Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
Chairman is a great surgeon and in general a great person - he seems genuinely interested in everyone who comes through. Program director also and he cares about the resident education a lot, really wants to offer everything possible to make the residency the best it can be.
Didactics / Teaching
Nothing formal daily, but review conferences weekly on Wednesdays. Attendings are a mixed bag as far as how much teaching they do, but some are very good teachers in the OR.
Operating Experience
They get a lot of volume and are in the OR a ton when they're seniors. The 2's do hold the pager a lot though and don't really see that much OR time except on their operative months. But once they get into the OR, they do a ton of cases and they seem to come out pretty well-trained. They have a joint replacement center at the university hospital and they seem to get a very solid joints experience at that hospital. Great trauma exposure.
Clinic Experience
Clinic is resident-run. The seniors really know how to run it and it usually seems to go pretty efficiently.
Research Opportunities
There are some residents who publish a bunch there, but for the most part they seem to be too busy to put much together on their own, and there are only so many taylor-made projects to go around.
Residents
They're a tight-knit group, despite being very diverse. Some great personalities, most of them are a lot of fun to hang out with.
Lifestyle
The residents work hard there, no question about it. If you're concerned about lifestyle, though, apply for another specialty.
Location / Housing
It's in the Bronx, but not the "bad Bronx" i.e. you are not in mortal danger walking down the street. It's relatively safe around there. This is not NYC though. That said, it is very close to NYC, and for some people that is even better than the city itself. As far as how much time you will have to enjoy that, probably not much until you're a senior resident, though that's true of most places.
Limitations
I heard from one of the students who goes to med school here that they might go up to 8 residents per year. It seems like that would make the program very well-balanced as far as manpower... though with the interns starting to do 6 months of ortho that could also improve, putting more PGY2's in the OR.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
Overall I was impressed with the experience here. I thought it could use a bit more academics, maybe more formal didactic sessions. But I rotated because I didn't know too much about it, wasn't sure what to make of it, but guys from my med school ended up there and said they were happy. All in all, I'm glad I did this rotation.
