Stanford vs UCSF

[Buttered Toast]

Best choice for clinical-focused medical student who is undecided on which specialty (I'm equally interested in pediatrics, oncology, and cardiothoracic surgery lol)? I would highly prefer to match back to Stanford- or UCSF-affliated hospitals in the future. Location and tuition are non-issues for me.

Stanford because it's easier to do research for competitive specialties or UCSF because of the excellent clinical training? Also, can someone comment on how laid-back/competitive the student body is & how students ultimately match? Thanks!

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[zedsdead]

I believe the helpful poster @mdeast has commented on this choice extensively. Try looking through his post history. This could be a good place to start.

 

[JessebenBenjamin]

Where are you leaning towards?

 

[bearintraining]

My gut feelings (and these may very well be wrong) is that UCSF is better if you want to excel in clinical+research; Stanford is better if you want to do something unique in medicine (or with your MD degree)

 

[sss1219]

I have multiple friends at UCSF and Stanford and every single one is happy. Stanford seems more flexible in pursuing side interests/taking time off, while UCSF has some crazy amazing clinical experiences with working with the underserved and diverse population in SF. I personally think location wise, SF wins, but the schools are very similar - it really will be about where you feel you will be happy among things like support system, money, etc. PM me if you have any specific questions about student body differences, Palo Alto vs. SF, etc.

 

[alamo4]

I think you're much more likely to graduate in 4 years and end up practicing medicine if you go to UCSF. As a side effect of Stanford encouraging other interests, a lot of people seem to be ending up doing other things, taking longer to graduate, etc. Someone told me that in the last round, more people were applying into medicine from UCSF than were entering the match at all from Stanford; I haven't checked these figures.

I don't think it is fair to say that UCSF has better clinical training/exposure than Stanford (remember for example that Stanford is the medical school for San Jose which is a larger city than SF). However, there are a lot of pressures/encouragements to do things other than medicine at Stanford, and that effects people and their decision making and their value system evolves being there.

I am biased, but I also tend to think that the fundamental basic science at Stanford is better, basically because a lot of innovation is now being driven by things coming out of the engineering school, and UCSF's engineering school is across the Bay.

You can match into a highly competitive speciality at either place, plenty of opportunities for research, etc. When thinking about matching to UCSF or Stanford, there are more differences between departments than between institutions.

Palo Alto is a sunny suburb full of tech startup people, SF is a foggy-chilly big city with a LOT of crime, but also lots of activities, unusual people, and things that are open late. Depends on your preferences in terms of lifestyle.