Vermont's Surg Path Director is exceptional (A South African guy, I heard him speak at Harvard some years ago), although I couldnt recommend the program. Definitely malignancy is in the eye of beholder, and we are talking about surg path here b/c almost no one can make CP malignant (although WashU tries)
My top 5 malignant programs:
1.) WashU-L. Dehner can be explosively temperamental and thats an understatement. I fear that man.
2.) MGH-Legendary for 16 hour days, but that has come to end, in the 1990s this would be #1 far and away above the rest, but the place has changed alot. More PAs etc.
3.) Stanford-Massive volume, lots of junior people running around making your life difficult, used to be far worse, wouldve been #2 about 5 years ago but theyve hired more PAs
4.) BWH-high volume and sky high expectations for research, I wouldnt even apply without at least 3 publications to my name these days
5.) Hopkins-last of five because overall JHU path is no where the intensity of their other residencies, the volume is high but services are well organized with lots of exceptional staff to show cases to.
Top 5 Party Residencies:
1.) UCSF-The surg path director buys beer for the residents every Friday and gets plastered occasionally with them, need I say more?
2.) UCLA-Good looking residents, reasonable work load and a life filled with partying amongst the stars, personally Im sick of all the "I saw Cameron Diaz at the Viper Room" crap
3.) Miami-Also party central, reasonable work hours and has the tradition of attracting those residents who organized all the parties in your med school class
4.) UCSD- low volume, very reasonable hours and life at the beach, overall nice, any program which features sailing and surfing in their recruitment material rather than stuff actually pertaining to PATHOLOGY makes the list
5.) NYC programs (NYU/Cornell/Columbia)- have to throw these guys on the list somewhere, I know the workload for residents (not counting Sloan) is reasonable, NYC is well NYC.
Overall I would attend the malignant programs before the party ones (and I did) because in the end I want a job and you have a better credential from a grinder program than other types (I grew up fairly poor and am quite sick of having to worry about money). I think if you are independantly wealthy, have a spouse who is an ibanker or simply dont care, then I would go to the party programs.
Most underrated programs:
1.) WashU
2.) Cleveland Clinc
3.) Virginia
4.) Emory
5.) BID-Harvard
Most overrated programs:
1.) Mayo
2.) Yale
3.) UW
4.) UT
5.) Baylor
Great All Around Surg Pathologists (non fellowships) to Work With
1.) Goldblum -Cleveland Clinic
2.) Wick/Mills -UVA
3.) Epstein- JHU
4.) Kempson- Stanford
5.) Weiss- Emory
