There are individual threads on all 3 of these programs if you do a search. My personal take: if you really like Memphis, then you've overcome the only down-side of Campbell Clinic. Incredible program in a bad city.

just out of curiosity, why is memphis so bad in your opinion?

I was just worried about taking my wife there and possibly having future kids. I know people who trained there (in ortho or something else) and every single one of them without fail had some sort of horror sorry. A buddy of mine who is a good, quiet kind of kid bought a gun 3 months into moving out there and in 3 years had to pull it out 4 times to defend himself. It seems like everyone I met either had their house broken into or knows someone who recently had it done. Maybe it's just the people I knew, and maybe I'm too much of a worrier, but it was a bit much for me. One of the residents told us that it is consistently in the top 10 for violent crime, but not even in the top 25 for population.

That aside, once again, the program there is phenomenal. Probably the most impressive program I interviewed at.

Memphis definitely has its plusses (sp?) and minuses, but I think that it is all about where you live in and around Memphis. My wife is from Memphis but actually grew up in a suburb of Memphis that is about 20 minutes outside of downtown Memphis. There are several very nice suburbs around Memphis that are easily within driving distance (20-30 minute commute). As far as competitiveness, how competitive is Campbell?

so where did your friend have to "draw down" on someone?
just in the area around the hospital or somewhere you would assume to be safe like the mall or his own neighborhood?

There are a lot of places/programs where the hospital is in a bad part of town. When I was in med school in st louis my car got broken into twice (parked on the street) and over 4 years there were several muggings at the Metrolink station about 2-3 blocks away. However, where I lived and hung out was very safe and nice. If Memphis is like St Louis or Detroit then you just have to know where to go and where NOT to go. If anyone knows st louis you would never lump North St Louis or Jennings in with Ladue/Chesterfield/Town&Country. They might as well be on different planets and to use one or the other to judge the city/metro area as a whole would be silly.

In my opinion, the city is as safe as you make it. Common sense goes a long way. That said, when I interviewed for medical school here, they told us that only 5 med students had their car stolen that year (which was apparently down from previous years). I know multiple students who have had their homes broken into. A guy who robbed the hospital cafateria was shot to death by police outside our education building a few months back. You have to learn to let these things roll off your back.

The simple fact of the matter is that the city has a HUGE population of people living below the poverty line. The city has its fair share of crack addicts, gang bangers, and 17 year-old girls on their 5th pregnancy. So when people say "the worst part of the program is its city", you have to realize you deal with these types of people on a daily basis. It wears on you after a while and you begin to lose faith in patients. That said, Memphis can be a very fun city if you use common sense when choosing where to live, do things to minimize your risk, and try to realize not everyone that walks into the hospital is addicted to drugs. The Med is where you'll do a lot of your training and the area draws in a less than reputable crowd at times. But there are also multiple training locations out in the suburbs where you won't run into these problems.

Campbell's is such an incredible group of individuals that I would live in any city to obtain the training that these guys get. You also have to realize that this kind of patient population is often so grateful to get any help at all. Final word, the city definitely has some problems but the advantages of this program far outweigh them.

I realize that every situation is different and that a lot of it has to do with common sense. And I realize that most, if not all big cities have their unsafe parts. It just seemed like a recurring theme around Memphis that was emphasized to me. A friend of mine who trained there said that he thinks he got the best training in the world but he had to worry about his wife and 2 kids everyday, and if he had to do it again he wouldn't go there. I know I'm a worrier about family, so I didn't want to be constantly anxious about this.

Once again, I think this is the best program I interviewed at. I didn't really get to know the guys very well, but the few I met seemed like great guys. Memphis just wasn't for me.