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A current first year sent me this email this morning. I assume it went to all newly admitted students. (I posted it exactly as it was sent to me, but I did take out student's names/email addresses to respect their privacy.) Wow, I am so excited to be going here!! 😍
Congratulations on your acceptance to the UCSD School of Medicine! My name is _____, and I am the Incoming Student Representative for the first year class. I know you've worked extremely hard to be where you are now. This marks the beginning of a very exciting year!
Now that you have been accepted, choosing a medical school can a daunting task. I truly love it here at UCSD for many, many reasons, and I could not be happier with my decision to come here. My job is to answer any questions about UCSD, living in La Jolla, adjusting to medical school etc, so that you can make the decision that's best for you.
Please feel free to ask me about anything you would like. If I do not know the answer to your question, I will pass it on to someone who can better answer it. I want to make sure you're aware of all the pros (of which there are many) and cons (of which there are few) of UCSD so that you can find that perfect fit.
Here's a table of contents of what's in this letter. There will be a lot of content (there's a whole lot to say!), but I hope this will be a good reference for you as you make your decision.
1. The curriculum
2. Incredible academic support!
3. Electives, extracurriculars, and research
4. The indescribable awesomeness of our classmates
5. The super supportive administration
6. Life in gorgeous, interesting San Diego
7. Housing
Okay, here goes!
----- 1. The curriculum -----
a. LECTURE: As you've heard, your curriculum will NOT be lecture-based as ours was. It's understandable that you may be apprehensive about the new curriculum, but remember that medical schools have to teach the same information no matter what – what we're doing is more of a reorganization. You'll likely have many of the same lecturers that we did, and they will provide lecture slides or even a written "syllabus", which is like a mini-textbook on their topic. And hey – you don't even have to go because 1) all slides are posted online, 2) most lectures are podcasted, and, best of all, 3) a classmate is assigned (and paid!) to take notes in each lecture, so you won't miss the tasty tidbits that the prof says. People actually submit their notes after the first day of the class' lecture and the best one is chosen, so you know you're getting high quality study materials. Some people go to all lectures, some people go to none, and most people are somewhere in between. We love this because you can balance your schedule the way that makes you happiest and healthiest. You can skip lecture to sleep in, study for something else, or to go surfing! Without this flexibility and academic support, the student body wouldn't be as happy and balanced as we are.
b. SMALL GROUPS: The new curriculum will be amplifying a portion of the old curriculum by increasing small-group time. Problem-based learning (PBL) has always been a part of our curriculum. Currently, nearly every class has some small-group component. We've had small group sessions discussing respiratory function of patients at high altitude for Organ Physiology, calculating proper drug doses for Pharmacology, and patient interviewing for our doctoring class, just to name a few. For me, small groups have been SUPER helpful to reinforce the information we get in lecture. As physicians, we will always be working in "small groups", teaching our colleagues and learning from one another. The new curriculum will be a great way to foster this type of environment.
c. GRADING: Starting next year, your class will be completely pass/fail for the first two years, and there are honors possible during your clinical rotations. As far as I know, ever school has honors during the clinical rotations, as these are important for distinguishing candidates in the residency application process. And don't worry about demonstrating your excellence to residency directors in the absence of preclinical honors; according to our professors, residents, and the AAMC, clinical honors (NOT preclinical honors) are very important for residency placement.
----- 2. Incredible academic support! -----
The academic support at UCSD is incredible! UCSD is the only med school in the country with a dedicated professional tutorial office called OESS (Office for Educational Support and Services). There are several tutors with advanced science degrees whose job it is to know our lecture material, hold office hours and review sessions, and provide study materials. They are truly an amazing resource! The nice thing about medical school at UCSD is that unlike your undergraduate experience, you are no longer proving yourself here. We already know you are smart! Those that go to the OESS are not thought of as any less bright than those that don't go. On the contrary, those that go to OESS are the students who end up rocking the test!
Additionally, professors and fellow classmates are great resources. When I came to UCSD, I was truly amazing by how collaborative the students are. The mentality is that we want to succeed as a class. Because of the way our grading system is set up, no one has to fail. If the whole class scores above a 70%, then we all passed! I spend very little time studying by myself, and am often in the library's group study rooms going over lectures or doing practice problems with classmates. We also have a forum where students post questions on lecture material, and other students, professors or OESS respond. It is an amazing resource! One of my classmates wrote over one hundred practice problems for a recent test, and posted it online for others to use. People also post charts, mnemonics, outside resources, etc. The tutorial office, in addition to the podcasting and note taking services, shows us that the school truly wants us to succeed.
There is a myth that circulated during MY application cycle that UCSD is full of competitive, unhappy gunners. This is absolutely untrue, for the reasons I have described above. I WILL say that this sentiment used to be true; however, our new administration (Dean Kelly et. al.) has done a spectacular job of choosing great students and creating specific programs and a general atmosphere that is very warm and welcoming. We work together to understand the challenging material. The collaborative environment is one of the things I love most about UCSD SOM.
----- 3. Electives, extracurriculars, and research -----
a. ELECTIVES: UCSD offers a broad range of interesting electives every quarter. I am currently taking Medical Spanish, and learning how to teach a diabetic patient to how to measure blood sugar completely in Spanish. I am also taking the free clinic class. This brings me to another amazing thing about UCSD, the Student Run Free Clinics! There are three clinic sites, Pacific Beach, Downtown, and Baker. Each clinic serves a unique patient population with particular challenges. In addition to providing primary care, there are also specialty clinics for Cardiology, Neurology, Dermatology, Orthopedics, Women's Health and many more! In addition, we also offer acupuncture and dental care. These clinics are a great way to practice the skills of interviewing and physical examination that you learn in class. For me, it has been a great way to remind myself each week of why I am in medical school! Other electives include preceptorships in various specialties, International Health, Politics of Medicine, Nutrition, and more… There's another neat one in which you get assigned to a pregnant woman, go to all her appointments, and get to see the birth. This is an awesome way to tailor your curriculum to YOU!
b. EXTRACURRICULARS: The medical students are active in extracurricular activities on and off campus! There are many student interest groups that you can be can interact with formally or informally. For example, the various interest groups invite physicians in the field to speak about their experiences, usually during our lunch breaks (lunch provided!). Many students are involved in sports activities. For example, a group of students meets every Friday to play pick-up soccer. Many students also play Intramural sports such as basketball. There are also awesome classes offered through the UCSD Recreation Department. I have always wanted to learn to surf, so this fall I posted on our student forum about taking a surf class. A bunch of my class mates signed up as well, so all of Fall quarter I learned to surf with 12 of my classmates (that's 10% of the class!!) Some of my classmates have taken dance classes, tennis classes etc. Pretty much if there is something you want to be involved in, you will find it here at UCSD. And if not, you can start your own club or interest group! It is important to
c. RESEARCH: Research at UCSD is amazingly easy to get involved in, and extremely well-supported. So many grants are available from the NIH that most people able to get one. When (x student), the second year Incoming Student Representative was searching for a lab last year, the first doctor she emailed replied eagerly, offered her a first-authorship, and told her not to worry about funding! You should feel free to email her to find out more about her research experience (email address was inserted here). Now, you don't have to do research by any means – you may have heard about our required Independent Study Project (to be completed by graduation), but this doesn't have to be basic science research. It could be creating a healthy eating curriculum for local kids, writing poetry about medicine, or doing a clinical study on diabetic patients. It's whatever you make it out to be, and it can be a great asset for residency applications. We even get time off in fourth year to finish the project.
----- 4. The indescribable awesomeness of my classmates -----
In my opinion, this is the MOST important reason to choose to come to UCSD. My classmates (yes, both the first and second years) are so friendly, supportive, interesting, inclusive, and intelligent. They are some of the most amazing people I have ever met. Although I am not friends with every single person in the class, I can honestly say that I can pick out something awesome about every single one of my peers. The vast majority of social activities are open to everyone: happy hour, birthday parties, camping trips etc. Just this past weekend, people posted on the forum about going to restaurant week (great time to try new restaurants!), beach camping, IM basketball, and a movie night. When I came to interview at UCSD, I realized that I really liked the people that I had the chance to interact with. I encourage you to take this into consideration when choosing a medical school. You will be spending an extraordinary amount of time with your classmates, and hopefully they are people who you not only get along with, but can learn from and enjoy spending time with.
----- 5. The super supportive administration -----
The administration truly listens to what we want and does what it can to take action. They've worked to accommodate our requests and concerns regarding testing dates and lecture organization. They also emphasize that their doors are open to all of us, and I would honestly feel comfortable going to any of them if I had a major problem. By the way, they actually know your name! I was amazed at the beginning of the year when Dean Kelly or Ramon Aldecoa, the Director of Student Life, said hello to me by name and struck up a conversation. We can't express how wonderful it is to be in such a supportive environment!
----- 6. Life in gorgeous, interesting San Diego -----
There are so many things to do, regardless of what you like. Location is SO important during medical school because it's stressful and you NEED to have a way to escape and relax. San Diego is perfect for me –it might not be perfect for you, so I hope to give you a picture of what life is like here so that you can decide if it's right for you too.
I love that there are a variety of districts with different places to explore. You can find everything from great comedy clubs to fun bars to fancy restaurants to the zoo to public parks to beaches (GORGEOUS!!!) to cheap Mexican food. It's great that San Diego has downtown areas but still maintains a relaxed, suburban feel –it's not as crazy and fast-paced as New York. In fact, a nationwide survey recently came out that ranked San Diego as the #2 most desirable place to live in the United States! (Apparently, Denver is marginally cooler…😉
And finally – don't underestimate the importance of weather! Medical school is hard enough, and anything you can do to make it easier (such as not having to shovel snow or take the Metro to school) will definitely help you out in the long run! It makes a big difference when we get stressed or tired. Whether or not this beautiful climate is right for you, I do think you should consider all these location-related factors when you choose your medical school.
----- 7. Housing -----
On-campus housing is one option – apartments are decent (but dormish in appearance, not so stylish) and pretty cheap, maybe $400-700/month. There's a new housing complex being built (you might have seen the construction during your visit) that'll provide more options for health sciences students as well. I currently live in One Miramar, which is one of the newest grad student housing complexes. I love it because I can walk to campus (about a 15 minute walk), or I can take the FREE UCSD shuttle if it is late or raining. Additionally, there are many off-campus housing options to choose from! There is a huge area of apartments that house undergrad and grad students within a couple miles of campus, and you can expect to pay $700-800/month for these nicer places. Some students, particularly in 3rd and 4th year, choose to move closer to the downtown hospitals; the Hillcrest area is a little cheaper and more "hip" (lots of cool restaurants and all that good stuff).
You have made it to the end of what has been a very long novel about why UCSD is awesome… I commend you. There are a lot of wonderful things to discover, and I hope I've shown you a good taste of that.
I wish you the best of luck with the rest of your interviews. Please let me know if you have any other questions about UCSD! I am looking forward to an awesome incoming class!
🙁🙁🙁🙁🙁 This just makes me feel worse about not being accepted here yet. I'm in the pool of acceptable applicants. This is my first choice by far! I am currently going to UCSD for undergrad and I want to stay here. Thanks anyways for the info though🙁🙁🙁🙁
