UCLA vs Stanford

[MJ is KING]

At this stage in the game this is purely speculation and driven by curiosity. I have interviewed at both schools, however, and am interested to hear which school others would choose, given the choice? Lets assume finances will turn out to be about equal (Stanford has amazing fin aid) and that the person deciding is interested in landing a prestigious residency but is unsure of future career plans. If possible, lets also neutralize location because people have their own biases for Nor Cal or So Cal, I want to hear about the schools (curriculum, clinical training, research, students, facilities etc. comparison).

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[talbo]

from my friends currently at stanford med, the curriculum is very research based and they even encourage you to take a year off to conduct research

from my friends at ucla, they have about 20 -25 hours of pbl + lec + lab with lec being only 2 hours per day which is really nice, stanford on the other hand is like an 8 hour day but one of the days is off, not sure which, i think wed

stanford would be great if u wanted to do academia medicine n really like research as it is very research oriented, ucla has a lot of opportunities i hear but curriculum is not so much research oriented

 

[shemarty]

from my friends currently at stanford med, the curriculum is very research based and they even encourage you to take a year off to conduct research

from my friends at ucla, they have about 20 -25 hours of pbl + lec + lab with lec being only 2 hours per day which is really nice, stanford on the other hand is like an 8 hour day but one of the days is off, not sure which, i think wed

stanford would be great if u wanted to do academia medicine n really like research as it is very research oriented, ucla has a lot of opportunities i hear but curriculum is not so much research oriented

Stanford is lecture in the morning (webcast, so you don't have to attend) and then anatomy/Practice of Medicine in the afternoon. Anatomy is 2 afternoons a week in Fall and 1 afternoon a week in Winter (head and neck), I think. POM is 2 afternoons a week for the first two years, I think.

The afternoon classes are mandatory. There's no more Anatomy during the 2nd year, so from the calendar, it looks like there are 2 more afternoons free, but I'm sure the students are actually doing something productive during this time, I'm just not sure how it works. Someone correct me if you have more info on this. There is no class on Wednesdays, but that means a lot of the electives are offered on Wednesdays.

Yes, about half the students take a 5th year to do research. But this isn't required. I feel like it's really your choice whether you choose to take that year or not. Stanford has great opportunities, it's what you make of it.

I don't know as much about UCLA.

 

[pntgrd]

I was in a similar predicament, deciding between UCLA, Stanford, and Mayo. I chose UCLA, but Stanford was really good too. It just seemed to unbalanced in terms of basic research v. clinical research and medicine compared to UCLA, which is perfectly rounded and located.
I think in terms of prestige for residency, they are prob equal. For clinical training though, I think UCLA wins hands down. Better and brand new university hospital (#3 in nation), better mix of clerkship sites, ect. Both are p/f.

The two biggest differences are on the weights placed on research v. clinical medicine and location. If you are dead set on a career in basic sci. research I'd go with Stanford. If you think you could go either way at this point I'd go with UCLA.