Thanks Kachan0 for your response! I've heard CHLA is the busiest in SoCal so the interns get worked but I think many would agree that comes with a strong program. CHLA and UCLA have many fellows vs CHOC which only has a handful at most so there are perks to the learning experience for CHOC residents.
I'm curious what others think of UCLA vs CHLA since they are in the same city?
Hoping to get some thoughts on programs as well before I certify my rank list. I’ve included my take after finishing interview season a few weeks ago (take with a grain of salt). I interviewed mostly in California and a select few places outside. I’d love to hear what other people thought!
Northern California programs:
-UCSF: Get to live in SF (amazing city), great reputation and exposure to wide range of peds. The multiple career tracks you can choose from is great, letting you tailor your learning to what you plan on going into. Great research if that’s your thing. Brand new children’s hospital! Program maybe has slightly more intense feel, but otherwise not really any real negatives.
-Stanford: Equally great reputation like UCSF. Has a little bit of a reputation as more of a quaternary/tertiary place, with more zebra, less bread and butter (although they do rotate at county hospital in Santa Clara). Getting new hospital/expansion you probably would see in your 2nd year. Great IV day and very warm welcoming feel here from program leadership and residents. Also have somewhat nicer warmer weather in the peninsula than SF. Palo Alto is mostly suburban, but is a great place to live, nice downtown area, lots of young professionals in area.
-Children’s Oakland: Interviewed here, people are nice but was turned off after hearing bad comments from friends and few residents during IV. Seems like hospital is very underfunded, which plays out both in care of your disadvantaged patients and in living in the expensive area as they get paid ~10k less than other programs in the Bay. see
or just google CIR CHO for more details. While I doubt anyone is starving, having to worry about finances & housing costs is not something I want to deal with. If you have to pay off student loans or have a family to support on solo income I’d worry about coming here. Training is supposed to be okay. PD seemed apathetic. Area around the hospital does not seem the safest.
Southern California programs:
-CHLA: Interviewed here and thought it'd be top in LA.. until I finished other interviews in the area. In Southern California CHLA and UCLA are definitely tops. CHLA has everything you’d need in peds hospital, and has great reputation. However one consistent thing I heard from residents as well as from a few med students from USC on the trail in SoCal was that it’s a very intense program with very high volume. Residents seemed overworked While I don’t mind working hard, & I think its good to a point, hearing this over and over was a minor red flag in my mind to this otherwise good program. Hospital location was not the greatest.
-UCLA: Similar quaternary/tertiary program like CHLA/UCSF/Stanford with great reputation. I left with a great feeling after my interview day. Residents seemed very happy (way more than CHLA), and the hospital location is amazing and tops for the LA programs. Getting to live in Westside of LA would be fun. Won out the SoCal battle vs CHLA for me because of these reasons.
-CHOC/UCI: Got a good feel from this program too, both from program leadership and residents. It’s a few steps below above programs in reputation, somewhat more community feel, but it seems like they turn out good pediatricians. Not sure how I feel about this suburban location.
Didn’t interview elsewhere, but regarding the other programs I’d imagine UCSD >= to CHOC/UCI, but with better locale. Id love to end up in San Diego, but unfortunately not in the cards for me... I assume Davis, Loma Linda have at least as good training as say CHOC but lose out on some ppl over their location. Harbor UCLA & Kaiser LA probably not as good training but get more competitive applicants due to location.
I thought I’d like UCSF clearly over Stanford, but am torn between the two at the top of my California rank list. I’m curious to what other people’s impressions are? After those I’m thinking UCLA, then CHLA and CHOC/UCI. What'd other people think between CHLA and UCLA?
