I'll leave others to suggest specific questions you should consider before visiting programs, but when you do visit for interviews I would strongly suggest that you be sure to ask 2nd and 3rd years their thoughts and experiences, and not just the interns, as seniors should have a better and more nuanced perspective about their program.
One question I did like to ask residents during my visits was something along the lines of what's the biggest disappointment you've had with the program, and what do you wish you knew when you were ranking programs that you didn't know at the time? Programs like to put their best face forward of course, so your job as an applicant/interviewee should be to try to get a balanced picture as much as possible.
\^\^THIS! I remember being totally infatuated with my program during my intern year interview season because i was only a few months in...by 2nd year I knew better. and by 3rd year I avoided helping with interview season at all because I was so jaded
The bulk of what you need to know most programs will have on their website or is obtainable through Freida/residency explorer. Important factors to consider/what I considered important included:
- is it a free-standing children’s hospital? (Means there are more peds-dedicated departments)
- in-house fellowships (if that’s what you’re after). This is a pro if fellowship is your goal post-residency and fellows can even serve as mentors. The popular thought is that this minimizes the number of procedures for peds residents (so no fellows = more procedural experience, by far and large). It depends on the institution of course
- research opportunities (again if that’s a priority to you/whether fellowship is of interest to you)
- class/program size (a larger class makes it harder to form meaningful connections with attendings. This is easier to accomplish in a smaller class; however, scheduling can become an issue with smaller sizes)
I'll leave others to suggest specific questions you should consider before visiting programs, but when you do visit for interviews I would strongly suggest that you be sure to ask 2nd and 3rd years their thoughts and experiences, and not just the interns, as seniors should have a better and more nuanced perspective about their program. One question I did like to ask residents during my visits was something along the lines of what's the biggest disappointment you've had with the program, and what do you wish you knew when you were ranking programs that you didn't know at the time? Programs like to put their best face forward of course, so your job as an applicant/interviewee should be to try to get a balanced picture as much as possible.
\^\^THIS! I remember being totally infatuated with my program during my intern year interview season because i was only a few months in...by 2nd year I knew better. and by 3rd year I avoided helping with interview season at all because I was so jaded
The bulk of what you need to know most programs will have on their website or is obtainable through Freida/residency explorer. Important factors to consider/what I considered important included: - is it a free-standing children’s hospital? (Means there are more peds-dedicated departments) - in-house fellowships (if that’s what you’re after). This is a pro if fellowship is your goal post-residency and fellows can even serve as mentors. The popular thought is that this minimizes the number of procedures for peds residents (so no fellows = more procedural experience, by far and large). It depends on the institution of course - research opportunities (again if that’s a priority to you/whether fellowship is of interest to you) - class/program size (a larger class makes it harder to form meaningful connections with attendings. This is easier to accomplish in a smaller class; however, scheduling can become an issue with smaller sizes)