Strongest 2 programs in SoCal

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Leo Aquarius

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Curious to hear what people would say are the strongest two programs in Southern California in terms of being strong in both biological and therapy training. I've heard UCLA-NPI is probably the strongest, but then I've heard UCSD, UCLA-Harbor, and even UCLA-Olive View take that second spot. My personal feeling is that UCSD might have the edge, but it's debatable, hence this post.

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but to answer your question - UCSD has a variety of training sites, lots of research going on, rather broad based psychotherapy training (the PD is quite keen on residents learning psychotherapy), some interesting characters floating around (e.g. Akiskal)...

Harbor is great but I don't think it's for you.
 
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since when did olive view have a psychiatry residency program?!

UCLA-SFV i thought was also referred to as olive view, one or two people on the interview trail referred to it using those names interchangeably. oh well.
 
"Olive View" refers to several other UCLA residencies, which are based primarily at the Olive View hospital (Internal Medicine and EM both come to mind). The UCLA-SFV psych residency instead does a big bulk at the VA there.
 
The talk used to be that UCLA-NPI was #1, with UCSD #2 and Harbor probably #3. Irvine, SFV, USC I didn't know that well, and have their own pros/cons.
 
For SoCal, if you're looking for academic programs, UCLA-NPI >>> UCSD come to mind. If you're looking for community/county programs, UCLA-Harbor >>> USC. The rest of the programs there are all very solid, but would likely vie for a fairly distant third place.
 
UCLA and UCSD with absolutely no question. Harbor's a good program, but it's reputation is not better than UCLA/UCSD. I don't think SFV is anywhere in there, although I'm sure it's also a good program.
 
Some people I met on the interview trail loved UCLA-SFV and said they will rank it #1 of all the SoCal programs, other said Harbor-UCLA would be their #1 based on gut feel. I say above all else you gotta go with your gut in the end. Rank the places you liked best. If you felt the best connection with UCI, then go for it. Plenty of applicants would love to even land somewhere in California and good spots are limited. So trust yourself.
 
From an east coasters perspective, prior to really doing some thorough research into programs before sending out applications, UCSD wasn't even on my radar. All the UC programs blended together (with the exception of UCSF which I had heard many good things about). So in that sense, I would say UCLA-NPI has far and away the best reputation to those not 'in the know', particularly outside of the west coast region.
 
Some people I met on the interview trail loved UCLA-SFV and said they will rank it #1 of all the SoCal programs, other said Harbor-UCLA would be their #1 based on gut feel. I say above all else you gotta go with your gut in the end. Rank the places you liked best. If you felt the best connection with UCI, then go for it. Plenty of applicants would love to even land somewhere in California and good spots are limited. So trust yourself.

Keep in mind not everyone gets interviews at X program (NPI, for example), so feeling Harbor is their #1 could mean that they really love county work, or that they didn't interview at a better place.
 
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