Help with 2015 Rank List

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HotSince86

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Hello,

I would appreciate any advice here. I am married, planning on having kids in 2 years. All our family live in socal area. I would like my career to be in southern california. Looking at previous threads though, it seems like the best advice may be to go to a program in the desired region? But I do not know what I want to do exactly post-residency, so going to a program with the best balance would be more ideal, no? As it stands, my #1 choice hands down is Stanford. After that my rank list falls apart.

Tentatively I have... #2 USC only because it is in los angeles and supposedly they have solid alumni network. Overall they are a good training program but they didn't seem to have much else to offer besides your typical ACGME required training. There are no international exposures, no OR Scheduling/Board running opportunities, little research, etc. They dont have a big fellowship match list (if that matters). But with a family in mind, I know having family-support in raising kids is worth its weight in gold though.

Then I have the toss-up between UW, UofMichigan, Upenn. They are all top work-horse programs that seem to run the gamut of opportunities for a complete education and they really try to prepare the residents for the unknown future of anesthesia, whether it be encouraging residents to dive into legislative activities, gaining experience in OR scheduling, big research, etc. Is it safe to say that these three are equivocal and really just "fit" should be the determining factor?

Finally there are the big 4 NY programs. NYC programs are interesting because they all have their glaring positives and weaknesses. For this reason I am leaning towards ranking them below UW, UofMichigan, Upenn.

Ultimately, my question is should I rank USC #2? The residents at each program are happy and I know I'd probably feel the same, I just want to make sure I get back to overly competitive and saturated Socal in the easiest/safest route possible.
 
Since your main goal is practicing in SoCal , I'd go:
Stanford
Usc
Columbia-nyp
UW
....
Odd that you have Stanford on there but not the other major CA programs
 
No interviews from the UCs which was disappointing.
Any particular reason UW over Upenn or Umich?
 
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