Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals Individual Response

What is your in-state status?:

In state

On what date did the interview take place?:

2/1/2009

How do you rank this residency among ALL other residencies?:

7 out of 10

How do you rank this residency among other residencies to which you've applied?:

7 out of 10

What is your ranking of this program's facilities?:

8 out of 10

What is your ranking of this program's location?:

6 out of 10

What is your ranking of this area's cultural life?:

7 out of 10

What was the stress level of the interview?:

6 out of 10

How do you think you did?:

8 out of 10

How did the interview impress you?:

Positively

How long was the interview?:

20 minutes

How many people interviewed you?:

4

What was the style of the interview?:

One-on-one

What impressed you positively?:

*Pretty big program with 20+ residents in each class, and they also keep several spots open to fill outside the match each year, so there are quite a few residents who have done partial residencies or even had careers in other fields of medicine prior to coming here. <br>*You rotate through ORs at Froedtert Hospital, Children's Hospital of WI, and the VA, and can do elective heart months at a couple of local private hospitals, and you also spend time in the SICU and the MICU at Froedtert. <br>*Lectures are on Wednesday mornings and Friday morning is M&M type conferences and journal club meetings. The didactics have recently been revamped into a class-specific lecture series (general concepts for CA-1s, subspecialty topics for CA-2s, and PBL-style discussions for CA-3s). <br>*Relatively few CRNAs. No problem getting any numbers for types of cases, although it can be tight for on-pump hearts. Plenty of trauma and TONS of peds experience (6 months) here on very challenging cases. Tons of OB (volume and high-risk) at the local private "baby factory" hospital. (OB call schedule is sweet. Three teams of two residents, you are on 24-hr call Q3 with your teammate, and you alternate 1st and 2nd call with them. Post-call day off, and if you were 1st call, you get the post-post-call day off, too! Post-post-call day for 2nd call resident is spent in a short day at Froedtert.) The program has made regional a strong suit since they started the Regional Anesthesia/Acute Pain Service a few years ago, and have some great regional attendings from Duke and Wake. From what I can tell it seems moderate for adult heart and lung transplants, but there are plenty of livers, lots of big vascular cases that will keep you busy, lots of neuro. <br>*Call schedule at the main OR is 1st through 5th call. 1st-3rd are in-house overnight, 4th & 5th are late call. 2-3 overnight calls per month, probably 1 late call per week. Attendings running the board are usually pretty good about getting you out early when you need to be. Rumor has it that they are toying with the idea of changing call system...possibly to a night-float, or to CRNA-based call on weeknights and resident based on weekends. Could be interesting... <br>*Call at the VA is home call (rarely called in) unless there is an intern on call in the anesthesia-run SICU, then you stay overnight so someone in-house has airway experience. <br>*Internal moonlighting available for weekend OB shifts at Froedtert's Birth Center. <br>*Milwaukee is a nice medium-sized midwestern city with no traffic issues and plenty to do around the area. Great place to raise kids. Good mix of single and married residents at this program. Report as inappropriate

What impressed you negatively?:

You will work hard here, but as a result you come out ready to hit the ground running after residency. <br>Rocky transition in July means lots of call for CA-2s and 3s for the first couple months each year. Report as inappropriate

How was your interview day? Please summarize.:

Program pays for hotel, dinner the night before with residents (Cheesecake Factory, McCormick & Schmicks, etc). Bagels & OJ provided at interview day. Quick presentations by the chair and then the program director, then 4 interviews. Fairly laid-back interviews, although each interviewer will have 1 or 2 canned "behavioral questions" that are difficult to answer. (i.e., tell me about a time when you had to work with somebody difficult). Tour ends the day. Report as inappropriate