California Categorical IM questions

[socal4life]

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Hi guys:

I am a 3rd year medical student from a Top 10 medical school. I am a middle-tier student there and will have 1 research publication (not in internal medicine, but rads). I have no ties to California, but would love to do my residency in Internal Medicine in California. My eventual goal is to go into Gastroenterology/Hepatology (at least for now).

While I have read a few of the older posts on the atmospheres/hospital styles of several categorical IM programs in california, here are my questions with a few more specific wrinkles. Hopefully these answers help a lot of other folks out too.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

1.) As most everybody, it would obviously be awesome to get into UCSF, Stanford, or UCLA. Given that I do not have ties to California, what kind of board scores do these programs look for on average for their applicants? Should I do an away rotation?

2.) What is the fellowship placement potential (especially for competitive IM subsepcialities like GI, cards, A/I, heme/onc) of the next tier of university affiliated programs in California such as UCSD, USC, UCI? What kind of board scores do these programs look for on average for their applicants?

3.) There seems to be a lot of appeal on these boards for Cedars-Sinai and Scripss Mercy. Obviously these programs have amazing locations and good affiliations with UCLA and UCSD, respectively. They also seem to have opportunities to do research. What is the fellowship placement potential of these programs and are they better, on par, or below the fellowship placement potential of the 2nd tier of California categorical IM programs listed in question 2? Given their prime location, what kind of board scores do these programs look for on average for their applicants?

For those who can answer these questions, I look forward to your feedback. Thanks so much.

 

[socal4life]

bump

Happy Holidays!

 

[ucla2usc]

Hi guys:

I am a 3rd year medical student from a Top 10 medical school. I am a middle-tier student there and will have 1 research publication (not in internal medicine, but rads). I have no ties to California, but would love to do my residency in Internal Medicine in California. My eventual goal is to go into Gastroenterology/Hepatology (at least for now).

While I have read a few of the older posts on the atmospheres/hospital styles of several categorical IM programs in california, here are my questions with a few more specific wrinkles. Hopefully these answers help a lot of other folks out too.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

1.) As most everybody, it would obviously be awesome to get into UCSF, Stanford, or UCLA. Given that I do not have ties to California, what kind of board scores do these programs look for on average for their applicants? Should I do an away rotation?

2.) What is the fellowship placement potential (especially for competitive IM subsepcialities like GI, cards, A/I, heme/onc) of the next tier of university affiliated programs in California such as UCSD, USC, UCI? What kind of board scores do these programs look for on average for their applicants?

3.) There seems to be a lot of appeal on these boards for Cedars-Sinai and Scripss Mercy. Obviously these programs have amazing locations and good affiliations with UCLA and UCSD, respectively. They also seem to have opportunities to do research. What is the fellowship placement potential of these programs and are they better, on par, or below the fellowship placement potential of the 2nd tier of California categorical IM programs listed in question 2? Given their prime location, what kind of board scores do these programs look for on average for their applicants?

For those who can answer these questions, I look forward to your feedback. Thanks so much.

UCSF says they take only top 10% of applicants, whereas UCLA/Stanford its more like top 15%. Stanford is probably a bit more competitive than UCLA, but who knows for sure. Stanford may weigh quality of medical school more than the other two, so this may work in your advantage. This is an arbitrary opinion, and I'm basing this only on the fact that their roster is made up about 2/3 from top 10 schools, 1/3 from the next tier, whereas UCLA/UCSF seem to have a roster representing schools in all tiers. I was once told by an advisor that UCSF and MGH really like to take people who were near the top of their class regardless of where they went to school, where other top programs can be more selective about what medical school you go to. Interestly, both UCSF/MGH programs post rosters with lots of diversity as far as where their residents come from. Who knows for sure? This is all rumorville anyway. I would say UCSD is only a hair below the other 3 in competitiveness, but probably on par as far a training, and with great fellowship placement.

I bet you will land at least a couple of these big interviews because your school is top 10, and it seems people from top 10 schools are very very well represented at the big cali school interview groups. For sure you are at advantage for going to a top 10 school, where someone in middle of their class from 2nd tier would be rejected in initial screening processes.


Anyway, as far as Cedars...it's a great program with decent fellowship placement (8 in GI last year, nearly everyone gets Cards somewhere). USC/UCI are a big notch below as far as fellowship placement compared to Cedars. You may also want to look at Harbor and UC Davis, they have pretty good fellowship placement and great training. You should have no problem matching in one of these great programs, with Cedars/Harbor leading the bunch as far as reputation/fellowship placement.

 

[socal4life]

Thanks for your insight.