UCSF

[Radiologyreviews2015]

Aside from the insane cost of living, are there any reasons why people would not rank this program #1? Are the benefits from coming out of this program worth the financial sacrifice?

Currently sitting on $300k+ of student loans...

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[Radiologyreviews2015]

The other reason is MGH if you want east coast. UCSF is elite.

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

Yea those two esp for a research oriented career. But I agree SF is becoming craaaazy. Next would be maybe Penn, BWH, duke, NYU - if other specific locations are important to you + research.

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

I am leaning towards ranking Penn and NYU over Stanford and UCSF primarily due to cost and location factors. I am even ranking those two ahead of BWH. If the Bay Area wasn't crazy cost-wise, I would consider moving out West. Although I do think that Stanford and UCSF have slightly better pedigrees, and for research I felt Stanford was the best. Decisions decisions ... I wonder if it will be a mistake to rank Penn and NYU over UCSF and Stanford; hopefully I can make up my mind before the deadline. I need to figure out how residents survive in the Bay Area.

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

NYC is expensive too...

If you're going expensive, why not go elite. Plus maybe they're expensive for a reason. Like how Detroit is cheap for a reason.

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

NYU has subsidized housing, and I think NYC is a better city than SF or Palo Alto/Redwood City. You can find a studio or 1 bedrm apt for $1800-$2500 in NYC, not so in SF where studios and 1 bed apts run north of $2700-3000. Although I agree the differences in cost aren't that much. I am leaning towards an academic/research faculty position in the East Coast or Southwest/east, so it might better to stay east--just guessing.

 

[deleted564680]

Not everyone wants to be an academic. Plenty of people would consider other, less research-oriented places if they knew they wanted to do PP.

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

That doesn't mean highly academic places aren't good for pp...

 

[futureradres12345]

How does a residency at a slightly less prestigious place (but one that is much less expensive, such as Mayo, Penn, WashU), followed by fellowship at UCSF or MGH, compare with doing both residency and fellowship at one of these place? Is this a reasonable option for those concerned about the cost of living in SF or Boston for 5-6 years?

 

[gonogo]

No real difference between SF and NYC in regards to cost of living. So that shouldn't be the deciding factor when choosing UCSF or Stanford vs NYU. Philly definitely much cheaper than both SF and NYC.

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

If you don't want UCSF, there's a line of people waiting...

There is a lot of potential value for having that exclusive name on your CV...

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

The question is, what specifically can one gain from going to UCSF that can't be had from training at Stanford, NYU or Penn?

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

The real question is, if you get the opportunity to train at the best program, are you going to pass it up?

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

the "best" program

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

Someone else will happily take it if you don't want it. There's a reason why they only need to interview 70 people for 14 spots. Just saying...

 

[futureradres12345]

.

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

UCSF, penn, NYU, stanford... I'm sure many people would have loved to have the problem of deciding/picking between them, including myself

I'm sure you will pick the right choice based on your personal preference, you can't go wrong with any of them! good luck!

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

Aside from the insane cost of living, are there any reasons why people would not rank this program #1?

Possibly the commute. My SO likes Stanford more, which would give me, if I matched UCSF and SO at Stanford, probably a 40-110 minute commute to work depending on mode of transportation and site at UCSF. Is this legit or no

 

[GadRads]

I did like UCSF. Great program in a great city, although very expensive (like downtown Manhattan costs) and I can sympathize with the OP's cost-of-living concerns. I won't be unhappy if I were to match there, however. I don't need much material goods to be happy.

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

NYU has subsidized housing, and I think NYC is a better city than SF or Palo Alto/Redwood City. You can find a studio or 1 bedrm apt for $1800-$2500 in NYC, not so in SF where studios and 1 bed apts run north of $2700-3000. Although I agree the differences in cost aren't that much. I am leaning towards an academic/research faculty position in the East Coast or Southwest/east, so it might better to stay east--just guessing.

NYU does not have guaranteed subsidized housing. They have a limited quantity they offer.

SF and NYC are both awesome but very different places. If it boils down for location for you, don't pick on housing costs. 6 years from now they could be different.

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

Aside from the insane cost of living, are there any reasons why people would not rank this program #1? Are the benefits from coming out of this program worth the financial sacrifice?

Currently sitting on $300k+ of student loans...

That's a good amount of loans. I have $250+ myself and will likely be ranking UCSF in my top three. Would rank it higher but think I'd rather stay on the east coast close to family. Most of my other top choices are in expensive cities = Boston, NYC. It's probably not the easiest way to pay off loans but I do think there's an advantage to going to top programs. It sounds elitest, but I feel like I've worked to hard to compromise now solely based on cost of living.

 

[futureradres12345]

That's a good amount of loans. I have $250+ myself and will likely be ranking UCSF in my top three. Would rank it higher but think I'd rather stay on the east coast close to family. Most of my other top choices are in expensive cities = Boston, NYC. It's probably not the easiest way to pay off loans but I do think there's an advantage to going to top programs. It sounds elitest, but I feel like I've worked to hard to compromise now solely based on cost of living.

I get the sense that most residents are not paying off a significant portion of their loans during residency, but either maintaining or slowly chipping away at them. In the grand scheme of things, paying 1500/month in rent instead of 2500/month is not going to make a huge difference in how quickly you pay off 250-300k in loans. Go where you'll be happiest.

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

Possibly the commute. My SO likes Stanford more, which would give me, if I matched UCSF and SO at Stanford, probably a 40-110 minute commute to work depending on mode of transportation and site at UCSF. Is this legit or no

This commute is doable, but will be painful (I have friends who are doing this and after 1 year decided to just to have their own places, albiet they are both in surgical fields with crazy hours). The options are: have two places, live in SF (which gives your SO the horrible commute but you get to live in the city which is much more entertaining), live around Stanford (which gives you the horrible commute and you're living in suburbia, although it is much nicer weather), or live in between (still good weather but you'll both suffer commutes and you and your SO has to be okay with it). B/c radiology has great hours, it means you start and end during rush hour (excluding call days/nights). To get to most of the UCSF sites from Stanford area at 8am takes about 1.5 hours (more so for the less commonly rotated sites), so signing up for that would be miserable and a huge time suck.

In my opinion you'd realistically just have to live in between, leave at like 5:45-6am, get to whatever hospital you're at in 30ish minutes and go to the gym/study/sleep. You'll have to brave the traffic in the evening, b/c it doesn't die down until 7-8pm and that'd be a lot of time waiting around. So if you're okay with this, rank it highly. If not, you two will probably have to put that combination lower in your couples match (if you are couples matching).

Source: I did an away at UCSF and lived in Stanford area with family

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

This commute is doable, but will be painful (I have friends who are doing this and after 1 year decided to just to have their own places, albiet they are both in surgical fields with crazy hours). The options are: have two places, live in SF (which gives your SO the horrible commute but you get to live in the city which is much more entertaining), live around Stanford (which gives you the horrible commute and you're living in suburbia, although it is much nicer weather), or live in between (still good weather but you'll both suffer commutes and you and your SO has to be okay with it). B/c radiology has great hours, it means you start and end during rush hour (excluding call days/nights). To get to most of the UCSF sites from Stanford area at 8am takes about 1.5 hours (more so for the less commonly rotated sites), so signing up for that would be miserable and a huge time suck.

In my opinion you'd realistically just have to live in between, leave at like 5:45-6am, get to whatever hospital you're at in 30ish minutes and go to the gym/study/sleep. You'll have to brave the traffic in the evening, b/c it doesn't die down until 7-8pm and that'd be a lot of time waiting around. So if you're okay with this, rank it highly. If not, you two will probably have to put that combination lower in your couples match (if you are couples matching).

Source: I did an away at UCSF and lived in Stanford area with family

This is helpful.