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Michigan
#1
Rotating at Michigan was fantastic. The faculty are some of the nicest people I've ever met, which can be surprising at first since they're all so accomplished. It was a fairly solid operative experience as a sub-i, especially if you are proactive about getting in the OR with the same attendings so that they get comfortable with your skill set. You do a week of neuro ICU during your rotation, but you can leave after ICU rounds and go back to the OR most of the time. They also assign you a mentor in a subspecialty that you're interested in at the beginning of the month. You spend a day in clinic and a day in the OR with your mentor each week. They encourage you to spend 40% of your time in clinic, but I just spent the day in clinic with my mentor.

If you're interested in midwest programs and/or are interested in basic science research, this would be an excellent choice, and I highly recommend it. The program director is one of the most humble, down-to-earth people I've met, especially considering how accomplished he is. Also, I've heard that Muraszko writes great letters, so that's obviously an added bonus. Oh, and they interview you while you're there - definitely pluses and minuses to this, but it frees up another interview date and saves you travel to Ann Arbor which is nice.

So recently rotated at Michigan.

Overall, pretty good experience. Definitely a more 'gentlemanly' program compared to some of the other top-notch programs that put sub-I's through the grind.

Operative: you go to the OR every day except the day that you're in clinic with your mentor (typically this clinic day is 1/week). In the OR, depending on the level of your resident, you can either help open/close, or you can do absolutely nothing (even while scrubbed in). Also depends on what time of the year you do your sub-I. In july/august you won't do anything since everyone is adjusting to their new responsibilities. But if you do it in May/June you have a ton of opportunities.

Services: There are at least 5 or 6, including vascular, spine, NICU (no operating room time), tumor kahn, tumor peet, and functional. You are required to go to the cases of your specialty, although if you happen upon a day where there are no tumor cases and you're on tumor, then you can go to a spine case. Just talk amongst co-sub-I's to figure things out. The vascular service is pretty much concentrated in the IR suite--not too much open vascular anymore. Spine is huge at Michigan. Paul Park and Frank LaMarca are doing cases 3-4x/week and other attendings do simple cases every now and then (think discectomies, lamis, etc). On Friday's, Dr. Levin does cases at Michigan (she's usually at the VA) and she does a lot of teaching. In terms of tumor, Michigan is still trying to build up its tumor referral base. Orringer and Heth are the main tumor folks. Functional nsu is run by Sagher, who used to be PD.

Day-to-Day: expected to round on ICU-only, starting at 6am on weekdays, and full kahn/peet list at 7am on weekends. Thursday you round earlier because of grand rounds (5:40am). On ICU rounds, expected to carry 1 or 2 patients, but honestly the residents didn't really care too much. Presentations are full-ICU systems-based presentations. After rounds, you either have time for breakfast if you rounded quickly or had few patients, or you go straight to OR. Residents love having you around, but don't really care about where you are at any given point. For example, you can find yourself done with cases at 5pm and your residents won't care about where you are or what you do (i.e. see consults if you want, or go home if you want). Expected to show up on 1 weekend day per weekend, but just to round (unless you are on call).

Faculty: super supportive, and will try to recruit you to Michigan. You interview while you're here, and while you don't interview with everyone, you will interview with the residency selection committee heavy hitters (Maher, Thompson, Sagher, Murazko). You have to bring a copy of your CV to each interview (some folks didn't do this, but I did because why not). You get assigned a faculty mentor which is either super awesome or neutral. Thompson/Park are awesome mentors while some of the other more busy folks may not be as helpful/communicative.

Residents: some of them are flat out awkward, but ALL of them are super nice, friendly, and eventually make great fellowship candidates (almost everyone does a fellowship...). The 6's and 7's are all really good and can operate well. The 2's and 3's needed work. They don't really expect much out of you--ZERO floorwork, so anything you do (like remove sutures/staples) is viewed as world-changing.

Research: 2 dedicated years w/o true protected time (still take call and cover cases). Seems to be skewed to basic science, but there were some other awesome clinical projects going on.

Location: Ann Arbor is a quiet suburban town bordered by nobody-towns except detroit (45 min away). Housing is actually pretty pricey since most people in ann arbor are university workers who are paid well. You can find 3br homes that are 20 years old for 165K. Other cities have more affordable housing for sure, but there are obviously other cities with much more expensive housing. I will say, if you want a specific type of housing, you'll find it: cheap apartments, expensive apartments, cheap houses, mansions, etc.

Program: overall it's an awesome place. There's a reason everyone loves Michigan. Pretty good rotational experience as a sub-I, not so much because of the actual work you do there, but because the foot-in-the-door that you establish as a Michigan sub-I.
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#2
Any recent Sub-Is willing to shed some light on recent experiences here?
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#3
Pros:

Honestly THE nicest faculty you will ever meet, period. The mentorship is the best I’ve personally seen. The research oppurtunities are among the best in the country and clinically very well rounded with one of the few programs with peripheral nerve cases. Everyone in the hospital is exceptionally nice and Ann Arbor is like this weird twilight zone where everyone is well educated, white, and progressive. Some of the residents can be a bit quirky but everyone is very welcoming overall.

Cons

The culture of teaching is definitely on the more Socratic end of the spectrum. As a student there are little expectations of you other than to show up and be engaged with a few patient presentations in the morning. But don’t expect to be doing a tons of hands on stuff if your experience is similar to mine. Even as a senior / chief I didn’t see them getting as much autonomy as some other places. As a student I basically tied every other knot and occasionally got to close skin.

Conclusion:
It’s the quintessential academic powerhouse program with one of, if not the, least malignant cultures in the country. But don’t go into thinking you’ll placing EVDs and drilling burr holes while the attending drinks a beer in the surgeons lounge. I do know they heavily favor subis so if you feel like it could be a good fit you should definitely consider a rotation. B
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