<p>Program C: </p>
<p>I’ve managed to cluster most of my interviews geographically to help cut travel time and costs, so this is in a similar geographic area. </p>
<p>I did manage to make the pre-interview dinner the night before despite my travel schedule…and they took us to the Cheesecake Factory…this seriously bothered me. I can go to the Cheesecake Factory whenever, so this is not impressive, and if you want to show off your city to me, take me some place unique. Major negative points right off the bat. I also didn’t click very well with the residents. They weren’t nearly as outgoing, and they didn’t really expound on their answers to my questions like the residents at my home program and program B did. It made conversation difficult. I seriously left the dinner having enjoyed meeting one applicant’s fiancee and one resident’s husband more than the residents I met. I was talking with those guys about college football and one of the residents even asked us to stop talking about football…again, major negative points. At the dinner there was only me and 2 other applicants, and I didn’t really connect with them either, despite the fact that one was from my hometown.</p>
<p>Anyways, the dinner put me in a bad mood and it was hard to keep an open mind about the program the next day. The program had a number of things that could have been stellar, but failed to impress me in the details. For example, they have an extremely new Children’s Hospital that everyone was raving about…which to me looked entirely too much like an adult hospital that just happened to be painted like a children’s hospital. I was very disappointed. It just seems that other places had much better layouts for kids and their families. Their PICU was nice though. Another example is that they have a night float system (which I like and is becoming somewhat of a major criterion for me) but it’s part of all your regular ward months, so you’re doing 3 weeks of days and then a week of nights, rather than just making it one month of being the mole. If we’re going to talk sleep schedules, then please give me everything all at once. They have a lot of nationally well known faculty, but very few elective months that might give you the opportunity to work more closely with them.</p>
<p>Didn’t like the Chairman much, and the PD was rather bland compared to those at Programs A and B, but I LOVED the assistant PD. She’s very high on education and teaching interns about learning style and upper levels about teaching styles. She and I hit it off entirely and at one point she even said “I’m sold, how can I get you to come here?” she laughed it off quickly because the elephant in the room at all these things is that rank lists and statements which imply offers of a position are very big no-no’s in the match agreement. She, and one of the Chief Residents were the high points of my visit, but the chief will of course be gone next year if I were to go there, so he’s a null value. Absolutely awesome guy, but null value for the program.</p>
<p>The city itself I liked better than program B’s, and compared to my home program I might rank this program higher simply because it’s some place new. I don’t have any fears about my training that I’d get there, but I really was not feeling my interactions with the residents, just poor vibes all around, and it seemed as though they were really limiting our opportunities to interact with them. I also didn’t have an interview with any faculty members, just the PD and the assistant PD.</p>
<p>The oddest part of the day was the fact that there was one of the applicants who was from this school and was obviously looking to stay (and the department wanted her to), who wasn’t at the dinner the night before, who about midway through the day started trying to sell me on the program. I actually did like her, but it was odd having a fellow applicant push you towards the program. She told me there was nothing she didn’t like about the program (something I find impossible to believe). She definitely spent more time trying to sell me than she did the other 2 applicants (I figure she recognized how awesome I am and figured I’d be a great addition to their program ;)). </p>
<p>So anyways, I’m realizing how important it is to see the programs because there was a lot of unexpected things. Given that both programs had some positive things and negative things, I’m hopeful that there’s a program I find which is able to combine everything. Program B is certainly an option and if I somehow ended up at program C, I can always tell myself it’s only 3 years, but I’m excited to see what else is out there.</p>