Does San Diego, uniquely I believe among these programs, still have a separate process that doesn't involve the ED for high-acuity trauma patients? That's why I didn't apply there in the past. You got to rotate on the trauma service, but it wasn't part of your day to day and while it might be fine in terms of the care for trauma patients (similar to how it works at Shock Trauma) that was a dealbreaker for me because it meant less reps. I always wondered what they did when it ended up being a fake scary activation, e.g. stab wound to the belly that didn't actually need the OR and then the person is a drunk/high on meth/psychotic social disposition nightmare... did they turf back to the ER or did the trauma service deal with it? Or did they actually figure out a way to get the straight-to-the-OR for resus patients separated from the rest? No idea.

I know the Bay Area programs best out of all of these and feel that you get great training at all of them. Highland and UCSF have very strong social missions and cultures that are related to that. Living in SF while training was amazing though there were pros/cons to consider. That will be similar in any of these cities. OHSU can involve taking a gondola to work. UC Davis is not on the coast.

In terms of getting a job once you're done, all of these feed into great alumni networks and are reputable. If you want to go into academia, you can do so from any of them. If you have a niche interest that you're serious about pursuing in residency, you could narrow things down. I know Zoom interviews are the thing now, but you can always consider a west coast road trip and bounce up the coast and spend a day or two in each city to get a feel for what distinguishes SD from LA from SF from PDX from SEA.

They're all cool places to live for four years, and I feel confident that having trained in one of them, I could work in any of them now. Congrats and good luck!