Same here. From what I remember, it wasn't to bad. All I know is that residents were happy!
first post! sorry to burst your bubble drvannostran, but here are some of my honest opinions about UCI (lets just say i know the place well). adagio, glad you like the place.
1. yes dr rucker tries to convince you that ppl stay at uci for fellowship because its in a sweet location. i dont think thats entirely true. uci is not a great program, and i'd argue that its a weakness for any program to match a lot of ppl into their own (except for the great programs of course)--and no its not because residents love uci and its location so much that they want to stay. uci is not really in that great of a location. its in the city of orange which is a very boring city, and is about a 25 min drive from all the great locations (long beach, seal beach, huntington beach, newport). because the city of orange is so boring (unless you really like the angels or disneyland), most ppl drive that 25+ min to get to work. VA is in long beach though, and you do spend a good amnt of time there.
2. their residents are NOT all happy. i would argue that a lot of their residents are not happy. they feel overworked while on wards. they routinely go over 80 hrs a week. they HAVE NOT been able to solve the new scheduling that comes with the work hour restrictions (im sure uci is not alone here). that being said, they only have 6 months of inpatient wards a year in comparison to the prelims there that have 9.
3. as for fellowships--> they do take 2 out of 4 of their own i believe in both cards and GI. i dont know what their exact percentages for matching are but i would guess its around 70%. and i would say that a slight majority, maybe 60%? go on to specialize.
4. didactics are hit or miss. morning report at the VA>>UCI. same with noon conference. this is mostly because a certain ID doctor at the VA likes to teach and makes a lot of the didactics more interesting and worthwhile. morning report at UCI is pretty dry and lasts ~20-30min, and has served well as a time to check my email on my phone and shake the cobwebs out of my head for most of the times ive been. grand rounds arent bad though. attendings, as always, are hit or miss (most of the ICU attendings at UCI are spot on in terms of teaching)
5. and did you get a tour of the new hospital at UCI on your interview? beautiful right? well, you spend almost all of your time during inpatient (except for ICU and CCU) in the OLD hospital, which i hear many of the applicants did not tour through for "convenient" reasons. sure you may have walked through the ER in the basement of the old hospital, but the ER has been recently renovated and looks nothing like the ward floors in the old hospital. honestly, this shady tour business on interview day really doesnt sit well with me (and again, im sure uci is not alone here)
all that being said, i truly believe UCI is a solid program. i honestly dont know why it gets a bad rap amongst cali programs but i think it has to do with some really bad controversies/problems the hospital ran into many years back. someone mentioned that kaiser LA was as good as or better than UCI in terms of reputation and fellowship match opportunities, which should be complete BS, but...it might be true. compared to USC, id say its slightly lower on every level, but not by much. also, i think its getting much more competitive to get into UCI, starting with two years ago (i think i can tell by the quality of residents and what med schools they came from)--i think its a good reflection of UCIs improving reputation (along with the fact that every year now seems to have a record number of IM applicants...). how's that for a first post??
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