Harbor UCLA Transitional Year

[Reaganite]

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Although I am not going into ophthalmology, all the juicy info on transitional years is posted here, so I figured this would be the appropriate place to ask a question about this. I just got an interview offer for Harbor-UCLA. At first I was excited, but then I realized I had just submitted my app 2 days ago. So either: a. I'm that good 🙂 or b. they are interviewing everyone!

So which is it? Are you all interviewing there in droves?

 

[rubensan]

as i recall, the interview at harbor-ucla is optional, meaning they rank based on #s, board scores and LORs. this might have changed since i applied two years ago.

good luck!

Although I am not going into ophthalmology, all the juicy info on transitional years is posted here, so I figured this would be the appropriate place to ask a question about this. I just got an interview offer for Harbor-UCLA. At first I was excited, but then I realized I had just submitted my app 2 days ago. So either: a. I'm that good 🙂 or b. they are interviewing everyone!

So which is it? Are you all interviewing there in droves?

 

[ronk]

i went to harbor for my transitional year a couple yrs ago. i did interview, but it may be unnecessary (although most of my classmates did go for an interview). they do interview a fair number of applicants, but i believe they are now taking around 25 ppl each year, so they need a good number of people to look at.

i had a blast there and recommend it to anyone who wants to learn by doing and will enjoy living in so cal. everyone knows it's not the most cush program, but i thought the people and the experience was well worth it. would do it again every time.

g/l.

 

[indytx]

ronk, what kind of area is Harbor-UCLA in? can't help but notice it's right next to long beach and compton...but i don't know anything about torrance itself. where do most residents live? thanks!

 

[ronk]

torrance is a typical so cal suburb, meaning lots of strip malls and fast food joints all over the place. it's actually a pretty convenient place to be. most of the residents, however, lived in either redondo beach, hermosa beach, and some in manhattan beach. these are 20, 25 and 30 minutes or so, respectively.
the patients there are primarily indigent, being a LA county hospital. it is also level 1 trauma, so you see some gunshots and stabbings, esp if you are on the trauma service.
although long beach gets a bad rap from snoop, it's overall an ok place to be, go out, eat, etc. like i said, i had a great time and i think everyone in my class did as well.
g/l

 

[Reaganite]

everyone knows it's not the most cush program, but i thought the people and the experience was well worth it. would do it again every time.g/l.

Strange you say this...I had always heard it was one of the cushy programs??? It's listed under "cush transitional years" on this very forum. What am I missing?

 

[ronk]

well, i'm no expert on transitional years, since i only really know about the one i went to, but...

i have heard from other people who went to programs without overnight call, several months of electives where they can go abroad and do really easy rotations. other places have the best ancillary staff, so you don't spend any time doing scut work. some will offer things like access to local golf courses, etc.

but at harbor, these things don't exist. except for ER (where you can have overnight shifts), outpatient clinic, and whatever elective you choose (radiology is always popular), the other services all have overnight call. medicine is q5, surgery is variable between q3 (not too common) to q5 or if you're lucky, q8.
there is only one true elective where you can do anything you want. the rest are selectives (although there are some pretty decent ones to choose from).
and there is lots of scut. there are no fax machines. people in the county system are variable. some will help you out a lot. i would say most are not keen on going out of their way for interns. i didn't truly appreciate this until getting to my residency where the ancillary staff here is pretty great.

n.b. none of this is to say that the internship is bad or hard or anything like that. just there are places that are MUCH easier, and if that's what you want, then pursue that. but the location + people + experience was awesome.

g/l