Los Angeles has many Im programs: UCLA/Harbor/Cedars/USC/Olive View etc. How do you find out which places have the best fellowship placement? Also, if you go UCLA, are you vitually garanteed a fellowship spot of your choice? Some residents say yes, others say it doesn't really give an advantage over anyother IM program except at UCLA's own fellowships. I know at USC, where I go to med school, only 3 of 10 IM residents gained fellowship placement in GI last year, that sounds pretty awful to me, or is this the norm? Where can you find these kinds of statistics for the other programs?

LA does have a lot of IM programs. It's good that there are a lot of fellowship programs there as well.

UCLA definitely would be best overall program down there for GI/CARDS placement. Their own program spots are very academic and research oriented.

Truth is, UCLA only has 2 internal spots for GI. There's one spot at Harbor, one at Cedars, one at VA-UCLA, and one at Olive View. So your advantage at UCLA is not that much better than the other programs. The strong national reputation of UCLA though will help you get into a program somewhere.

Harbor UCLA has surprisingly good fellowship placement. It's a rigorous program. But their overall fellowship placement is outstanding and very comparable to UCLA.

Cedars can be a pretty competitive program, due to it's cushy reputation, great location, and nice surroundings. It has top notch private cards and gi departments. Whether this really helps the residents, I don't know.

VA-UCLA give you tons of time to do research and electives. I think this really helps the residents get some nice pubs and get into good academic fellowship programs, such as the Brigham for GI.

USC is a large large program. It has CARDS and GI fellowships that seem to favor its own residents. But it may be hard to distinguish yourself in a program of more than 60 interns per year. It is the only other true academic IM program in LA. But it's definitely not as competitive as some other programs, seen by the mixture of US grads and FMGs in the program.

UC-Irvine has a reputation of cushiness. It's academic reputation is not especially strong. It's fellowship programs favor it's own residents. But if you don't get one of those spots, it may be tough to get a spot anywhere else.

Good luck!

I emailed the program directors at various programsL UCLA, UCSD boast 100% placement rates mostly at top-notch academic programs. Harbor has only seen 3 or 4 people not match in the past 12 years, while sending a few dozen into both Cards and GI over these years, also at top-notch programs. USC, not so favorable, with vast majority of applicants not matching year after year, and those that do, stay at USC.

Anymore info would be greatly appreciated.

just a couple years ago, ucla only matched 2/5 of it's r2's into gi. this stat though is pretty misleading. lots of the residents at top programs like ucla will only apply to top programs, or to certain geographic areas. i'm sure all of those residents couple have matched somewhere in the u.s.

just a couple years ago, ucla only matched 2/5 of it's r2's into gi. this stat though is pretty misleading. lots of the residents at top programs like ucla will only apply to top programs, or to certain geographic areas. i'm sure all of those residents couple have matched somewhere in the u.s.

rumor has it that the ucla administration (which has since changed) at that time wasn't very supportive of its residents applying for fellowships, contributing to such a poor showing in the GI arena.

cedars has had no problems placing residents into GI and Cards. from what i've seen and heard, ucla, cedars, and harbor are probably the main programs in LA that are consistently able to do so.

just a couple years ago, ucla only matched 2/5 of it's r2's into gi. this stat though is pretty misleading. lots of the residents at top programs like ucla will only apply to top programs, or to certain geographic areas. i'm sure all of those residents couple have matched somewhere in the u.s.
The program director was speaking of the most recent class when he said 100% placement. He said 9/9 cards matching in 2005 yesterday.