Biggest surprise of the trail?

What programs have surprised you, good or bad?

Mine was Tennessee-Chattanooga. I went into this interview expecting good things (I've only hear people rave about this place as being an underrated up-and-coming program). The residents seemed disinterested in applicants not from TN, GA, or AL and those who didn't rotate. They didn't talk to the applicants in an attempt to get to know them better at either the social or the interview day. In fact, the applicants sat in one room waiting for interviews while most of the residents were in an adjacent room, talking amongst themselves.

I enjoyed my interview there and I was not a rotator or from those states you mentioned. Felt like the residents were proud of their program, and I felt like they were very sociable at both the social and the interview. Must be a matter of perspective.

Thought this thread was along the lines of 'what has surprised you the most so far', not what program has surprised you the most. So, the following is slightly off-topic, but I can say that I have been quite surprised by the homogeneity of the applicant pool.

Do you mean homogeneity in terms of how the applicants look or their stats or their interests?

^appearance.