fellowship match

[niener]

Good luck!!

[labmouse]

Dear samssugarmomma,

While i know this is a little pre-mature and would not affect our ranking at all, i have a little question for you. DH and I are chinese and from my internet reading of opinions regarding living in cincinnati, quite a few people has mentioned that cincinnati can be a little racist and lack of diversity. A particular instance is a chinese american girl mentioned that she got rude stares and comment about her being an asian and should not be in cincinnati and some has even asked her to go back to her home country (but of course she is american, so her home is here). While we will still continue to rank cinci as our 1st choice, i would like to know how true is her situation and would like to be prepared if we got our top pick.

thanks.

[oceanchild]

Did he interview here in Colorado? My DH hates neo, so I don't know much about that program, but I know this is a strong pulm town.

Good luck! Your match day is my 30th birthday, haha.

[labmouse]

Oceanchild,

Yes, he interviewed at colorado too. Basically, he applied to the top-ranking lung research programs and that includes: cincinnati, miami, northwestern at chicago, colorado, jackson-memorial at miami, UAB and a handful of others. Colorado is among his top 5 picks. We (namely I) have obviously done our homework and research about the best programs in pulm biology in the US =)

*back to chanting cinci cinci cinci to increase the chances of getting our top pick* I am THAT obsessed...

[samssugarmomma]

Labmouse -
That's awful! I feel bad for that person that was told to return to their country. We are an all white family so I know that sometimes we (I - an overwhelmed mom) don't always see prejudice when we aren't the ones experiencing it. I would strongly disagree though! I would estimate that Cinci is around 50 % african american and almost all of the races are present.

We have the University of Cinci that draws students from all over the world. My daughter goes to a small school that is near UC and in her school alone, there are between 12 - 15 different countries represented - and it is a SMALL school (one class per grade K - 8). I used to work at CCHMC and I can personally say that not only do they draw patients from all over the world, but they draw employees from all over the world. I feel like sometimes companies talk about how diverse they are and they have nothing to back it up with. CCHMC truly is diverse! They really make an effort to honor the traditions, culture of other countries - for patients and for staff (though I'm not sure how far they go for residents/fellows). Any anti-diverse attitudes, gestures, jokes are not tolerated.

I also see a lot of of diversity at the place where my kids take swimming and gymnastics lessons. I don't know a lot of the families there, but I can tell you that there are people of every color there. This place is set in a middle class suburb of Cincinnati.

My parents also live in a middle class suburb of Cinci and they have neighbors from the middle East, Asia, and that are African American.

Our neighborhood (about 15 min from the hospital) is probably split between whites and minority (mostly african american though there are other minorities represented). Our neighbors adopted children from China and I know that there is a strong Chinese community here - though I don't know where. I could get you information from them if you want. There area also several large Asian markets so I know that there have to be people that shop there.

Once you get tot he point of looking for places to live, I'd recommend the area around UC (clifton), Hyde Park (a lot of residents/fellows live there) and College Hill (another area where several residents/fellows/and attendings live). I recommend these because a lot of students and residents/fellows live there so they'd be my first thoughts on areas that are diverse. I'm sure that there are others when you factor in working professionals - I was just factoring in students.

[labmouse]

samssugarmomma,

i am so grateful for your reply. Thank you for the information you provided. I will update this thread when we get our match results in october. During his interview, DH found that the staff and fellows in cinci hospital is really diverse, friendly, humble and very hardworking. He met a couple of japanese, chinese, african american, white, indian and middle east people. I also did some online searching of asian markets in cinci as we usually shop and buy fresh asian vegetables from ethnic stores and found approximately 5 mid-size to large asian markets within 20 miles of the hospital. Maybe the comment i read online was for a certain part of cincinnati or perhaps it was only her bad experience. I really hope that we do beat the odds and eventually get our top pick. For us, the program and their research interests was more important than living a large city or a vibrant city with mixed culture (think austin, nashville, chicago etc). We love cinci because it is affordable, mid-sized and do not have heavy traffic issues during rush hours.

thanks again.

[samssugarmomma]

No problem labmouse. Good luck to you guys! I remember waiting for the EM match and it felt like forever!