Baylor Rumors

I'll try to set the record straight....

Alright, with interviews coming up, I got on old orthogate to see what the word is about my program (I'm a resident a Baylor). And again false rumors are flying.

First and foremost, I'm being 100% honest with everything I say. I have no intention to trick anyone to end up at Baylor if you don't want to be here. Frankly, I wouldnt want to work with you if your unhappy and complaining.

1) WE ARE NOT ON PROBATION. That was almost 5 years ago when we got a new chairman. We were accredited for the max time period at that site visit (5yrs). So we have another site visit coming up in 2011. NOT ON PROBATION

2) Malignancy - I'm not exactly sure what people are referring to or what that even means. In my mind a malignant program is one which attendings rude, yell, excessively pimp, and residents beat on eachother. That's not us. If Malignancy means work hard, then yes we are malignant. You will push your 80 hrs here, as does every ortho residency. If you take 2 calls in a week thats 60 hours. However, even at Ben taub, which is your busiest rotation. We all get 2 golden weekends a month(you dont come in, no rounding, nothing). Your pretty much Q4 or Q3 at ben taub. On all other rotations, you are part of the general call pool which is about Q7-Q8.

3) Operating - YOU WILL OPERATE, YOU WILL OPERATE ALOT. Cases are not scheduled at night, thats ridiculous. Ben Taub is one of two level I trauma centers in all of Houston (4 million people). So trauma comes in at night and it gets done. We dont schedule elective at night. But yes we operate 24/7 at Ben Taub, so if your on call, you will operate. I actually like operating so this is a plus to me. And if its a bread and butter case you will do the case, with help if you need it.

4)Residents - We actually like eachother, hang out, get drunk, play golf, party, make fools of ourselves.

Alright thats it. I know your all stressin, but seriously just go everywhere with a open mind and pick where you fit in. Take a look during your interviews and ask yourself would I hang out with most these people. Alot of places I thought I really wanted to go. The answer was no.
Make your own judgements, don't listen to rumors, or atleast make sure they are true. (There is a list of prgrams on probation on the net. This shouldnt be an issue)

GOOD LUCK!! I remember the match and I'm not jealous of you guys/gals.

What about the program not having any money and getting taken over by rice? Could you comment on that one please?

That's a great question!!!

Baylor as a whole does have financial issues right now, as does almost every academic institution in the nation (I think Harvard has lost almost half their endowment, of course they had like 100 billion). The difference is we do not have a state funded school or other undergraduate program to bear some of the financial burden. So that's where the merger with Rice comes in. Baylor and Rice have been in talks for a long time, and it would be a huge benefits to both if we merged (Rice has around a 4 billion $$ endowement). We will be no means be "taken over" in ortho. They want a med school, and have lots of research people that we could work with. There has already been a long standing collaborative relationship between Rice engineering and biomechanics department and Baylor ortho.

So yes the college as a whole needs money. But does this really affect your orthopedic training. I don't think so. It is really an administrative issue and I have not seen any changes. The main possible $$ issue I would be worried about if I was applying, is research. With that being said, Baylor has received the largest amount of NIH funding for any medical institution in Texas (including UTSW or MD Anderson) again in 2010. Our ortho department has huge grants especially through department of defense, and we have more research opportunities than I know what to do with. If you have an idea, it will get funded. If you want to jump onto research that is already going, that's easy too. I'm my opinion we are definitely the most research oriented and academic program in Texas.

Hope this helps, and if you have any other question, feel free to ask.

Thanks for the reply.

Could you comment on the rumors about multiple residents being let go recently?

With interviews two days away, I decided to check orthogate as well only to find this thread...

I am a resident at Baylor as well and will be finishing this year. I also do not want anyone matching at Baylor who would be unhappy and thus unproductive here.

That's what it boiled down to with those two residents who left as interns last year. They were not "let go" or "isolated" or "weeded out" in any manner. Frankly, they decided to leave of their own accord and it came as a surprise to everyone.

Both interns who left went into Anesthesia residency. I'm no psychologist/psychiatrist but I would think that if they were unhappy with our program but still had a desire to be an orthopedist, they would try switching using another forum on orthogate.

The truth is, they had decided that orthopedics as a discipline was not for them. Just to add to baylorortho's statement above, you do operate a lot and you do work hard here and these two decided that it was just not for them. I am glad they figured it out that early in their career but of course regret that two other people did not match that year because of them.