on Lake Michigan, for $1150 a month...much more affordable than NY/Boston/LA/San Fran.
-Facilities are good...Northwestern is a filthy rich hospital and the path department is well taken care of. They just redid the grossing room and each resident has a nice space to work in.
-The scheduling is good..they do a good job intermixing AP/CP rotations, and the CP rotations are pretty light so you have some time to study.
-Everyone passes the boards. Most people go on to get the fellowships they want, including derm. Northwestern offers many (hemepath, cytopath, neuro, etc).
-Pretty normal, down to earth residents, who really step up to help each other out, and are fun to hang out with outside of work.
Weaknesses:
-Currently we're on a 2-day grossing schedule (ie, gross one day, sign out the next, gross the next day, etc). This is not ideal because you don't have any dedicated preview time to go through your cases, which should really be emphasized in residency. It is a major weakness of the program. Having said that, we're set to switch over to 3-day cycle in January, pending the hiring of an extra PA or two to help in the gross room.
-Busy surgpath service, and the hours can be long. First year residents stay till 8 or 9 sometimes. Once you get your feet wet, your typical grossing day will be more like 6-7. My latest night has been 9:00, and I'm a slow, clueless first year. I think you'll find that the hours are comparable at most busy academic medical centers.
-Not enough elective time. We only get a few months; most programs get more.
-Chicago weather sucks.
Strength or Weakness, depending on your point of view:
-Very academic environment. Conferences are pretty formal, and most residents get involved in research and present at local/national conferences, especially in the upper years. Dr. Muller, the program director, has a strong research background and likes residents to get involved. Still, there's a pretty good split between residents who choose careers in academics vs. private practice.
-Generalized signout, which means that on any given day, you'll gross (or sign out) all sorts of different specimens, but you won't get to focus on one particular area at a time. Ask around, people have different thoughts on generalized vs. subspecialty signout; I can't comment on it too much since I'm still just starting out.
Let me know if you've got any more specific questions -- Brian