Bay Area residencies

[Sophie]

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I'm a third year, planning to go into psychiatry, and would really like to match at one of the Bay Area programs. My family lives near there, I've lived in and love the area, and my fiance told me he doesn't want to live anywhere else. (pressure! ) I'm hoping someone can comment on the relative competitiveness of the programs (UCSF, Stanford, San Mateo, California Pacific MC), and give me any tips on how to increase my chances.

 

[cleareyedguy]

You should look at UC Davis--it's an hour or two from San Francisco, but it's in a very livable city (Sacramento) and has a very organized, thoughtful administration.

 

[meelu]

You are still pretty early on in the process but of course I don't blame you for thinking about it. Looks like you have a good start- the honors in psych def. helps.
If would probably help if you kept up this performance on your clinical rotations and did away rotations 4th year at a few of the places you are looking at...
In terms of competitiveness, it really depends- I went to USC as well and ended up at San Mateo- currently at Stanford for fellowship. Another classmate in my year ended up at San Mateo too, and we had 1 person end up at Stanford as well.
I'd be happy to answer any specific question you have via email- if you want to PM me I can send you my contact info.

 

[Sophie]

Thanks for the replies!

UC Davis is definitely high on my list - I went there for undergrad and like the area. The only big drawback is that my fiance wants to do a postbac (he's career-switching into medicine) at UC Berkeley, so he'd either have to give that up, or we'd have to live apart (close, so we could visit often, but still not ideal).

meelu: PM sent 😀

 

[Wednesday]

Sophie, This is off topic, but has your husband looked into doing post-bac at Berkeley? I wouldn't suggest it from the info I got from doing biochem there during the summer. Has he looked into Mills? It's a great program!

 

[notdeadyet]

Sophie, This is off topic, but has your husband looked into doing post-bac at Berkeley? I wouldn't suggest it from the info I got from doing biochem there during the summer. Has he looked into Mills? It's a great program!

I'd strongly second this. The feedback in the Bay Area about the Berkeley program is pretty negative. I think they get a lot of applicants based on the name-value recognition for students, but the experiences I've heard have not been good.

If the decision is made and deposits sent, it's a moot point, but if your fiance has the chance, I'd recommend he read over the post-bac section on SDN and ask around.

I went to the Mills program and couldn't recommend it highly enough. Very small class size, lots of personal attention from faculty (read: great LORs), perfect scheduling of courses, and the best acceptance rates I'd seen for UC med schools (six of my class of 50 or so ended up at UCSF).

The only down side is the price tag, but I think it's typical for a year at a private university. If money is a big issue, I'd look at the SFSU progam.

 

[Sophie]

Thanks for bringing that up - I'll let him know. His main reason for wanting to do it there is that he went to Cal for undergrad and the 2 science classes he took sort of kicked his ass (he wasn't terribly motivated back then 😛). That's been bugging him ever since, and he feels like he won't be able to really get over it unless he can go back there and do well. So I'll definitely push him to read the SDN postbac forum, and will direct him to this thread, too, but if he still feels doing it at Cal is necessary for closure reasons I'll just let him be.

 

[notdeadyet]

His main reason for wanting to do it there is that he went to Cal for undergrad and the 2 science classes he took sort of kicked his ass (he wasn't terribly motivated back then 😛). That's been bugging him ever since, and he feels like he won't be able to really get over it unless he can go back there and do well. So I'll definitely push him to read the SDN postbac forum, and will direct him to this thread, too, but if he still feels doing it at Cal is necessary for closure reasons I'll just let him be.

Tell him his first medical school acceptance will be all the closure he'll ever need.

Best of luck to him. Exciting times...