Quality of N. California IM Residencies?

[porkerpieporker]

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Hello,

Does anyone out there have any knowledge of the Bay Area IM residency programs' quality? Obviously Stanford and UCSF are great.
But what about Cal Pacific, the 3 Kaiser Programs, St. Mary's, Alameda, and Santa Clara Valley Med Center? And where does UC Davis rank?

If anyone has any experience with any of these programs, I'd appreciate the info.

I am not sure how hard it is to match there being in the bottom 1/3 of the class at a top 20 med school (as ranked by U.S. News--they ranked the IM dept at my school in top 10). I only got nat'l avg on step 1. What are my chances?

Thanks!

 

[Magree]

Hi:

Your correct - UCSF and Stanford are great - I think Davis has a fair rep as well. Highland, I have been told has a good reputation but is considered to be "trench medicine" so to speak. I'm not as familiar with the Kaisers but I was warned against CA Pacific. I'm not familiar with Fresno either. A lot depends upon whether you want to do general, primary care IM or if you want to specialize. If you want to get into a good subspecialty fellowship then you need to aim for the better university programs and I believe they are hard to get into. HOpe this helps.

Cheers,

M

 

[porkerpieporker]

Thanks a lot, Magree!

What have you heard against Cal Pacific? The website made it look pretty attractive. Any word on Santa Clara Valley? I heard it's tough because it's where a lot of Stanford folks go.


The reason I wanted Bay Area programs is because I'd like to end up there, and I figure that it's much easier to do that if you do residency there rather than doing a residency elsewhere and trying to find a job afterwards. I haven't decided whether to subspecialize. I doubt I could get one in Bay Area anyway.

 

[Acro Yali]

Sorry to hijack this thread but I have a similar question. What do people think about IM at Oregon Health Sciences, UVA, U of Wash, Wake Forest, and Chicago university programs. Its a handful I know. Any info (competitivness, program reputation, program "friendliness"...) would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Pinky]

Chicago

U of C - Best reputation. Rotate primarily at University hospital.

Northwestern - Good reputation. NU is q5. Rotate primarily at University and VA. Fellowship machine - They get their people into really good fellowships.

UIC, Loyola, Rush - Average university programs with average repuations. UIC is q6. UIC and Loyola rotate primarily at a university hospital and a VA. Rush rotates at a university hospital and the county hospital.

 

[Magree]

Hi:

I wasn't given specifics about Cal Pacific - however it and St. Mary's didn't fill last year. I would try to contact some of the residents from each to see how they did with getting fellowships and/or jobs. Santa Clara does have a reputation of being difficult because of its proximity to Stanford. Fresno also didn't fill but its associated with UCSF - you may want to check out its residents as well. As for being "set" for a job probably doing a residency at Kaiser would put you in good stead with them for the future. Hope this helps.

Cheers,

M-

 

[studentdoc04]

I was told by an internist that California Pacific is a good program but the downside is that it is tertiary-care oriented. This doctor told me it is great if you want to go into transplant medicine or academics, but you will get very little general medicine training at Cal Pacific. This internist went to St. Mary's and he felt like he was well trained, residents are allowed to do outside rotations at SF General, Highland, and even across the Bay at Stanford.

If you are interested in Stanford programs, I have heard that Kaiser-Santa Clara is a teaching facility for Stanford Med. The internist also told me that all the Kaiser programs are good, and Highland is good as well.


Edgar

 

[tedsadoc2002]

Someone mentioned Fresno in their posts (not knowing how the program is). I did a rotation there earlier on, their program is on probation. They just got a new program director and they are really trying hard to improve it. There is definitely a wide variety of patients and pathologies, the physical plant itself is old and could probably use a bit of renovation, and they are also trying things (I think, don't quote me on it, like night floats and PA's) to decrease the resident's work load. Just a bit of info if you are interested. 🙂