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Programs in this cycle
Really appreciate the continuing input from all of the residents. Would anyone be able to talk about Emory or Vanderbilt?
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Brown -- is becoming/has become the true New England spine powerhouse under Gokaslan. Very few complex cranial cases, those cases go to Boston. Do not expect to become a skull base expert. Neuro IR is very strong, they run endovascular. Good PA/NP support. However, Rhode Island Hospital is the biggest single trauma center in New England, and can get quite busy. Residents are an eclectic group, seemed capable of working fairly autonomously, and seemed to get along fairly well with each other. Brown has very strong basic neuroscience research, but neurosurgical research leaves something to be desired.

Overall, traditionally weak program that has improved greatly in the past few years, especially in spine.
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(05-26-2020, 09:15 PM)Guest Wrote: Brown -- is becoming/has become the true New England spine powerhouse under Gokaslan. Very few complex cranial cases, those cases go to Boston. Do not expect to become a skull base expert. Neuro IR is very strong, they run endovascular. Good PA/NP support. However, Rhode Island Hospital is the biggest single trauma center in New England, and can get quite busy. Residents are an eclectic group, seemed capable of working fairly autonomously, and seemed to get along fairly well with each other. Brown has very strong basic neuroscience research, but neurosurgical research leaves something to be desired.

Overall, traditionally weak program that has improved greatly in the past few years, especially in spine.

Thanks, Brown resident
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(05-26-2020, 08:09 PM)Guest Wrote: Really appreciate the continuing input from all of the residents. Would anyone be able to talk about Emory or Vanderbilt?

+1
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(05-26-2020, 10:34 PM)Guest Wrote:
(05-26-2020, 08:09 PM)Guest Wrote: Really appreciate the continuing input from all of the residents. Would anyone be able to talk about Emory or Vanderbilt?

+1

+2
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(05-20-2020, 01:12 AM)Guest Wrote:
(05-20-2020, 12:49 AM)Guest Wrote:
(05-19-2020, 12:27 AM)Guest Wrote: Can any residents and/or previous rotators talk about the differences between Pitt, USC, BNI, and UW? (i.e. case volume,  academic opportunities available, lifestyle, culture, etc.)

(05-19-2020, 12:27 AM)Guest Wrote: Can any residents and/or previous rotators talk about the differences between Pitt, USC, BNI, and UW? (i.e. case volume,  academic opportunities available, lifestyle, culture, etc.)

Bump ^^

Bump ^^^

Depends on which of these categories you want to max out. Overall, Barrow wins and it's not even close.

BNI: ~7,000 cases+ /year with incredible complexity. Amazing lifestyle. Juniors take in house call Q4 but always get post-call days and after that, seniors routinely leave by 5-6 PM. Culture is incredible. Virtually no yelling, manipulation, or abuse of any kind. Residents are all super chill and hang out together. Tons of money/resources to take care of all your scut. You show up, quickly run past your ICU patients, go do your cases autonomously, and leave at 5 PM to go hang out with your family or a resident pool party. Can do as much or as little research as you want, but there are basic opportunities if you want (even in tumor with guys like Sanai). Internal $80,000 grants given out to residents like candy.

UW: High volume. Don't know exact number of cases. Juniors get slammed at Harborview (think like 15+ admissions each night) but seniors have a decent lifestyle (maybe out by 7:30?) More formal academic environment but overall the faculty really care about the residents' success. I personally liked the residents: good mix of broey and nice/nerdy. Best basic science research among those 4 and it's not even close. Much harder for residents to find the time to do hard core basic outside of research year due to call. 

Pitt: Insanely high volume, also over 7,000 cases (maybe even slightly higher than Barrow?) Some amazing researchers but basic science is hard to do given the clinical work. By far the busiest program of them all. Trauma junior gets in by 3 AM and stays until 10:30 PM routinely. Warzone ER. Lifestyle doesn't really improve as you progress - virtually no NP/PA support. Some great attendings, some much tougher ones who are hard on the residents. Residents are a good group but are clearly beat down by the experience. A decent amount seemed unhappy during my Sub-I but they come out incredibly well trained.

USC: Essentially Pitt (but lower volume) and with a cohesive group of residents. Incredible autonomy at County. No post-call days (residents work true 36 hour shifts) but are overall happy due to good culture. Nice attendings - overall the residents are treated well. Internal R25 for research experience. Can take protected research year for projects or can enfold a fellowship (not CAST since before chief year).
How do these places compare to Penn and WUSTL?
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(06-07-2020, 03:12 AM)Guest Wrote:
(05-20-2020, 01:12 AM)Guest Wrote:
(05-20-2020, 12:49 AM)Guest Wrote:
(05-19-2020, 12:27 AM)Guest Wrote: Can any residents and/or previous rotators talk about the differences between Pitt, USC, BNI, and UW? (i.e. case volume,  academic opportunities available, lifestyle, culture, etc.)

(05-19-2020, 12:27 AM)Guest Wrote: Can any residents and/or previous rotators talk about the differences between Pitt, USC, BNI, and UW? (i.e. case volume,  academic opportunities available, lifestyle, culture, etc.)

Bump ^^

Bump ^^^

Depends on which of these categories you want to max out. Overall, Barrow wins and it's not even close.

BNI: ~7,000 cases+ /year with incredible complexity. Amazing lifestyle. Juniors take in house call Q4 but always get post-call days and after that, seniors routinely leave by 5-6 PM. Culture is incredible. Virtually no yelling, manipulation, or abuse of any kind. Residents are all super chill and hang out together. Tons of money/resources to take care of all your scut. You show up, quickly run past your ICU patients, go do your cases autonomously, and leave at 5 PM to go hang out with your family or a resident pool party. Can do as much or as little research as you want, but there are basic opportunities if you want (even in tumor with guys like Sanai). Internal $80,000 grants given out to residents like candy.

UW: High volume. Don't know exact number of cases. Juniors get slammed at Harborview (think like 15+ admissions each night) but seniors have a decent lifestyle (maybe out by 7:30?) More formal academic environment but overall the faculty really care about the residents' success. I personally liked the residents: good mix of broey and nice/nerdy. Best basic science research among those 4 and it's not even close. Much harder for residents to find the time to do hard core basic outside of research year due to call. 

Pitt: Insanely high volume, also over 7,000 cases (maybe even slightly higher than Barrow?) Some amazing researchers but basic science is hard to do given the clinical work. By far the busiest program of them all. Trauma junior gets in by 3 AM and stays until 10:30 PM routinely. Warzone ER. Lifestyle doesn't really improve as you progress - virtually no NP/PA support. Some great attendings, some much tougher ones who are hard on the residents. Residents are a good group but are clearly beat down by the experience. A decent amount seemed unhappy during my Sub-I but they come out incredibly well trained.

USC: Essentially Pitt (but lower volume) and with a cohesive group of residents. Incredible autonomy at County. No post-call days (residents work true 36 hour shifts) but are overall happy due to good culture. Nice attendings - overall the residents are treated well. Internal R25 for research experience. Can take protected research year for projects or can enfold a fellowship (not CAST since before chief year).
How do these places compare to Penn and WUSTL?

All very different. Wash U is somewhat of a unique place in that it's very well balanced. Just to use some subjective scores to illustrate this (not trying to rank different places), it would be something like 7/10 operatively and 9.5/10 in terms of research. For a place with a ton of R01s and the Wash U basic science research infrastructure they do quite a few cases. However, the autonomy and volume are definitely a step down from BNI/Pitt/USC/Mayo etc.

Penn is very weak operatively and doesn't come close to any of the ones listed above.
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Former UCSD med student here.  Matched at a different program.   UCSD's program isn't perfect but it is very good in many aspects.  There was a large breadth and depth of cases from complex spine (Pham, Taylor) to complex skull base (Schwartz, U).  Most of the residents were strong. The hospital was wonderful and the experience across the two UCSD campuses, the pediatric hospital, and the VA provided a great variety of case complexity and diversity.  San Diego was also a very beautiful city to live in.  The biggest problem with the program was the thin-skinned leadership of their chairman with a Napoleonic complex.  He hired new faculty that would worship him, and ignored those that would challenge him. The lack of a real vascular surgeon or a neurosurgical-trained endovascularist is all the proof you need to know that he doesn't like competition.  He clearly favored his enfolded fellows (only UCSD residents) over the residents who were not.  He would also take offense to residents who would not scrub his cases, including a certain chief resident who he suspended after he blew the whistle on a policy that looked after department finances over providing equal care for homeless and immigrant patients.  UCSD is a very good program if you can get past the malignant chairman.  FWIW, I am at a program with a known malignant chairman and I think he's rather reasonable compared to UCSD's.
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(07-01-2020, 02:06 AM)Guest Wrote: Former UCSD med student here.  Matched at a different program.   UCSD's program isn't perfect but it is very good in many aspects.  There was a large breadth and depth of cases from complex spine (Pham, Taylor) to complex skull base (Schwartz, U).  Most of the residents were strong. The hospital was wonderful and the experience across the two UCSD campuses, the pediatric hospital, and the VA provided a great variety of case complexity and diversity.  San Diego was also a very beautiful city to live in.  The biggest problem with the program was the thin-skinned leadership of their chairman with a Napoleonic complex.  He hired new faculty that would worship him, and ignored those that would challenge him. The lack of a real vascular surgeon or a neurosurgical-trained endovascularist is all the proof you need to know that he doesn't like competition.  He clearly favored his enfolded fellows (only UCSD residents) over the residents who were not.  He would also take offense to residents who would not scrub his cases, including a certain chief resident who he suspended after he blew the whistle on a policy that looked after department finances over providing equal care for homeless and immigrant patients.  UCSD is a very good program if you can get past the malignant chairman.  FWIW, I am at a program with a known malignant chairman and I think he's rather reasonable compared to UCSD's.

One of the best posts on this website. Love it. as a UCSD resident, I verify this.
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(07-01-2020, 02:06 AM)Guest Wrote: Former UCSD med student here.  Matched at a different program.   UCSD's program isn't perfect but it is very good in many aspects.  There was a large breadth and depth of cases from complex spine (Pham, Taylor) to complex skull base (Schwartz, U).  Most of the residents were strong. The hospital was wonderful and the experience across the two UCSD campuses, the pediatric hospital, and the VA provided a great variety of case complexity and diversity.  San Diego was also a very beautiful city to live in.  The biggest problem with the program was the thin-skinned leadership of their chairman with a Napoleonic complex.  He hired new faculty that would worship him, and ignored those that would challenge him. The lack of a real vascular surgeon or a neurosurgical-trained endovascularist is all the proof you need to know that he doesn't like competition.  He clearly favored his enfolded fellows (only UCSD residents) over the residents who were not.  He would also take offense to residents who would not scrub his cases, including a certain chief resident who he suspended after he blew the whistle on a policy that looked after department finances over providing equal care for homeless and immigrant patients.  UCSD is a very good program if you can get past the malignant chairman.  FWIW, I am at a program with a known malignant chairman and I think he's rather reasonable compared to UCSD's.

Considering that Pham’s only been there for two years, that means you were at UCSD recently. Way to out yourself to an entire program and chairman. Smart move buddy.
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