| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | What program are you writing about? | Pros | Cons | What was your experience with the program? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
2 | Baylor College of Medicine | super great operative experience. large program. great training and fellowship matches. mas is awesome | nothing. other than living in houston | |||||||||||||||||||||||
3 | Baylor College of Medicine | The highlights of this program are the residents and Chair. Every resident I interacted with was super hard working and student friendly. Dr. Donovan (chair) loves teaching and respects student input. This program has great hospitals. Texas Children's Hospital par non is one of the best children's hospitals in the country; 22 pedi-ENT staff, so everyday they have multiple big cases (airway, cochlear implants, thyroglossal duct cysts, etc) for the residents to get involved with. Lots of adult airway cases, decent amount of otology and laryngology. | The hours are LONG, at time more than they need to be. On average, I was leaving around 8:30-9pm. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
4 | Baylor College of Medicine | • HUGE • Strong surgical training • Awesome peds experience • Dr. Donovan - a quiet, tranquil force • Free Ipad • Epic Health System • Good food in Houston (Velvet Taco, Torchey's) | • HUGE • Texas/Houston • Traffic • Work really hard • Bad parking **edited by administrator removing defamatory and/or personal comments | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
5 | Baylor College of Medicine | Seemed like some of the best training in the nation. Watching the chiefs operate was like watching an attending operate. Tons of faculty. The chairman is extremely caring for his patients and an excellent leader of the department. Would have every opportunity in the world at this program. Many of the residents go on to become academic leaders. This is an old school program in that everyone is extremely respectful to their upper levels which can come off as hierarchical to some. | nothing. other than living in houston | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
6 | Baylor College of Medicine | Baylor is a solid clinical program. Residents are very busy, and cover a huge number of hospitals (the biggest VA in the country, Ben Taub, Methodist, Texas Childrens). Have MD Anderson rotation where (unlike Columbia-Cornell with MSK) the rotating chief runs a separate fellow-level team and staffs those H&N cases without a fellow. Hospitals were huge, very nice facilities. Big program (5/year), residents were nice. Definitely a clinical program. Dr. Donovan (chair) seemed very caring. Interview dinner was held at an attending's house, and residents/attendings alike made a great effort to welcome us and get to know us. Houston can be a positive/negative, but again not a bad location in general. | Call is probably tough, given home call and the number of hospitals. Seems front loaded though. Less academic. Has a very formal, traditional feel. Most intense research questions here (was asked specifics on inclusion/exclusion criteria, etc). | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
7 | Case Western Reserve University/University Hospitals Case Medical Center | Case Western Medical Center Takes 4residents/yr. now --- used to be alternating 3-4. The program is very solid. All subspecialties represented. Dr. Megerian (chair) plans to hire another rhinologist, another neurotologist and 2 more peds attendings. They are pretty deep in all subspecialties except maybe FPRS. It is the only weakness, but they have two attendings in this subspecialty. I don’t think this is to any major detriment. All the attendings that interviewed us were very personable and didn’t ask very difficult questions…Some ethics questions/behavioral questions, but pretty standard. The PD Dr. Arnold was the former chair and is a strong resident advocate like Dr. Megerian. He is a seasoned pediatric otolaryngologist and seems to teach a lot. Residents are very happy and feel they are well-trained. I have met several Case alumni at various institutions throughout the US and that is a testament of the programs strength and success. It demonstrates that Case train residents to become leaders in both academia and community practice. There is no pressure to pursue academics, but it seems that the environment nurtures residents to become very successful in academics over the years. Many residents match into awesome fellowships in all the subspecialties. Those who go into private practice become leaders in their community practice. Residents rotate through UH (Case Medical Center), became a level 1 trauma center recently, Metro Health (county hospital also level 1 trauma center), VA, and Rainbow Babies and Children. Residents are the busiest at UH. Lots of autonomy at VA and Metro. A majority of the trauma cases are shared between UH and Metro. Metro is actually a very nice county hospital compared to many others. They are building new facilities in the near future. Dr. Carter is head of the Metro rotation, but is allocating more time to the VA. Interviewing with him was super chill and he really wanted to know more about me. The VA is the second busiest VA in the nation (I think that’s what they said) and one of the few VAs in the country that received distinctions for excellence in patient care compared to many other VAs that suffer from poor quality of care. Rainbow is ranked very highly as a pediatric hospital and residents get to see a fair amount of complex cases here. I wouldn’t say that the program is top heavy, but clinic has a strong presence as a PGY-2. Most PGY-2s still operate a fair amount and the volume increases as time goes on. So, PGY-2s are not inundated with clinic time. Clinic is important and they don’t want residents to skimp out on this important part of the learning experience. I think this program strikes a good balance compared to some other programs (i.e. Iowa) that are really top heavy. I’m not entirely sure how Case compares to Jefferson, which I heard had very little clinic experience. You will have to either interview their yourself to find out of ask someone else about it. Research is good and growing. Possibly one of the best programs in terms of integrating research into the curriculum IMO, but that is just based on my experience only. They have a strong foundation in basic science research regarding genetic hearing loss, noise induced hearing loss and hair cell regeneration. They have a fair amount of tissue engineering research involving cartilage growth. There are plenty of clinical/outcomes research in all subspecialties as well. Residents do very well at academic conferences in terms of the quality of their research projects. Cleveland is a decent city. It is very unassuming, but I was surprised how much there is to do. I am very big into classical music and the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra is world renown and perform at many big international venues. When they are in Cleveland, they perform in the beautiful Severance Hall. If you are big into culture there is a museum for contemporary art along with several other museums. There are many outdoorsy things to do as well. You can go for a nice run at the Emerald Necklace trails. Cleveland is right by lake Erie so if you don’t like being landlocked, you have the option of going there. The food scene is great already in my opinion, but is growing as well. Other stuff: Residents get along with ancillary staff and value their support in patient care. Seidmann Cancer Center has a dedicated ENT floor and the nurses are described as excellent and are well trained in taking car of Head and Neck Cancer patients. Good trach care. A very nice temporal bone lab with a good amount of drilling stations and equipment. Don’t need to go to a different place to do a course. Surgical numbers are phenomenal. High 2000s to low-mid 3000s. Cost of living is low here. Can buy a house and start paying off student loans or at least the interest. Flap experience 150/year excellent, but doesn’t run your life. If you like flaps, you can certainly do as many as you want as a senior resident. Overall a great program with very little deficiencies in my opinion. | FPRS is a little weak. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
8 | Cleveland Clinic | Such great residents, one of them (Dennis!) gave a few of us a tour of Cleveland in his car then drove us straight to the airport, since we had to go to other interviews. It was so kind, and I think that speaks to the personality of the program. Dr. Benninger (chair) seems like an important person in the hospital, so he is easily able (and willing) to change things to make resident life easier. Facilities are huge and beautiful. Faculty are salaried so they don't fight over cases, do things with evidence-based medicine (they don't get extra $$ for doing unnecessary procedures). Only one hospital for call, which can be +/-. Can teach anatomy to med students and get a clinical assistant professor position. $30k from the clinic if you buy a house nearby. Plenty of money for food, get extra money just for taking call, which I haven't heard of anywhere else. Overall, residents seemed insanely supported. Attendings are very impressive and seem to care a lot. Great program. | Home call, one hospital (plus for me, may be a minus for others). Cleveland isn't really a prime location, but definitely not the worst you could do. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
9 | Duke University Hospital | Very academic. 3 residents/yr possibly increasing to 4. Faculty are very supportive. Residents get competitive fellowships. PD is a big leader in the AAO and serves on multiple committees. Durham/Chapel Hill/Raleigh area is nice and cheap. | one attending may be abrasive but leaving. It is still a division of surgery which is frowned upon for some reason or another. **edited by administrator removing defamatory and/or personal comments | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
10 | Eastern Virginia Medical School | Awesome area!--20min from the Beach Every sub specialty is represented. Strong in pediatrics. Stand alone children's hospital is impressive. Awesome resident atmosphere. They frequently hangout together/go out. High autonomy with floor work. Awesome Laryngologist! | Less surgical autonomy until you prove yourself. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
11 | Eastern Virginia Medical School | Pleasantly surprised by this program. Really took me by surprise. The attendings are very down to earth and seem extremely supportive in training and mentoring residents. Although Virginia isn’t really my dream destination, I got the sense that I will be well-trained if I ended up here and can go anywhere in the country afterwards to practice. They aren’t very deep in any one sub-specialty, but I feel more comfortable being in a smaller program; more attention (of course with graduated autonomy/responsibility), see co-residents more often and able to develop closer bonds. They seem to have excellent resources and good facilities. Idk what else to say. I just got a really good vibe from the people at EVMS. | Interview only | |||||||||||||||||||||||
12 | Eastern Virginia Medical School | Great group of residents - down to earth, look out for each other. Awesome faculty - talented, passionate, enjoy teaching. Balanced, well-rounded curriculum: strong H&N, peds, and otology. Only freestanding children's hospital in VA Extremely high volume both clinically and surgically Nice mix of well-known/established + young/driven faculty Very up-and-coming; program has really exploded in past few years and will continue to grow as new faculty are attracted here. Program seems to support residents regardless of their career intentions Hampton Roads area is really awesome; close to the ocean, nice climate, big city amenities with small city feel. | No VA rotation, although Norfolk General is a unique blend of academic + community exposure. Currently only 1 faculty deep in FPRS, laryngology, and rhinology but are recruiting more. Also get additional exposure to these subspecialities during private practice rotations. Seems to fly under the radar from a national recognition standpoint, but rankings have been increasing every year and reputation has been going up. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
13 | Emory University | A summary of this program: great clinical training, happy residents, tough call schedule, fun city. Really early exposure, have Grady County with increasingly large H&N volume. Residents feel competent to take on any case. Near the CDC, has free standing children's hospital with complex peds cases. Atlanta is great, both city and weather. Residents are happy and get along well. I was sold that this would be a fantastic place to train, especially for someone whose main goal is to become a great surgeon. Moved its way up my rank list, past some bigger name places. | The call seems very, very rough. Heard stories about residents in tears after call nights. They should probably be in-house call. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
14 | George Washington University | Located in DC. Rotate at children's national, main university hopsital, and community hospital for balance. | Recently lost a residency spot since one of the residents weren't logging cases so now it's back to a 1/yr program (Chair wasn't planning on expanding past 1-2-1 anyway). Division of surgery. Some of the residents were a bit cocky. Most residents go into private practice. All male attending staff. **edited by administrator removing defamatory and/or personal comments | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
15 | Henry Ford Hospita/Wayne State University | Residents friendly and got along well. Faculty were welcoming and seemed genuinely interested in supporting resident life and education. Research opportunities available but not many residents seemed very motivated to do big research projects. The facilites are OK and its not down town. Most live in suburbs which seemed OK and similar to most other large cities. | Pediatrics rotation and experience is in Florida so must travel there during third year. Research rotation is in year 4. Detroit has bad reputation. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
16 | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | Head and Neck heavy, lots of OR, little clinic, location, great cafeteria, ORs on same floor as call room | Malignant program, didn't give many people interviews, too many rotators | Away rotation only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
17 | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | Fantastic program overall. Convinced that this is some of the best surgical training in the country, which is rare given the location. Attendings are enthusiastic, innovative, and allow for autonomy. Housing nearby and provide shuttle between Sinai and Elmhurst/Queens (so you don't need a car); easier to live in NYC in this program than others. Call is "home," but most residents stay and get the next day off. Best resident camaraderie I've ever seen, these residents are in each other's weddings. Used to have a malignant reputation, but this is long gone. Tons of H&N volume. Genden is a great chair and takes interest in residents, Teng (PD) is phenomenal. ENT dedicated ORs on the same floor as resident room and all the ENT patients. | It's true that they don't interview all their rotators; however, they tell you this on day 1. Most rotators I knew still got interviews. Very hard working, long hours due to huge H&N volume. Integrating with NYEE will likely bring changes. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
18 | Johns Hopkins University | Pros: -PRESTIGE -7-year program -can do ANYTHING -amazing legacy -Cummings -IPAD -strong LGBT diversity -dedicated nursing floor for ENT patients -moonlighting -nice dorky residents -open field, zero expectation of what is expected. JUST BE AMAZING. -NIH, NIDCD, HHMI - OMG | -less familiality/collegiliaty -snakelike? -grey weather -I don’t know anyone in Baltimore -7-year program -crime in Baltimore -parking is terrible -higher chance of me not thriving here because of less collegiality and Baltimore -Resident friends' stories of the decapitated gypsy, of pain-seeking patients, and terrible moral dilemmas treating terrible ungrateful patients #urban **edited by administrator removing defamatory and/or personal comments | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
19 | Johns Hopkins University | Friendly attendings and super nice chiefs | Other | |||||||||||||||||||||||
20 | Johns Hopkins University | Such a historical program, and well-deserved. Attendings were less formal than at other top tier programs, seemed approachable. Phenomenal reputation, unlimited funding for research. If you're interested in academics, you couldn't do better. Both Dr. Eisele (chair) and Dr. Reh (PD) seemed to care a lot about their residents. The superchiefs (7 year research residents) can do a mini-fellowship at the end. Can get certified in robotic surgery. Money available for international trips. Seemed like opportunities would be endless if you came here. | Obviously the worst part is well known: the interns sit in a room and decide amongst themselves which two people will do an extra 2 years of residency. That's a big gamble for anyone. Baltimore is not a great city, though not the worst. Only really met research residents during the interview. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
21 | Johns Hopkins University | Amazing research and you can pretty much do whatever you want here if you have an idea. Faculty are nice and seem invested in teaching. Large program with lots of faculty in different areas and many leaders in the field. Call schedule seems average. Could own a house in Baltimore. Excellent fellowship match and all residents participate in research (pro if you are interested in research). | Baltimore seems decent but obviously not an amazing city. Seems like a large number of faculty have recently departed, especially H+N. Can't decide whether you are going to do 5 year or 7 year tracks. Resident group seems slightly quieter. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
22 | Louisiana State University (Shreveport) | 3/year. Cherie-Ann Nathan would be a great chairwoman to have. Faculty seemed really down to earth with a good mix of junior and senior faculty members. 2 basic science labs (H&N, FPRS focused on flap wound healing/ischemia). University hospital and VA , but mentioned adding rotation at private hospital. Only short block of research... 3 months during PGY4. No limit on funding for meetings if you do get a lot of abstracts accepted. | Shreveport, Shreveport, Shreveport. No laryngology though trying to hire (also trying to hire otologist and possibly H&N). Residents were a little too "bro" for me. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
23 | Loyola University | Great residents who seem to enjoy hanging out together in and outside of hospital, very supportive faculty, many who have been with the program for decades. Excellent operative experience, in-house call, right outside of Chicago. | Maywood not the best area, limited peds experience. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
24 | Loyola University | Faculty are awesome Residents are fun & happy Chicago is sweet High operative volume Residents are super comfortable operating Diverse pathology seen Otology is strongest in Chicago In-house call | Not as research-oriented yet Actually located outside of Chicago Weighted toward otology and H&N | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
25 | Loyola University | This is a solid program overall. Prides itself on a blue collar feel. The residents work hard and play hard, and are humble. Good surgical training, best H&N experience in Chicago. Residents are close and get along well. Attendings are nice and very funny. Dr. Marzo is a great resident advocate. No fellows currently. All hospitals (Loyola and Hines VA) are on one campus. Highly favor rotators/home students. | Less likely to match here unless you rotate. Was told that interviewing non-rotators was almost a formality. Maywood is a solid drive from the city, especially in traffic. Less research emphasis, but if you're interested in strong clinical training rather than academics, this is a great place. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
26 | Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School | Great research experience, prestige, Boston is great | Some faculty are stiff and more hands-on than at other places. Resident camaraderie is not as strong as other institutions. Boston is expensive. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
27 | Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School | Pretty much a perfect program. Free standing eye and ear infirmary with an ENT ED. Huge operative experience (40 full-time, 40 part-time faculty), covering MEEI/MGH/Brigham/BCH, etc. Research opportunities unlimited, resources unlimited. Attendings were almost all very nice. Residents were personable and approachable (sometimes hard to find at top tier programs). Even if you do the 7 year program, you leave with a MPH or MBA from Harvard. Boston is a good location. | None really. Some attendings are stiff and seem unapproachable. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
28 | Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School | Probablyone of the most impressive programs, if not the most impressive, in the country in terms of being well rounded. Huge research program that is strong across the board. One of the best H+N/flap experiences in the country that is rumored to be expanding with another big name surgeon. Pros are large faculty in a variety of areas, strong research, great faculty, AND great city-- one of the only places that it seemed was in a good location with no real weaknesses. Quite OR heavy with the unique ED experience serving as a clinic experience. Interesting float rotation in third year where you can basically pick what procedures you want to go into. Awesome group of residents and PD here that seem to really get along. | Very few cons to this program. Facial trauma is a weakness, as they don't take facial call, but that can almost be seen as a strength because call would be unbearable with it. Seems that they are addressing it but you see enough of the simple stuff so that you are proficient-- if complex facial trauma is where you want to specialize, it may not be great. Only other con could be that the program has the East Coast formal mentality, but it seems like you are treated more as an equal as you move up in year. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
29 | Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School | Amazing program with great clinical training, amazing research opportunities, and in a great city. They have the highest ranked ENT hospital in the country for a reason and have amazing faculty in all departments. Rare to have clinical and research to both be so strong and seemed to have a large number of applicants ranking this place as their top choice because of these reasons. Very impressed by this place-- residents also seem very collegiate and cool to hang out with. New chair seems extremely nice as well. | Cold weather! Formal. Sub-internships don't guarantee you an interview. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
30 | Mayo Clinic College of Medicine (Arizona) | Cafeteria was good. Most attendings were pleasant to work with. | PA program took some cases away from students. Hospital was small, level 3 trauma, turned away Medicare patients. Smaller program, 9 faculty at campus including 1 OMFS. No on-site peds experience. Relatively less research available. Paper inpatient charts. **edited by administrator removing defamatory and/or personal comments | Away rotation only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
31 | Mayo Clinic College of Medicine (Rochester) | Everything about the Mayo Clinic is pretty unique and very special in its own way. The expression "Disneyland for Doctors" rang true during my experience. Great surgical experience - the nature of a place like the Mayo Clinic means that there is a very real shift towards complex cases which I think is great for your surgical training. The mentorship model is unique - each faculty member serves as their own 'service' and you spend 3 months at a time with single (often two as a senior resident) faculty member and run their service. It gives you a really intimate learning setting - and consistency in learning their approach to cases. Also during that three month period they learn to trust you and will allow for greater autonomy. The chief year is really smart too - you spend it seeing your own patients and booking and running your own room - making them very well prepared to run a practice on their own. There is a dedicated floor for your inpatients with a large work space. The hospitals are beautiful and resources are ample in every way possible. The call is in house, and you pretty much finish primary call as a second year. The people - both in the department - and in the system as a whole were incredibly nice and competent - they all take a pride in being the Mayo clinic and it shows in the effort that is made - that makes a big difference when you have competent nurses that are trying before they make that phone call. Rochester is a family friendly little city with affordable housing, some nice restaurants, nice parks, and free of traffic. | They do spend 1 month getting trauma cases at a county hospital near the twin cities. I also think there is something to be said for having a city or population to care for - one of the unique features of Mayo is that you care for people from literally all over the globe, but there is less of a local population that you care for. For some, the dress code - wearing suits for clinic days (2-3 days/wk max) - might be a turnoff, but I didn't mind it. The weather was great during the summer, but I can imagine it being quite cold in the winter. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
32 | Mayo Clinic College of Medicine (Rochester) | Pretty much everything you've read about this place is true. Best surgical training in the country, hands down. Apprenticeship model means residents get a real depth of training, amazing autonomy bc attendings learn to trust you, and still have good schedules. PGY-5s act as attendings and book their own cases (anything goes! rhinoplasty, skull base, etc etc). The upper level residents had surgical skill that was on par with young attendings I saw elsewhere. Everyone is very nice. Only one fellow, so the cases all go to the residents. Unlimited resources at your hands. Great perks (free food, low cost of living, great fitness center). Nurses and staff take pride in being from Mayo, so residents spend little to no time doing scut work, and only get called for important things. | For away rotation: lots of rotators, don't interview all. Grading is weird. They submit their own evaluations, and I didn't get a great grade, also got lukewarm comments. Then I got a LOR that said I was the best student who rotated that year and got an interview, it was weird. Something to consider if you rotate early, the grade and comments will show up on your dean's letter. As for the program, Rochester is the worst part. It's cold and extremely small (100,000 people, half of whom have affiliations with Mayo). Less research emphasis than other big programs. Most (all but 3-4) of the residents are married, very little diversity. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
33 | McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University | Strong Rhinology Cool residents Beautiful hospital (Northwestern Memorial Hospital) Away rotators are guaranteed interviews Chicago is an awesome city, affordable, fun, food is aamzing Kind, relatively young attendings Very organized away rotation administration No/few H/N free flaps | Less autonomy, less hands-on than other programs One attending requires both residents and medical students to round (AM and PM) in full formal wear (so no scrubs during rounds ever) #microaggression, and is VERY strict about this one attending can be cold and aloof Light volume (easier hours?) No/few H/N free flaps Relatively weak didactics Chicago weather **edited by administrator removing defamatory and/or personal comments | Away rotation only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
34 | Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals | Medical College of Wisconsin Takes 3residents/yr. All subspecialties represented. 2 deep in all subspecialties except peds. 9 peds attendings and many with research projects. Dr. Rhee (chair) has no immediate plans for new faculty hire and says that they tweak the program based on resident feedback. The only weakness is flaps. They only have about 35 flaps a year. The number fluctuates based on the presence of plastics. The faulty here are very invested in teaching residents. One attending mentioned that the ENT operations at MCW are not very dependent on residents. He gave an example that if residents went on strike and didn’t come in, things would still go on relatively normally since that they have enough ancillary staff to carry on. It was kind of a morbid scenario, but I get that he was trying to convey that residents aren’t workhorses and that their primary role is to learn. In a way, it is like an apprenticeship model. Dr. Stadler is a relatively new hire; did his residency at UNC and fellowship at WashU. Very chill guy. When he was initially hired, flap cases increased significantly, but he has toned it done a bit since. As a result, the residents at MCW have one of the best call schedules. Most of the interviewing attendings were personable. Did not get to interview with everyone and applicants didn’t interview with the same attendings, but there were overlaps. Some ethics questions/behavioral questions, but pretty standard. Shorter interviews with PD and chair. One attending was pretty intense, but the interview got better as it progressed. If you give thoughtful responses you’ll be fine. I did have an awkward interviewer who asked a lot of questions that I found were intentionally stress inducing or just plain awkward and served no purpose in extracting useful information regarding my personality, thought process, or merit. Either he is a great actor or a very strange man. Perhaps I missed the big picture about what his role was, but regardless he kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Drs. Pawar and Friedland were very personable and we had good conversations. Residents seemed fairly happy considering their awesome call schedule and felt they are well-trained. There is no pressure to pursue academics. The faculty is supportive with whatever decision residents make in the end. Residents match into awesome fellowships in all the subspecialties. There is a heavy lean towards peds of course. Residents were not very concerned about the lack of flaps done by ENTs at MCW. Their justification was that, there are enough flaps for decent exposure to find out if H&N microvasc. Fellowship was something they wanted to pursue in the future. I’m not a big fan of that philosophy, but hey it makes for a great call schedule and perhaps that works out well for residents with kids. Did I mention, this is a very family friendly program. If you got kiddos, this may be a great program for you. Residents rotate through Foedtert (fray-dirt), which is a level 1 trauma center, Childrens Hospital, VA, and some outpatient sites. Residents spend a majority of their time at Froedtert, but spend a fair amount of time at Childrens. I think they said they have the most months of peds compared to other programs. 9 months of peds divided over PGY2 and on. So there is an emphasis on peds. Didn’t get a good sense about how much trauma they dealt with. Program is a bit top heavy. Clinic time mostly in PGY-2. Clinic time decreases over time. Research opportunities are abundant. Not sure what kind of basic science research was available, but there are plenty of clinical/outcomes research in all subspecialties. Milwaukee is a decent city, but it can get really cold in the winter. The food scene is great. Lots of festivals during the warmer months. Probably lots of outdoorsy things to do, but I’m not a big outdoorsy person. I’m sure everyone can find something that suits them. Chicago is only 1-1.5 hour away. Other stuff: Didn’t really get a tour of the place. Then again most people don’t care much about it. Didn’t really give out surgical case numbers. I didn’t ask either, but probably above average. Cost of living is low here. Overall a great program. Seem like you would get good mentorship/training, but flaps are weak. Peds is big here is that is your thing. I personally didn’t get a warm and fuzzy feeling here, but I would not be upset if I matched here. | Low on flaps. An awkward attending??? Idk if it was intentional or not. It was my last interview and it was not an ideal way to end. Idk from a psychological point of view, if he interviewed in the middle, I think I would have cared less, but oh well. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
35 | Medical University of South Carolina | It is impossible to overstate how excellent this program is, on all levels. They have incredible and well-known faculty in every subspecialty, 100% of their residents are great teachers and great people, and the location is unrivaled. If you want to become a phenomenal surgeon and leave residency feeling confident to tackle any problem you may encounter, MUSC will satisfy these criteria. On my interview day, every single applicant left saying "I hope that I end up here." The program is unanimously respected by otolaryngologists across the country. | PGY-2s seem to be worked much harder than most of the other programs that I interviewed at, but that will likely change with the program going to 4 residents/year in 2015. Also, working hard is kind of the point of residency so this isn't really a "con" in my opinion. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
36 | Medical University of South Carolina | Clinical training, especially in H&N is superb. Charleston is awesome, residents are happy and close-knit. Paul Lambert is probably the best chair out there. | Peds experience is a relative weakness. Not quite as academically heavy as some other places in the same tier. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
37 | Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine | residents extremely happy and down to earth bunch, dr. fried (chairman) is great and very focused on providing the best resident experience possible | major con=most residents live in manhattan and drive out to the bronx so spend a lot of time in the car, traffic can be brutal especially in the evenings, also cover multiple ERs in the bronx while on call, so have to drive around while on call as well | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
38 | Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine | Was really happy with this program. Dr. Fried (chair) seems so nice and loves his residents. Very paternal. Residents were really happy, and got along so well. Despite not being a huge academic name, fellowship match is beyond solid. Strong H&N experience, interns do bedside trachs. Strong clinical training, very busy. In house call. Residents have a friendly relationship with attendings. Huge catchment area, get to see lots of pathology. | Biggest con is that you absolutely need a car, since you're covering LIJ. And most residents live in Manhattan because no one wants to move to NYC and live in the Bronx. So everyone is street parking in Manhattan, which sounded like a nightmare to me (and I'm from a big city!). The subsidized housing is in the Bronx, so most residents don't use it. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
39 | New York University School of Medicine | Large resident compliment. Obtain competitive fellowships. NYC is nice place to live. Chair is super nice. Good balance between different sites (Tisch and Lennox for private, dedicated children's hospital, Bellevue and VA for more autonomy). Residents were a nice, diverse group of people. They say Bellevue makes the residency and it's true. It's completely resident-run and attendings rarely scrub in. As a sub-I i basically had my own clinic room and was writing orders and evaluating patients on my own (with appropriate supervision, of course). | I felt that the operative experience as a whole at this institution was not what I had seen at other programs. Some of the residents were a bit rusty on their anatomy. This is the consequence of doing residency in New York where practices are dominated by private payers and so training programs are very clinic heavy Although Bellevue gives you good exposure, you're only there for maybe 1/3 of your residency. NYC is expensive and may not be for everyone. | Away rotation only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
40 | New York University School of Medicine | operatively busy. lots of autonomy on certain rotations. great residents. | Away rotation and interview | |||||||||||||||||||||||
41 | New York University School of Medicine | Bellevue is a very unique experience; it's a level I trauma, county experience for manhattan. I think that speaks for itself. The VA handles big cases without referring it, so you're getting great cases all around. Huge faculty, well-represented in every sub-specialty. Previously had the reputation of being weak in H&N, but new recruits have corrected this. Otology is a huge strength, huge CI and NF-2 center. Highest salary in the country. Have a great PhD who runs the research rotation. As a whole, reasonable surgical training with good research resources, and fantastic connections for fellowship match. Also arguably the best location of the NYC programs, and NYC itself is amazing. | Heard from rotators/home students that the residents aren't very welcoming, but I didn't sense that myself on interview day. No real subsidized housing options in a very expensive part of NYC. Seems like Bellevue can cause some burn out, because it's so hard to get anything done. In my opinion, still not as good of a program as Sinai, as far as NYC goes, but definitely gaining momentum. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
42 | Oregon Health & Science University | Ritter | Away rotation only | |||||||||||||||||||||||
43 | Oregon Health & Science University | Amazing city, amazing geographical setting. I was incredibly exciting and high on this program to start with, and was thrilled to spend a month there. OHSU has big names in just about every subspecialty and offers really solid surgical training. They also have great opportunities for research - I think actually second highest in NIH funding for Oto departments. Really nice hospital campus, on the hill overlooking the city and the campus is all situated together making call easier. They have high expectations of everyone there - publishing, surgery, everything, and you'll work hard during your month on the away. Wax is a flap master, Andersen is an amazingly skilled ablationist, Smith is the man in inflammatory sinus disease, Shindo is a heralded endocrine surgeon, and everything else is really solid. | They have fellows in nearly all the subspecialties which can help or hinder - in my experience it was a combination. I picked up on some unhappiness by some of the residents, and had a few of my own misgivings with the culture there, although generally the residents seem pretty happy there. Also, there have been some faculty changes in and out in the last few years - which may reflect different expectations/cultural problems. In my mind, the city and setting were amazing and brought this program up in my book. This is a heavily impacted program for rotators - don't expect rotating here to give you much of leg up. I ultimately got an interview off their waitlist, but turned it down in favor of an outright offer from a more desirable program. I would have ranked this program quite highly but mostly for Portland's coolness. | Away rotation only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
44 | Oregon Health & Science University | Great operative volume, especially in flaps. Apparently plastics has a weak presence in the hospital, so ENT does a ton of flaps (even non-ENT related). I interviewed in the winter, and the fellow had already done 110 flaps since July. In house call, in one hospital. Call is q4. Residents hang out and seem very happy. Attendings are collegial and will help in fellowship placement. Portland is pretty awesome. 6 months of research, which you can do at outside institutions if you have something specific in mind. So basically...killer clinical training, top tier research opportunities, and good city. | Received a "we like you!" email sent to multiple applicants, down to the spelling mistakes (and not in response to a thank you). That was probably the only thing I had a problem with, didn't like wondering if they were playing games with me. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
45 | Rutgers New Jersey Medical School | 2/year. Super nice faculty members. Chairman is NE section president of the Triological Society. Jean Eloy is a really cool guy and a beast at publishing. It's crazy how much he's done in a short amount of time. Had a great interview with the PD. Flap experience as a resident since no H&N attending. Rotate at the university hospital and a private hospital (with supposedly great ancillary staff). Super close to NYC (10-30 minutes by public transportation?). | Not sure about resident camaraderie... didn't seem to mesh with them. Some residents live in Manhattan (pretty far from the hospital and NYC traffic...). Being in Jersey (and still expensive to boot). No FPRS attending, and no peds attending though should have one by July. Most graduates go into rhinology if they pursue fellowship (not my primary interest). | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
46 | Southern Illinois University | Growing program. Awesome relationship with private group in town. Tons of autonomy on the floors and in the OR. Truly get early operative experience. Basic science tinnitus and hearing loss research available. Awesome faculty. | Recent turnover in faculty. No peds yet, but supposedly a chief is doing a peds fellowship then coming back as an attending. All other sub specialties are represented. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
47 | St Louis University School of Medicine | 2/yr. Great residents. Great young attendings (1st name basis). Everyone was really nice. Strong peds experience (doing supraglottoplasties as a PGY2). Mission trip to Honduras every year. Level 1 trauma. Flexible elective schedule as a senior resident (one was going to rotate in Spain)? | No VA. Tough call schedule. Potential to be overshadowed by WashU. St Louis is OK | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
48 | Stanford University | Very strong team | All day interview | Other | ||||||||||||||||||||||
49 | Stanford University | -Dr. Oghalai amazing research -strong pediatric contingent -strong laryngology contingent -strong otology contingent -T32 program! -Palo Alto: clean, accessible, drivable, livable! -growing program, on its way up -excellent salary and benefits | -T32 years -Palo Alto: sterile, privileged, annoying people -Stanford “duck culture”: You're a like a duck. You pretend you're super mellow and happy and relaxed above the water, but underneath you're paddling furiously and hoping no one knows. Essentially the appearance of effortless perfection. -residents are nice, but not sure if they’d be my best friends -SO MANY FELLOWS -no clinical experience during the T32 years | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
50 | Stanford University | Large department, more than well represented in every sub-specialty. Fantastic location. Work-life balance seems very good here, multiple residents talked about how they have time to pursue hobbies and outside interests. Resident group is solid. There's a formal mentorship program. Interviews were benign (I found this was usually the case on the west coast). Has night float, so you do a few months of nights, and no other call. Big simulation center, well-funded department. Great didactics. | I had concerns about the surgical training here. I heard from attendings and students alike that this is a "hands off" program, and residents seemed to confirm this on interview day. Very high cost of living. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
51 | Stanford University | Strong and innovative research program. Have the largest sleep program in the country and heavily focused on technological research. Faculty all seem very collegial (some are a little quirky but overall supportive). Residents seem like they have a laid back quality of life. Going to be peaking in terms of faculty size in the near future but recruiting many all-stars currently. Option for T32 may exist here. Call focuses on a night float system. 3 separate months of night float as a PGY3. Beautiful location. | While the research is great, the reputation for clinical training is the main con. It was hard to figure out whether this was warranted or not-- they have many fellows, but so do some other places which don't have the same reputation. Surgical volumes seem to be average for programs across the country, but Stanford seems like it may have less volume than some of the other big places. Didn’t seem to embrace that their clinical volumes weren’t that high—rather, emphasized that chiefs received their top fellowships. They say FPRS is 1/4th of training, but allegedly have a small department with one attending. Expensive. Despite these concerns, this seemed to be a top 3 program for many applicants and one of the highest ranked West Coast program from those that I met. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
52 | SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn | Nice variety with Kings County and SUNY as public hospitals, methodist is private. No general plastics department, so lots of reconstructive experience. Dr. Rosenfeld is amazing and the shining star of this department. I also know he reads these comments and quotes them on interview day...In all seriousness, seemed like great clinical training, with no fellows and all sub-specialties represented. | In-house call q3 at SUNY and King’s County sounded very rough. Hospitals definitely had that dark, inner city feel. Unsure of ability to match well into fellowship. At Maimonides as a PGY-4, you take primary call the entire month. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
53 | Temple University Hospital | Chairman, Dr. Krouse, is awesome and very well-connected. Great leader and mentor if you want to go into academics. New faculty were young, refreshing, and nice. Residents seem to get good operative training from the many sites, including Fox Chase. Program is on the upswing. | Because of the multiple sites, the residents are spread out all across town and don't get to see each other too much. 3 month otology rotation in Allegheny was a bit of a red flag (why do they need to live elsewhere for 3 months to get training?). One attending really rubbed me the wrong way in her interview (was very cold and condescending). The chiefs I interviewed with seemed burnt out but probably as a result of what the program was before Krouse built it up. Located in the rougher part of Philly. **edited by administrator removing defamatory and/or personal comments | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
54 | Temple University Hospital | Temple offers a lot of diversity through its hospital system. There has also been a ton of growth with the department under Dr. Krouse's leadership. He's really been making strides and bringing in some great talent and personalities, probably more than doubled the faculty in the last 5 years. He also takes a huge interest in the resident experience, always looking to grow and improve the curriculum, and the addition of a third resident is going to help that even more. Great allergy with Krouse, Toskala, and McLean. Head and Neck is strong between with the experience at the Fox Chase Cancer Center with the renowned Dr. Ridge as the section chief and three other busy head and neck surgeons, including Dr. Liu. Strong laryngology with Drs. Soliman and Jamal. Dr. Roehm in neurotology is a similarly strong experience too. The pediatric experience at St. Chris is really busy and is a great way for junior residents to get a lot of surgical exposure early on in their training. The residents were such a fun group too - really great personalities. Philadelphia is a great city with amazing restaurants and vibrant affordable neighborhoods. A really good place to be for surgical training and one of the smaller programs I rotated with (15 or so faculty plus some adjuncts) that found its way getting ranked above some other better known programs due to the great residents and energetic personable faculty. | Coverage during call can really have you spread out during those on call nights - although they were making changes to the call duties to make it easier for the residents. They get good plastics experience with an adjunct faculty, but are looking to hire a dedicated facial plastics surgeon at the university. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
55 | Temple University Hospital | Temple Hospital definitely gets inner-city pathology, makes up for not having a VA/County. Drs. Krouse (chair) and Jamal (future PD) seem to have great vision. Faculty seems to be expanding. Philadelphia is a definitely plus. | This was the most surprisingly unimpressive program I went to. One attending was famous on the trail for being downright malignant (seemed so deeply unhappy with ENT and medicine as a whole, it put a bad taste in my mouth about the program). PGY1s do not go to the OR, they go to clinic everyday. Home call is q4 across 4 hospitals, 30 minutes apart. Seems like top down autonomy. Had an interviewer who pimped, which seemed kind of unnecessary, since I couldn't even ask questions to learn about the program. Hospital located in a shady area. Just a bad impression overall, fell down my rank list. **edited by administrator removing identifying information | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
56 | Thomas Jefferson University | Great and early operative experience. Philadelphia is a cool city. | Weak in Peds. Had some bizarre interview questions here that were off-putting and it was tough to get a read on the faculty-resident dynamics. Residents get worked very hard, but they are expanding NP coverage to help offset this. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
57 | Tufts Medical Center | Small program but close residents, good didactics w/ BUSM, diverse patient population, peds program is particularly strong (among the few that do craniofacial reconstruction, and Dr. Vecchiotti and Scott are amazing), chiefs seemed to have really good operating and patient management skills, they have ability to rotate at a community hospital and a private practice | Did not seem as research heavy, no TORS, not as many free flaps | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
58 | University at Arizona | • Easy parking • Gym on campus • Can make residency my own • Oto family • Strong mentorship • Epic health records • Strong surgical volume • Cheap cost of living • Sonia Romo is awesome • Cool/strong sinus biomedical lab stuff going on | • Very Young program, untested • Tucson • ☹ food **edited by administrator removing defamatory and/or personal comments | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
59 | University at Arizona | 1/year. Dr. Chiu has built this program up from being a division of surgery to its own department. All subspecialties are there even for being such a young program. NIH-funded otology and rhinology basic science labs. Gorgeous facilities. Look outside the window of the temporal bone lab and you have a great view of the mountains. More attendings than residents... operate early and often. Can tailor your PGY4 and chief year to what you want more experience in since finish key indicator cases usually during early 4th year. Heard the junior residents were already doing parotidectomies with minimal supervision. The PGY1 was assisting on a neck dissection in August or something. Tucson seemed like a cool (albeit college) town. Flap checks after 5pm done by general surgery residents (how awesome is that??). Will have an NP to help with floor work. Call is about 6 days/month. Environment so that you can become a "legacy" within the field. | Dr. Chiu leaving will really hurt.. not sure where the program will go from here. Hospital system was bought recently so not sure how that will affect the residency. Worried about being the only resident in my class. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
60 | University at Buffalo | Buffalo was a surprisingly nice city, prettier and more to do than I originally thought. Residents were friendly and seemed to get along. Attendings are very kind (including Mr. Stapedium himself!); they seemed relaxed and invested in education. Showed some solid case numbers, there's a new peds hospital being built, and they rotate at a county hospital and a cancer center. Nice and short interview day, which I thought was considerate. | They seemed to interview a lot of people for 2 spots; it was a little disappointing given I had to take days off rotation and the flight is expensive. I had some concern with how mixed in the training was with private practitioners, seemed like training could fluctuate a lot if people suddenly pulled out. Less academic program overall. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
61 | University of Alabama Medical Center | 4/year. Really loved this place. Residents operate A LOT (case numbers in the 3000s). They seemed to get along well (go to happy hour on Thursdays at the baseball stadium). Dr. Woodworth is SO chill, has a CF basic science lab. Strong thyroid experience that runs like a private practice so you're done with 5-6 cases by 1pm (?? crazy). Rotate at university hospital, ambulatory surgery center, children's, VA. Adding opportunities for electives during PGY4 year (more otology experience, private cosmetic, etc.). 3 month research block during PGY3. Birmingham is surprisingly a really awesome city... especially if you're into food and craft beers. | Birmingham if that's not your gig. Sounds like you get killed while on peds as a PGY2 (PGY2 still thought it was a great experience in hindsight). Not much support at the VA. No more Rosenthal, but replaced with two H&N flap guys to make up for it. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
62 | University of California (Davis) Health System | 3/year. Will have new faculty in July (H&N, peds from Boston Children's, sleep trained via OMFS and Stanford). Supports humanitarian mission trips. Cleft experience! Dynamic 5 months of dedicated research if that's your gig (can split into 3 months and 2 months, etc. during 3rd and 4th year to finish up projects). Experience at the University hospital, VA and Kaiser (private hospital). An hour away from Napa and Lake Tahoe... 2 hours from SF. Strong FPRS and laryngology. Strong vet school (weird to bring up, I know), but multi-disciplinary dysphagia work (dog dysphagia?). Also they have two dogs that sniff H&N cancer who are H&N "faculty." In-house call. Very nice chairman. | Fellows in multiple subspecialties though doesn't sound it takes away from the residents. California is great... Sacramento, not so much. Sounds like you get slammed on call with trauma. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
63 | University of California (Irvine) | Medium sized program. Currently alternating between 3/2 residents/yr. Interview day was very relaxed and awesome. Residents bring you to the beach during the tour and to Balboa Island. Interview questions were pretty standard and nothing crazy or unexpected. Interview with most of the core faculty and two 4th years and a Kaiser faculty. Chair asks you to build anything you want with the Lego pieces on the table while talking to you. Very easy going group of people. No one was abrasive. Dr. Armstrong (chair) has realistic goals for expanding the program. Faculty is cohesive under his leadership. Dr. Bhandarkar (PD) is a fellowship-trained rhinologist. He is easy to talk to and is receptive to resident inputs regarding the program, rotations, didactics etc. Residents agree with this as well. EMR is Quest, but will be switching to Epic like the rest of the UC programs. All subspecialties represented although some areas not as deep as bigger programs. Chair plans to have 3 fellowship trained faculty in each subspecialty for the future, but is realistic in mentioning that we probably won’t see the completion of this expansion during our time at UCI should we match there. Given this, UCI is a relatively young program compared to UCSF, UCLA, UC Davis and UCSD and has a lot of potential. Also, there are lots of fellowship trained faculty at Kaiser so it’s like a duplication of the core UCI faculty so you will get very good exposure to all subspecialties. New sleep guy (Dr. Schalch) who trained at UCI. Sleep program is currently at its infancy, but will be building it over time. The chair will be hiring 2 new H&N Onc/microvasc. attendings. Laryngologist trained at UWisconsin (Madison). I also interviewed in Madison and they have an impressive voice/laryngeal lab with lots of research. Dr. Wong is the FPRS attending and he has his own lab. He has a background in EE and did a lot of research of laser application and optics. Takes 1 fellow per year and FPRS is the only fellowship available so far. As a result, residents get to do a lot. I didn’t get to interact with Dr. Djalilian (Neurotolgist) a whole lot so I couldn’t really tell you much about him. Harrison Lin is the other Neurotolgist he is a relatively new faculty member and residents say he is great to work with. There is definitely a good amount of research here and growing quickly. There is no major push for everyone to go into academics with labs as a future career. About ½ of the residents go into fellowship and match into impressive programs. It is skewed towards FPRS, but starting to see more peds, rhinology, neurotology and H&N Onc. Residents feel very well trained and do not pursue fellowship because they think training was inadequate. Rotate through UCI Health where the Chao Cancer center is also located, VA, Kaiser and Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC). CHOC is where residents will have the greatest autonomy and learn how to run the service independently. Attendings are always there if they need help. Dr. Pham trained at UC Davis and has brought cleft and microtia to UCI. He is currently collecting patients until they are old enough for surgery. Residents will get very good exposure in peds. There are 4 attendings currently at CHOC. There are peds attendings at Kaiser as well. It’s a good balance without feeling babied or feeling like you have to learn by trial and error. VA is a chill rotation; low acuity. In general, home call PGY3-5. In house call early in PGY-2 but transitions to home call as PGY2s get more comfortable with how things work. Like most programs will adopt the new 6 months of ENT during intern year, which is sweet. UCI Health is a very busy service. It is a level 1 trauma center and you will get good trauma exposure in addition to many complex cases that come in. The Chao Cancer Center is an NCI designated Comprehensive Cancer Center and you will see a fair amount of flaps. Overall residents have good operative experience and well above average case #’s. >2100. Clinic experience is good overall, but wish they had a little more peds clinic to see how multidisciplinary clinics work. Facilities at UCI Health are nice and ancillary staff is good according to the residents. Did not get a chance to see the inside of CHOC, Kaiser or VA. Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach near by. OC is beautiful although you won’t have a whole lot of time to experience the great beaches. It’s good to know that you have access to it when you do have free time. Lot’s of residents not originally from SoCal buy surf boards and try to learn how to surf. Some attendings surf or used to surf and residents mention they are willing to teach you. Great weather, lots tot do. LA and SD not terribly far away. Residents are super happy and the program seems to be family friendly. Good camaraderie between the residents and the residents communicate well with the faculty and vise versa. I felt the residents and faculty were genuine and honest about the program. They didn’t glorify it and I think that’s because it sells itself just fine. Although not as prestigious as its other UC counterparts, I think it is exceptionally well-rounded and residents are very well trained. It will continue to grow and move up the ranks over time. Definitely a program that I highly recommend. I would not be surprised if I ranked it #1 after interview season. Random stuff: Residents get a fair amount of money to go to national meetings as long as they are presenting at those meetings. Didactics good. Did not ask about in service performance. Rent is expensive, but residents manage. Most live close to UCI Health. Hard to get funding to permanently take 3 residents/yr. but might change in the future...just not anytime soon. They certainly have enough case volume to take 3-4 residents per year. | Not as much peds clinic. Some subspecialties not as deep as some bigger programs, but will expand over time. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
64 | University of California (Irvine) | • Strong FP • Kaiser rotation • VA plastics seems awesome • CHOC guys • Felt strong one on one • OC!!!! • BD Wong has strong research • Armstrong seems like a nice guy • Residents are AWESOME! My new friends • Mary Prudden • Lots of research • Conference $$$$ • Harrison Lin!!! New Otologist | • Prestige lacking • Not a lot of autonomy? (not sure if that’s true) • Only 1x laryngologist Sunil Verma • OC can be a little sterile • Traffic **edited by administrator removing defamatory and/or personal comments | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
65 | University of California (San Diego) | Most beautiful location on the trail, it hurt a little to leave. Small but solid program. Seems like H&N will be expanding in huge ways, with Dr. Califano starting a translational science lab. Really loved both Dr. Harris (chair) and Dr. Watson (PD). Residents were so happy; felt well-trained but not overworked. Some good FPRS and oto research too. Would've been happy to land here, really well-balanced program to have good training and an awesome life. | 6 years (though 6 years in paradise isn't so bad!), mandatory extra research year at a program that isn't really a top research institution. 2 per year means taking primary call through PGY-4 and on. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
66 | University of California (San Francisco) | Parnassus: I had a fairly well-rounded experience at UCSF. All the subspecialties are represented here and you get to spend time with most of the attendings. Parnassus is often dubbed “Parnasty” by the residents because of its highly unpredictable environment. Some days it will be cricket quiet and all the patients are stable or uncomplicated, but…at a blink of an eye, there will be billions of new consults. Some patients have incredibly complicated histories and often end up on our service and in the ICU. You will work your butt off when the wave of complicatedness comes in, but that being said, you learn a whole lot too. The best approach is to maintain a positive attitude and help whenever you can. You are the only sub-I here. You will see a fair amount of skull-base surgeries with Dr. El-Sayed at Parnassus and a ton of thyroids with Dr. George. Dr. George also operates at the brand new Mission Bay campus as well. I saw two complicated thyroids that required sternotomies so that was pretty awesome. Other than that, you will see a lot of central neck dissections with the thyroids and also lateral neck dissections. The majority of head and neck has been moved to the Mission Bay campus along with peds. The chief resident was pretty good about letting me go there to get a diverse experience. There are 2 sub-I’s at Mission Bay and 1 at the VA. There are no issues regarding you being a temp. 3rd sub-I at Mission Bay for a few days. There is enough going on that you won’t have to fight (better term is negotiate haha. be nice to your fellow sub-I’s) for cases. I spent a couple of days with the laryngologists, Dr. Courey and Yung. Dr. Yung is more involved in teaching medical students so she is nice to hang out with. Dr. Courey is nice, and is very interested in training the residents. There is very little hands on experience offered to sub-I’s for laryngology because many surgeries and laser procedures involve laryngoscopes. The residents take the helm for these procedures so you just watch when they use the microscope. Regardless, the surgeries are pretty neat. Of course, read up on the patient and why the surgery is indicated as well as relevant anatomy. You will shine the most in this regard and also when evaluating patients in clinic. If you are lucky you may see some thyroplasties and laryngectomies. You can peruse the surgery schedule in advance and then ask the chief to work something out for you. Just be aware that sub-I’s from different sites will have their chiefs do the same thing so there is some degree of coordination that is needed. I also spent a couple of days with their facial plastics recon. attendings, Dr. Knott and Dr. Seth. Dr. Seth is younger, but they both did their residency and fellowship at the same institutions. Dr. Knott is super chill, but again read read read and know the anatomy. This will not only make you look good, but also allow you to focus on the nuances of the surgery since you will have the basic details down! You will see a good mix of cosmetic and functional reconstructive surgeries. I saw a couple of rhinoplasties, paramedian forehead flaps, and also fibular free flaps and radial forearm free flaps, and fascia lata grafts for lateral canthal slings. Didn’t spend enough time with them to see any SMAS plication etc. They do Botox too of course. Otherwise, you will see more if you wish to spend more time with them. My otology experience here was the weakest mostly because I didn’t spend as much time in this area. If you want to see more otology then tell the chief. Dr. Tward is a newish attending and did his residency and fellowship at MEEI. He is super nice and loves to teach. If you want to get the most out of otology, work with him. Dr. Cheung is a seasoned neurotologist, but I did not spend very much time with him. He is hilarious, but not for everyone. He does a lot of lateral skull base surgeries. He does acoustic schwannoma resections and tumors of the CP angle as well. Peds: I spent a whole month at Seattle Children’s so I did not spend a lot of time with the peds attendings here. I went over to see the Mission Bay campus where the new children’s hospital is also located to get a feel for the place. Dr. Chan as I mentioned did his fellowship at UW. He has his own lab so he is in clinic and in OR only once per week. He has good research going on. Dr. Meyer and Rosbe are also super nice. The other two attendings were away so I didn’t meet them. Dr. Murr plans on hiring 3 more peds attendings. My rhinology experience was decent. I didn’t spend as much time as I wanted. You see the bread and butter and some complicated cases here and there. I worked with Dr. Murr (chair), Dr. Pletcher, and Dr. Goldberg. All very pleasant people. Dr. Goldberg is old school, but he is awesome to work with. Dr. Murr was very nice to me so I can’t speak for other sub-Is’ experiences. There are a handful of general ENT attendings. I did not meet them all. Dr. Chang is nice, but she will ask you a lot of questions, so be prepared to answer them. She will keep asking questions until you don’t know the answer. If you are able to answer a string of questions she is usually impressed. The questions start off easy and gets more difficult for they become senior resident level questions. In short, read up on the patient and why the surgery is indicated and relevant anatomy and pathology. She is the sialendoscopy guru here. Dr. Russell has a unique position in that he is almost like an ENT hospitalist. 80% of his practice is hospital based and he deals with many complicated patients on the service. Only recently did he start doing some outpatient practice. He is a swell guy and loves to teach and has a lot of advice to offer. I did not have a chance to meet his wife who is also a UCSF ENT attending. Residents are nice in general. Very cohesive bunch and they all seem to get along. My team was nice and made my experience a very positive one. As long as you work hard, there should not be any issues. There are maybe one or two residents that may seem a little head strong, but I did not have a problem with them. Just treat people with respect, be on time and do your work. SF is expensive so be prepared fork over the money to find a place here and to pay for food. Again I won’t talk about the logistics of finding a place since it is beyond the scope of this review. I’m sure you guys and gals are smart enough to figure it out. Transportation is convenient and you don’t need a car. Just buy a Clippers Card and you’ll be golden. I had one weekend off and I got to explore a majority of the city then. Weekend rounds are chill unless there is an attending there. Usually get out by 12 or 1 or earlier so you still have time to explore. I have relatives nearby so they drove me to the Vineyards up north and Sausalito. Overall I had an excellent experience although I would still say I had a better experience at Seattle Children’s. It’s hard to compare the two rotations since Seattle Children’s was exclusively peds ENT. Regardless, I do not regret spending this much money for the rotation. I got a lot out of it. Again my disclaimer: for all rotations what you put in is what you get out of it. Also your experience may vary due to different residents on the team and also your personality as well. Some people may rub you the wrong way, but I did not encounter much of this at UCSF. Good luck to you all. | Not as hands on as I wanted my experience to be in the OR, but I was not entirely bummed out by that. I did a lot of reading on my own and had a good idea what was going on during the entire surgery and the indications for the surgeries. Head and Neck is where you will get the most hands on experience. You may or may not get to scope patients for consults depending on which residents are there. So, no guarantees. In terms of clinic, most attendings will let you see patients on your own. Some are more particular and you just shadow them. In conclusion, not as hands on is my only complaint. Otherwise, like every rotation, you have to be the one to make the most out of the rotation. Also Mission Bay and VA sub-I’s may have different experiences than mine at Parnassus. | Away rotation only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
67 | University of California (San Francisco) | SF is an amazing place. Residents are happy. Facilities (especially Mission Bay) are amazing. Faculty are very down to earth and approachable. | Weak in Peds. SF is expensive | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
68 | University of California (San Francisco) | -amazing people/residents -SFGH autonomy -VA SF autonomy | -a program in decline -weak laryngology faculty -weak pediatrics faculty -uncomfortable living situation -lots of Fellows **edited by administrator removing defamatory and/or personal comments | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
69 | University of California (San Francisco) | Great clinical program with good operative experience. Loved the residents, very cohesive group. Excellent city. Younger faculty seem really cool and seem interested in teaching the residents. | Younger faculty that may not have the established name that older faculty have, which may slightly harmful. Research doesn't seem to be at the same level as some of the other top tier programs yet, but is still quite good. Just expanded their faculty so that there are some up and coming researchers here. Expensive. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
70 | University of Chicago | Fantastic residents Faculty passionate about teaching Awesome facilities Chicago is sweet | Less academic than some others Small faculty | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
71 | University of Cincinnati Medical Center/College of Medicine | totally nonmalignant excellent group of residents excellent otology, thyroid, and obviously peds experience fast fast head and neck surgeons, we were leaving at 730 everyday instead of 9-10 at my other away and home institution very early operative experiences, the pgy-2 residents were getting to do all the trachs/lots of thyroids/ all of the T&A's and tubes | not that much research production cincinnati is kinda scary | Away rotation only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
72 | University of Cincinnati Medical Center/College of Medicine | This place is awesome in every way. You should definitely apply to it and accept an interview if selected. Arguably the most balanced training available, and clearly an excellent peds experience. | Frequently don't interview rotators, only one of my cohort got an interview. Commonly take a couple each year, at least, from their home program. | Away rotation only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
73 | University of Cincinnati Medical Center/College of Medicine | Fabulous program with a great group of residents and faculty. Away rotation was very well organized and structured. I had a fun month here and thought it was my best away rotation exeprience. Interview day here was the most organized and professional of any of the interviews I attended. | A big program with a ton of faculty which made it difficult as a rotator to develop a strong relationship with faculty/potential letter writers. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
74 | University of Cincinnati Medical Center/College of Medicine | Certainly pediatrics. The peds experience amounts to much more than just tubes and tonsils for residents. Excellent faculty and residents. Residents have great case numbers. Night float is a positive in my assessment. | Not known for having a great facial plastics experience. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
75 | University of Cincinnati Medical Center/College of Medicine | 4/yr. Peds powerhouse. Op numbers insane for peds. Everything else is strong though. All bases covered program-wise. Cinci is an ok town. Great fellowship opportunities. Concierge service to take care of crap while you work. Moonlighting opportunities 3rd year on. Were incredibly upfront about their recent firings of residents and left me with no reservations. | potential to be overshadowed by peds. definitely a harder working residency but great training nonetheless. Midwest town that might not be for everyone. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
76 | University of Cincinnati Medical Center/College of Medicine | Everyone knows about their peds experience, it's unparalleled. They're well-rounded in other specialties too though. Have a great call schedule with night float, so you're not on call otherwise. Attendings were young and invested. Lots of trauma, split with plastics. Do all the thyroids in the hospital, gen surg doesn't touch them. Really liked the chair. | Cincinnati as a city is not great. They've had two residents fired recently. Although they addressed this by saying these people did things that would get them fired from any job, I had questions about their selection process and resident culture. How do you separately pick people who do terrible things two years in a row? Just seemed like an awkward red flag that I didn't want to ask too much about. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
77 | University of Colorado | Seems to be extremely well-funded (e.g. multiple daVinci robots in learning lab, good support staff). Large faculty, met a number that seemed like would be really fun to work with. Seems like you'll get great training in everything (esp peds), except H&N. I was impressed that the program hired their chief from last year to head up the VA service, a sign that the training will make you very competent. Legit research. Beautiful facilities which are all near each other, means no driving off-site for 20 minutes while on call. Hospital has a concierge service that helps residents run small errands like take car for oil change during work. Colorado is a cool city, medium cost of living (compared to the coasts), outdoorsy activities are ~1 hour away. | The program in the process of hiring a H&N person after losing their main H&N person recently, no one does TORs currently. You might argue the peds experience is too heavy. Have to take call during research block. Interviewing >40 people for 2 non-research spots seems a bit much. Hospitals are gigantic, seems like you'll do a ton of walking while on consults/call. Not a lot of ethnic diversity for a large-ish city and large hospital system. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
78 | University of Colorado | Very balanced and high-quality training: a lot of people say that H&N is weak here, which is not accurate. It's their subspecialty with the least depth, but you still get your #s and work with a really awesome attending (who was also the best teacher I encountered during all of medical school). Great otology, great rhinology, plenty of FPRS and laryngology. Top notch peds. Awesome teaching: I was really impressed by how much time and energy both attendings and senior residents spent on education. Great facilities: get to work in a practically brand new hospital complex, access to great learning facilities. Denver Health: basically the county hospital in Denver. You spend time here as an intern, 2 and 5. Great patient diversity, great chance to have autonomy. VA: same as above, great autonomy. They are actively trying to improve the resident experience here. Location: obviously one of the most sought after places to do residency. Overall: great program, great people, great location. You'll come out able to do anything you want. Correction to other response: call covers hospitals outside of the main University/Children's campus (e.g., Denver Health), so you will have to drive around a bit on call but it's very manageable. | Too much peds? If you are dead set on doing a Peds fellowship, then this would be a pro. If you're thinking of doing general, then you might feel there is too much peds. The peds rotations are historically the busiest for residents. You undoubtedly get great exposure and training in pediatrics, but it seemed to be a big energy drain. You also end up spending a lot of call time at the Children's Hospital - probably true to some extent at most programs, but especially true here. Resident makeup: don't get me wrong, I got along great with all of the residents during my away. All the residents got along with each other, and it was a very friendly and welcoming group. However, there was a noticeable personality difference between the senior/junior classes. I tended to gravitate toward the personalities of the senior residents, and those people where a big reason why I liked the program so much. But word on the street was that there was a shift in the residency selection committee a few years ago, which is my best guess as to why there is a personality difference. This isn't necessarily a "con", just a tidbit that gave me something to ponder come rank time. Another tidbit: I was told that they don't interview many of their away rotators. When I got an interview invitation, I thought it meant I had a great chance of matching there. I later found out that the majority, if not all, of the away rotators were offered an interview. However, 1 of 2 categorical spots went to an away rotator this year, so maybe it is weighted heavily. They also interviewed about 40 people for their 2 non-research spots, which seemed a bit excessive given how competitive this place is for applicants. *Most* places seemed to interview 12-14 per spot, so I was a bit surprised when I found out they interviewed around 40 people. Overall: no major cons that made me lose interest. I was personally looking for a program where peds wasn't as much of an emphasis, but still really wanted to come here. Correction to the other response: their main H&N person is still there. The H&N attending who left was the junior H&N faculty member. They already found a replacement, so don't worry about not getting enough H&N here. One of their faculty at Denver Health is H&N trained, so you get plenty of exposure there as well. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
79 | University of Colorado | I wrote a separate response about the program as a whole. This response is geared toward the away rotation experience. AWAY ROTATION: - spend 2 weeks at the University, 1 week at Denver Health, and 1 week at Children's. This gives you a very good sample of what the residency program is like. - very welcoming environment. Emphasized on first day how they wanted away students to spend their time getting to know faculty, not doing grunt work. - faculty were very invested in my education and went out of their way to make it a positive experience, which says a lot about their overall character. - give a grand rounds presentation at the end, which some may consider a con, but is a good chance to go out on a high note. Overall: great place to do an away. You won't have much time off, but you will have a few chances to go hiking in the mountains and/or explore the culture of Denver. | AWAY ROTATION: - they have a policy where they only write "standardized" LoRs. My educated guess is that this equates to having a LoR with some sort of sliding scale questions and a tiny blurb about you at the end. Not sure whose names go on it, but if you're looking for a personalized, high-impact letter from a single individual, this away rotation won't get that for you. A lot of my interviewers asked what the significance of the standardized letter was, and I didn't really have a good answer for that. - you aren't guaranteed an interview as an away student, but they interviewed most/if not all of the away students this year. I was actually motivated to do my away rotation here under the assumption that only a few get invited back (I'd rather know up front what my chances are), so I was a little disheartened when I realized they brought almost everyone back for interviews. - I and a few other students had issues with EPIC access, despite turning in paperwork well ahead of time. They didn't want us writing notes, so from that perspective it didn't matter. But when it came to prep for the next day's cases, it felt like a pain to bother a resident to log you in. Hopefully whatever hickups that were present before were addressed and fixed. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
80 | University of Florida | 3/yr. Super chill faculty. Great training. Residents were very nice. VA experience. Good otology research. PhD mentor to help with tough parts of research. Everyone seemed well-integrated. | Gainesville sucks as a town. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
81 | University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago | 3/yr Emphasize variety. Peds at Lurie w NW. Cook County w NW. VA. UIC. Plastics. Elmhurst. Toriumi and Thomas = any FPRS fellowship you want but the experience in residency is all observation for 3 months. Otologist = allows tons of autonomy. Wenig and Jefferson awesome. Seniors take week long back up call. Thomas cool chair. All faculty approachable per residents. Hiring new otologist. | evasive on OR numbers...says all residents are meeting minimum...duh. Probably emphasis on clinic. Used to be 4/yr but lost a spot. Not much research. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
82 | University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago | FPRS is real strength of program. Chicago is a great city. Good lifestyle, emphasis on clinic. 6 months at Lurie Children's (associated with Northwestern) - good peds experience. | Malignant program overall. One attending is very hands on and unapproachable. Know some home students from previous years who confirmed the same thing. Poor clinical experience. Only have one attending in most sub-specialties (except FPRS), with less forcus on teaching residents. Residents rarely go into fellowships besides FPRS. Ranked at the bottom of my list, considered not ranking at all. Definitely worth checking out other Chicago programs before this one. **edited by administrator removing defamatory and/or personal attacks | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
83 | University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago | Have both a VA and a county. I love Chicago and had my sights on a Chicago program. UIC is located within the city, which is nice. Residents were a little off, but nice overall. In the medical district of Chicago. Best cosmetic facial plastics in the country, probably. | Had some very weird interviews here, the attendings were the oddest I met on the trail. Not a very big department, academics doesn't seem to be a focus. Was really concerned about the operative volume and autonomy here. Heard that the entire H&N division left at once a few years ago, so there's some gaps in teaching. I had read some bad reviews about this program from previous years, but really wanted to come to Chicago, so I came anyways. I would say that all the previous reviewers were correct. I can't imagine being more unimpressed than I was. I just wanted to like it so much more than I did. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
84 | University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics | University of Iowa Big program. 5/yr. Interview day for 3 clinical track positions and another interview day for 2 research track position. Highly-regarded program. Exceptionally well-rounded experience with all subspecialties represented. Great H&N (ablative and recon) and peds experience (also do cleft and microtia), and world-class neurotology/lateral skull base experience. Many generalists come out here with the best otology experience. Great sinus exposure, but so-so complex anterior skull base; hiring a rhinologist to cover this area. New peds hospital will be finished in fall 2016. Hiring another peds attending. Otherwise, minor weaknesses being addressed with new hires. This program is already very solid and well-established. Faculty: I did not meet everyone since not all the faculty interviewed. Dr. Gantz has been with the program for 20+ years and is a big name here. Well-mannered. Dr. Chang (PD) is H&N and comes from USC; did her fellowship in Iowa. Easy to talk to during the interview; did not ask any intimidating questions. Dr. Bayon is relatively new; trained at NW and did his fellowship at Mayo-Arizona; residents like him a lot and says he teaches well and lets the residents operate a great deal…chillest interviewer of the group. Dr. Graham comes from Australia. He is the sinus guy. He takes some time to warm up. Dr. Pagedar also relatively new H&N attending; trained at Case Western and fellowship in Toronto. Nice guy and easy to talk to. Dr. Manaligod: Peds guy. Does cleft. Super chill and kind of just talked at me and didn’t really ask me any questions. Just asked if I had questions in the end. Dr. Hansen: trained at Iowa and fellowship in neurotology at House. One of the nicest interviewers. Had a very good conversation with him. Interviewed with R5/R3 Dr. Smith: He was a little intimidating. Not sure how he felt about me. I’m sure he’s a nice person outside of the interview setting. Rest of the attendings you can read about of website since I did not meet them. Residents: Residents are super nice. One of the best group of people I have met on the interview trail. I have read in past posts about over selling the “ we have each others’ backs” spiel. I didn’t think they were trying hard to seel this point during my interview at Iowa. I think they are truly a cohesive group and have a genuinely good relationship with each other and with residents in other departments. Also residents and faculty have a very good relationship. Faulty is very supportive and give good career guidance. Research is emphasized, but they don’t expect everyone to go into academics and have a lab or anything like that. I think they want residents to be well-rounded and know how to read a paper critically and also know how good research is carried out. There’s lots of money and resources should you pursue a career that involves a fair amount research activity. Iowa City: Certainly Iowa City isn’t anywhere close to NYC lol, but there are things to do and the residents hang out together very frequently. Lots of outdoor activities. If you are a big city person, Iowa City is not the place for you; however that being said, Chicago and Kansas City and Milwaukee is 4-5hrs away if you need your city fix. Otherwise, Iowa City has everything you need. Downtown area is small, but has decent restaurants and bars. Iowa city is a college town and thus is a bubble of liberalism in an otherwise somewhat conservative, blue-collared state. It is a swing state so go figure. Otherwise, people are nice and Iowa City has the typical mid-western feel. Football and wrestling are big here since Hawkeyes are rather good...or at least I think so. I’m not really into sports, so you may have a different opinion. Rotations: University Hospital New Peds Hospital to be completed in 2016. Connected to university hospital. VA Community rotation in Des Moine and Mason City. Lots of autonomy at the VA. Rotate in Des Moine and Mason City. Good community experiences - lots of autonomy and great cases. Only down side is that it is 2.5hrs away. You get housing, but it is also colder out there. Buddy call: R4 with R2s to guide them during the beginning until they get used to things. R5 with R3s; it’s a nice system. In house call for juniors and at home call for seniors. Big program so Q6, Q7 call. There is trauma call as well. Top heavy: Lots of clinic as juniors, but still have decent operating time. Almost all there operative time is during senior year. Some people may not like this model, but lot’s of residents feel that clinic really teaches them how to become good clinicians (obviously since its clinic) in addition to being good surgeons. Have to know how to work up the patients and know the proper indications and contraindications for surgery. Also there is some continuity in seeing f/u and postop patients. Ancillary staff and facilities: Hospital is huge and exam rooms have the latest and greatest equipment. You cannot ask for more. Residents say ancillary staff are well-trained and reliable. Overall a solid program and very little to fault. Good amount of autonomy as seniors. Cons: location – Iowa City is definitely not for everyone. COLD!!! Maybe too top heavy for some. | Cons: location – Iowa City is definitely not for everyone. COLD!!! Maybe too top heavy for some. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
85 | University of Kansas School of Medicine | I was thoroughly impressed by this program. The residents are a diverse, fun-loving group. They work hard, but seem to really enjoy working with each other and the faculty. The faculty are also a very diverse group, many of which trained at premier institutions yet have very welcoming personalities. There are multiple faculty members in each subspecialty and it seemed as though the residents received very well-rounded training. They have a very large head and neck program and I was very impressed by the surgical skill of the upper level residents. The program also had multiple full-time research faculty within the department. The facilities are new and they are currently building an additional hospital tower and new medical school. Kansas City seemed like a blossoming city with lots a great food (especially BBQ). It had all the conveniences of a larger city (NFL, MLB, opera house) but is a little more affordable and traffic is very manageable. | Away rotation and interview | |||||||||||||||||||||||
86 | University of Kansas School of Medicine | Great feeling of camaraderie among residents, faculty seemed laid back and approachable, strong representation of all subspecialties, great facilities that are growing. | KC is a smaller city than many other places I applied | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
87 | University of Kansas School of Medicine | GREAT program- I left this interview really loving this place. 4/year. Multiple attendings deep in each subspecialties. Work 1:1 with faculty members. Case numbers in the high 2000s. Beautiful hospital. Rotate in many different facilities (university hospital, children's hospital, private hospital, VA, ambulatory surgery center, county hospital). Support mission trips which are funded. Have a dedicated PhD/MPH to help with research. New chairman is a huge baller (Alex Chiu, rhinologist, coming from U of Arizona). He'll likely elevate the program even more so that it already is. Really liked the residents, and they seemed to get along really well. Basic science labs in otology and H&N. Amazing 3 course lunch. Will be opening new clinic/hospital to add as a new site. | Possibly location, but I was very impressed as someone from a large NE city. Multiple sites may fragment resident camaraderie, but did not seem to be the case. Need to cover multiple hospitals while on call all over Kansas City (KS and MO). Long interview day... 11 rooms at 20 minutes each, each room has a "theme." | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
88 | University of Kansas School of Medicine | Great res/staff lots of volume, young great chairman coming but learned this after interview | kc, meh | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
89 | University of Michigan | What to expect on your away: 1-2 weeks of H&N (~2 free flaps per day, you'll work with the chair), 1-2 weeks of peds (PD is a peds ENT), 1-2 weeks of general/plastics/etc. This is a well-organized rotation. Even with 5+ other rotators during my month, there was tons to see and do, and chiefs honored requests to see certain rare-ish cases. >95% of the people were very nice, most of the attendings love to teach, many of the residents started a tradition of buying the rotators' lunch. In the OR I helped close big cases, there were no presentations to give, clinic was very formal (shadowing only). Expect ~14-15 hour days Mon-Fri, and rounds on weekends. | Very impacted with rotators, can have ~8 rotators in one month, this means few rotators get interviews. Although almost everyone from residents to attendings was nice to the rotators, I felt as if the residents were putting too much pressure on themselves to be the best and hardest-working and show zero weakness so that fun and cohesion were a bit lacking in the workplace. In the end I was relieved I was not invited for interviews because I did not click with the people. And you should know that pretty much all the new faculty have either done residency or fellowship at Michigan, this can be a pro or con depending on how you look at it. | Away rotation only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
90 | University of Michigan | Faculty are amazing and incredibly friendly. Closest faculty-resident relationship that I saw on the trail. Incredible research opportunities and clinical training is superb. Residents are close-knit. | Ann Arbor is small, many residents are married and have children (can be a pro or a con, depending on your own situation), Ann Arbor winters are long and cold | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
91 | University of Michigan | -Ann Arbor -FAMILY -unionized residency -great pay -awesome prestige -amazing research -really friendly people -commitment to character -empowering place -can do ANYTHING -I could thrive here -call is nice -low cost of living -great conference budget -IPAD -no traffic, no crime -dedicated nursing floor for ENT patients -moonlighting -Infrastructure and support staff are INCREDIBLE -residents cry when they leave -amazing didactics | -long distance from home (I'm from California) -grey weather -close to Detroit -Michigan – cold -mostly white people? -I don’t know anyone -I could easily get spoiled here - most hospitals do not function like Michigan | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
92 | University of Mississippi Medical Center | The residents all really love each other. They work well together. The attendings are very approachable. The cost of living is very affordable (where else can you own a house in residency and still live comfortably?!?). Work hours are fair. OR experience and clinic very balanced. All specialties represented with ZERO (repeat, ZERO) fellows! | Location, possibly, but you work a majority of the time anyway. Evolving research curriculum. | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
93 | University of Mississippi Medical Center | Very well run department with a visionary chair focused on excellence, laid back faculty and residents, super light call schedule that covers a single campus, cheap cost of living | Jackson is a pretty sleepy town, the vast majority of the residents are married and many have kids (not really a con, I'm just not in that stage of life yet), confusing process for inviting away rotators to interview (they state that they don't invite any rotators to interview and that the away was an interview, but then they do.) | Away rotation and interview | ||||||||||||||||||||||
94 | University of Missouri-Columbia | The main hospital is easy to navigate. Overall, helpful residents. | Overall, doing this away rotation did not help me in the interview process and other programs may be more helpful if you're looking for LORs and interviews. | Away rotation only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
95 | University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine | 2/yr maybe increasing to 3. Wonderful faculty. Residents were pretty cohesive and a bit on the bro-spectrum which is a +/- depending on you. Most of them were men and either married or in relationship. Half have kids. Good facilities with new ones being built. Semi weak in FPRS. Strong otherwise with excellent operating experience (doing thyroids as a PGY2, excellent otology training, etc.). Lots of support from department, including funding to attend courses every year. One resident is taking a year off to do research which was fully supported by the department and residents. Chair is well connected in peds world and very humble although likely stepping down in the near future. | Smaller program, name isn't quite up their yet. Omaha isn't necessarily the most desirable place to live but it's cheap and has a lot to offer. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
96 | University of Nevada School of Medicine (Las Vegas) | -close to California -low cost of living | -weird interview day -only 3 faculty -untested program -Las Vegas -awful hospital and surrounding structures -strange residents -upcoming administrative changes - UNSOM -> UNLV. WTF. I do not like administrative upheaval /instability during residency. **edited by administrator removing defamatory and/or personal comments | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
97 | University of Nevada School of Medicine (Las Vegas) | New, small program but residents were very cool. Faculty were very nice. Residents seemed to get great experience as it's all one on one. Will become a formal department next year as UNLV med school opens up. Current PGY4 is interviewing for peds fellowship and has some big name places on her list. Chair is excellent head and neck surgeon. Otolgist is Hopkins trained. There are only 2 peds ENT is Nevada- one in Reno and one in Vegas. This program has the Vegas one (Stanford trained) so there's great volume. Great pathology. Want to hire two more surgeons (recon and HN to deal with case load) but obviously need a full complement. | New program, small size but that may not be a bad thing. Still don't have a full complement of faculty. Trauma is formally done on their plastics rotation which might be a negative for some people. There are currently no rhinologists in Nevada and therefore no skull base program. Hiring one would be a huge plus for the program. Dr. Johnson (really really nice guy) said he might be retiring in the future. Research right now is limited as the program is still new but regardless there is support. It's located in Vegas which is a good or bad thing. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
98 | University of Nevada School of Medicine (Las Vegas) | 1/year. New program. Rounds start pretty late compared to other programs and more lax. Call is q4. 3 adjunct (private) faculty. Rotations at university hospital, surgery centers. There's a residency clinic on Tuesday afternoons, which is nice for some autonomy. Early hands-on experience. No fellows. One attending gives the residents a lot of autonomy. Vegas would be a cool place to live (have lots of things to do outside of work, and not on the strip and the time to do them). | Only 4 faculty members, some that I didn't really jive with during the interview. Only 1-2 residents were vocal during the interview day. Restructuring the university when opening up as UNLV. New program... though the PGY4 was getting some great pediatric fellowship interviews. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
99 | University of North Carolina Hospitals | Strong academics, one of those programs where people train there and become leaders in the field. Seems like there's good operative volume, complex pathology. Trauma exposure at Wakemed. If you do the 7 tear, you can get anextra 6 months at the end to do a "mini-fellowship" type thing anywhere you want. Attendings are well known across the country. Dr. Zevallos doing some interesting H&N epidemiology work now. | Brutal interview day. 23 ten minute interviews, where there was no order to the rooms. Too many people being interviewed on one day, applicants were just running around trying to find their next interview. Everyone asked the same questions about my research in every room. I want to do research/academics, but the overall day made it seem like they only care about matching residents who can further their academic name, and don't care about getting a good fit, etc. Overall, was disappointed by the program. Chapel Hill has nice weather, but is slow/small. | Interview only | ||||||||||||||||||||||
100 | University of Pennsylvania | Incredible clinical training and volume, operate early and often, opportunities for research abound. Residents are happy. Amazing H&N (TORS), rhinology (Kennedy is there), and peds experience with CHOP. | Some faculty are more traditional, though no malignancy here | Away rotation and interview |