prueba
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Please copy this template and add:
Program Name:
Date of Interview:
Where did u stay, nearest hotel, travel etc:
Level of "stress" (0-10):
How many interviewers:
How many applicants:
Tour included visits to:
Questions asked:
Happy residents: yes / no / ? :
Atmosphere:
City, how is living there?:
Research oriented: yes / no / ?
Prematch offers?:
Visa sponsored?:
What I liked the most?:
What should be improved?:
Rate experience (0-10):
Conclusion:
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| robin082006
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Topics: 471
Posts: 5,125
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Program Name: Santa Clara medical Center
Date of Interview: Nov 19
Where did u stay, nearest hotel, travel etc: my friend house, in San Jose
Level of "stress" (0-10): 1
How many interviewers: 1
How many applicants: 14, 5 Preliminary, 9 Categorical, all of them are final year medical students, mostly CA schools except 3
I am the only IMG in the interview, oldest, English with accent
1 from Tulane,
1 from U of Michigan
1 from NYMC
4 from UCLA
2 from Stanford
2 from UCSF
1 from UCSD
1 from UC Davis
Tour included visits to: ICU, ED, Express Admitting Unit, Trauma center, Library
Questions asked: 20 min, tell me more about yourself, how do I know SCMC, Why do I choose Medicine, How different between US health practice and my home country one, no medical questions.
Happy residents: yes / no / ? : Yes 100%
Atmosphere: friendly and nice staff
City, how is living there?: lovely city San Jose
Research oriented: yes / no / ? limited
Prematch offers?: No
Visa sponsored?: did not ask
What I liked the most?: Good teaching, lovely city, beautiful hospital
What should be improved?: research
Rate experience (0-10): 8
Conclusion: pros: hotel-like hospital, nice staff, beautiful city, pathology diversity, high autonomy, good teaching, rotations at Stanford.
Cons: only 1 IMG in the program (other people said that this is non-IMG program), fellowship less than 25% (no problem with me in terms of this one), only some subspecialties. In the last 3 years, only 1-2 graduates got into fellowships each year.
I talked to other applicants and they said that this is not recommended for those who strongly want to do fellowship.
Anyway I will rank this very highly in my ROL.
Edited by robin082006 on 11/19/07 - 06:19 PM
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| smal
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Topics: 140
Posts: 727
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Program Name: Kern
Date of Interview: early Dec
Where did u stay, nearest hotel, travel etc: Dont remember
Level of "stress" (0-10): 7-8(I was the only IMG!)
How many interviewers: 2
How many applicants: 3
Tour included visits to: the usual stuff-call rooms,ICU,emergency ets.
Questions asked: PD was a very jollyful fellow,we talked about everything,a very casual talk like one with a friend sitting in park.The other was rather brief,I think I should've talked about the staff's reserch,but then the list was so huge,I decided on the contary.
Happy residents: yes / no / ? : Only interacted with the chief resident who gave us the introductory slide show and tour.But during the afternoon conference,we got glimpse of faces of the residents,who felt free to participate in the discussion and were activly asking questions to their attending who was also giving the lecture.
Atmosphere: Very relaxed,like any other CA interviews.What i dont understand is that we the applicants have a good time,the program cordinators come and talk to us the whole time and almost always have one-two resident with her.The PDs are kind enough not to ask medical questions and just chat and say you are the kind of applicant we are looking for..........how the hell do they decide on whom to choose(I beleive in interviews we all try to be pleasent,accomdating and all that)
City, how is living there?:Bakersfield is a quiet place,although when we went to see the hospital the night before, we could hardly see 4-5 ppl on the road(mostly afro-american and mexicans),it was 10 pm.
Research oriented: yes / no / ? Big time reserch oriented
Prematch offers?: Nope
Visa sponsored?: Dont know
What I liked the most?: The PD for sure,he was a wonderful man.There are very few americans I know that came across as the type of personality as he has,a lot of indianness(I hope u get the meaning) in him-but not that I know too many americans either!
What should be improved?: may be they should have setup few more residents to interact with
Rate experience (0-10): 8
Conclusion: A good program to be in,advocate reserch.I am not a very reserch oriented person but want some time to decide if I want to go into fellowship,this program will help me decide that.It has a blend of AMGs and IMGs,so you get to interact with them as well.
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remedy for weakness is not brooding over it ,but thinking of strength.
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| smal
Forum Guru
Topics: 140
Posts: 727
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Program Name: San Joaquin general hospital
Date of Interview:early Dec
Where did u stay, nearest hotel, travel etc:
Level of "stress" (0-10): 5(this is normal for me)
How many interviewers: 2
How many applicants: 4(3-IMG and 1 AMG)
Tour included visits to:usual stuff
Questions asked: very casual talk,asked if I liked the program and consider living in North CA.Actually the PC asked me before inviting about my intentions of staying in north CA.
Happy residents: yes / no / ? : Yes
Atmosphere: The resident I tried to talk to before the morning round wanted to talk after the rounds were over.The morning report was most impressive,reminded me of my residency days in India where the professor made sure you start only from basics.The resident who gave us round was an intern in her ambulatry rotation and from her words it seemed to a nice place to be for 3 years.
City, how is living there?: houses for residents can be found in campus,they have mobile homes,but u get it by a lottery system.
Research oriented: yes / no / ? wouldnt say yes to that,although when I asked the interviewer he said they encourage it,I wasnt too convinced with the tone of his voice though.
Prematch offers?: No
Visa sponsored?: No,only accept J1
What I liked the most?: The PD is an indian lady,so needless to say we connected at more than 1 level.
What should be improved?: may be get more reserch oriented
Rate experience (0-10): 10!
Conclusion: I am still not clear as to how reserch oriented it is but on the whole its a nice program. Easygoing I would say.Has mostly 5th pathway IMGs.
Anyone reading this post,if you know more about reserch opprtunities and fellowship prospects in this hospital /or anything more, please update.thanks
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remedy for weakness is not brooding over it ,but thinking of strength.
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| smal
Forum Guru
Topics: 140
Posts: 727
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Program Name: Fresno-UCSF
Date of Interview: early jan
Where did u stay, nearest hotel, travel etc:
Level of "stress" (0-10): 7-8( we were only 2 but one was an AMG and strt thinking what chances I have over them)
How many interviewers: 2,PD and AssociatePD
How many applicants: 2(I think some had cancelled)
Tour included visits to: usual places ,but they have an adjoining VA hospital,so it was 2 tours!
Questions asked: Seems that the American PDs know about the Mother-in-law problems,so many of indian serials are based on,so to my suprize one of the questions was related to this fact!But I cant blame them for being curious,they had some residents in past who faced such a problem!But it was one of the topics we had conversation on.The usual conversation related to my CV
Happy residents: yes / no / ? : Yes
Atmosphere: a very resident focused atmosphere.the PD explained the recent problems they had to deal with and how they solved them.Residents were good and interacted openly.
City, how is living there?: Fresno downtown looked pretty quiet,but its a nice place to live considering its loaction.
Research oriented: yes / no / ? yes
Prematch offers?: Dont know
Visa sponsored?: dont know
What I liked the most?:I liked resident's autonomy in the program,they have monthly breakfast where residents tell their problems to the staff,who is very receptive.Very reserch oriented and give residents the freedom to choose their mentors and almost everything around them!I loved this program.
What should be improved?:
Rate experience (0-10):
Conclusion:
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remedy for weakness is not brooding over it ,but thinking of strength.
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| robin082006
Forum Hero
Topics: 471
Posts: 5,125
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Program Name: Alameda County Medical Center
Date of Interview: mid Nov
Where did u stay, nearest hotel, travel etc: Motel
Level of "stress" (0-10):8 (my 1st IV)
How many interviewers: 1
How many applicants: 7, all are IMGs but 3 are from English speaking countries such as UK (1), South Africa (1), Israel (1)
Tour included visits to: ICU, Library, Cafeteria, Emergency, Cardiology
Questions asked: General questions only, asked me to clear my CV
Happy residents: yes / no / ? : yes
Atmosphere: friendly
City, how is living there?: Oakland, very high crime (worst in CA)
Research oriented: yes / no / ? No
Prematch offers?: No
Visa sponsored?: not known
What I liked the most?: Good teaching (bedside), friendly environment, pathology diversity
What should be improved?: Research, residents' appearance
Rate experience (0-10): 8 (my 1st IV)
Conclusion:
Pros: pathology diversity, high autonomy, friendly environment, good bedside teaching, good weather (in CA)
Cons: very busy hospitals (I saw lots of patients lying in the corridors because not enough rooms); the hospital looks very old; residents look ugly (maybe they are so busy and do not care about their appearance, their cloths are wrinkled, male residents did not wear tie like many other hospitals), location is bad; fellowship is less than 25%.
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The Key to Succeed is Patience.
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| robin082006
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Topics: 471
Posts: 5,125
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Program Name: USC
Date of Interview: mid Jan
Where did u stay, nearest hotel, travel etc: I am living in south CA
Level of "stress" (0-10): 2 (my last IV)
How many interviewers: 2 different IVs, each with 1 interviewer
How many applicants: 23, all IMGs, they provided only 3 available days for us, we think that they separate IVs us from AMGs because lots of AMGs have done their IV at this program.
Tour included visits to: most organized IV, PD took us around "the state of the art" hospital, then the chief resident took us to visit private hospital, new hospital.
Questions asked: general questions only
Happy residents: yes / no / ? : yes
Atmosphere: friendly
City, how is living there?: LA downtown
Research oriented: yes / no / ? yes
Prematch offers?: no
Visa sponsored?: J1 only
What I liked the most?: BIGGEST program in the US (54 spots each year), famous name, good location, good weather.
What should be improved?: Not see at this time
Rate experience (0-10): 3
Conclusion:
Pros: famous university in the US, they are trying to be in the top ten in the world.
The Biggest hospital in the US with pathology diversity.
The Biggest IM residency program in the US, 54 residents each year.
Has fellowship in all subspecialties. If you did your residency here, you will get a fellowship position in another famous university in the US, if you do not like to go somewhere else, you may still choose USC for your fellowship, the fellowship committee prefers their residents.
The new hospital is worth 1 billion dollars with newest and modernest equipments in the world (1 chair for staff costs 1300 dollars), they are going to move to new building in June 2008.
95% of those who are interested in fellowship got their position (means that only 1-2 unmatched each year).
IV is very organized, the most organized IV I have ever involved.
Cons: the chance to get in is very low, although my interviewer said that I am a strong candidate who they are looking for;salary is a little low in comparison to other hospital.
THE BEST PROGRAM I HAVE EVER VISITED, HOPE TO SEE YOU LATER USC WHEN I APPLY FOR FELLOWSHIP.
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| smal
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Topics: 140
Posts: 727
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wow robin,that is some place (USC). You know during the days I was calling up programs telling them my updates in the application,UCSF said their positions are already filled!I was wondering what made the program coordinator say so.....how can they decide AMGs even before the match!
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remedy for weakness is not brooding over it ,but thinking of strength.
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| mph
Forum Elite
Topics: 19
Posts: 341
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smal wrote:
wow robin,that is some place (USC). You know during the days I was calling up programs telling them my updates in the application,UCSF said their positions are already filled!I was wondering what made the program coordinator say so.....how can they decide AMGs even before the match!
Hi, smal
The position filled means the interview position.
UCSF generally calls IMG with a PhD degree in their school.
And, most importantly, they dont need to decide which AMG to go with, bcz it is next to JHU and MGH only(in IM).
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| robin082006
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Topics: 471
Posts: 5,125
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smal wrote:
wow robin,that is some place (USC). You know during the days I was calling up programs telling them my updates in the application,UCSF said their positions are already filled!I was wondering what made the program coordinator say so.....how can they decide AMGs even before the match!
Yeah I agree with mph, their IV slots filled.
But I have the feeling that CA programs invited us for their backup. They rank AMGs first, and AMGs who apply in CA have good credentials so they may match at better hospital in their view and then you may have chance if they have left.
Good luck.
PS: Among CA programs, Alameda is the most IMG friendly (about 50% are IMGs and DO).
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| robin082006
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Alameda gave prematches: they have 16 categorical each year, but their quota in NRMP are 14. So I guess they gave 2 prematches for Cetegorical.
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| smal
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Topics: 140
Posts: 727
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But from what I heard,it felt the seats have been filled-Dont remember her exact words! And was wondering about it the whole time.
Thanks Robin and mph for clearing that up for me.
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remedy for weakness is not brooding over it ,but thinking of strength.
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