Best Residency Programs Overall?

[FlemishGiant]

Go to Los Angeles County+Univ Southern Calif. Its the best. Plus you turn into an EM monster. And you get cheap football tickets. Thats nice.

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[ER-ER-Oh]

OK, my two cents:

There are some programs that have reputations that may imply you'll get a better chance at some sort of fellowship. That being said, I think you could talk to just about anyone and find someone who got a fellowship somewhere that reflected well on the program. That does not necessarily translate to YOU getting into one. I know two people who got fellowships in EMS with the FDNY, I would suppose that's a 'top notch' fellowship to those who would like to do EMS. That being said, both of those guys were residents at NY Methodist in Brooklyn, NY. I don't think either of them went to Methodist in search of that fellowship, they kind of fell into a place where it worked well for the first guy, who may have had some pull with the second.

Those may be the kind of things the original poster is looking for, but those stories are hard to come by because there's really no place to post all those kinds of things for each residency. Therefor, it becomes more something you learn kind of 'willy nilly' from forums like this, or if you actually interview somewhere and they tell you this fact.

I find most people in EM tend to want to see lots of different stuff, trauma, cardiac cases, wierd stuff that you'll be the star for recognizing later as an attending, etc. and I think you get that stuff just about anywhere because EM is just that wierd to begin with, I mean, where do these f_ _ _ _ _ _ people come from anyway? If you want to have a big name under your belt, that's fine, but I would say you can become famous (if that's your need) by working hard and finding a way to do research that moves along the specialty. If that's the case you really only need to read the literature, find out who's doing the research you're interested in, and contact them. You don't even have to be in their program, they'll be glad to have you interested in their work and will help you out. Sometimes the best way to get noticed is to break new ground in a place no one's really looking at. It's all about the work, I think. The work is crazy, busy, hectic, full of nonsense, and full of fun. If you're the EM type you'll love it anywhere you are.

 

[daveshnave]

IMHO there is no real way to answer this question. When I was interviewing I had people in my class that were ranking programs high on their list, only for me to go to that program and think of it as shoddy at best. Conversely, programs I ranked high were low on their list. The reason for this became apparent to me after I was done interviewing. It all depends on what YOU want out of a residency program. Some places have name recognition, but it may not necessarily be in EM, or if it is, it may not necessarily expose their residents to high volumes and/or certain types of exposure. Others places have no name recognition but great exposure. The vast majority are in between. What matters most is what YOU want out of a residency program. EM is not so much like more traditional specialties in medicine, where going to a Harvard, etc, will guarantee you a great job down the road. It's more like family practice, where the better places tend to be the ones with the most hands-on exposure and autonomy within the overall institution. At least that's my 2 cents. I know others have differing opinions...

 

[quideam]

Does anyone have any opinions on University of Chicago? I've asked before, but haven't gotten much of an answer. I heard that they have really great Aeromedical EMS exposure. Any thoughts?

 

[corpsmanUP]

Does anyone have any opinions on University of Chicago? I've asked before, but haven't gotten much of an answer. I heard that they have really great Aeromedical EMS exposure. Any thoughts?

I have heard that if you don't have a top ten school name behind you, forget it!!

 

[EctopicFetus]

I worked with some of their EM residents and they were all really awesome. I dont believe they are a level 1 trauma center so their EM residents rotate through trauma at another hospital in chicago (Mt Sinai). The have a brand new peds hospital with lots of Peds exposure. I have also heard that they are kind of like the above poster stated. That being said their residents told me that they like people with real life work experience, aka non-traditional applicants. They like people who worked for a few years and people with EMS type experience. Thats all I know, I am just hoping for an interview but I am not sure I will get one. The residents I worked with were all really nice, awesome and just a pleasure to be around. Nothing but praise for their residents.

 

[quideam]

hmmm... I don't know about that top-ten school thing (though i'm from a top-ten, so it doesn't matter for me) - if you look at their match list, most aren't from top tens at all; only two of their current PGY-1s are from "top" schools, and that seems to be the pattern for the other years as well.

Any other thoughts? Any information on their aeromed exposure?

Thanks!

 

[jojo14]

I have heard that if you don't have a top ten school name behind you, forget it!!

This isn't true. I have a friend from my school who matched there this past year and we definitely are not at a top 10 school. However, we are in an area that has very strong EM programs to rotate through so he probably had some great letters and grades from them.