uva: great program. great guys. excellent interaction between residents and faculty. excellent research opportunities. nice town. expensive. great sports. hand rocks. joints solid. trauma in roanoke, which residents love--surgery boot camp.

umass: great group of residents. unsure on op experience as i did not rotate there. only interviewed. decent location. growing. great research opps. covers all bases. residents very happy. great proximity to boston.

I really only know about UVA. It's an awesome program, strong in every area. Great residents, great facilities, location is plus or minus (I'm used to the big city). Most of the residents told me that Roanoake is the biggest drawback to UVA, especially if you have a wife. You have to spend a total of 40 weeks (I think 20 weeks as a PGY 4 and 20 weeks as a PGY 5) in Roanoake, which is like 110 miles away from Charlottesville. They put you up in a furnished apartment, but you go like 5 months at a time where you hardly see your wife or kids (I think some people do it in 10 week blocks instead of 20). Even if you are riding solo right know, who knows in 4 years. True, they call it "surgery camp" because you get to operate a lot, but there are a lot of programs that let you operate a lot without having to move across the state. UVA would be my No. 1, if only it was in a bigger city and didn't have the Roanoake thing.