I just posted this on the interview review thread. Thought I would repost here.
I interviewed at Yale on 11/28/07. I was impressed so I thought I would write a review. I went into the interview a little worried due to someone's post about a difficult interview, but this was not the case.
I had a long 13 hour drive from MSU (Michigan) so I was pretty tired when I got there. The hotel was very nice with granite countertops, fireplace, full kitchen, and flat screen TV. Dinner the night before was very cool. It was a relaxed atmosphere. The chief residents did a small powerpoint on life in New Haven which was helpful. Dinner ended by about 9pm.
The next morning started at 6:30am which was grand rounds. It was a real treat to here Dr. Barash speak about the last 52 years of Yale anesthesiology. Some amazing advances in anesthesiology have been done at Yale. Then Dr. Schwarz (PD) gave us a presentation about the program and Dr. Hines (chair) talked about Yale anesthesiology. Also were brief lectures about resident education and research opportunities. We (~36 applicants) were then split into groups. Some of us toured the facilities, some spoke with residents, and others interviewed. There were two 25 minute interviews. My interviews were very relaxed (with no pimping). The day was finished at about 1:45pm.
The true strength of the program is the PD, Chair, and faculty. Dr. Schwartz is relatively new to the position and has hit the ground running. He is very approachable and seemed very responsive to resident's needs. Dr. Hines seems really involved with the residents and is one of the nicest chairs I have met so far. These two people are the most valuable assets to the program. They make resident education their priority which is the most important thing for me looking at different programs. The program in general seemed very responsive to resident's ideas and feedback. The faculty are excellent, some are known around the world (Barash, just to name one). Lots of research going on here, and there have been over 20 textbooks written by faculty. In summary, faculty and administration are totally dedicated to resident education.
The residents were very bright, yet down to earth. (I spoke to one of them about the Transformers movie!) They said that on an average day they expected to be there at 6:15am and out by 5pm. All residents were very happy from what I could see.
New Haven seems like a nice place to live. This is a personal preference however. Yale University is there of course, campus is really nice. There are lots of restaurants, bars, stores around the downtown area. I'm sure there are some bad parts of the city, but I did not see them while I was there. About half of the residents live within walking distance of the hospital. The rest own houses outside the city.
In conclusion, the strengths of the program perfectly match what I am looking for and therefore I will be ranking it very highly. I know that my fiancé and I would be extremely happy here. People all too often ignore their gut feeling when looking at different programs. Just remember that although a program is a great fit for somebody, doesn't mean it is a great fit for everybody. That is why "rankings" of programs are sometimes irrelevant and arbitrary.
They have a really informative website, so check it out before you interview. I tried to keep this review short and sweet, but letme know if I left anything out!
Meh..
hilarious x 3 for us, sucks for you eh?
