Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
Generally the faculty are pretty friendly and like to teach the residents and students. Some of them are a bit ornery but hey, it's NYC. Dr. Levine, the program director, is a great guy and a real advocate for the residents.
Didactics / Teaching
Excellent across the board- good weekly specialty conferences and a very good weekly fracture conference where students can present if they want.
Operating Experience
The one area where I thought Columbia was lacking (and unfortunately one of the more important factors for me). The volume just did not seem to be enough for many of the residents to get a great operative experience. There were times when I was the 5th person scrubbed in on a primary TKA. Still, the chiefs seemed to be pretty comfortable in the OR so maybe I was just on a service that didn't allow the residents to do as much.
Clinic Experience
It's clinic.
Research Opportunities
Outstanding across all specialties. If you want to do research (and even if you don't) I would imagine you would have several publications by the time you finished up residency.
Residents
Great group, very down to earth. Liked them all without exception.
Lifestyle
Nothing stands out here in terms of day-to-day life. I don't think the residents were particularly overworked (partially b/c the volume never seemed to be that great)but there were definitely days when we didn't get out of the OR til late. Overall, I would say it was average.
Location / Housing
NYC is awesome. Washington Heights, not so much. Most of the residents seemed to live in the upper west side, which is a pretty decent area.
Limitations
The only problem I personally saw with the program (and what kept it from being in my top 3 programs) is the lack of in-depth experience on trauma at Tampa General Hospital. This is a top trauma fellowship, but the USF residents are kind of lost in the crowd as residents from several other programs are rotating at TGH also. I think if USF were to expand their experience at TGH and take more call, it would GREATLY improve the residency, in my opinion.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
I enjoyed my rotation here, but thought it had the lightest operative experience of the 3 programs at which I rotated. Still, it's a big name in a big city and I'm sure you'd be well trained when you finished.
