I interviewed at both last year.
Mcp-hahn -- weak on trauma...you get to see the old lady with the fem neck fx, but very few MVA's, open fx's, etc. Good joint experience though- chairman is big name joint guy. Last year they were losing faculty left and right. I don't know if they've replaced them or not. They had no spine last year, their shoulder guy had just left for Jefferson, and one of their joint guys had left for Penn as of my interview. I don't know what state the program is in now. You may want to investigate before deciding.
Newark is opposite -- very heavy on trauma, you see anything and everything. I liked their program more than I thought I would, chairman's a real nice guy. They have basic science labs and you can do cadaver studies etc. I was somewhat surprised they had this and was impressed.
Bottom line -- to be honest, I wasn't overly impressed with either program. Ranked both after 10 on my list. I ranked MCP-hahn higher than Newark for a couple reasons: They seemed to have a better life style, residents said they got a few hours of sleep every night on call. Yes you don't get the experience in trauma, but I don't want to do trauma so I don't really care. You get killed at Newark with all the trauma. So that was one factor. The other was the city. Newark is a dump and Philadelphia is a huge city with lots to do. I'm from Miami originally and like the big town life, and philly was a better fit for me than New Joisey.
But as for the program itself, MCP hahn was hurting for attendings last year. It's a risk, but they were rebuilding with new chairman (Norm Johanson) and the program is only going to get better with him there.
Hope this helps. let me know if you have other questions.
