Hello, I'm applying for path (28 programs actually) all over the country but my ideal location is southern California for no reason other than the fact that my family lives there. Does anyone know any dirt on path programs in socal? Which ones are the best/worst and what kind of scores/achievements do I need to get into the best ones? Thanks!
I didnt apply to a single SoCal Path program for residency but some of their fellowships are solid.
Where in socal? The place is bigger and more populous than most states.
On the west side, you got Cedars and UCLA. Lots of people write off Cedars (similar to Mt. Sinai in NYC I would imagine...of course Im gonna some hate for that..), but being there can secure you a potentially interesting fellowship slot, especially if they get that GI fellowship off the ground. And they have probably some of the best job connections in SoCal IMO. See everyone thinks UCLA owns West LA, nope, not even close. I have been at the UCLA ER at 3am on a Saturday and seen people screaming, crying to be taken to Cedars instead...and I would as well, trust me.
That said UCLA has the best range of fellowships overall, including Binder's derm program. And if you are single, Westwood is a target rich environment like no other.
All the places in LA pretty much have the bread and butter: Surg path, heme and cytopath fellowships. I would say in terms of Surg path, UCSD is my fav (lots of reason, Wiedner is a badass, its Kaiser afflitate which is the biggest employer in the area, lots of cyto exposure) but then you have these real diamond-n-rough type deals like a surg path year at UCLA Olive view that almost no one knows about but would allow you to really spread your wings before going out to private prac.
You got real outliers like Loma Linda, out there on the fringe but honestly they have some of the best faculty in Socal and even all of California. Loma Linda runs the Osler course now too so I bet they have near 100% board pass rates.
Then you got USC...rough neighborhood, well really rough. (There is a strip club around the corner that had some religious people protesting outside and some local vatos drove up and gunned em down) But has some real interesting people and some very serious entrepreneurs (they founded things like IMPATH etc.).