Chicago Programs

Cool name, Poopy ? you sure you?re not going into colorectal surgery?!

I rotated at Loyola (sub-I), and here?s my impression:
-residents very personable and happy, hard-workers but don?t seem overworked
-extremely pro-resident chair and PD
-protected didactic time 1/2 day per week
-trauma very busy ? great operative experience
-peds at shriners ? also great operative experience
-foot and ankle ? supposedly new faculty coming soon
-sports ? PD is shoulder guy, great teacher

That?s all I got off the top of my head ? let me know any other specific questions.

rotated at UIC. residents get a tremendous amont of OR time. possibly too much trauma as 3 of the 6 or 7 hospitals they go through are level one trauma. I felt the didactics could be improved. all in all, though, they come out good surgeons, which is the main goal anyways. most (if not all) go into private practice. also, they do get some great fellowships. one chief from this years class is going to Mayo for hand. two years ago, one went to HSS for joints.

not a big research program although there is some. to me, that's a plus.

the residents are really cool and are happy. if you want a big city, I think it is a decent program. i'd be happy if I ended up there. also remember that there are 7 spots which means it is probably the best odds in chicago.

Rotated at RUSH:

Great experience
not the most operating experience in the world but great access to some great Ortho minds - leaders in the field, as cheesy as that sounds.

I thought the place was decently friendly, not overly malignant - in fact not malignant at all from what I could see - there was alot of really friendly people - but since I come from the South I suspect that is the reason that I didn't think they were friendlier than they were - but I am sure that anyone else would find the place very friendly...

Morale was actually pretty good and though we worked hard I didn't think that it was too much to prevent learning...

plus they gave us alot of autonomy and independence which I really liked - such a nice change from my home institution...

all in all I would rate the program very high and will rank it high on my match list...

if you have any specific questions feel free to PM me...and good luck!

Jason

Regarding the UIC program, I did a month there and didn't think much of the program itself. The chairman, Dr. Abraham, is aloof to what's going on half the time. I specifically recall one instance where he was handing out these packets with the residents' names on them and he could not recognize his own PGY 1s. That was a very telling moment.
Of course, the city's awesome, and the residents are very easy to work with. Either way, you can't lose wherever you end up..as long as you end up with a spot.