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What is your in-state status?:
Out of state
On what date did the interview take place?:
2/1/2008
How do you rank this residency among ALL other residencies?:
10 out of 10
How do you rank this residency among other residencies to which you've applied?:
10 out of 10
What is your ranking of this program's facilities?:
9 out of 10
What is your ranking of this program's location?:
4 out of 10
What is your ranking of this area's cultural life?:
5 out of 10
What was the stress level of the interview?:
8 out of 10
How do you think you did?:
8 out of 10
How did the interview impress you?:
Positively
How long was the interview?:
10 minutes
How many people interviewed you?:
5
What was the style of the interview?:
One-on-one
How was your interview day? Please summarize.:
The Bottom Line/Impression: A top 10 program with heavy emphasis on research and critical care.<p> Lodging/Dinner: Program provides hotel at nice place attached to the hospital. Residents pick you up for a nice dinner in St. Louis – el vino did flow.<p> Schedule: 0715 start with tour of very impressive hospital facilities. Donuts, bagels, coffee and talk from PD Dr. Cox on the nuts and bolts of the program. Dr. Evers (chair) then provides an outstanding abstract view of his vision for the program and the field. He emphasizes the type of anesthesiologist they train (leaders and academics – he jokes that a fellowship is not optional) and the substantial effort they put into making their department visible in the hospital – chair and vice-chairs staff in the preop clinic where nearly 80% of elective cases are seen, ICU staffing with 15 intensivists, about once a week attendings do their own cases so they stay sharp and visible to the surgeons. He also makes a point of constantly pushing you out of your “comfort zone” so learning is continual. Then, interviews which were fairly intense (ethical decision-making questions, “Why did you apply here? Why are you going anesthesia?”) definitely not conversational/friendly/chatty and a lot of them – 5. Everyone meets w/ PD and chair. Then lunch with residents and tour of St. Louis in the limo. Residents seemed very sharp but on average the nerdiest group I’ve met.<p> Program Info: 18 spots, 12 categorical and 6 advanced. Intern year is very diverse and a lot of time is spent with the anesthesia department (2 ICU, sim, OR, ?preop). All of your required rotations are under one roof at Children’s, Barnes, or outpatient “Center for Advanced Medicine.” <p>Pros: Outstanding caseload – residents cover about 60 OR’s but the program is disproportionately small so you get good-to-great cases all the time and CRNAs and MDs do the rest. Dr. Evers seems like a great chairman, has been the chair for 16 years, is very stable and very senior in the country, even attends in the SICU. Repeatedly he said “You do the cases you NEED to do, not necessarily the cases you want to do and not the cases we need you to do.” They say you do more liver transplants than lap choles here. ICU experience is excellent and expanding. Level 1 trauma. Peds. High-risk OB. Several outstanding labs doing molecular, translational, and clinical work. The Avidan BIS paper in NEJM came out of here.<p> Cons: A VERY hardworking program. Regional is a relative weakness but Dr. Evers says it’s still better than 80% of the programs out there. They are in search of a top academic regional person and have been for years. We did not hear much about didactics. Residents were a hard-working but fairly nerdy bunch. Location could be an issue – St. Louis is a typical Midwestern city with a rotten urban core, affordable housing, rough winters and hot summers. This is nitpicking but most do fellowships at WashU – not sure why they’re not going elsewhere. Report as inappropriate
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