California Psych Residencies Ranking?

[thrownaway]

Hey all, I am having trouble finding similar posts on SDN about these programs. Some posts were too old and programs have grown throughout the years. I have read their websites and been to their open houses but I would just like to know the insider's view. What do you guys think? (Strengths/weaknesses). I have seen the US news, Doximity, and NIH funding.

In no particular order
1. UCSD
2. UCLA Olive View (really strong training and fellowship connections to Harbor and NPI)
3. Harbor vs Olive view? I heard Harbor isn't as great as it used to be and Olive View is up and coming?
4. NPI ( I keep hearing its the best in LA, but why? Is just bc its research-heavy and has more training sites?)
5. UCSF
6. LAC-USC
7. UC Davis
8. Loma Linda
9. Kaiser Fontana vs Oakland vs San Jose?

UCI is a personal no, I don't want to go there.

Thank you guys for taking the time to read my post.

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[Shufflin]

1. UCLA-NPI = amazing specialty clinics, fantastic research
2. UCLA-Harbor = this is the real "get thrown into the trenches" where you learn to treat just about everything
3. UCSD = a bit of both what NPI and Harbor just not as high octane
4. UC Davis = fantastic clinical and research experiences, great attendings, can't go wrong here
5. UCSF = similar to Davis but with the hubris
6. Stanford = top notch psych research, need more work on breadth of clinical experiences
7. UCLA Olive View = decent clinical experiences but Mid-valley and VA top-heavy, lots of driving around
8. USC = decent clinical experiences, lots of driving around, large class size easy to get lost in the shuffle, with some good research opptys
9. Loma Linda = solid training, research is not as extensive as those above
10. UCI = good clinical experiences, so so research, without the reputation
11. San Mateo = decent clinical training but somewhat laid back
12. Kaiser San Jose & Fontana & Oakland = good attendings, but all encapsulated in the Kaiser world

 

[Lexanoob]

I interviewed at a lot of these programs and heard about what it might be like from current residents. This is all second hand, so you should reach out to residents yourself! I don't think these programs can be ranked because they all have different vibes, but more so grouped based on academic to community. Look at the community vs. academic thread for more info!

Academic/ research bent programs: want people to do research, look for future leaders in field
-UCLA-NPI: primarily works with private population, resident-driven program, with recent bent on social justice driven by residents, lots of research opportunities, residents seemed happy, seems to have a lot of resources for residents
-UCSF: three-hospital system -ish, early outpatient experience, good reviewed research track, seems to attract a lot of md-phd/ more quantitative types, residents work more than average and can be burnt out/ outside of research track seems like less resources available
-Stanford: primarily private population like ucla (which has bothered residents), lots of elective time due to limited clinical sites therefore increased autonomy in residency and happiest residents I saw; for some reason, less research-y than ucsf; seems to have a lot of resources for residents

Seems to not really know what they are but are academic-y by reputation:
-UCSD: biologically-leaning, seems consistently disorganized in interviewing applicants for the past 2-3 years so leaves a bad taste, residents here work a lot and seemed burnt out, but at least it's in SD, the disorganization of the interview somehow outshines any concrete thing I remember about the program

"Academic and community combined"
-UC Davis: literally what they said is above; super chill program that might be too chill (residents leave inpt unit by 12-2pm), home call; limited research opportunities but there are people that do it (compared to programs above) as medical campus is separate (and far) from undergrad campus
-UCI: PD moved from UCDavis & focused on integrated care; seems more community-ish although research opportunities available
-USC: seems more community, only work at one site which is a public site with many staff that are burnt out; while might sell research on interview day, residents have trouble getting research projects; culture has affected morale of residency (see news from 1-2 years ago about cardiology fellowship)

Primarily community:
-UCLA-Harbor: primarily at one site, public hospital therefore lots of class and interclass cohesion, A/PD seems dedicated, know of burnt out/unhappy residents in first year due to call schedule

Didn't interview and don't really know:
-Loma Linda: know someone that really wanted to go here because of it's religious affiliation
-UCLA Olive View: know someone that interviewed here and their resident interviewer conducted it in their fancy car that they paid for with moonlighting money
-San Mateo: apparently super chill as all "call" is actually moonlighting; knew of a resident that lived in SF and commuted to San Mateo
-Kaiser Oakland: don't know much, but 2 year old program
-Kaiser Fontana: no clue
-Kaiser San Jose: also a 2 year old program, don't know much but for some reasons someone in their first first-year class left the program and during the 2nd year class, they couldn't fill their match list (which seems like a red flag to me)
-UCR: all the people that I met that ended up here wanted to be a psychiatrist in the inland empire

 

[clozareal]

Here is my opinion.

The top programs in CA:

1. UCSF: three practice settings - veterans, county-patient population, and private. In each one of those settings, residents get experience in inpatient, outpatient, and PES. strong and early psychotherapy training. lots of great specialty clinics. faculty are great teachers. extremely high volume and tons of call extending into the 4th year. lots of strong fellowship opportunities including forensics, addiction, and public psychiatry. weakness includes too much call leading to burnout, less competitive child psych fellowship, limited time for research, lots of attrition from their research track.
2. UCLA-NPI: the king of outpatient psychiatry specialty clinics. lots of great faculty. residents are from competitive medical schools. high volume, lots of upfront call allowing you to see lots of patients but no call 4th year. great psychotherapy training and affiliated private practice faculty teaching residents. one of the best CAP fellowships. Much more time for research than UCSF. Also much more options for electives than UCSF or Stanford. Big class that's even bigger with contribution from UCLA-Olive view and UCLA-Harbor. weakness is lack of inpatient/emergency county patients, need to have pagers on 24/7, really busy call shifts (including covering CAP patients overnight in the ED and inpatient units).
3. Stanford: recently entered into this top tier of training. VA and private settings just like UCLA. Tremendous amounts of time and money for research as well as quick and ready access to being able to pretty much join any research lab at Stanford, the best out of these three programs. Amazing benefits with great salary and health insurance, but less vacation and probably the worst parental leave out of the programs in CA. Great neuroscience curriculum. More recently they increased the number of hours in training (didactics, clinical, access to psychotherapy-oriented faculty) for psychotherapy than UCSF/UCLA have. Weakness includes a similar lack of county experience although with some community clinics like UCLA. Great teaching faculty and lots of specialty clinics.

The next tier:

1. UC Davis - Really strong program with great clinical training in county (inpatient and outpaitent), VA, private, and jail settings. Faculty seem great. They also have really strong fellowships, including forensics (strong civil experience, probably one of the strongest in the country) and CAP, particularly in autism and juvenile justice. Cost of living is also significantly lower in Sacramento. Weaknesses include limited research and limited outpatient specialty clinics that you see at the above programs.
2. UCSD - Training mainly at two different sites: county and VA. High, high volume with really sick patients and lots of call which provides amazing clinical experience but many of the residents that I've spoken with from this program are burnt out. You don't get as much as the privately insured patient population as the programs in my top tier list which is a weakness. Psychotherapy is also a weakness as UCSD tends to be much more biologically/psychopharmacologically focused. Research is also limited as they don't have much dedicated time or as readily accessible faculty for this.
3. UCLA-Harbor - all in one building/area, strong county experience, get to do outpatient electives at UCLA-NPI in the latter half of your training. Faculty are amazing teachers. Loved the structure of having inpatient in the morning and outpatient in the afternoon, with being able to take your patients from the inpatient setting to outpatient setting and vice versa. One of the best and only places for DBT for a county patient population. Access to research is through UCLA-NPI which is great because you are in fact considered a UCLA resident with all the access to privileges related to that.

Good programs:

1. UCLA Olive View - Mostly VA experience, get to do electives at UCLA-NPI in the latter half of training. Get to work where they film Grey's Anatomy (the Sepulveda VA is the setting for Seattle Grace hospital).
2. LAC-USC - Strong county program, great med-psych unit. Definitely more community-based rather than being academically strong (limited time for research, limited specialty clinics).
3. Loma Linda - I've known several residents who got their training here who were excellent psychiarists. Lots of volume. Access to county clinics in San Bernardino. Cheap cost of living compared to other CA programs. good psychotherapy training. can start moonlighting in PGY-1. other programs don't have as much as spiritual focus as thing program which in my opinion is a strength of this program. weakness includes lack of research and having to live in the inland empire.

Unknown because too new:

1. Kaiser Oakland - faculty here are pretty strong. all community-based though and patients must have kaiser insurance. will not see medi-caid patient population. poor psychotherapy training as they don't want psychiatrists doing it. even the LMFT/LCSW/PsyD/PhD therapists can only see patients once a month. pretty much no access to fellowships or research and most of the psychiatry faculty are new.
2. Kaiser San Jose - the faculty at both oakland and san jose seem really strong although most of them are new to kaiser. the residents do come from competitive schools it seems like. this speaks more to the importance of location since there are limited residencies in this area.
3. Kaiser Fontana - i don't know anything about this program.

 

[psychacad]

1. UCSD - Training mainly at two different sites: county and VA. High, high volume with really sick patients and lots of call which provides amazing clinical experience but many of the residents that I've spoken with from this program are burnt out. You don't get as much as the privately insured patient population as the programs in my top tier list which is a weakness. Psychotherapy is also a weakness as UCSD tends to be much more biologically/psychopharmacologically focused. Research is also limited as they don't have much dedicated time or as readily accessible faculty for this.

That seems a bit strange. UCSD is regularly in the top 10 in terms of psychiatry NIH funding, as well as having a world class neuroscience department. They have very strong psychosis and genomics research groups among others, VA research funding with MIRECC fellowships, dedicated T32 research fellowships (which are pretty competitive to get for institutions), as well as an R25 NIH funded residency research track...etc. Research seems one of their strong points.