2008-2009 UCLA Secondary Application Thread

[pntgrd]

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Thank you! This is really good information. I'm curious about UCLA's financial aid? The school's average indebtedness is really low (especially considering how expensive it is to live in westwood)! I think it was at about 85k give or take. Have you found the school to be quite generous with financial aid and do you think tuition will remain affordable despite california's budget problems? Thanks!

I think the indebtedness is low because tuition is relatively low compared to private schools. Living in Westwood isn't cheap but the first 2 years most people live in university apts which are below market price. I've lived in NY, and westwood isn't as expensive.

 

[scottyT]

I think the indebtedness is low because tuition is relatively low compared to private schools. Living in Westwood isn't cheap but the first 2 years most people live in university apts which are below market price. I've lived in NY, and westwood isn't as expensive.

The cost of attendance even if you live in university apartments (and are a California resident) is still about $50,000/year. There must be some sort of aid available if their avg. indebtedness is under $90k. It's not like the tuition is that much cheaper

 

[chessknt]

The cost of attendance even if you live in university apartments (and are a California resident) is still about $50,000/year. There must be some sort of aid available if their avg. indebtedness is under $90k. It's not like the tuition is that much cheaper

Keep in mind a lot of people that come in probably have substantial parental support that can help beat that figure down.

 

[batman1983]

Keep in mind a lot of people that come in probably have substantial parental support that can help beat that figure down.

Agree. Also, I heard that UCLA gives $5K/yr scholarship to all students to lower tuition costs.

 

[copingmethods]

Agree. Also, I heard that UCLA gives $5K/yr scholarship to all students to lower tuition costs.

I'm pretty sure that $5K is only for the first year.

 

[skiqueen]

I'm pretty sure that $5K is only for the first year.

Yeah, I think this is true unfortunately.

 

[veaselhaufen]

Keep in mind a lot of people that come in probably have substantial parental support that can help beat that figure down.

I don't see any reason why UCLA students would have any more parental support than at other schools. If anything, you might think they would have less as MANY UCLA students went to public undergrads.

 

[veaselhaufen]

I'm pretty sure that $5K is only for the first year.

Woah. I was under the impression that it was for all four years. Can any UCLA students clarify?

 

[veaselhaufen]

Yeah, I think this is true unfortunately.

woah! schools like you

 

[chessknt]

I don't see any reason why UCLA students would have any more parental support than at other schools. If anything, you might think they would have less as MANY UCLA students went to public undergrads.

A lot of the students there are LA locals and thus have the option of living with parents still (huge break on CoA).

 

[batman1983]

A lot of the students there are LA locals and thus have the option of living with parents still (huge break on CoA).

I concur

 

[JackInTheBox]

A lot of the students there are LA locals and thus have the option of living with parents still (huge break on CoA).

I think commuting to and from Westwood every day would drive me insane.

 

[CafeMed]

I think commuting to and from Westwood every day would drive me insane.

Yeah, it has driven me insane. I have to get up at 4:30 am to avoid traffic. 😡

 

[funkydrmonkey]

First batch of decisions will go out NEXT WEEK!😱 And this will include ALL correspondences...not just acceptances... I just went to the admissions office... Also the letters will be going out over the next few weeks!


Be Prepared!

Good luck!

 

[bobdogsam43]

so the admissions office has said early february AND next week LOL. I guess what we DO know is that it will be sometime in the near future...

 

[scottyT]

They must have heard me talking about them! I just got an e-mail invite.

 

[iA-MD2013]

They must have heard me talking about them! I just got an e-mail invite.

Ohh congrats! I'm glad they're still sending out invites...I want one 🙁

 

[Raryn]

Ohh congrats! I'm glad they're still sending out invites...I want one 🙁

Can I join that club? 🙂

 

[iA-MD2013]

Can I join that club? 🙂

This club is open to all! We 😍 UCLA!

 

[funkydrmonkey]

This club is open to all! We 😍 UCLA!

I 😍😍😍 UCLA... please accept me🙂

 

[CafeMed]

This club is open to all! We 😍 UCLA!

Count me in that club too. C'mon UCLA, 😍 US BACK!

 

[Sangria]

First batch of decisions will go out NEXT WEEK!😱 And this will include ALL correspondences...not just acceptances... I just went to the admissions office... Also the letters will be going out over the next few weeks!


Be Prepared!

Good luck!

OMG! I'm so scared

 

[efitzpat]

They must have heard me talking about them! I just got an e-mail invite.

Saw that you sent them an update letter. I sent them one recently as well, so I hope it works for me as well as it did for you!

 

[labgod]

i received an e-mail invite today as well! very unexpected

 

[CafeMed]

i received an e-mail invite today as well! very unexpected

Congrats, when were you complete?

 

[pntgrd]

The cost of attendance even if you live in university apartments (and are a California resident) is still about $50,000/year. There must be some sort of aid available if their avg. indebtedness is under $90k. It's not like the tuition is that much cheaper

All those cost of living estimates are greatly inflated. Tuition is about 21k, housing is about 1000/month (includes all utilities). That leaves 20k of unaccounted for costs of attendance. Textbooks, of which there are few mandatory ones, are prob 700$ max/year.

The 5k automatic grant is just for the first year.

 

[Dulcina]

I 😍😍😍 UCLA... please accept me🙂

omg please accept me too 😍😍😍

i just read that the decisions are being next week and now my heart is pounding!!

 

[scottyT]

All those cost of living estimates are greatly inflated. Tuition is about 21k, housing is about 1000/month (includes all utilities). That leaves 20k of unaccounted for costs of attendance. Textbooks, of which there are few mandatory ones, are prob 700$ max/year.

I'm sure you can get by on less than their estimate, but I think it would be really hard to save 20k. Here is how they have it broken down on the link I posted (for 1st years, 10 months):

Tuition: 24,173
Room/Board: 14,250 (1,018/mo rent+util, 407 food+living)
Books: 4,360 (includes 3,000 computer allowance)
Travel: 4,800
Misc: 2,630 (1,400 or so is health insurance)
Tot: 50,213

Now let's see how much fat we can cut out to make a bare-bones budget. We'll leave rent+utilities at 1,018 because that sounds realistic. Say you can get by with $210/mo for food and living by eating a lot of ramen ($210/mo=~$7/day). You may already own a computer so we can whack 3k from the books. You likely don't need to buy what they tell you but you will probably need to purchase a few books and a stethoscope and otoscope and some other random crap; this will run maybe $700 or so by the time you're done. Travel, just get a bus pass for $62/month ... saved a few more grand. Miscellaneous: you'll need to buy health insurance, but the other $1,230 can be cut down. I'll say you only need $500 over the course of the year ($50/month) for replacement clothes and shoes and cleaning supplies and hygiene items and haircuts and whatever else I may have forgotten. Where does this leave us?

(Tuition: 24,173)+(R&B: 12,280)+(Books: 700)+(Travel: 620)+(Misc: 1,900)= $39,673 and a miserly, boring, miserable existence.

Anyone else see more ways to potentially save money as an independent student?

 

[batman1983]

So the $5k scholarship is one time and not yearly?

 

[Lukkie]

Travel, just get a bus pass for $62/month ... saved a few more grand.

UCLA students/staff/faculty get the bus pass for $22.50 per QUARTER (3 months) 👍

 

[jebus22]

Does UCLA favor in state residents?

 

[n3opologist]

Hey monkey, who did you talk to? That's crazy that they would say two completely different things in the same week. It doesn't surprise me all that much considering they have said contradictory things before.

I had a friend go in and check yesterday, and they told him that decisions would come out Feb. 5.

That would be really cool if decisions came out next week, but I'm not going to get my hopes up just to be disappointed.

I'll go in there/call tomorrow to see if they repeat the same story.

Next week would be sweet though!

 

[scottyT]

UCLA students/staff/faculty get the bus pass for $22.50 per QUARTER (3 months) 👍

WOW! There goes a few hundred from my estimates. $68 per year now rather than $620

 

[copingmethods]

Woah. I was under the impression that it was for all four years. Can any UCLA students clarify?

From the letter:

"...you have been awarded a DGSOM scholarship in the amount of $5K. This special scholarship is awarded for the 2009-2010 academic year and is to assist you with your transition to medical school."

 

[funkydrmonkey]

Hey monkey, who did you talk to? That's crazy that they would say two completely different things in the same week. It doesn't surprise me all that much considering they have said contradictory things before.

I had a friend go in and check yesterday, and they told him that decisions would come out Feb. 5.

That would be really cool if decisions came out next week, but I'm not going to get my hopes up just to be disappointed.

I'll go in there/call tomorrow to see if they repeat the same story.

Next week would be sweet though!

The guy with the British? accent. He told me the same thing when I went in December...

 

[bndbckhmlvr768]

Hey,

Does anyone have the data about # interviewed and # accepted? I don't want to sift through all these pages and am trying to figure out if I should even bother spending the $300 to go interview here. If I had known I would somehow be getting an interview invite from UCLA, I would have kept up with this thread.

Thanks 🙂

 

[talbo]

i want to say it's about btwn 1/4 and 1/3 especially that there are more applicants now than before due to computerized mcat etc, fewer ppl get off the WL

 

[chessknt]

i want to say it's about btwn 1/4 and 1/3 especially that there are more applicants now than before due to computerized mcat etc, fewer ppl get off the WL

It is ~25% according to US News (this includes all WL accepts).

 

[Medicine22]

Any consensus as to when the next letters go out? Is it next week, first week of February, or anytime within?

Thanks!

 

[n3opologist]

Any consensus as to when the next letters go out? Is it next week, first week of February, or anytime within?

Thanks!

I think what Ian (British accent guy) meant when he told monkey that final decisions will be made next week is that many people are going to be rejected post-secondary/pre-secondary. I still trust what the director (Lili) told me about the first week of February for post-interview decisions.

I really hope I am wrong though. I want a decision next week. I'm just not getting my hopes up.

 

[funkydrmonkey]

I think what Ian (British accent guy) meant when he told monkey that final decisions will be made next week is that many people are going to be rejected post-secondary/pre-secondary. I still trust what the director (Lili) told me about the first week of February for post-interview decisions.

I really hope I am wrong though. I want a decision next week. I'm just not getting my hopes up.

Nope... I specifically asked about acceptances...

 

[chessknt]

I am inclined to believe funky because I want to know by next week and they have been given ample time to make these decisions.

 

[enjoydrywax]

I am inclined to believe neopologist simply because UCLA has a history of delaying things. Guess it's another ~3 weeks of waiting.

 

[batman1983]

Does UCLA favor in state residents?

Yes, it is a state school.

Hey,

Does anyone have the data about # interviewed and # accepted? I don't want to sift through all these pages and am trying to figure out if I should even bother spending the $300 to go interview here. If I had known I would somehow be getting an interview invite from UCLA, I would have kept up with this thread.

Thanks 🙂

Its not worth going to. I hear that westwood is a pretty dangerous area, Lots of gangs. Plus, the school has nowhere to go but down in the rankings 🙂.

 

[CafeMed]

I hear that westwood is a pretty dangerous area, Lots of gangs. 🙂.

Totally, this is why I had to move out of that hellhole. 😉

 

[scottyT]

Does UCLA favor in state residents?

Yes, it is a state school.

It sure seems that way, but the website says this:

"Residence: No preference is given to state of residence. However many applicants come from California. Acceptees from California are more likely to matriculate at UCLA. Out of 145 freshman, 85 percent were from California."

 

[batman1983]

It sure seems that way, but the website says this:

"Residence: No preference is given to state of residence. However many applicants come from California. Acceptees from California are more likely to matriculate at UCLA. Out of 145 freshman, 85 percent were from California."

The UCs use that same lingo to say that they dont give preferences to URMs when they do.

 

[scottyT]

The UCs use that same lingo to say that they dont give preferences to URMs when they do.

But they are required to not consider ethnicity in admissions (remember Bakke). There is nothing for them to gain or lose by saying whether they consider state of residency in admissions. They even screen for secondaries so it's not like they make a bunch of money from that aspect. Why would they lie about the residency thing?

 

[batman1983]

But they are required to not consider ethnicity in admissions (remember Bakke). There is nothing for them to gain or lose by saying whether they consider state of residency in admissions. They even screen for secondaries so it's not like they make a bunch of money from that aspect. Why would they lie about the residency thing?

As for the URM controversy, while the UCs say that they dont consider URM status and race in the admissions process, how else can you justify the differences in stats between accepted URMs at UCs vs other racial groups(compare the mdapplicants profiles for URMs accepted at UCLA vs asians)? I think AA is done on a more subjective/less quantifiable form nowadays as compared to the quota systems deployed by the UCs during Bakke. I not trying to argue if AA/racial consideration is right or wrong, but I think it is naive to assume that the UCs arent still considering race in the admissions process.

As for residency topic, I think the admissions process is slightly misleading in the sense that while the selection percentages for invites for IS vs OOS is roughly the same on MSAR, those OOS applicants on avg probably had stronger applications. I think its the same policy at all public medical schools.

Personally, I think the UCs make those claims of nondiscrimination based on race/state/etc for legal reasons.

 

[JuliaGulia2789]

Re: URM, one reason all of the UCs developed PRIME programs was to get around the AA regulations, allowing the schools an alternate means of accepting highly qualified URM applicants with lower numbers.