I interviewed at LSU last year...more due to curiosity than outright interest in the program. They put on a nice show the night before at a bar/restaurant just west of Canal Street. The interview day, however, was less than impressive. A large portion of their day was spent convincing the applicants how much better LSU was than Tulane (a couple of the residents were SHOCKED to hear that I was not invited to interview at Tulane...
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) Anyway, the highlight of the interview day had to be the tour of the legendary Charity Hospital. This place reminded me of the huge building in Ghostbusters...you know, this towering limestone structure that has been stained black over the years by rainwater, evil spirits, etc.... The inside was equally depressing; it looked as if it had not been renovated since its inception in the 1700s (it probably has once or twice
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) One cool thing about Charity is that the ORs are on the top floor, and they have windows that look out over New Orleans....pretty cool view. One slightly unnerving feature of the campus is that when on in-house call, you cover both Charity and University Hospital. They are about a 200 yard walk away, and this walk takes you underneath the interstate overpass, past some dark seedy buildings and sketchy characters. One interviewer asked about the safety of making this walk a thousand times during your residency, and the reply was something like this, "Well most of the people out here are druggies, and when they see your white coat, they know to leave you alone...otherwise they won't get their hits when they come to the ER" Not exactly reassuring!
This is certainly a place where you get a ton of autonomy EARLY. The early operative experience is probably hard to match anywhere...however, the faculty coverage and teaching seemed to be spotty at best, and the program seemed to have a ton of holes, especially with the chairman (D'Ambrosia?) leaving for Colorado.
New Orleans would certainly be an exciting place to live, especially for single people. Given that I am married, a big negative for me was that they spend 18 months of the five years on away rotations in Lafayette, Lake Charles, and Baton Rouge. The LSU residents swear these are great rotations...but for me, not ideal for the marriage.
I ranked this progam last mainly due to the questionable attending case coverage and time away from home; fortunately I matched with my top choice. This was just my personal take...obviously each applicant has to decide what is most important for him/herself. I hope this is helpful
