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What is your in-state status?:
Out of state
On what date did the interview take place?:
12/08/2010
How do you rank this residency among ALL other residencies?:
9 out of 10
How do you rank this residency among other residencies to which you've applied?:
9 out of 10
What is your ranking of this program's facilities?:
10 out of 10
What is your ranking of this program's location?:
10 out of 10
What is your ranking of this area's cultural life?:
10 out of 10
What was the stress level of the interview?:
6 out of 10
How do you think you did?:
9 out of 10
How did the interview impress you?:
Positively
How long was the interview?:
15 minutes
How many people interviewed you?:
2
What was the style of the interview?:
One-on-one
What impressed you positively?:
PROS --Superb clinical training. Top heavy program where you work more hours as you go along. Start around 50-55 hours during CA-1 and hit 65-70 hours during CA-3. --1st year is at LA County where they take anyone and everyone. Like most county hospitals, amazing pathology because of the diversity and patients don't present till they're about to crump. CA-1 schedule looked unreal with residents off 3-4 weekends every month! I'm still not sure how this works but they said it's because of night float/weekend call. --CA-2 year is spread across various hospitals but pretty standard. 2 months ICU at Cancer Center with Dr. Thanga. It's an anesthesia run ICU. 2 months Cardiothoracic, 2 months Pain, 1 month Neuro in med center. 1 month OB at LA county, 1 month at Cedars Sinai. 2 months Pediatrics at CHLA. Apparently, CHLA, the #1 pediatric hospital on the west coast, is a USC hospital. I always thought it was UCLA. --all CA-3s REQUIRED to do 2 months of Advanced Cardiothoracic electives at University Hospital, 1 month Heart/Lung Transplant and 1 month Advanced Peds. CA-3 options/requirements - Vascular, Oncology OR, Regional, Pain, Research. They say optional but all the residents' schedules had a smattering of each so not sure how much flexibility there is. --Resident caliber extremely strong. Based on SDN, I went in expecting a land of FMGs and had yet another WTF moment. Multiple residents from UCLA, UTSW, Georgetown, Oregon, Miami, various Cali, NY schools, and half the residents were from USC. --Residents were very friendly and looked happy to be there. Maybe it's all that California sun. Openly talked about how much free time they had, none of that "it's just 3 years" or "residency is supposed to be hard" bull****. --Department is in great flux, good or bad I don't know. They got rid of a bunch of faculty and have hired 17 new attendings in the last year - they only have like 60-70 total. Most of them are fresh out of fellowship or former private practice guys who want a change of pace. Residents were very happy about this change. --1200 Cardiothoracic cases/year and only 1 fellow. Stanford had like 1900 but 3 fellows. Residents probably get used as cheap labor but sweet deal in sharpening your clinical acumen. --Surprisingly, one of the few places that has everything. Amazing trauma and transplant experience. All kinds of transplants, hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys. "Trauma, trauma, trauma" per one resident. So many top places are amazing at 2 or 3 things but have glaring defecits elsewhere. Besides critical care and maybe regional, can't think of anything here that is missing. --Per the Chair, they place more regional nerve blocks for ortho procedures and post-op pain relief than any other program in SoCal. --Very new, aesthetically pleasing hospitals. Probably 2nd best I've seen after Northwestern. Location not bad at all, 5 minutes from where the Lakers and Dodgers play. --USC as an institution seems to be on a stratospheric trajectory towards prominence. The undergrad recently topped UCLA in rankings and the medical center has apparently been stealing faculty left and right from places like MGH, Hopkins, Stanford, UCLA per the Dean's letters sent to USC med students. Report as inappropriate
What impressed you negatively?:
CONS --Poorly run interview day, they need to just start over. Their itinerary definitely runs on Desi Standard Time. --Minimal research. They're very open about supporting you and giving you time off but it seems like you would have to do most of the leg work. --It's a hell of a lot cheaper since when I was an undergrad in LA a few years ago, but compared to the rest of the country, you definitely pay a price to live in sunny SoCal. --No internal moonlighting - there were whispers of OSH moonlighting though. --SRNA program. I didn't have the balls to call anyone out because I actually liked it here and didn't want them to judge me. Chair did seem pretty strong though. He was former Vice Chair at Duke, former Chair at some NY school, tons of accolades. Report as inappropriate
How was your interview day? Please summarize.:
Final Impression - Not an elite program but an awesome program nonetheless. Definitely in my top 5. Report as inappropriate
What was your primary mode of travel?:
Airplane
What was your total time spent traveling?:
4-6 hours
What airport did you use?:
LAX
Where did you stay?:
What is the name of the hotel you stayed in?:
How would you rate the hotel?:
5 out of 10
About how much did you spend on room, food, and travel?:
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