Matching Diagnostic Radiology in California

[LLCoolK]

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[entrepreneurMD]

How likely is it for me to match DR in southern CA? Trying to go back for family reasons (fiancée & family there). Attending low-tier school. Step 1: 255+. Current 3rd year grades: 2H 1HP, 2 more blocks to go. 1 1st-author paper + multiple presentations in non-radiology-related field. Is more research necessary to match radiology nowadays?

Nope you’ll be fine. Plenty of programs of all tiers there. From harbor to UCLA/USC. If matching is your only goal, you’ll be good

 

[masaraksh]

Nope you’ll be fine. Plenty of programs of all tiers there. From harbor to UCLA/USC. If matching is your only goal, you’ll be good

Is harbor a lower tier residency?

 

[Naijaba]

Is harbor a lower tier residency?

I would not call any California DR residency lower-tier in terms of matching; even the community programs fill with graduates of top-25 medical schools. Along these lines, a program's matching competitiveness can be approximated based upon the medical schools of its residents. For example, UCLA's residents are almost all from top-25 schools, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center's residents are almost-all top-25, and UCLA-Harbor's residents are almost-all top-25 (with a few top-50 schools). For the latter, see: Residents - Page 5 of 5 - Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. In contrast, mid-West, deep South, and isolated New England community programs have a large complement of graduates of the top 50-100 medical schools as well as Caribbean graduates. I don't include osteopathic or foreign medical graduates in my thought process because some programs simply don't consider DO or foreign graduates, despite their qualifications.

With that said, matching competitiveness should not be a primary concern. Having gone through this process, the only two things that you should care about are:
1. Will the program set you up to obtain a fellowship in the region you want to live and work long-term?
2. Could you stand living there (i.e. not quit) for the 4 years of training?

The answer to the first question is found by looking at where past residents matched for fellowship; look at the link above for UCLA-Harbor. If you want to do Body or Breast imaging in Southern California, then UCLA-Harbor works well, but if you want to do IR in Southern California, not so much (only 1/5 residents who applied to IR matched to IR fellowship in California)! Obviously, if you don't want to work in Southern California...probably you shouldn't go to UCLA-Harbor.

The second question is somewhat mute since you could live on the beach while going to UCLA-Harbor, but it's an important consideration when thinking about going to a top-tier place in an undesirable location.

 

[qwerty89]

UCLA-Harbor's residents are almost-all top-25 (with a few top-50 schools).

Not that this matters but this is incorrect.

Their most recent class is 0/6 from top 25 schools.

and the class of 2020, (graduated med school in 2015) only matched 4/6 in the match.

 

[entrepreneurMD]

Is harbor a lower tier residency?

I would consider it a lower tier radiology program. There are far superior radiology programs out there but it is moderately difficult to get into because its in SoCal but the education is not nearly as par as other institution. Judging a competitiveness of a program based on the US medical school the residents come from is wrong. A person from Columbia medical school may have sucked at step or had tremendous regional bias against him to get cali interviews. On the flip side, a person from no name US MD school may have killed it and hence matched west coast institution. Also the presence of FMGs does not necessarily mean the program is not competitive. MGH, Penn and MIR have all taken FMG but I bet you any amount of money, their CV is a million times better than us.

 

[Naijaba]

Not that this matters but this is incorrect.

Their most recent class is 0/6 from top 25 schools.

and the class of 2020, (graduated med school in 2015) only matched 4/6 in the match.

Ah, you're right. I guess the downturn coincided with the downturn in rads...but it's picking back up again, so who knows.