2012-2013 University of California - San Francisco Application Thread

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DrDresophila said:
Anyone have info on this...? Just curious 🙂
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I could be wrong, but I think it's both. Dean Wofsy said that the oos screen is pre interview so I'm just guessing it includes both stages.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
When does UCSF stop giving out interview invites? And what are the final interview dates?
 
jay516 said:
I wonder when the next batch of decisions are coming out?
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I think we should be hearing back at the end of the month, if I can recall what Dr. Wolfsy said
 
Sorry to hear it... Did you interview? Or when were you complete if not?
 
just received II, still a lot of dates left for jan and feb.
 
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congrats!! when were you complete? I am definitely relieved to hear that there are dates still open
 
ii last night, two left in january, almost the whole month of feb still open. 🙂 I'm super happy I got this chance, although Pritzker is a hard act to follow. Hope to see you there!
 
alisvolatpropri said:
ii last night, two left in january, almost the whole month of feb still open. 🙂 I'm super happy I got this chance, although Pritzker is a hard act to follow. Hope to see you there!
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UCSF > Pritzker
California > Illinois
San Francisco > Chicago



It's a clear cut choice. Good luck 😀
 
Does anyone know whether to email a letter of interest/intent to the admissions office or dean wofsy post interview/decision?
 
obviouslyteal said:
Curious about this too! Is this your number 1 choice, Goobs? After my interview here I'm seriously thinking that it might be, and wonder if I should send a similar letter of interest. Was thinking that as soon as I walked out of my interview, honestly! Loved this place so much.

Let me know if you figure out where to send 🙂
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It's my #1 by a long shot! I got waitlisted here last month so by the look of last year's thread I'm waiting until mid-May. It doesn't seem like anyone knows who to send the letter to though haha
 
what are the interviews like here? are they conversational and low stress? i have one coming up. thanks.
 
twentythousand said:
what are the interviews like here? are they conversational and low stress? i have one coming up. thanks.
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Very low stress and conversational. It is honestly more like a recruiting day than anything, and they do a great job of selling you on the school. My interviews were 30-60 minutes, one MD, one student, closed file.
 
Just received an email about my status but can't open the pdf link. Guessing it's a rejection since it is a pdf letter... 🙁
 
ZJX90 said:
Just received an email about my status but can't open the pdf link. Guessing it's a rejection since it is a pdf letter... 🙁
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Doesn't work in Chrome, opens fine in Firefox.

In other news, post-secondary rejection for me.
 
Rejection here as well. I'm devastated. UCSF was my #1 choice.

3.7/33N, Psyc major, focus on gender/sexual minorities.

PDF did not work in Chrome but did on Safari (I'm on a Mac).
 
would people who were rejected mind listing when they were complete? sorry about the news, guys 🙁
 
RoseHelene said:
Rejection here as well. I'm devastated. UCSF was my #1 choice.

3.7/33N, Psyc major, focus on gender/sexual minorities.

PDF did not work in Chrome but did on Safari (I'm on a Mac).
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Sorry for the bad news.

I have one question to you, and please feel free to ignore it if it just annoys right now - I am a psych major myself at Cal (althout a non-traditional student: 27yo, served as a medic in the military), and I was wondering if there's something about your application that you suspect is the reason for not being accepted?

Good luck with your other applications.
 
PigBear said:
Sorry for the bad news.

I have one question to you, and please feel free to ignore it if it just annoys right now - I am a psych major myself at Cal (althout a non-traditional student: 27yo, served as a medic in the military), and I was wondering if there's something about your application that you suspect is the reason for not being accepted?

Good luck with your other applications.
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It's UCSF man. It's much less about what was wrong with your application and more about how much better of an application other people had. And when I say better, I mean more of what the school is looking for. These schools are so selective that you can do everything right, get interviews at other top schools and still get rejected here without even getting a secondary. Good luck to you though.
 
obviouslyteal said:
Your question wasn't directed at me, but I'm going to go ahead and say that no one knows why a particular school will reject you/accept you/whatever. If you have decent stats like this person does, and were offered a secondary, it's anybody's best guess as to why the next decision was made!

I have extremely similar stats to the poster above, psych major and non trad also, and I have interviewed here already. I also submitted in October. It's a random process, so many of us are qualified and it comes down to the nitpicking (Dean Wofsy stresses this so so much during interview day too!)

Thinking about what "might" have gone wrong isn't really productive, in my opinion. Especially for a specific school. Best of luck to you!
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Mavii said:
It's UCSF man. It's much less about what was wrong with your application and more about how much better of an application other people had. And when I say better, I mean more of what the school is looking for. These schools are so selective that you can do everything right, get interviews at other top schools and still get rejected here without even getting a secondary. Good luck to you though.
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Thank you both.

I haven't applied yet, so I can't just flat out say that I disagree with you. However, from talking to quite a few UCSF med students, I noticed that none of them majored in humanities, or anything other than some form of science (there's a short video clip on UCSF's website in which students introduce themselves. There was one students who said he majored in Psych). Also, I noticed that this theme - everything went great, and I still wasn't accepted - is quite prevalent. But at the same time, some applicants, often in hindsight, can point to a factor that they think is the "culprit" for their rejection. May it be OOS, a very traditional student, not enough research, feeling that something in the interview didn't go as well as it could have.

I understand that it's a game of margins for those who do get the interview, and possibly even those who are asked to submit a secondary. And that is why I asked specifically this applicant - who has the same major as I do, and did research that, it seems to me, is unrelated directly to medicine or neuroscience, but is more focused on a behavioral aspect of life. considering the similarities in our educational backgrounds, I was wondering if I could benefit from this applicant's experience.

As for getting interviews at other top schools and being rejected, it could be because a person is from one coast vs. another. It is my impression that schools often will not accept students after an interview if they doubt that the applicant will move from one coast to another to attend their school. This, however, doesn't seem to be the case with RoseHelene, as UCSF was her top choice.

Perhaps I'm a bit too anal about this process at my current stage, but considering my life situation (live in bay area with wife + newborn with bilateral club-foot that is treated in the area, mortgage, family, AKA support network, in the east bay & SF), being accepted elsewhere but not in UCSF will involve very, very dramatic life changes, that I very strongly prefer to avoid.

Thanks again for the feedback, and I will go back to following your application process from the sidelines as I did up until now. Good luck to you!
 
^

Hey, I feel what you're saying. The thing is, though, is that no one can actually pinpoint why they got rejected. When they say things like "Maybe a bad LOR", "I was from a different coast", "I wore brown shoes", etc, it's all just justification. They don't know why they got rejected so they just take some random guesses. At the end of the day, they still don't know why they got rejected and no amount of reasoning, aside from reasons given by the school itself, is going to change that.

I understand that this school is in close proximity to you and you'd love to go here, but keep in mind that this a dream school for thousands of applicants and it also happens to be a consistently top medical school, so getting accepted is no small feat.

I personally wouldn't, and don't, set my expectations so high regarding any of the schools I'm waiting to hear back from. If it happens it happens. You don't know how many posters I've seen in these school-specific threads get rejected PRE-SECONDARY to their dream school; it's absolutely saddening to think what they're feeling. Of course there are certain schools I'd much rather attend over others but I'm not going to be devastated if I don't get into a specific school.

This is something I think you ought to come to gripes with as well. A school of this magnitude is no sure bet and by looking at the odds, you're going to have an extremely hard time getting accepted here. I don't know your stats and life story, but still, it's an extremely competitive school and no one knows why some get accepted and others don't even get a secondary. This is why so many applicants call the process random.

And please don't look at this as me trying to deter you, because that's not my intention. Hopefully you apply with an exceptional application that at least warrants you an interview and a chance for the school to see you in person. Good luck to you in the year to come. 👍


Now with all that said, I'm still waiting on a decision and I'm really hoping for an acceptance :laugh:
 
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Been complete since September and still no interview invite or rejection. I just want a response so I can stop checking my email and continue with getting my application on board to reapply this year.
 
Are you getting rejected post interview or pre? Maybe I'm not following this thread close enough but are people getting rejected post interview yet or are they just sending out acceptance and alternates?
 
PigBear said:
Thank you both.

I haven't applied yet, so I can't just flat out say that I disagree with you. However, from talking to quite a few UCSF med students, I noticed that none of them majored in humanities, or anything other than some form of science (there's a short video clip on UCSF's website in which students introduce themselves. There was one students who said he majored in Psych). Also, I noticed that this theme - everything went great, and I still wasn't accepted - is quite prevalent. But at the same time, some applicants, often in hindsight, can point to a factor that they think is the "culprit" for their rejection. May it be OOS, a very traditional student, not enough research, feeling that something in the interview didn't go as well as it could have.

I understand that it's a game of margins for those who do get the interview, and possibly even those who are asked to submit a secondary. And that is why I asked specifically this applicant - who has the same major as I do, and did research that, it seems to me, is unrelated directly to medicine or neuroscience, but is more focused on a behavioral aspect of life. considering the similarities in our educational backgrounds, I was wondering if I could benefit from this applicant's experience.

As for getting interviews at other top schools and being rejected, it could be because a person is from one coast vs. another. It is my impression that schools often will not accept students after an interview if they doubt that the applicant will move from one coast to another to attend their school. This, however, doesn't seem to be the case with RoseHelene, as UCSF was her top choice.

Perhaps I'm a bit too anal about this process at my current stage, but considering my life situation (live in bay area with wife + newborn with bilateral club-foot that is treated in the area, mortgage, family, AKA support network, in the east bay & SF), being accepted elsewhere but not in UCSF will involve very, very dramatic life changes, that I very strongly prefer to avoid.

Thanks again for the feedback, and I will go back to following your application process from the sidelines as I did up until now. Good luck to you!
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I have recently been fortunate enough to be accepted to UCSF. Although not completely applicable to your case, but most of my research had been more social science (psych) leaning rather than strictly science related. I was also an English minor (albeit a biology major). However, your question is more or less hinting at whether or not UCSF selects for more hard-science/research oriented students and I stated very clearly in my personal statement that I had little interest in a research-oriented career. I don't know if this is representative of most UCSF admits (you can find out some of this information on MSAR), but at least in my case, I don't think coming from a more liberal arts background hurt me during the process.
 
speakwhales said:
I have recently been fortunate enough to be accepted to UCSF. Although not completely applicable to your case, but most of my research had been more social science (psych) leaning rather than strictly science related. I was also an English minor (albeit a biology major). However, your question is more or less hinting at whether or not UCSF selects for more hard-science/research oriented students and I stated very clearly in my personal statement that I had little interest in a research-oriented career. I don't know if this is representative of most UCSF admits (you can find out some of this information on MSAR), but at least in my case, I don't think coming from a more liberal arts background hurt me during the process.
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Thank you for your feedback!

And, of course, congratulations.
 
No probs at all. I don't Know For Sure. My guess is a combination of ECs and hating to sell myself. Given that it's UCSF, I doubt it was my focus in gender/sexual minority health (I suspect that was a factor in my other rejections). I didn't start activities which showcase my passion for gender/sexual minority medicine until June of this year. That made things rather tricky. I mean, it's really good work now, it was just late.

I don't think it was my major - it's my understanding that about half of UCSF students were science/math majors. It definitely wasn't an OOS issue - I'm a California girl through and through. I do face a similar situation to you, though. My wife and I own the house and relocating would be really problematic if not impossible for her. So that definitely fed into UCSF being in the top choices (and the rest was gender/sexual minority support - I honestly don't care about it being "the best" or whatever).

My secondary was done in.... uhm... very early October as I remember. Maybe very late September.
 
obviouslyteal said:
Interviewed last week and they said they were having their next committee meeting tomorrow. So next batch should be coming out soon, I think!
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Did they say, or do you know, the dates of the batch of interviewees they were looking over? :scared:
 
obviouslyteal said:
Sorry, I don't! They said it wouldn't include us because we were too late (what with being interviewed just days before the meeting, rats!) I'm assuming though that they'll be going over anyone before January/the holidays.
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I believe only one interview day in November has been reviewed thus far. So they may or may not even get through everyone in December.
 
Interview Invite!! I almost couldn't handle logging into the system to check my status update since I had gotten a waitlist letter from stanford earlier today. But good news! I was complete nov 29, and there are still several dates open in feb. good luck everyone! my evening just got much better 🙂
 
obviouslyteal said:
Also curious about this!! I was told they were having another committee meeting last week but there's been no activity on here so... ??? I'd be curious to know if any post-interview decisions went out recently and what interview days they got through!
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Based on the activity of adcom in previous years, there should be a wave of waitlists today and a string of rejections by the end of the week.

The trend has been that they send waitlists the Monday after the meeting with rejections later that week.

But again, this is all speculation based on past events.
 
2010CalBear said:
Based on the activity of adcom in previous years, there should be a wave of waitlists today and a string of rejections by the end of the week.

The trend has been that they send waitlists the Monday after the meeting with rejections later that week.

But again, this is all speculation based on past events.
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Oh lawdy. It's going to suck if my interview day wasn't part of the review this week. Then that means we'd have to wait ANOTHER MONTH 😱 Did anyone verify up to what interview date they got to during the first round of decisions?
 
Mavii said:
Oh lawdy. It's going to suck if my interview day wasn't part of the review this week. Then that means we'd have to wait ANOTHER MONTH 😱 Did anyone verify up to what interview date they got to during the first round of decisions?
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Someone in the first week of November has heard back with an acceptance. I interviewed Mid-November and have not heard back yet. I assume that they have only reviewed the first week of November in the first round.
 
^ Sounds good. And now CalBear, since it is you who is making these claims, you MUST call the school and ask about the likelihood of decisions coming out today :whistle:
 
Do they discuss Interview Invites at an Adcom meeting?? Will more interview invites likely go out this week? I hope so!
 
for those who have interviewed, is the course update thing on the website required?
 
obviouslyteal said:
I wish you guys both the BEST of luck! Hopefully they'll get through many interview dates and release decisions soon so we can all get closer to the end of all this worry 🙂

Sending good vibes your way -- I'll probably be checking this thread neurotically!
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Many thanks. And good vibes to you too. I wonder when the next round of decisions is going out? hhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmm..

twentythousand said:
for those who have interviewed, is the course update thing on the website required?
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Well it did specifically ask what grades you've received since you submitted and when your other grades would become available. Personally, I debated about updating this since my fall grades (during interviews) went down a bit and I didn't want to risk my chances of getting waitlisted or rejected. But I finally thought to myself, that if I do end up getting rejected or wait listed, it won't have been because of a couple of B's (at least I'd like to think so :laugh:)

I updated it. I'll let you know how that turns out in the next few days or weeks 👍
 
[YOUTUBE]AkNwgtFYFXY[/YOUTUBE]
 
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