As a current UCSF student, I feel I must reply to the people who labeled the Prologue of the new curriculum a "disaster." This is utter nonsense, as all of my classmates did very well on the exams and learned the material. The Prologue block centered around an emergency room resucitation of a patient who was in a motor vehicle accident. We followed the case from the patient's admission to discharge. The Prologue incorporated basic sciences such as anatomy, histology, cell biology, biochemistry, and pharmacology. Basically, the building blocks for the rest of the curriculum. Although it was at times stressful, I ultimately enjoyed the Prologue. This fall, I'm sure some changes will be made to decompress it a little. Another misconception was that during the Prologue we had done
all of anatomy. THIS ISN'T TRUE!! We haven't done neuroanatomy yet (that's in Brain, Mind & Behavior block) and we have had additional anatomy labs at the beginning of each block so far to go over the specific organ systems in detail (i.e. heart, airway/lungs, kidneys, etc). Remember also that this is only 6 weeks of the essential core curriculum which spans two years. The Organs block (Cardio, Pulmonary, Renal) and Clinical Interlude were amazing in the high degree of integration between basic and clinical sciences. So I would suggest that anyone who has questions about the new curriculum feel free to ask about it, rather than simply go on the opinions of those who have heard about it second or third-hand.
By the way, there IS a graduate school here, so there are many basic science courses available that one can take outside of the medical curriculum. I have taken a class on neurodevelopment, for example. Others have taken biochem, biophysics, neuroscience, etc. If you are interested in classes outside of the health sciences, then you could always take some classes at Berkeley, which is just across the bay.
Another thing: you do NOT have to spend most of 3rd or 4th year in Fresno. There is a special program available for those who wish to do so, but this is in no way mandatory. On average, students end up doing about one or two rotations in Fresno. This is obviously highly dependent on the locations you select to do your rotations (you do get to rank your choices between Moffit, SFGH, the VA, Fresno, etc).
The academics, clinical experience, and research are all better at UCSF compared to UCLA. (I went to UCLA for undergrad). Of course, I would say that unless you are going into academia or biotech, this should be of minor importance. What's more significant are other factors such as location, proximity to family or friends, quality and happiness of the students, etc. I think both SF and LA have unique things to offer as cities. They are quite different places and favorites always depend on one's personal preferences. I'd say that if you are fortunate to be deciding between the two, go to both revisit weekends and ask the students, faculty, administration a lot of questions. Ultimately, you will have to find the place you fit best. Good luck to all applying and hope to see you this fall!
