Current student here. Just to reply to you all,
@technolize was correct. There is no letter grading system at UCI. First year is P/F with an inconsequential "Letter of Commendation system" in place. IE I got above 90% in Physiology therefore in my Dean's letter they will have a line or two that says "Yo, KoalfiedMD is very koalified in physiology based on our arbitrary measurements of his success... you guys should be impressed." A few of these letters might look "good" on a residency application, but it will not be the difference between you getting into the residency program of your dreams vs. not matching. Years 2-4 are H/P/F which goes into an internal ranking system that basically says "So and so was great/excellent/outstanding in their time at UCI". This part matters slightly more, but again is inconsequential when compared to other factors like STEP score and Letters of Rec.
I have 3 hypotheses for justaquestion's original post.
1) He was misinformed and withdrew for an illegitimate reason. There are plenty of reasons to want to come to UCI/not want to come to UCI, but the info he had was false.
2) He is on a throwaway account and is trying to provide misinformation so that (gullible) accepted students drop their spot in favor of an alternative, moving him up the waitlist or fulfilling some personal vendetta he has against UCI... who cares
3) He is a troll and thought it would be funny to make people that have committed to UCI squirm
As a general rule, take EVERYTHING you read on SDN with a massive grain of salt (including this message) unless the poster convinces you that they are credible.
-KoalafiedMD
PS: For any of you that have committed, see you next year
🙂!