Is California do-able?

[Shibbyboi182]

For strong family reasons, I really want to go back to California for residency. I know that typically it's typically much more difficult to go West across all specialties, but I'm wondering where I stand?


- 230 Step 1 (admittedly, I was averaging higher on practice tests and was fairly disappointed)
- Clinical Grades so far: 3 Honors (Neuro, surgery, psychiatry), 1 High Pass (Medicine) - eval's are pretty strong, especially the neuro one. Nothing negative in them (fingers crossed it stays that way through the year).
- President of my school's Neuro Interest group
- 2 posters, 1 5th author on a longitudinal study (hoping for a 2nd or 1st by the time apps go out, at least a case report)
- Various medschooly extracurricular's
- Not sure if this means anything, but 2 lower level degrees in basic and translational neuroscience (what set off my interest in scaling from neuroscience >> clinical neurology)


Game-plan by the time ERAS opens:
- Do as well as humanly possible on Step 2
- Start a new project. This has been incredibly difficult with the time strain already of 3rd year, but maybe something small?
- 2 neurologists on board for letters so far that know me and are full tenured professors



I'm not expecting UCSF/UCLA by any stretch of the imagination, but is California do-able? I want to go home man.

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[neurodoc]

Your background sounds fine and you should have no problem getting interviews.

 

[Postictal Raiden]

Given that you are a USMD, I expect that you'll get interviews from most CA neuro programs, including UCLA.

 

[NWwildcat2013]

For strong family reasons, I really want to go back to California for residency. I know that typically it's typically much more difficult to go West across all specialties, but I'm wondering where I stand?


- 230 Step 1 (admittedly, I was averaging higher on practice tests and was fairly disappointed)
- Clinical Grades so far: 3 Honors (Neuro, surgery, psychiatry), 1 High Pass (Medicine) - eval's are pretty strong, especially the neuro one. Nothing negative in them (fingers crossed it stays that way through the year).
- President of my school's Neuro Interest group
- 2 posters, 1 5th author on a longitudinal study (hoping for a 2nd or 1st by the time apps go out, at least a case report)
- Various medschooly extracurricular's
- Not sure if this means anything, but 2 lower level degrees in basic and translational neuroscience (what set off my interest in scaling from neuroscience >> clinical neurology)


Game-plan by the time ERAS opens:
- Do as well as humanly possible on Step 2
- Start a new project. This has been incredibly difficult with the time strain already of 3rd year, but maybe something small?
- 2 neurologists on board for letters so far that know me and are full tenured professors



I'm not expecting UCSF/UCLA by any stretch of the imagination, but is California do-able? I want to go home man.

California is a big state. Is it about being close to home or being within the boundaries of California?

If you are from SoCal but end up in NorCal or vice versa then you might as well also consider Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado, Oregon, Washington if it is about the proximity to home rather than living within the lines of California. Going home is going to be require a flight with your busy schedule and what is the functional difference between a 1 hour flight from LA-->SF when a 2 hour flight from SLC-->SF if just as reasonable?

If you value being in California just to be in California then my answer is: you will be fine. I bet your Step 1 will be below average for many CA programs and certainly for Stanford, UCLA, UCSF (as you realize). From what I have heard through the grapevine, I think you would be a good applicant at university programs like UCI and UC Davis. I don't know much about UCSD or USC but I don't think they are particularly competitive. I hope you aren't from NorCal. That area is just hard to break into.

 

[M4NOBMW]

To be in california won't be hard with what you have. SF/LA/Stanford will always be sought after. I will say, I do think people underestimate the non UCSf/la neuro programs- neuro in general feels like its been getting more competitive and the recent rosters for all those "less competitive programs" are pretty decent. Lots of people from socal really value staying there and many who went east want to come back so even places like USC and cedars are seriously considered by really good applicants. Having seen all of them, I think the training is fairly comparable- you wont turn out a bad neurologist at any of them imo