How hard is it to get into california internal medicine programs?

In general, it is not difficult to get an Internal Medicine Residency in California; however, as with any residency, the top programs (UCSF, Stanford, and UCLA) are going to be pretty competitive.

 

Well....that would depend on which specialties you are comparing it to and which "other" institutions you are referring to. In general, I think that Stanford and UCSF's IM program attracts qualified students who are passionate about IM (or at least its subspecialties ) and who know that they will have a great shot at competitive fellowships in fields such as Cards and GI. I'm sure most of these individuals could've match into a spot in more competitive specialties.

 

UCSF's residency program in Fresno often doesn't fill its spots, and IM is one that (according to the grapvine, however reliable that is) often has room.

The problem attracting residents is not repution, but location. So clearly, there are places, it just depends on what you are lookig for.

 

Well......I was talking about the program in SF. We all know that the city of Fresno is not officially part of California.

 

i saw the stats for those who matched at UCSF and Stanford IM in the past 5 yrs - in a word - holys#it!!! Absolutely amazing #s.. don't let the large # of spots fool u, u gotta be f##%ing good to match there, meaning many honors, step 1 >235 (many had 250-260's), and coming from bigname med schools. It seems to me like u can still match if u are senior aoa from bigname schools (top 7-9% of class) but if u r coming from a low tier school u better be #1 or 2 in your class. Also u need to have outstanding #s to match if u are out-of-state applicant.

if staying in CA is important to u i recommend applying to other programs than ucla and stanford. There are still many excellent programs(community ones too) that will train you well and make u a good IM doc. Unless u r trying to become the chair of IM dept at UCSF I wouldn't get so gungho about matching at topdog programs. Good luck!!!

 

A note on CA licensure...

I only know this from 2nd hand (but reliable) experience. Even if the residency/hospital is BEGGING you to come to their program...any out of state grads are having a terrible time getting approval to be in the program from CA state. This includes not only out of state, but of course FMG's.

CA has one of the highest doctor to patient ratios, and is a cool place to live, so they can be standoffish. I'm at the Ben Gurion program in Israel, which is affiliated with Columbia U. We're still considered FMG's, but have a strong US connection and do our entire 4th year in the States. We had 2 students match to CA residencies last year. But they both almost ended up unemployed this year because they had so much trouble with the CA licensure deal.

Bottom line, hospital may love you, but CA won't. It also costs over $1000 to do all the extra paperwork, which is fairly confusing, I'm told. Some people hire lawyers who "promise" to get you through the red tape, but the cost ends up being another year of med school. The lawyer thing is basically just legal extortion, I'm told. If you pay the big bucks, you'll get in (provided you match somewhere).

Yuck. Hope I'm wrong.

 

while we're on the subject of CA residency, does anyone know how hard it is to get into an IM or FP program in sacramento, including davis? i know big name schools like UCSF, stanford are really competitive but how 'bout little old sac? my family's there and i really want to go back... any thoughts anyone?

 

i they go through the exact steps required to apply for calif licensure. they walk you through step by step , including getting fingerprints, taking step III, and sending your documents . it's really quite complicated, but seemed doable.
check it out, really helpful, no matter where in calif.

http://medicine.ucsf.edu/housestaff/Licensing/index.html

 

Cool. Remember that being a resident of CA isn't all that helpful. It's much more important to be a graduate of a CA med school.

This is all from what I've heard, however, so take it with a grain of salt. Of course, I am a CA resident (currently living overseas), so I heard it first-hand from people who would know, but still I haven't experienced the "CA gauntlet" myself.

 

Don't know about categorical spots, but finding it next to impossible to get a preliminary spot.