Academic Programs
By Guest on Tuesday, 06 May 2008
Posted in Match Center
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This post is not meant to start a pi$$ing contest. The point of it is to help applicants know where programs stand from an academic standpoint. This by NO means ranks the best program, as there is no such universal program. The best program is the one you match at and fits your career goals and lifestyle aspirations. By academic standpoint, I mean: graduates pursing academic careers, research grants, research facilities, research staff, well known academians, cutting edge surgical procedures and development, Programs with all subspecialty areas covered and with depth, referral centers, publication output, graduates going into academically oriented fellowships, etc. This list is based on MY own conversations with academians, other residents, and publication and presentation observation. It is not a definitive list as it is opinion and there is no “right” list. I hope that it opens up mature dialogue about this subject and is helpful to those applicants applying. Please post any changes you would make, discussion is the point. Any ACGME sponsored program will provide adequate training and the trick is to find what suits your tastes, I hope this helps those with more academically oriented tastes.

Cluster A
UCLA
Pitt
Rush
U Iowa
Hopkins
Harvard
Mayo Clinic
Washington U St. Louis
U Rochester
Hospital for Special Surgery
Columbia NY Presbyterian
Hospital for Joint Diseases
Duke
Case Western
Cleveland Clinic
U Penn
Jefferson
U Washington
U Utah

Cluster B:
UC Davis
UC San Diego
UC San Francisco
Yale
University of Florida
Emory
Northwestern
U Michigan
Dartmouth
Mt. Sinai
UNC
Brown
U Tennesee Memphis Campbell Clinic
Vanderbilt
UT Southwestern
U Wisconsin
U Virginia


Cluster c
USC
University of Alabama
UC Irvine
Stanford
Colorado
University of Connecticut
Georgetown
George Washington
Jackson Memorial
U Chicago
Loyola
Indiana U
Maryland
Boston U
William Beaumont Royal Oak
U Minnesota
Wake forest
Carolinas
Ohio State
Oregon Health Sciences
Penn State Hershey
UT San Antonio
Baylor
U Vermont


Cluster D:
University of Arizona
University of Arkansas
Loma Linda
Harbor-UCLA
Orlando Regional
Medical College of Georgia
U Illinois Chicago
U Kansas
Louisiana State New Orleans
Union
Tufts
U Massachusetts
Henry Ford
Grand Rapids
St. Louis U
UMDNJ Robert Wood Johnson
U New Mexico
Albany
Albert Einstein
Buffalo
Lennox Hill
SUNY Upstate
Summa
Cincinnati
Mt. Carmel
Louisville
U Oklahoma
Drexel
Temple
U South Carolina
UT Galveston
UT Houston
Texas Tech Lubbock
Texas AM
Virginia Commonwealth
Medical College of Wisconsin
West Virginia University
I like how you go from Tier A and B and then all of a sudden switch it up and go Tier 3 and Tier 4. God forbid I be in Tier C

Guest
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18 years ago
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UCLA does not belong in the same category as HSS, Rush, and Jeff.

They do have a lot of final fours though, so that's nice.
Guest
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18 years ago
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Tricknee in no way am I saying that any program in cluster C is inferior to Cluster A. It is just a matter of taste. If you want a solid program with a great range of specialties covered with academic pursuit available but not forefront, with great fellowship connections while not being burried by your own program's fellows then Cluster C is for you. It is pretty well known that many in Cluster A's can be observational residencies at times. So if you going straight into private practice (like 90% of our peers) and could care less about doing any research then why on earth would you go to Rush when you could go to JPS and operate until your fingers bleed? There is no better or worse on this list. Just varrying degrees of academic flavor.
Guest
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18 years ago
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LOVE THE POST.....would type more but fingers bleeding...

Signed,

BLOODY NUBS, aka JPS resident...


splatter...
Guest
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18 years ago
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Dude I was just using a metaphor, you should really have that checked out, I mean at least for the patients. I bet Protzman would take a look.
Guest
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18 years ago
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I would place Brown as cluster A...

They recieved the COBRE grant...pretty big deal in my opinion...
Guest
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17 years ago
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I totally disagree with this ranking of academic programs because it neglects the simple truth that within each residency and faculty there are people who work hard and are outstanding and other people who slide by. If you are motivated you will publish a lot of papers or bang out the OITE or boards wherever you attend. No patient is going to care where you did residency. This is not medical school applications or college applications where there are thousands of people whom you are being compared against. No academic ranking will cover up for that or allow someone to slide into a sweet fellowship or job.

These medical students should be trying to find places where they will fit in and excell so that down the road someone will pick up a phone for them and say that they are a good guy or gal. It doesn't matter who that person is.
Guest
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17 years ago
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Agree with the above post. You can't place programs into "clusters" based on the above criteria because there is no way that you can objectively quantify those things. For example, our program just recently received 2 NIH R01 grants for more than 2 million dollars each in the area of Orthopedic outcomes and tissue engineering (~ $5.8 million). Few programs in the cluster A have dedicated orthopedic R01 research grants in that amount, let alone two. Academic reputation is one thing, but how well you can be trained by a particular program is another thing. If you are motived, you can bang out publications and blow up the OITE, and match into a good fellowship where ever you are at. For the medical students who are applying, just try to "find places where you will fit in and excell..." because 5 yrs of working with the wrong group of people or program is a long 5 yrs. I would not go by that list above when trying to pick a program.
Guest
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17 years ago
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I agree in part with pediclescrewer that individual faculty member's strengths and research quality may be ultimately more valuable than the program's broader 'academic' reputation. However, as a medical school applicant trying to maximize the opportunities I might have in residency to work with such outstanding faculty and develop academic potential, it seems to make sense to look at clusters like throwinds has put together.
Many of us have limited time to research every program as thoroughly as we might like, and it helps to apply _multiple_ filters (operational experience, academic strength, location, testimonies of friends, etc) based on others' informed experiences and then balance based on one's personal goals.
To that extent, I think these lists can be useful, especially when looking at a certain parameter at a time, as long as one understands the limitations of such broad 'lists'.
Guest
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17 years ago
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