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"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."

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