About all these best and worst. having good friends at both UCSF and Davis. I know nothing about stanford. I know some of the attendings and they seemed pretty cool. The name stanford however does not inherently make it great. Like everywhere, they have pluses and minuses. All of the residents from all of the programs were really cool. I will say, in general, the UCSF folks thought their attendings were a bit more malignant, but the residents are good peeps. Davis is a solid solid program - I would say the best in california considering academics, autonomy, depth, breadth and happiness. It is in Sacramento. thats the down. It has fantastic teaching and great operative experience. I've already talked about my home program of st marys but I was extremely happy there for my 5 years. It does not have a big name, and does not have a big name feel, but I got great training, speak with my former attendings as friends and do not have enough positive things to say about the place and the complete turn around it has undergone over the last 5 years with Dr McGann who is a quiet man but one of the nicest surgeons on the planet.
Davis - fantastic trauma, spine, hand. Ok joints, so so sports. Same peds as UCSF and St marys which is really good.
UCSF - Fantastic spine, joints, onc. Good trauma , so/so hand/sports but actively recuriting both. peds as above. great research
St marys' - fantastic joints and hand ( 5 fellowship trained joints guys). so-so sports, good spine, good trauma since addition of 2 trauma fellowship guys. potential great trauma as for three residents highland is very very busy (85% volume of SF general which has 6+ residents), but need new staff at county which will happen soon. same exact peds as above. Less rigorous in terms of rounding/pimping expectations, so a more laid back feel. Far more organized that stated in posts, but at kiaser, you do get to choose what cases you want in your chief years to some extent. Call is home, but you get killed at kaiser and occasionally at highland. for 4 months at st marys, you sleep the night away. Ahhhhh get to see university, private practice, county and large managed care (kaiser) system. Since about half of the UCSF and davis resident work at kaiser, the st marys guys are in a nice position.
Dont know about foot and ankle, but really, are you going into residency to do that.
