San Francisco Program is a sweet little community program. They work out of St. Mary's and 2 hospitals in Oakland. Like most community, they operate a ton and research is not one of their priorities. Pretty darn tight knit as Suzie the program secretary makes it her business to see that people will fit in or not come for rotations or interviews. I believe they interview about 12. They made phone calls on Dec 17 for their spots, dates are January 14 or 17.

They only interview 12 people? You have got to be kidding. Is this an All-Star program that doesn't have to dig too deep to fill their spots? (Not that any program really does.) I would like to hear more about this program if anyone else has anymore input. Anyone rotate there?

the San Francisco Orthopedics Residency Program is indeed a little gem which few people are familiar with, however, more and more people are finding out about it. i am a second year there, so i know a few things about the place. we do indeed interview only 12 people per year, A LOT of them will be rotators.
it is not unlike many other community-based programs in that we get to operate very early (5 months into my 2nd year now, i have done tons of joints, some sports, hand, and trauma; i'd say that i was the primary on at least 50% of those cases, 1st assist on the rest); weak on research, but plenty of opportunities and you just have to be self motivated; lifestyle here is nothing to complain about, intern year is a joke, i played plenty of golf and got adequate number of skiing days, the next four years will be all home call q4; we also lack the crazy hierarchy and politics that exist in most high power academic institution; graduates get surprisingly good fellowships every year.
overall, it is just a pleasant place to be, both the program and the city.

Volk17- I am interviewing there on the 17th. Any chance i could get your email so i can get an idea prior to visiting?

Thanks

I am also interested in doing a residency in San Fran. My question-do residents buy houses, studios, apartments, etc.? San Fran is notoriously expensive and I was wondering how residents dealt with it.

Thanks.

housing in SF is relatively expensive; but much better than it was just a couple of years ago secondary to the high tech collapse. almost all of the residents rent; at least half live in the east bay since we spend a significant amount of time in oakland. rent varies a bit depending on location; usually $1000 will get a fairly decent 1 bedroom apt in SF. bottom line is that you pay $$$$ to live in one of the best cities and that everyone deals with it just fine.

my email address is VOLKL7@AOL.COM.