2013-2014 University of California - San Diego Application Thread

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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Yeah it's in La Jolla so there really aren't any super cheap hotels that are within walking distance. It's why I suggested trying the students hosts again. But the Sheraton and Hyatt are both within walking distance.
 
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anguisette said:
Students are on break right now so you may not hear back from them until they come back. You can also try emailing again if you haven't heard back after a while. We get flooded by so many emails that it's really easy to miss a hosting request. Please don't take offense!
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Awww ok. My interview is next week though so I'm kinda in need of some confirmation. Do you have any hotel suggestions?
 
got 'Hold' email on 11/26.....Should there be a date for "Hold for Interview" on the Applicant Status Check page?
 
So I never got a hold for interview and I've been complete since 10/10. Anyone else in the same situation?
 
RealReplicant said:
So I never got a hold for interview and I've been complete since 10/10. Anyone else in the same situation?
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Yes, complete since 11/14. Most likely they have not gotten to looking at our applications yet.

I woke up this morning with an email from ucsd.edu in my inbox, only to find that it is a notification that I have a billing statement from them. Eh...
 
I was complete on 9/16 and still no Hold status. What do you guys think that means? :\
 
Glad I'm not the only one! I was complete on 9/24 and no word yet.
 
Being Californian sucks, basically our only option for medical schools are amongst the top in the nation that
aren't as obligated to favor their own residents. Every other school I've been rejected from thus far are all out
of state Pitt, BU, etc...I got an II from Davis pretty quickly after submission (the only school that really caters to Californians)
but I have plenty of friends with great stats that haven't heard anything from any of the UCs.
I feel like Californians need to change this system, we need some assurance that our public schools will meet the demands
of our tax paying population (I'm not paying state taxes so that some princeton bloke can sit pretty at UCLA). Sorry about this
rant, its just depressing the lack of security we Californians have.
 
^ Like you said, CA has some top-tier schools. Like other top public schools, they want promising students like that Princeton student.

Given how many people move in, move out of CA. How many international people live there, CA is the last state to really care who is "native" or not.
 
solitarius said:
^ Like you said, CA has some top-tier schools. Like other top public schools, they want promising students like that Princeton student.

Given how many people move in, move out of CA. How many international people live there, CA is the last state to really care who is "native" or not.
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I don't really think that's the right attitude. I've lived here the entirety of my life, and most of my classmates at UCB had also been native californians the entirety of their lives. I think a lot of professionals move in and out of the state, but when it comes to students most of us have resided here a long time. The reason they don't care is entirely due to rankings, not because of the demographic of CA.
 
RealReplicant said:
I don't really think that's the right attitude. I've lived here the entirety of my life, and most of my classmates at UCB had also been native californians the entirety of their lives. I think a lot of professionals move in and out of the state, but when it comes to students most of us have resided here a long time. The reason they don't care is entirely due to rankings, not because of the demographic of CA.
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Yeah, but in the aggregate, a lot of people move in and out of California. It's one of the least-rooted states in the country. Go to a lot of other states, and you'll see everyone and their extended relatives never having left the immediate area and very firmly identifying with their town.

Can you really say you'll live in California your whole life? You may want to, but it's an expensive place to live and is known for transiency. Besides, it's not like the UCs admit OOS people at the rate of Michigan or Virginia or even New York. And who is to say those OOS students don't stay after residency?

Like you said, UCSD/UCLA/UCSF are elite schools who are more interested in their reputations, research, their clinical facilities, and getting top-tier faculty and students. And they probably are less reliant on taxpayer money than schools like Texas, Washington, Hawaii.
 
solitarius said:
Yeah, but in the aggregate, a lot of people move in and out of California. It's one of the least-rooted states in the country. Go to a lot of other states, and you'll see everyone and their extended relatives never having left the immediate area and very firmly identifying with their town.

Can you really say you'll live in California your whole life? You may want to, but it's an expensive place to leave and is known for transiency. Besides, it's not like the UCs admit OOS people at the rate of Michigan or Virginia or even New York. And who is to say those OOS students don't stay after residency?

Like you said, UCSD/UCLA/UCSF are elite schools who are more interested in their reputations, research, their clinical facilities, and getting top-tier faculty and students. And they probably are less reliant on taxpayer money than schools like Texas, Washington, Hawaii.
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You're right that there's transiency- in Berkeley, SF, Oakland, LA, SD. But they could fix that by making the residency question more difficult like Hawaii does.

Also, in the majority of CA outside of those big cities people are born and raised, at least as far as I've come across. I, for one, was born and raised, haven't left for more than a vacation ever. And other than UCLA, I'm pretty sure you're incorrect on that taxpayer statement. LA got a huge grant from someone releasing them from that obligation.

Just curious, are you a Californian? Transplant or born and raised?
 
lall said:
You're right that there's transiency- in Berkeley, SF, Oakland, LA, SD. But they could fix that by making the residency question more difficult like Hawaii does.

Also, in the majority of CA outside of those big cities people are born and raised, at least as far as I've come across. I, for one, was born and raised, haven't left for more than a vacation ever. And other than UCLA, I'm pretty sure you're incorrect on that taxpayer statement. LA got a huge grant from someone releasing them from that obligation.

Just curious, are you a Californian? Transplant or born and raised?
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I grew up part of my life there, so I'm pretty familiar with it. I'm living in the Pacific Northwest currently. You mention there's a lot of transiency in the coastal California cities, which unfortunately, is where most of the population is.

A lot of medical schools get their funding from federal research dollars, patient care, patents, partnership with private companies, etc. Even though Geffen gave UCLA a lot of money, I'm sure UCSF and UCSD attract a lot of money beyond the state government. In Texas, for example, the UTs secure their money from the state and entered into a formal agreement to ensure 90% of the class are Texans. Likewise, U-Dub has to seek legislative funding for each seat. Both are tough for OOS.

But my point is that even if they did get a lot of money from Sacramento, it's not like the politicians there identify with a strong nativist streak. Many of those pols probably immigrated to CA.
 
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solitarius said:
I grew up part of my life there, so I'm pretty familiar with it. I'm living in the Pacific Northwest currently.

A lot of medical schools get their funding from federal research dollars, patient care, patents, partnership with private companies, etc. Even though Geffen gave UCLA a lot of money, I'm sure UCSF and UCSD attract a lot of money beyond the state government.

But my point is that even if they did get a lot of money from Sacramento, it's not like the politicians there identify with a strong nativist streak. Many of those pols probably immigrated to CA.
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You're right on that last piece.

But I stand by my opinion that they could make the residency portion harder to qualify for. It really blows having residency in CA during this and for those of us born and bred, it'd be nice to have a state school to fall back on.

The larger issue, more than CA medical schools letting in OOS, is actually in the sheer number of our applicants. I personally don't think from the numbers that CA schools are all that friendly to OOSers. Its just that there are SOOOOO many overqualified CA applicants and not enough state school seats that we're not as lucky as other state residents.

Meh. Can't do anything about it, just put the best foot forward and hope for the best in return, I guess
 
lall said:
You're right that there's transiency- in Berkeley, SF, Oakland, LA, SD. But they could fix that by making the residency question more difficult like Hawaii does.

Also, in the majority of CA outside of those big cities people are born and raised, at least as far as I've come across. I, for one, was born and raised, haven't left for more than a vacation ever. And other than UCLA, I'm pretty sure you're incorrect on that taxpayer statement. LA got a huge grant from someone releasing them from that obligation.

Just curious, are you a Californian? Transplant or born and raised?
Click to expand...

Personally I was raised in a very small town removed from the major cities. As a California native there are plenty of people here whose roots go back to the 1920/1930s. But honestly that shouldn't matter. When I was at Berkeley one of my professors gave a speech about how when he was a young grad student all the UCs were for the people of California and only recently since budget cuts, GPA inflations, out of state tuition gouges has that all changed. Basically, as Californian residents we're not active enough in policy to really make a change for ourselves and create policies that protect the Californian peoples.
Right now Berkeley itself is pumping itself full with more and more out of staters to cope with budget cuts, our basic classes are overrun with 800+ students, the GSIs here are responsible for most of our personal education (and honestly they really don't care, they're more concerned with their own research) its really just a nightmare right now to be a Californian. My friends who went to other universities like UTSW or UT Austin or any smaller state schools seem to have a better education just on the basis of more personalized faculty attention rather than ranking.

I don't blame the UCs for wanting the best students, I just think there needs to be better implemented policies to protect the education of native Californians.
 
RealReplicant said:
Personally I was raised in a very small town removed from the major cities. As a California native there are plenty of people here whose roots go back to the 1920/1930s. But honestly that shouldn't matter. When I was at Berkeley one of my professors gave a speech about how when he was a young grad student all the UCs were for the people of California and only recently since budget cuts, GPA inflations, out of state tuition gouges has that all changed. Basically, as Californian residents we're not active enough in policy to really make a change for ourselves and create policies that protect the Californian peoples.
Right now Berkeley itself is pumping itself full with more and more out of staters to cope with budget cuts, our basic classes are overrun with 800+ students, the GSIs here are responsible for most of our personal education (and honestly they really don't care, they're more concerned with their own research) its really just a nightmare right now to be a Californian. My friends who went to other universities like UTSW or UT Austin or any smaller state schools seem to have a better education just on the basis of more personalized faculty attention rather than ranking.

I don't blame the UCs for wanting the best students, I just think there needs to be better implemented policies to protect the education of native Californians.
Click to expand...
great post. totally agree. at this point, i often wish i had gone outside of the uc system for undergrad. so many people crammed into each class, it was so hard to make any meaningful relationships with your fellow students as well as professors
 
lall said:
The larger issue, more than CA medical schools letting in OOS, is actually in the sheer number of our applicants. I personally don't think from the numbers that CA schools are all that friendly to OOSers. Its just that there are SOOOOO many overqualified CA applicants and not enough state school seats that we're not as lucky as other state residents.
Click to expand...
This. +1

RealReplicant said:
Personally I was raised in a very small town removed from the major cities. As a California native there are plenty of people here whose roots go back to the 1920/1930s. But honestly that shouldn't matter. When I was at Berkeley one of my professors gave a speech about how when he was a young grad student all the UCs were for the people of California and only recently since budget cuts, GPA inflations, out of state tuition gouges has that all changed. Basically, as Californian residents we're not active enough in policy to really make a change for ourselves and create policies that protect the Californian peoples.
Right now Berkeley itself is pumping itself full with more and more out of staters to cope with budget cuts, our basic classes are overrun with 800+ students, the GSIs here are responsible for most of our personal education (and honestly they really don't care, they're more concerned with their own research) its really just a nightmare right now to be a Californian. My friends who went to other universities like UTSW or UT Austin or any smaller state schools seem to have a better education just on the basis of more personalized faculty attention rather than ranking.

I don't blame the UCs for wanting the best students, I just think there needs to be better implemented policies to protect the education of native Californians.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I don't really think it's that UCs don't give preference to CA residents. Because more or less, they do. It is the fact that there are simply TOO many well-qualified applicants from CA. CA not only has the most pre-meds out of any state in the US, CA applicants also tend to be cream of the crop.

Even if the UCs give preference to CA residents, as a CA resident, you are still competing with thousands of CA applicants with super stellar application. Just take the bay area for example (because I am from there). Many ORM kids are raised and groomed to go into medical school since they are born. They go to tutors, play sports, play musical instruments, do research since high school, travel abroad to volunteer, parents are doctors, and they excel in school. Just imagine having these applicants all over California both norcal and socal.

So, I think it's simply because there are TOO many well-qualified pre-meds in CA, and the probability is just not in most of our favor if we are not the cream of the crop.
 
smile8888 said:
This. +1



To be honest, I don't really think it's that UCs don't give preference to CA residents. Because more or less, they do. It is the fact that there are simply TOO many well-qualified applicants from CA. CA not only has the most pre-meds out of any state in the US, CA applicants also tend to be cream of the crop.

Even if the UCs give preference to CA residents, as a CA resident, you are still competing with thousands of CA applicants with super stellar application. Just take the bay area for example (because I am from there). Many ORM kids are raised and groomed to go into medical school since they are born. They go to tutors, play sports, play musical instruments, do research since high school, travel abroad to volunteer, parents are doctors, and they excel in school. Just imagine having these applicants all over California both norcal and socal.

So, I think it's simply because there are TOO many well-qualified pre-meds in CA, and the probability is just not in most of our favor if we are not the cream of the crop.
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I graduated with a degree in Chem with above average stats. I did award winning research (pub in process).
However, I had to work during undergrad and between research and studying didn't really have enough time to start my own clinic,
or scrub children down for lice in Mexico. Because of my TWO jobs I couldn't really get all my secondaries out till October, but you know that's life
and a lot of these new med students will feel the burn when mommy and daddy aren't there to wait on them hand and foot as they fill out secondaries or study for the mcat.
 
solitarius said:
I grew up part of my life there, so I'm pretty familiar with it. I'm living in the Pacific Northwest currently. You mention there's a lot of transiency in the coastal California cities, which unfortunately, is where most of the population is.

A lot of medical schools get their funding from federal research dollars, patient care, patents, partnership with private companies, etc. Even though Geffen gave UCLA a lot of money, I'm sure UCSF and UCSD attract a lot of money beyond the state government. In Texas, for example, the UTs secure their money from the state and entered into a formal agreement to ensure 90% of the class are Texans. Likewise, U-Dub has to seek legislative funding for each seat. Both are tough for OOS.

But my point is that even if they did get a lot of money from Sacramento, it's not like the politicians there identify with a strong nativist streak. Many of those pols probably immigrated to CA.
Click to expand...

The dean of admission at UCSF referenced this. I didn't verify this elsewhere, but what he said was that three UC schools (I'm assuming Riverside, Irvine, and Davis) can take pretty much only CA residents. Because of the Geffen grant, UCLA is permitted to take a fair share of OOS students. UCSF is supposed to take 80% CA residents (not sure if this is explicitly legislated) but is allowed to have a class that's 20% OOS/international so it can maintain its high ranking and commitment to accepting the "best" students from everywhere. Funny that UCSD is the one school that wasn't mentioned in the conversation. But the takeaway was that the more money a UC receives from private sources, the more OOS students they are allowed to take by the state legislature.
 
lall said:
You're right on that last piece.

But I stand by my opinion that they could make the residency portion harder to qualify for. It really blows having residency in CA during this and for those of us born and bred, it'd be nice to have a state school to fall back on.

The larger issue, more than CA medical schools letting in OOS, is actually in the sheer number of our applicants. I personally don't think from the numbers that CA schools are all that friendly to OOSers. Its just that there are SOOOOO many overqualified CA applicants and not enough state school seats that we're not as lucky as other state residents.

Meh. Can't do anything about it, just put the best foot forward and hope for the best in return, I guess
Click to expand...
Which is why I think schools in general, especially CA schools, should expand their class sizes. We have a major physician shortage, and will even have a bigger one when obamacare is implemented. I don't see why schools wont do this, youll get more money with more students which will allow you to hire more teachers and expand medical facilities. The investment makes complete sense and would make our needs and future health care needs to be met. Sometimes the way schools act befuddles me, they want us to sell the idea that we really care about their school, yet I feel they could care less about the majority of us.
 
So if we sent a secondary and haven't heard from them yet (didn't get a hold e-mail that a lot of people seem to have gotten last Tuesday), is that supposed to be a good thing? I'm really hoping no news is good news here.
 
TheBossDoctor said:
So if we sent a secondary and haven't heard from them yet (didn't get a hold e-mail that a lot of people seem to have gotten last Tuesday), is that supposed to be a good thing? I'm really hoping no news is good news here.
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I'm in the same boat! Complete as of 9/27 but only silence since then. From last year's forum it looks like a few people got II's in December even after the hold emails went out, although it seems like a bunch of rejections went out in December also.

My guess: no news might be good news. Stay positive, we're not out of game yet.
 
medschoolmyname said:
Which is why I think schools in general, especially CA schools, should expand their class sizes. We have a major physician shortage, and will even have a bigger one when obamacare is implemented. I don't see why schools wont do this, youll get more money with more 540273 medical facilities.
Click to expand...

They've all expanded their class sizes, but for them, adding 15 seats is a big deal.

Medical training is very much a guild-like apprentice model. This fundamentally restricts the economies of scale a school can obtain. It's not b/c they can't fit more people into lecture; that's the easy part. It's b/c they can't fit more people into the personalized part of the training like 3rd year and other apprentice situations in the preclinical years.
 
solitarius said:
They've all expanded their class sizes, but for them, adding 15 seats is a big deal.

Medical training is very much a guild-like apprentice model. This fundamentally restricts the economies of scale a school can obtain. It's not b/c they can't fit more people into lecture; that's the easy part. It's b/c they can't fit more people into the personalized part of the training like 3rd year and other apprentice situations in the preclinical years.
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Don't forget about the number of residency spots! There are new medical schools seemingly added every year, but no new hospitals with residency spots are being made. I think that's the real bottleneck at this point.
 
mdhopeeful said:
Don't forget about the number of residency spots! There are new medical schools seemingly added every year, but no new hospitals with residency spots are being made. I think that's the real bottleneck at this point.
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This is the real problem. There are already more med school seats than residency spots, and with a few new med schools opening recently and soon in the future, competition for those spots will only grow. Adding more med school seats will only make the competition worse. To fix the physician shortage, the problem of residency spots is really what needs to be addressed.
 
Can someone copy and paste the hold email everyone got last week. I'm curious what it said.
 
RealReplicant said:
Can someone copy and paste the hold email everyone got last week. I'm curious what it said.
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I apologize for the lack of communication on our part regarding the status of your application to the UCSD School of Medicine. Our Recruitment and Admissions Committee has completed its review of your application. The Committee initially makes one of three decisions. Applicants may be invited for an interview, placed on “hold” for an interview, or receive no further consideration for an interview.

You have been placed on “hold” for an interview. Our Committee will again review the applications of those on “hold” for an interview by late January 2014. We anticipate that additional interview offers will be extended at that time, but we are unable to assess/approximate the likelihood for any individual applicant. Applicants that will not be invited will also be notified by email of our decision.

We are not able to provide “feedback” to applicants on why this decision was made.

Every year applicants ask us if they can provide updates on activities, or additional letters of recommendation, or “letters of intent.” Please do not send any additional materials – interview decisions will be based on the materials we have already received through the regular application processes.

Thank you for your interest in the UCSD School of Medicine entering class of 2014.
 
JB4488 said:
I apologize for the lack of communication on our part regarding the status of your application to the UCSD School of Medicine. Our Recruitment and Admissions Committee has completed its review of your application. The Committee initially makes one of three decisions. Applicants may be invited for an interview, placed on “hold” for an interview, or receive no further consideration for an interview.

You have been placed on “hold” for an interview. Our Committee will again review the applications of those on “hold” for an interview by late January 2014. We anticipate that additional interview offers will be extended at that time, but we are unable to assess/approximate the likelihood for any individual applicant. Applicants that will not be invited will also be notified by email of our decision.

We are not able to provide “feedback” to applicants on why this decision was made.

Every year applicants ask us if they can provide updates on activities, or additional letters of recommendation, or “letters of intent.” Please do not send any additional materials – interview decisions will be based on the materials we have already received through the regular application processes.

Thank you for your interest in the UCSD School of Medicine entering class of 2014.
Click to expand...

Someone said earlier back that thousands of these emails were sent out. How can anyone actually know that?
 
RealReplicant said:
Someone said earlier back that thousands of these emails were sent out. How can anyone actually know that?
Click to expand...

Someone called the admissions office, and Brian told the applicant that there will be ~2000 applicants on hold.
 
surfdoc29 said:
This is the real problem. There are already more med school seats than residency spots, and with a few new med schools opening recently and soon in the future, competition for those spots will only grow. Adding more med school seats will only make the competition worse. To fix the physician shortage, the problem of residency spots is really what needs to be addressed.
Click to expand...
Totally agree with you, which is why when I mentioned expanding class sizes I also meant that residency spots should also increase.
 
medschoolmyname said:
Totally agree with you, which is why when I mentioned expanding class sizes I also meant that residency spots should also increase.
Click to expand...

If you can come up with a sustainable solution to create more residency spots, I think any medical school in the country would accept you with open arms. We know what the problem is, but it's hard to find a solution.
 
Hi Guys, I have always stalked SDN but have not ever posted. I just wanted to let people know that I called in two weeks ago, got ahold of Brian. He told me I had just been placed "on hold" but they had not updated my status. During the call I clarified that I was on official hold status not the pseudo-hold that has also popped up on this thread. My status has still not been updated online. Just to give you a bit of hope if you have not been placed on hold status yet, I think they are probably a bit back-logged on status updates.
 
crapshoot said:
Hi Guys, I have always stalked SDN but have not ever posted. I just wanted to let people know that I called in two weeks ago, got ahold of Brian. He told me I had just been placed "on hold" but they had not updated my status. During the call I clarified that I was on official hold status not the pseudo-hold that has also popped up on this thread. My status has still not been updated online. Just to give you a bit of hope if you have not been placed on hold status yet, I think they are probably a bit back-logged on status updates.
Click to expand...
what do you mean by pseudo hold status?
 
Just to warn everyone:

I had a dream last night that UCSD changed the interview format from interviews to laser tag. It looked like it was taking place on campus, but the campus was turned into a huge adult version of a McDonald's play place. The winner was granted immediate admission and everyone else was put on a hold list.

I don't want to start any rumors, but my dreams have been accurate in the past.

Good luck everyone!👍
 
JB4488 said:
Yeah...hold is hold (application reviewed but no final decision reached)...what did admissions say to make you think your status was different?
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Some people above mentioned they had been placed an a "hold-like status"
JB4488 said:
Yeah...hold is hold (application reviewed but no final decision reached)...what did admissions say to make you think your status was different?
Click to expand...

I thought some people earlier on this thread, or on last year's thread had mentioned that Brian told them they were on a "hold-like status" but would never get an official hold update. This is what I meant by pseudo-hold. I only clarified that I had a normal hold, like everyone else, meaning I should eventually get a status update.
 
juliuspepperwood said:
whats movement off the wait list like?
Click to expand...
I heard last year's movement was decent (40-50) from a current M1 but also that there's no movement from someone on SDN who said they contacted admissions. Would anyone like to clear it up?
 
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JB4488 said:
II just now, after being put on hold a few weeks ago! I can't believe it - so ecstatic!

Hope some other people hear good news today too!
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What are your stats? In-state? Submission date?
 
TheKMan1 said:
What are your stats? In-state? Submission date?
Click to expand...
Stats middle of the road (3.7 sGPA, ~35 mcat), non-traditional with strong research and health policy background, a lot of clinical experience, and some unique ECs. Im from CA but now qualify as OOS.

Oh and complete late September. I got the "hold" email about 2000 of us got a week or 2 ago - so there's still hope!
 
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JB4488 said:
Stats middle of the road (3.7 sGPA, ~35 mcat), non-traditional with strong research and health policy background, a lot of clinical experience, and some unique ECs. Im from CA but now qualify as OOS.

Oh and complete late September. I got the "hold" email about 2000 of us got a week or 2 ago - so there's still hope!
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In case anyone is curious, available dates are last week of January and first week of Feb.
 
II invite! Super excited!
IS/27/3.73 lots of EC, research and an unique background/story

Interview dates available 1/30- 7 spots available, about 4 dates in Feb half filled and the last date in Feb- 30 spots available. There will be 32 people per date, which is so different from UCLA( only 8 people).
 
Given the recent weather in the northeast, I would REALLY love an II here as an excuse to get out of the snow!
 
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