2014-2015 University of California - San Diego Application Thread

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CannedPineapple said:
As much as I respect UCSD as an institution, I have to say that the way they manage their operations is BY FAR the worst I've seen of any school, both for undergrad and for medical school. It does not reflect well on them, given their caliber. Truly, I am sorry that had to happen to you, it must have sucked. But I'm also sure you'll be fine, if not better, taking your business elsewhere.
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I think this comment is rather unfair. Many applicants commented in the past about how nice and helpful the admissions office staff is, including Brian (he was also very helpful to me).

What happened to these few applicants is indeed very unfortunate, and seems to be a system glitch rather than a regular occurrence. When I think about how some other schools have worked, I don't understand how you came to the conclusions that UCSD is the worst. They allow to change interview dates, their decision turnaround time is two weeks (compared to months at some other schools), and overall most applicants know where they stand in a timely manner.

I'm not sure how one mistake by the admissions office (even if it affected several people) is an indication of the quality of the medical training program...
 
When I was applying for undergrad I was waitlisted at a school via email, was then sent an acceptance package/letter and then received a " just kidding" letter. It was not UCSD but it was a UC. It happens.
 
Whatsinthebox said:
When I was applying for undergrad I was waitlisted at a school via email, was then sent an acceptance package/letter and then received a " just kidding" letter. It was not UCSD but it was a UC. It happens.
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Yikes - it wasn't even a virtual message/portal status? It was a physical, thick package in the mail? That sucks
 
.
 
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PigBear said:
I think this comment is rather unfair. Many applicants commented in the past about how nice and helpful the admissions office staff is, including Brian (he was also very helpful to me).

What happened to these few applicants is indeed very unfortunate, and seems to be a system glitch rather than a regular occurrence. When I think about how some other schools have worked, I don't understand how you came to the conclusions that UCSD is the worst. They allow to change interview dates, their decision turnaround time is two weeks (compared to months at some other schools), and overall most applicants know where they stand in a timely manner.

I'm not sure how one mistake by the admissions office (even if it affected several people) is an indication of the quality of the medical training program...
Click to expand...

First, I made no criticism of the quality of their medical training program. I made a comment on the admission office's operations, for both the undergrad and medical school. To say that they are the worst - I will say that that has been my own experience, and while I'm sure that there is another school with potentially worse operations, UCSD has been the only outlier in the tier of schools of its caliber.

Second, you say that it is not a regular occurrence. If you weren't aware, something on a much larger scale occurred beforehand at the undegrad school. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/03/uc-admissions.html
As a major university with all the resources it has, the school should have made sure not to let something like this happen again - the error was just too blatant. Your next comment will be "but that was the undergrad school." Then I would point out the fact that UCSD's website did not work during their first 2 attempts when they e-mailed the link out to applicants. It took them at least several days to even acknowledge their mistake, let alone fix it. And the admissions staff may be nice when you talk to them in person or on the phone, but several of my friends (both this year and last year) have commented that their turn-around time for e-mailed questions or updates has been extremely slow.

Do I have high standards for UCSD? I do. Again, it's a top tier school, and it should act that way. Do they have a crap-load of applicants to deal with? Yes, and if slow turn-around times were the only problem, I'd understand. But I don't see this error as being acceptable.

What could they do instead? I recall reading a recent post by LizzyM where something of the sort happened at her school in the past. What did they do? They offered the mistaken applicants IIs and shouldered the cost of their mistake.
 
CannedPineapple said:
First, I made no criticism of the quality of their medical training program. I made a comment on the admission office's operations, for both the undergrad and medical school. To say that they are the worst - I will say that that has been my own experience, and while I'm sure that there is another school with potentially worse operations, UCSD has been the only outlier in the tier of schools of its caliber.

Second, you say that it is not a regular occurrence. If you weren't aware, something on a much larger scale occurred beforehand at the undegrad school. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/03/uc-admissions.html
As a major university with all the resources it has, the school should have made sure not to let something like this happen again - the error was just too blatant. Your next comment will be "but that was the undergrad school." Then I would point out the fact that UCSD's website did not work during their first 2 attempts when they e-mailed the link out to applicants. It took them at least several days to even acknowledge their mistake, let alone fix it. And the admissions staff may be nice when you talk to them in person or on the phone, but several of my friends (both this year and last year) have commented that their turn-around time for e-mailed questions or updates has been extremely slow.

Do I have high standards for UCSD? I do. Again, it's a top tier school, and it should act that way. Do they have a crap-load of applicants to deal with? Yes, and if slow turn-around times were the only problem, I'd understand. But I don't see this error as being acceptable.

What could they do instead? I recall reading a recent post by LizzyM where something of the sort happened at her school in the past. What did they do? They offered the mistaken applicants IIs and shouldered the cost of their mistake.
Click to expand...

I was extended an offer to UCSD that year when they made that mistake (I did not end up choosing to attend there). I was told by my friends who had gotten rejected by UCSD earlier that the e-mail that they received was an e-mail asking them to come check out the school along with other accepted students. My friends were all skeptical about the e-mail, since they had already gotten rejected the past month and hadn't heard anything else from the university. For someone to actually be convinced that they were actually accepted after they were already solidly rejected is ridiculous. I understand that the new correspondence relaying a message of a possible acceptance could have given false hope to people already in a stressful situation, but all those people should have taken the e-mail with a huge grain of salt.

I am not trying to say that UCSD didn't f up (they did, and they did big). All I am saying is that the magnitude of their error is often blown out of proportion when websites cite that specific occasion as the biggest/one of the biggest errors in the history of college admissions offices. Technically it was, since it was an error with ALL applicants to a HUGE public university. But it wasn't like the people received letters of acceptances or anything close to that. The people who thought they had gotten in without some suspicion were a huge minority (the number of people disappointed/annoyed though... that's a different story).
 
CannedPineapple said:
First, I made no criticism of the quality of their medical training program. I made a comment on the admission office's operations, for both the undergrad and medical school. To say that they are the worst - I will say that that has been my own experience, and while I'm sure that there is another school with potentially worse operations, UCSD has been the only outlier in the tier of schools of its caliber.

Second, you say that it is not a regular occurrence. If you weren't aware, something on a much larger scale occurred beforehand at the undegrad school. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/03/uc-admissions.html
As a major university with all the resources it has, the school should have made sure not to let something like this happen again - the error was just too blatant. Your next comment will be "but that was the undergrad school." Then I would point out the fact that UCSD's website did not work during their first 2 attempts when they e-mailed the link out to applicants. It took them at least several days to even acknowledge their mistake, let alone fix it. And the admissions staff may be nice when you talk to them in person or on the phone, but several of my friends (both this year and last year) have commented that their turn-around time for e-mailed questions or updates has been extremely slow.

Do I have high standards for UCSD? I do. Again, it's a top tier school, and it should act that way. Do they have a crap-load of applicants to deal with? Yes, and if slow turn-around times were the only problem, I'd understand. But I don't see this error as being acceptable.

What could they do instead? I recall reading a recent post by LizzyM where something of the sort happened at her school in the past. What did they do? They offered the mistaken applicants IIs and shouldered the cost of their mistake.
Click to expand...


You advised the OP to take their business elsewhere. Essentially you told them to forget about UCSD (the school) because of the admissions office's mistake. Although English is my third language, I'm pretty confident this was the most reasonable way to interpret your comment.

I suspect that the applicants who noticed the portal change (without an email) are 'kept' around in case people like myself will decide to withdraw from UCSD in the next few weeks.

Overall I think you are being too negative and critical of UCSD. I don't understand the point of mentioning that they are a top tier university. Stanford is reaching 3 months since interview day and it seems that none of my fellow interviewees received any news from them. Cornell didn't even bother to have a financial aid talk. Columbia responded to my email and somehow my application was withdrawn even though I just sent an ITA email. And I personally think that the worst an admissions office can do is to not even officially reject people when the cycle is over (I know med students who never heard from some of the schools they applied to).

I think it's a bad advice - to give up on a program because of the admissions office. Also, at this time of the cycle, positivity and empathy will always be received well by everyone. Negativity...not as much.
 
PigBear said:
You advised the OP to take their business elsewhere. Essentially you told them to forget about UCSD (the school) because of the admissions office's mistake. Although English is my third language, I'm pretty confident this was the most reasonable way to interpret your comment.

I suspect that the applicants who noticed the portal change (without an email) are 'kept' around in case people like myself will decide to withdraw from UCSD in the next few weeks.

Overall I think you are being too negative and critical of UCSD. I don't understand the point of mentioning that they are a top tier university. Stanford is reaching 3 months since interview day and it seems that none of my fellow interviewees received any news from them. Cornell didn't even bother to have a financial aid talk. Columbia responded to my email and somehow my application was withdrawn even though I just sent an ITA email. And I personally think that the worst an admissions office can do is to not even officially reject people when the cycle is over (I know med students who never heard from some of the schools they applied to).

I think it's a bad advice - to give up on a program because of the admissions office. Also, at this time of the cycle, positivity and empathy will always be received well by everyone. Negativity...not as much.
Click to expand...
I imagine people's pictures as what is speaking. So I pretty much just imagined a blood-soaked Winnie the Pooh telling someone to be positive. Didn't need to share that but I did.
 
KungFuPanda123 said:
I was extended an offer to UCSD that year when they made that mistake (I did not end up choosing to attend there). I was told by my friends who had gotten rejected by UCSD earlier that the e-mail that they received was an e-mail asking them to come check out the school along with other accepted students. My friends were all skeptical about the e-mail, since they had already gotten rejected the past month and hadn't heard anything else from the university. For someone to actually be convinced that they were actually accepted after they were already solidly rejected is ridiculous. I understand that the new correspondence relaying a message of a possible acceptance could have given false hope to people already in a stressful situation, but all those people should have taken the e-mail with a huge grain of salt.

I am not trying to say that UCSD didn't f up (they did, and they did big). All I am saying is that the magnitude of their error is often blown out of proportion when websites cite that specific occasion as the biggest/one of the biggest errors in the history of college admissions offices. Technically it was, since it was an error with ALL applicants to a HUGE public university. But it wasn't like the people received letters of acceptances or anything close to that. The people who thought they had gotten in without some suspicion were a huge minority (the number of people disappointed/annoyed though... that's a different story).
Click to expand...

Okay, this is fair - I was certainly swayed by the media's hyped portrayal of it, so I'm glad that the issue was not as bad as it could have been.

PigBear said:
You advised the OP to take their business elsewhere. Essentially you told them to forget about UCSD (the school) because of the admissions office's mistake. Although English is my third language, I'm pretty confident this was the most reasonable way to interpret your comment.

I suspect that the applicants who noticed the portal change (without an email) are 'kept' around in case people like myself will decide to withdraw from UCSD in the next few weeks.

Overall I think you are being too negative and critical of UCSD. I don't understand the point of mentioning that they are a top tier university. Stanford is reaching 3 months since interview day and it seems that none of my fellow interviewees received any news from them. Cornell didn't even bother to have a financial aid talk. Columbia responded to my email and somehow my application was withdrawn even though I just sent an ITA email. And I personally think that the worst an admissions office can do is to not even officially reject people when the cycle is over (I know med students who never heard from some of the schools they applied to).

I think it's a bad advice - to give up on a program because of the admissions office. Also, at this time of the cycle, positivity and empathy will always be received well by everyone. Negativity...not as much.
Click to expand...

If you look at my post, I said "I'm sure you'll be fine...taking your business elsewhere." Given that communication is limited to typed words on the internet, I get that your interpretation of my statement (along with the general negativity that I was expressing) was such that I was advising someone to go elsewhere altogether. But what I was actually saying is that I wanted to reassure Roronoa that things will work out and (I suppose ironically) not to take this issue too negatively. Again, I am not criticizing the medical education that UCSD has to offer, and I agree that judging a school based on their admissions office alone is not fair. Will people disagree with my sentiments? Sure, and they have the right to. But I also have the right to feel the way I do about their admissions office, given their track record. To answer your question of why I bring up their status as a top-tier school - the answer is that I would expect them to not make careless errors, like offering II's when they didn't mean to. The issues you bring up with the other schools are not of the same severity. Stanford and other schools who do silent rejections - there is an entire thread on that topic as to why it is a necessary evil (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...rse-than-no-hope.1118767/page-2#post-16133073). The practice is not ideal, but schools do have the right to do this. Schools shouldn't have the right to retract IIs. Your issue with Cornell - also not something that they have a duty or responsibility to offer. The only valid example you've brought up is Columbia - that seems kinda bad, and I hope that they resolved the issue for you in a timely manner.
 
RoronoaZoro said:
Never mind guys. I had an interview date open up and scheduled it for feb 26th. About 30 minutes later, UCSD called me on my cell. I spoke with Brian Zeglen. He said the invite was a mistake. A coding error on their website. I knew it was too good to be true! Good thing he called - I was just about to buy a plane ticket! There are many other well-deserving applicants still on hold he said. Oh well. Good luck to the rest of you guys! I'd absolutely love to go here, but I guess only in my dreams now haha!
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I heard of two other schools that had computer glitches on this cycle. Guess the huge number of applicants may be stressing the system.
 
Anyone else just get the interview waitlist email from Brian? Apparently all interview slots are now full but there are 4 interview days left where if someone withdraws, someone from the waitlist gets the spot.
 
its_done_sorta said:
Anyone else just get the interview waitlist email from Brian? Apparently all interview slots are now full but there are 4 interview days left where if someone withdraws, someone from the waitlist gets the spot.
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I got it as well
 
Me 3! Do you think sending an ITA email would be ok? Or would that not be following the email instructions and should we not send them anything at all?
 
image.png
 
Looks like there are a lot of applicants in this pool of WL for interview?
 
So… can I be that neurotic applicant who asks what time the post-interview decision email goes out?
 
Agobio said:
So… can I be that neurotic applicant who asks what time the post-interview decision email goes out?
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Brian is pretty good about telling us the general timeline, and it has been a bit of time since my interview so my memory is a bit hazy. However, if I remember correctly, they review the interviewees every two weeks or so.
 
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I do recall Brian Zeglen saying at the interview wrap-up that those who interviewed last month should hear about status on February 10 (next Tuesday) by about lunchtime. Not that I'm anxiously counting the minutes or anything... :nailbiting:
 
+11 WL for interview

Had to use all my power not to send an update/LOI letter saying "PLEASE interview me" since it specifically said not to in the email.

Just curious if anyone on the interview WL has heard anything?
 
Not me. I'm so tempted to ask how many people are actually in this pool of WL for interview
 
WL post interview as well. Immensely relieved it wasn't an outright rejection…
 
does anyone know how many students are waitlisted?
 
Agobio said:
does anyone know how many students are waitlisted?
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As per my interview day I was told roughly 1/2 of all those interviewed will be waitlisted. I think Brian ball-parked that anywhere from 30-40 people would eventually get off the waitlist, but he conceded that it's near impossible to know the exact number due to shifts in yield from year to year.

Good luck! Hope you have the sunny La Jolla shores in your future! :luck:
 
Were there no acceptances at the February 9 adcom meeting, or are they just keeping gleefully quiet?
 
I know one guy who got in from the Feb 5th interview date, but he's the only other one I've heard from so I'm not sure what the distribution of acceptances vs.wait list looks like
 
I've been constantly checking my spam for something from this school...sadly all that's in there are ads for such products like the Noodle Sprinkler and Pubbles. On another note......what are Pubbles you ask? Long lasting flavored bubbles that your dog or cat can eat, in chicken, bacon, tuna, and cheese flavors. "Now your pets can have their bubbles, and eat them too" WHY???
 
It's the dawn of the hour. If anyone has an interview to ucsd tomorrow and isn't going to show up PLEASE cancel your interview. You would make one of us wait list for interview people so happy. Thanks 🙂
 
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