MGH vs UCSF

[maxxor]

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More comparison threads to try and keep things bustling in this forum 🙂

MGH:
Based at MGH with a few outpatient imaging centers here and there; mainly all at one campus with primarily academic, referral type of cases. BU has Boston City hospital (major trauma center) and MGH competes with 4 other radiology programs in the city of Boston.
Weaker pediatrics
IR is ok
Lots of Fellows
Extremely high case volume (750,000 cases quoted this season)
Overnight attending coverage on call.
Always on call ultrasound techs
Volume of call on the lower end
PD is older. Very formal. May change soon.
Boston

UCSF:
Lots of campuses (Moffit, Mt Zion, Mission Bay, SF VA, SFGH) with a variety of populations represented from all over the city. UCSF is the only game in town for the city of SF.
Pretty good pediatrics
No IR fellows at SF VA and SFGH. Residents claim this makes them have awesome residency IR training.
"Medium" amount of fellows
No idea on the level of volume at UCSF
No overnight attending coverage on call at SFVA and SFGH.
Just now starting to phase in 24 hour ultrasound techs. Resident still do a lot of scanning on call
Call on the higher end
Tremendous amount of in-house radiology resources for studying. The CORE website, Teaching File, and Resident's Corner look like huge tools to make your life easier
PD is young and new, and seems really invested in the residency.
SFBay

Research is presumably excellent for both. Salary is similar in both areas. According to Wolfram Alpha, SF has higher cost of living, but UCSF has subsidized housing, so I'm not sure how accurate the apartment rents are for the two cities. Boston seems too low and SF seems too high when comparing with current craigslist listings. See Wolfram. Thoughts?

I'm a person with medium ties to the south, but barely, and who knows if my family will stay there. It's not like I have family dating back to the civil war 🙂 . Not sure if academic or private practice focused.

 

[DirtyJustice]

UCSF doesn't subsidize housing if I remember correctly. They just give you an extra $10K or whatever.

 

[Puff-of-Snow Sign]

They have subsidized housing in Mission Bay. But they said something about it only being guaranteed for 2 years if you get it.

 

[deleted525628]

Do you think that residents doing ultrasound scanning is a good or bad thing?

 

[maxxor]

I'm mixed on it. I don't mind the idea of scanning during the day, but scanning during call sounds like it could get messy. Doing a scan is no quick thing, and if it takes 45+ minutes to scan and you aren't reading studies, the list could really back up.

 

[Shifty B]

Residents scanning is a bad thing. You only need to know enough to do procedures or troubleshoot when the tech has a problem, and throughout the rest of the career you are going to work with a technologist because your time is simply too valuable. In other words, you're gaining a skill which will be minimally useful when you're done. It would be better for you to spend that time learning more imaging. That being said, it's not a key factor in deciding between programs.

I think it is safe to just pick a coast a choose based on that. Me personally, I would choose UCSF.

 

[RadApp2014]

Any thoughts regarding cost of living in San Fran versus Boston? Still trying to figure out where to rank these two, and have a general preference for the West Coast, but $2700-3000 (and rising) 1-bedroom rents in San Fran seem like they would push my budget a bit too far. I know UCSF has subsidized housing near its Mission Bay campus, but there is a 2-year occupancy limit, and they do not guarantee that you will get a spot during your first year of residency. Conversely, a quick look on padmapper brings up multiple sub-$2000 1-bedroom apartments in Boston, even some in the Beacon Hill area (i.e. walkable commute).

For those who have studied/worked at UCSF: any chance UCSF will raise the housing stipend in response to SF's recent rent increases? Have they historically increased/decreased the stipend in response to price changes in the rental market?

 

[radiology2014]

Hi RadApp, There are a bunch of apartments with sub-2k rents if you expand your commute maybe 20 min south on the peninsula. e.g. South SF, San Bruno, etc.