2008-2009 UCLA/Drew Secondary Application Thread

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I was hoping some of you could educate me about the different programs at UCLA. I attended back in the seventies when there was only one.
These are my questions?
1. What is the Prime program? I think it is part of Geffen, but how does it differ from Drew in its emphasis? What are the numbers of students in both?
2. I assume Geffen, Prime and Drew med students all physically take the same courses for the first two years. Is this right? What about courses like Physical Diagnosis? Do the Drew kids go down to MLK or stay in Westwood? Is there anything that differentiates the different programs in the first two years?
3. In the past, I think Drew kids went to MLK for their two clinical years, but what happens now that the hospital is closed? Do all three programs' students now use the same hospitals and therefore the programs are really not different? What about outpaitent at MLK?
4. And where are the faculty from Drew now? Where do they do their research and see patients? Do they just teach Drew med students or are they totally integrated in with Geffen?
5. And where are the patients that used to use MLK? Who is seeing to their needs?

Sorry if this has been addressed elsewhere. It is just so confusing to me and I no longer live in LA so haven't followed the progress of Drew Medical School or MLK Hospital as much as I should have.

Thank you for any info.
 
1. Prime is a geffen program i believe in which you have to do a MPH or MBA afterwards, its meant for leadership sort of things.
2. First two years for all the programs are the same so i believe drew kids get the same clinical training as geffen students during the first two years. There is no difference except drew kids can get support fro drew administration which is a big help.
3. The clinicals are done at different UCLA hospital around LA, like harbor, reagan, and olive view.
4. not sure on the faculty i think they are all clinical teachers.
5. There is an outpatient setting still in drew but patients have to go to other places now i belive. Kind of sad hopefully that gets fixed.


Hope i get in, fingers crossed.
 
I'll add that I believe the UCLA PRIME program encompasses David Geffen, Drew and UCR. There are 18 spots; 10 David Geffen, 4 Drew, and 4 UCR. From what I've read online and heard during the student panel session of the interview it is a 5 year combined degree program (MD/MPH, MD/MBA, MD/M.Ed., etc). There is a separate application process to PRIME and if you're selected for a secondary you choose which program you want to pursue (Geffen, Drew, or UCR). These spots are in addition to the spots reserved for the straight MD path. Therefore, Drew has 24 spots for the straight MD path and an additional 4 spots for the Drew PRIME program. However, I was under the impression that once you're in the straight MD program you can choose to pursue an MPH, MBA, etc., if you want. Like asakkings mentioned, the PRIME program focuses on developing leaders, ones "who will address health disparities and issues of access to healthcare for underserved communities" (from a handout received at the Drew interview). This means that to be accepted into the PRIME program you have to have a committment to the underserved, just like Drew. I believe it also says this on the PRIME website.
 
Thank you asakkings and kai1581. I really appreciate your taking the time to help me understand the various programs at UCLA. The PRIME program sounds like a really interesting one.
On another note, I hope that LA County can figure out a way to resurrect MLK Hospital. It really helped the people of South Central, although I guess the hospital had its challenges.

Good luck to all of you and I hope you are accepted to your program of choice at UCLA.
 
BlackDr2B, Assakkings! whatup homies... heres to hoping we get some good news next week. I've had a couple of other interviews since Drew, and lets just say nothing compares, except for maybe Temple and their service to the North Philly community. I've been kicking myself ever since the interview day for how the group interview went:scared:... In retrospect I think I was definitely holding the group back. But anyway goodluck fellas... I love UCLA in general and I interviewed at Geffen too, but maaan I want Drew so bad right now.
Also thanks for the ride back to LAX Asakkings!👍
 
No problem dude, LAX was on the way back. I hope we get good news soon i am very anxious.
 
docandmom2 said:
I was hoping some of you could educate me about the different programs at UCLA. I attended back in the seventies when there was only one.
These are my questions?
1. What is the Prime program? I think it is part of Geffen, but how does it differ from Drew in its emphasis? What are the numbers of students in both?
2. I assume Geffen, Prime and Drew med students all physically take the same courses for the first two years. Is this right? What about courses like Physical Diagnosis? Do the Drew kids go down to MLK or stay in Westwood? Is there anything that differentiates the different programs in the first two years?
3. In the past, I think Drew kids went to MLK for their two clinical years, but what happens now that the hospital is closed? Do all three programs' students now use the same hospitals and therefore the programs are really not different? What about outpaitent at MLK?
4. And where are the faculty from Drew now? Where do they do their research and see patients? Do they just teach Drew med students or are they totally integrated in with Geffen?
5. And where are the patients that used to use MLK? Who is seeing to their needs?

Sorry if this has been addressed elsewhere. It is just so confusing to me and I no longer live in LA so haven't followed the progress of Drew Medical School or MLK Hospital as much as I should have.

Thank you for any info.
Click to expand...


hi guys,
im currently a ms4 at drew and although i rarely get the chance to post here, ill try to answer some quick q's that ive seen on the thread.

1. i really dont know much about the PRIME program, so not much help there.

2. there is nothing that differentiates the straight ucla md program from drew the first 2 years. this includes lectures, physical diagnosis, pbl, doctoring, etc. you're all there to get your basic physiology background and to pass exams. and to answer a q on a previous post, yes drew is pass/fail just like geffen.

3. the difference in the program is in years 3 and 4. yes, as previously pointed out, we now use the other ucla affiliated hospitals as rotation sites, including westwood, oliveview, west la va, santa monica, cedars, and harbor. most drew students choose county (oliveview and harbor) as these provide relatively the same experience as mlk did. as a drew student, you will also not do regular doctoring/preceptor (yay!) which is a total waste of time for regular ucla students. instead you will have your own primary care experience in an outpatient clinic in south central where you will follow your own patients and get teaching from faculty that primarily work with the poor. you will also be responsible for putting together a thesis research project, which is much more involved than the regular "scholarly" project most ucla students do. your thesis is a real research project which requires a protocol, irb approval, etc.

4. Drew faculty have taken a variety of jobs. you forget these people are accomplished academic m.d.'s that have a unique experience in treating the most underserved of the country, so it is of no surprise that their skills are wanted/needed. many either went out into the community or took faculty positions at usc, harbor, etc. there is certainly no shortage of jobs in LA county. some are also still at drew and do research out of there.

5. Where are the patients that mlk used to serve? being underserved! of course it is no surprise that these patients have to go somewhere, most are going to harbor (hence last years overcrowding citation on their ed) or usc where they have long wait times and barely adequate follow up. trust me, they did not disappear into thin air...

so you can be certain that now more than ever LA county's uninsured and underserved need physicians like us that are willing to get our hands dirty and work serving one of the most challenging yet grateful populations in medicine. theyre the reason the drew program has been so successful and will continue to attract the best in the country.

oh yea somewhere i saw a post that was asking about specializing if you go to drew...lets just saw 1/3 of the AOA class at UCLA (7 out of 21- which takes into account ucla/drew/riverside/mstp) was drew. and you can bet that were being highly recruited into every specialty from derm, rads, anesthesia, urology, em, etc. needless to say if youre one of the lucky 24, youre definitely in for the best 4 years of your life. good luck!
 
acl3623 said:
hi guys,
im currently a ms4 at drew and although i rarely get the chance to post here, ill try to answer some quick q's that ive seen on the thread.

1. i really dont know much about the PRIME program, so not much help there.

2. there is nothing that differentiates the straight ucla md program from drew the first 2 years. this includes lectures, physical diagnosis, pbl, doctoring, etc. you're all there to get your basic physiology background and to pass exams. and to answer a q on a previous post, yes drew is pass/fail just like geffen.

3. the difference in the program is in years 3 and 4. yes, as previously pointed out, we now use the other ucla affiliated hospitals as rotation sites, including westwood, oliveview, west la va, santa monica, cedars, and harbor. most drew students choose county (oliveview and harbor) as these provide relatively the same experience as mlk did. as a drew student, you will also not do regular doctoring/preceptor (yay!) which is a total waste of time for regular ucla students. instead you will have your own primary care experience in an outpatient clinic in south central where you will follow your own patients and get teaching from faculty that primarily work with the poor. you will also be responsible for putting together a thesis research project, which is much more involved than the regular "scholarly" project most ucla students do. your thesis is a real research project which requires a protocol, irb approval, etc.

4. Drew faculty have taken a variety of jobs. you forget these people are accomplished academic m.d.'s that have a unique experience in treating the most underserved of the country, so it is of no surprise that their skills are wanted/needed. many either went out into the community or took faculty positions at usc, harbor, etc. there is certainly no shortage of jobs in LA county. some are also still at drew and do research out of there.

5. Where are the patients that mlk used to serve? being underserved! of course it is no surprise that these patients have to go somewhere, most are going to harbor (hence last years overcrowding citation on their ed) or usc where they have long wait times and barely adequate follow up. trust me, they did not disappear into thin air...

so you can be certain that now more than ever LA county's uninsured and underserved need physicians like us that are willing to get our hands dirty and work serving one of the most challenging yet grateful populations in medicine. theyre the reason the drew program has been so successful and will continue to attract the best in the country.

oh yea somewhere i saw a post that was asking about specializing if you go to drew...lets just saw 1/3 of the AOA class at UCLA (7 out of 21- which takes into account ucla/drew/riverside/mstp) was drew. and you can bet that were being highly recruited into every specialty from derm, rads, anesthesia, urology, em, etc. needless to say if youre one of the lucky 24, youre definitely in for the best 4 years of your life. good luck!
Click to expand...

Hey acl3623, perhaps you could shed some light on when acceptances will be awarded for the first batch of interviewees on 11/15/08.
Should we expect word of acceptances 4-6 weeks post interview in mid December or will they come much later?
THaNKz
 
to be honest, the admissions process for drew is longer than most programs because we only accept 24 students. so we think about our acceptances longer than most other programs. i would not hold my breath for the 4-6 weeks post-interview. I mean if you think about it, we do not have enough students who have interviewed yet to be able to compare you to the rest of our pool so it would be premature for us to offer acceptances that early. if anything, rejections go out that early, but if we're thinking about accepting you, you'll go to several rounds of adcom meetings to make sure youre still as good as the top of every interviewing batch.

i think if you look at previous years you will find that acceptances start to roll around feb-march and then there will be a little, not much, waitlist movement.

be patient. you've interviewed, your app is complete...you've done everything you can do. unfortunately now you have the hardest part of the process...the painful wait 😉
 
well that is good to hear at least I can relax now and not go crazy waiting for a phone call.
 
hey does anyone know is the 600 character limit includes or excludes spaces? prob not a big deal, but thought i should make sure! thanks 🙂
 
CaliforniaGreen said:
hey does anyone know is the 600 character limit includes or excludes spaces? prob not a big deal, but thought i should make sure! thanks 🙂
Click to expand...

I believe it is including spaces. At least that is the way I did it. God bless!
 
Yo, B2B hear anything. Its so quiet i wish they hadnt told us december.
 
asakkings said:
Yo, B2B hear anything. Its so quiet i wish they hadnt told us december.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I feel you on that chief. I haven't heard from CDU but my friend interviewed there on Saturday and they told her that they hadn't made any decisions on any files yet. They told them that they would start making decisions in January. I wish they would have told us that in the first place. Oh well, this is a way for us to work on our patience. So lets just be cool, and wait patiently.
 
stay patient and keep praying. How did your howard interview go?
 
Praise the good Lord, I got an interview invite today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😀
My date is 01/24/09. Anyone else interviewing on that day?
Wow, Drew is my dream school! 😍
 
Hey congrats kittycool Drew is awesome and you will enjoy it.
 
KittycooMD said:
Praise the good Lord, I got an interview invite today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😀
My date is 01/24/09. Anyone else interviewing on that day?
Wow, Drew is my dream school! 😍
Click to expand...

Congrats KittyCoo! I know that it has to feel good because you have been wanting this. You deserve it! Enjoy the feeling because it is a great feeling. Relax and be yourself and you will be great! Any questions just let me know, God bless!
 
KittycooMD said:
Praise the good Lord, I got an interview invite today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😀
My date is 01/24/09. Anyone else interviewing on that day?
Wow, Drew is my dream school! 😍
Click to expand...

Kitty, when did you send in your secondary? congrats!!!!!!!!!

Also for everyone who did a secondary- did you go over the character limit at all? I heard they aren't very strict on this, is that true/ 600 characters is not much to work with. did you guys go over the limit? my drafts are each 700-800 characters.
 
drew is the only uc i havent heard from yet..pre secondary. its been about 4 months!
 
MissAmanda said:
Kitty, when did you send in your secondary? congrats!!!!!!!!!

Also for everyone who did a secondary- did you go over the character limit at all? I heard they aren't very strict on this, is that true/ 600 characters is not much to work with. did you guys go over the limit? my drafts are each 700-800 characters.
Click to expand...

I didn't. I stayed within the 600 limit. I don't know how strict they are about the limit. Just do what you can to get as close as possible to the 600 limit.
 
Yea i stayed within the limit also, liked this school too much to risk it.
 
quick question for yall. when you guys applied to drew, did you get an email confirming that they recieved your primary, just like the other uc's or not. i never recieved this email from drew, so im wondering if my app may have just slipped through the cracks..with my luck, it probably did. thanks
 
I dont think I received one. Good luck you'll hear something soon.
 
Character said:
quick question for yall. when you guys applied to drew, did you get an email confirming that they recieved your primary, just like the other uc's or not. i never recieved this email from drew, so im wondering if my app may have just slipped through the cracks..with my luck, it probably did. thanks
Click to expand...

I received one, but I haven't hear a word from them since then. I haven't received a secondary or been rejected, which I'm assuming means that I have been rejected. Who knows.
 
Live4Life said:
I received one, but I haven't hear a word from them since then. I haven't received a secondary or been rejected, which I'm assuming means that I have been rejected. Who knows.
Click to expand...
hmmm. who knows. they seem to take a while. have you called em? i heaven received any correspondence...ever.
 
MissAmanda said:
Kitty, when did you send in your secondary? congrats!!!!!!!!!

Also for everyone who did a secondary- did you go over the character limit at all? I heard they aren't very strict on this, is that true/ 600 characters is not much to work with. did you guys go over the limit? my drafts are each 700-800 characters.
Click to expand...

Thanks MissAmanda! I sent my secondary in around the end of October. So I guess its been about a month and a half of waiting. I didn't go over the 600 characters on any of my essays just in case they were counting 😛
I would really try to cut your responses to 600...It takes extra time but will be worth it since they know what 600 characters roughly looks like. Goodluck!
 
asakkings said:
Hey congrats kittycool Drew is awesome and you will enjoy it.
Click to expand...

Thanks, asakkings! I am super excited about it. Goodluck to you in your wait for their admissions decisions :luck:
 
BlackDr2b said:
Congrats KittyCoo! I know that it has to feel good because you have been wanting this. You deserve it! Enjoy the feeling because it is a great feeling. Relax and be yourself and you will be great! Any questions just let me know, God bless!
Click to expand...

Thanks, B! I'm buying my plane ticket in the next few days and am excited to come back to LA, my hometown! Goodluck in your wait! Hopefully you and the others hear something good in the next day or two. :luck:
 
I received a secondary 10/22/08, but unfortunately haven't finished it yet. Do you guys think it's too late to even bother, or should I turn it in ASAP? I could be done with the secondary by the end of tonight. Thanks... and good luck to everyone! I really hope that in ~4.5 years or so, everybody on here is a doctor. Never give up.
 
jmoran said:
I received a secondary 10/22/08, but unfortunately haven't finished it yet. Do you guys think it's too late to even bother, or should I turn it in ASAP? I could be done with the secondary by the end of tonight. Thanks... and good luck to everyone! I really hope that in ~4.5 years or so, everybody on here is a doctor. Never give up.
Click to expand...

I say if you really want to go to drew turn in it in but if its not a priority than it doesnt really matter. They interview pretty late so you would still have a shot.
 
For those who have interviewed, how long did it take them to send an interview invite after you were complete, and did they email you the invite? I have been complete since mid November, and the lady at the adm. office said I would be under review like 3 weeks ago. I am just sitting here hoping for an interview.
 
I know Drew requires 3 LOR's but my school only sends all of my letters (5). Does this matter? Has anyone else run into this problem? What do you suggest?
 
send all the letters as a packet i am sure you would be fine. man this wait is getting unbearable.
 
acl3623 said:
oh yea somewhere i saw a post that was asking about specializing if you go to drew...lets just saw 1/3 of the AOA class at UCLA (7 out of 21- which takes into account ucla/drew/riverside/mstp) was drew. and you can bet that were being highly recruited into every specialty from derm, rads, anesthesia, urology, em, etc. needless to say if youre one of the lucky 24, youre definitely in for the best 4 years of your life. good luck!
Click to expand...

Word I was one of those dermies.😀
 
KittycooMD said:
Praise the good Lord, I got an interview invite today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😀
My date is 01/24/09. Anyone else interviewing on that day?
Wow, Drew is my dream school! 😍
Click to expand...

congrats. hope it goes well for you! 👍
 
Happy New Year everyone!! Everyone party hard, and be SAFE!

@ Kittycoo: Congrats on the interview! I wish you the best of luck!!!

@ medRckr55: I never received a notice that I was complete, though I think the process can take several weeks. Since it's the holidays they may be waiting until the new year to send out more invites. Hang tight, I'm sure you will hear back from them soon.

@ Apple2: My school also sends out letter compilations, and I had 7 (I know that's a lot, but it was hell trying to meet Utah's strict requirements). I don't think this is a problem. From what my letter service secretary said, they just pick the one's they will use, though I'm not exactly sure how they do that.

@ asakkings: This wait really is unbearable. I got fingers, toes, and eyes crossed that we'll hear GOOD news soon.:xf:

@ Long Dong: I bow in the presence of greatness. 😍
 
medRckr55 said:
For those who have interviewed, how long did it take them to send an interview invite after you were complete, and did they email you the invite? I have been complete since mid November, and the lady at the adm. office said I would be under review like 3 weeks ago. I am just sitting here hoping for an interview.
Click to expand...

Hey medRckr, I submitted my secondary at the end of October and I didn't get a complete notice. I was going to call them, but I got an interview invite email about a month and a half later that informed me that I was complete. I think you only get a complete notice if you also get an interview. Since it has been about a month and a half for you, maybe you will hear something soon! Best of luck :luck:
 
Happy New Year everyone! May 2009 bring all of us good health and of course...GOOD NEWS!!!!! 😀
 
hey guys...I'm brand new here...and instead of watching tv or doing something productive, I am freaking out! lol...did anybody here go to the November 22 interview? Good luck to you all!
 
i also wanted to drop by my favorite thread and say happy new year to everyone and hope that it is a good one for us.
 
It's been six weeks since my interview date (11/22)....I wonder if we'll know soon. Ah it would be so awesome to fully plan the rest of the year. Happy New Year guys...to the best that is yet to come for us all in 2009.
 
Hey everyone 🙂
Just checking in if there have been anymore interview invites lately. Is anyone interviewing on 1/24/09?
It's around the corner!
 
Hey yall. I called today to see what my status was and I was told that in the next couple of weeks I should have a decision on my file. We shall see what happens. If anybody is curious, I interviewed on 11/15. We just have to be patient, keep praying and believing! Our time will come. Good luck on your interview KittyCoo, knock'em out! God bless yall!
 
thanks for calling B2B at least you got a hold of them, everytime i call it goes straight to voice mail.
 
BlackDr2b said:
Hey yall. I called today to see what my status was and I was told that in the next couple of weeks I should have a decision on my file. We shall see what happens. If anybody is curious, I interviewed on 11/15. We just have to be patient, keep praying and believing! Our time will come. Good luck on your interview KittyCoo, knock'em out! God bless yall!
Click to expand...

Thanks, B! And good luck to you on upcoming decision news! :luck:
 
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