Kramer,
As far as the residents go, they seemed to be very personable and helpful. However, working WITH them is not really an issue. This stems from the fact that the manner in which Mayo's curriculum is structured, there is ONE resident per ONE consultant (attending lingo in the suit and tie ortho world of Mayo) per 3mo. block. The program director assured us that with as many faculty on staff, combined with a large house staff that "bad" personality matches have been kept to a minimum. (Of note, the one exception to this 1:1, is on the trauma service b/c of volume that ratio doesn't operate well). My interpretation of this meant that one has very limited interaction with the other residents during normal day to day activities (exluding conferences etc...). The flip side of the coin means that a resident has the opportunity to work closely with some of the biggest names in pretty much every specialty without competition from residents/fellows. So I think it depends what kind of program an applicant desires. If a tightly knit team approach is what your looking for I'm not sure this is your program. The program has a very private practice feel, from the dress code all the way down to having to carry the pager for your consultant 24-7. The residents again stated that this is not as bad as it sounds as the PGY1/2's put their time in doing inhouse call, reserving "real" problems for the upper level on the particular service.
All in all, I thought the program was strong in almost every aspect (see weaknesses from my previous post). Rochester, MN is not for everyone though. I think nearly every resident is married/engaged (I didn't meet a single resident while I was visiting that I can recall). And I got a sneaking suspicion that Rochester transforms into a vast winter tundra since this city boasts a very, very intricate (read confusing) underground pedestrian subway for convenient (read warm) underground travel. I felt like a mouse in maze on more than one occassion attempting to navigate these labrynths.
For the program director rumors, I cannot really comment. I've heard from several rotators that your aforementioned comments were true. However, during my limited interaction with him he was very personable, and resident focused. You have to realize that many of the consultants did a portion of their training at this institution, I believe realize what a gem it is, and subsequently strive to make sure that the residents get the best experience possible-and they put in considerable effort and thought into selecting their interviewees. One faculty member openly stated that every interviewee that they have invited in the past (I forget how many years) has had no difficulty obtaining an ortho spot-usually being able to choose where they go. This (if true) attests to this institution's committment to carefully choosing their applicants. I've been rather surprised with the reactions I've received from faculty at other institutions when they ask where else I've already interviewed. Everyone is impressed with the Mayo name, and knows that's where some of the ortho big dogs hang their hats.
When it's all said and done, do I think residents could get a better breadth of training elsewhere-probably not. Do I think everyone would be happy here-probably not. So it comes down to being honest with yourself as to what kind of attributes you're searching for in a program. In any event, I hope this post helps, and congrats on the interview.
