0
Any thoughts on UCSD program?
UC San Diego Med Ctr-CA
UCSDSan Diego, CA
← All programs192 posts
- NRMP
- 1049080A0
- ACGME
- 0800521018
Applicant sentiment — from 131 anonymous posts, 2017–2027
4.5 / 10
What anonymous posters said
Several posts describe UCSD as strongly research-focused, with some commenters saying clinical training and faculty warmth take a back seat to research output. A number of posts mention a perceived preference for applicants from highly ranked or Ivy League institutions. Multiple posts highlight San Diego's location as a major draw, while some note the program is highly competitive to get an interview and question its diversity of clinical offerings.
AI-generated summary of opinions expressed in anonymous, unverified posts. It describes what posters wrote, not verified facts about this program. Based on these 131 posts · Updated Aug 2026 · Contest or respond to this entry · Takedown & right of reply
Match termssan diegosan diego dermuc san diegoucsd
Fame & Shame
2025–2026 Derm
2 entries✅1. great benefits that cover egg freezing
❌1. Chair is obsessed with medical school brand name, loves talking about how many Harvards he gets in a year
By match cycle
Related programs
Also discussed alongside
Page 12 of 13
0
Thoughts on UCSD? Random posts of "malignant" or otherwise uninformative content pop up and are never explained, so would like some more background since the away impressions and interview impressions of past seem generally good
0
Anybody getting trickles from CA Schools? Like USC, UCLA, UCSD?
0
Can someone who had UCSD this week write an interview impressions? thank you!
0
For those doing UCSD, is there a preinterview dinner? Haven't seen it in the emails
0
Did anyone get an email about UCSD lunch after or know where it is? Original email just said "off site"
0
Why so much love for UCSD? Can someone explain what was so amazing (besides location)?
0
Besides UCSF, did any other UC programs (Davis, Irvine, UCSD, UCLA) do RTM?
0
Looks like the hard hitters are HMS, Penn, Stanford, UCSD, they have so many people ranking them first
0
I would say UPMC, UCSD, UCLA, Emory, Columbia, Hopkins, OHSU, Wisconsin, Sinai are all candidates for top 10-20
0
What's with UCSD July 17 on the match list tab?
0
Can I make the point that the research funding ranking on the Ouija tab makes zero sense? I know whoever made that tab yanked it from the Blue Ridge Institute, but look at some of those numbers. If you go to NIH reporter (https://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm), Rich Gallo alone has more in grant funding than the UCSD total in their ranking. David Fisher and Tom Kupper at Harvard together have over 2M in funding (the $47K listed for Harvard isn't even a real grant size...that's like not even the size of an F-series grant). For UCLA, Robert Modlin alone has over a million in personal funding, and UCLA didnt even rank. I'm not sure what criteria BRIMR used to come up with these numbers, but I don't think it represents the research strengths of a lot of institutions very well
OP: I figured it was something like that. Might be worth sticking a caveat statement at the top or something, as I'm sure these posts will soon get buried in the archive
Mar 23
0
maybe I will just paste this conversation. Do you have anything to add?
Mar 23
0
Mmm...unfortunately, as you righly pointed out, there's really no good way (that doesnt involve spending the rest of your life mining NIH reporter) to get a good sense of funding in dollars. One suggestion might be to add additional columns for "known clinical strengths" and "known research strengths" and weaknesses that people could go in and fill. Would be helpful for people with specific interests potentially, but could also be very skewed/biased. As for the research side, id honestly just strip out the NIH funding ranking from BRIMR, as I think its so misrepresentative as to be actually harmful
Mar 23
0
Not going to pull the data as I think it is valuable to have accessible in a central location here, but would warn people that low numbers or blanks do not mean a program is receiving little/no funding. If there is anyone here who would like to do some data mining and get a better estimate of values, please let us know and we can work with you on that.
Mar 23
0
0
Someone posted about a phone call from UCSD on the interview tab. Anyone else get this? Hoping they'll make more calls tomorrow..
Hoping so too!
Mar 23
0
Got a call around 8 PM EST (not the person that posted on the interview tab)
Mar 23
0
<- were you a rotator?
Mar 23
0
Nope. CA resident, but go to school on the east coast. Honestly was not expecting an invite here
Mar 23
0
rotator here. also got the call today x2 |
Mar 23
0
0
For people who got UCSD interviews: 1) was it the PD or an admin who called?, and 2) do you know if they call on more than 1 day? anyone get a call today, wanting to know if there's still a chance?
I spoke with the program coordinator and was told directly that no interview invitations had been sent out.
Mar 23
0
SMH what's wrong with people!
Mar 23
0
0
I sent UCSD a LOI last week after invites had gone out. They just responded saying no invites have actually been sent out yet...
Dang, don't know what to believe anymore... thanks for the info!
Mar 23
0
WTF, can people stop trolling!? What is wrong with you people. Get a life.
Mar 23
0
I got a call last week. No email has been sent to us yet, but they confirmed our interview date over the phone. They said we will recieve info via email in the coming weeks.
Mar 23
0
I personally know the UCSD derm staff and they told me they have not even begun discussing applicants yet.
Mar 23
0
Then I got a prank call on Wednesday 11/8/17 at 1:49PM.
Mar 23
0
Curiouser and curiouser... Do you remember the name of the UCSD person you spoke to? Maybe there are unique circumstances with your application. Because phoning prior to invitations going out is highly unusual.
Mar 23
0
Are you sure it wasn's UCSF, they called people on 11/8 |So sorry! UCSF!! I misread it. I am so sorry. Not UCSD. So so sorry!
Mar 23
0
All cleared up then! Not a troll. Was an innocent mistake. It happens! Good luck to all who are interested in the rest of the UC's to come...
Mar 23
0
Derm moderator.. can you please delete the telephone date and time since that was inaccurate. Thank you. And I apologize.
Mar 23
0
Removed it from interview page,thanks!
Mar 23
0
Some posts are shown because their comments mention this program.
Yeah, youre right about that. I actually asked Modlin about it and he basically said that the NIH funding list only includes Dermatology DEPARTMENTS. At places like UCLA, for example, there is a Dermatology Division under the Department of Medicine, so their NIH grant totals are found in the sum for DOM (and cannot easily be separated out in the data they publish). Places like MGH/BWH also dont funnel their NIH grants through a Department of Dermatology, so the numbers are skewed. This is part of the reason why it is so difficult to come up with rankings of Dermatology programs.... and thus why I labeled it as "Ouija" -- its basically as good as a psychic reading and certainly not to be taken as "the whole picture"! Hope this helps. As a side note, Doximity rankings are equally as bad (if not worse). There is a bias because programs can reward people for going in and ranking and there has been skewing due to these pactices.