Not sure if any of this dribble will be useful to you, but I am burned out of doing practice Q's for basic boards, so here is my two cents:
I interviewed everywhere in So Cal, currently a resident at UCLA, so that is my filter, but from my limited experience, I agree with all the stuff said earlier here. Seemed like a decent program when I was there, location is a downer for many (but as said above, it doesn't have to be. You could live in a house instead of a cardboard box). They are very proud of their role in proton therapy, showed it off during the tour, which was interesting because I didn't know that much about it. This was really a curiosity because as an anesthesiology resident, I doubt you would have any involvement with proton therapy, so whatever. Peds seemed particularly strong, one of my interviews was with the peds fellowship directior.
I was very interested in whether graduates were getting solid jobs in So Cal after graduation and multiple programs, including Loma Linda, dodged my questions for the most part. That was a big factor in why I ranked UCLA #1. I'll let you know how it turns out once I graduate in 2 more years, for all I know they sold me a song and a dance and I will be scrapping with some CRNA for cases to do in North Dakota (no offense to any North Dakotans stalking the board). We have a few people who trained and/or worked at Loma Linda at UCLA, including the infamous current ASA president, and overall they are as skilled and competent as the other attendings from what I have seen. Randomly, my cousin is married to a guy who did his dental anesthesia residency there and it set him up nicely, he has a lucrative private practice that he set up in Alaska and after a year up there, he his looking to hire more people. I have run into a few other people affiliated with Loma Linda and I mostly hear very good things. But I digress.
Bottom line, if you have interest, you should definitely check it out because although it wasn't my cup of tea, people seemed very happy there and different people will fit in different places for residency. You won't be able to make up your mind one way or another unless you go check it out for yourself.
@4th year student considering UCI vs. Loma Linda: I felt like both programs had a lot of good things to offer. The PD at UCI seemed very checked out when I interviewed, but there is someone new in that position now. And my interview with Dr. Kain was amazing. My wife is from Orange County, so there was a lot of pressure to rank UCI over Loma Linda. By the way, don't let ANYONE have too much influence in your rank list. Ultimately, it is your soul that is being sold and your family and other important people should be able to support your decision. My argument for Loma Linda is that since they are more isolated, you don't have to share good cases with the other hospitals around because your cachement area extends far into the interior of the state, versus being in the greater LA area where you have multiple competing health systems operating. Housing really is much cheaper, too. But the beach is a little far for my tastes. Loma Linda felt more established to me as a department, UCI felt like they were still kind of figuring out who they are as a department, could just totally be my personal impression. I think you could go to either one and come out well-trained, or at least so it seemed.
My point in sharing a lot of this is that beyond what you can look up about each of these places using websites and databases, you will go and interview and/or do rotations and decide for yourself. My impressions and judgments may be totally different than yours, but that is part of the fun of applying for residency. Take everything everyone says with a big grain of salt, whether it is me or some program director on the interview trail. Everyone has their own bias and agenda. Good luck!
