UC San Diego School of Medicine

UC San Diego integrates clinical medicine and medical science through all four years. Neela watches the optional 8am lectures by videocast and spends required time in small groups of 8–10: problem-based learning and Practice of Medicine, where a physician facilitator teaches exam skills.

Clinical practice starts early: practice exam sessions (GOSCEs) with remarkably convincing standardized patients, and a weekly pairing with a practicing physician somewhere in San Diego.

UCSD's Student-Run Free Clinic is part of the school's outpatient training, and Neela says nearly every student gets to take part. Neela helps manage its neurology and psychiatry clinics and calls it the most fulfilling part of medical school so far.

Neela's advice to admitted students: tour the clinic at Second Look.

Two primary hospitals anchor training: UC San Diego Medical Center, Hillcrest, a 390-bed facility with the region's first Level 1 trauma center, and Jacobs Medical Center, a 364-bed advanced medical center in La Jolla.

Students also train at Rady Children's Hospital and the VA San Diego Healthcare System beside the La Jolla campus, as well as community clinics and private practices around the county.

Happiness was Neela's deciding factor, and UCSD's first-years struck Neela as "WAY happier than I thought possible at a medical school": surfing, breweries, game nights, and Padres games.

Neela can't name a single thing to dislike about San Diego; when stress hits, there's Dog Beach.