2015-2016 University of California - Riverside Application Thread

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dopedamine said:
Just to clarify, "
Is there any specific hardship to which you would like the committee to give special attention in evaluating your application? Please briefly explain below. (Include any geographic, language, economic, academic, physical, or mental factors.)"

Is this question mandatory...? I assume not everyone has a specific hardship to write about, and it seems rather open-ended since it is asked in a way that suggests "let us know if you have one."
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I believe this question is optional - an opportunity explain a bad grade or bad semester.
 
For the Activities section on the secondary, should I list jobs that I've held after college? There is only "Community Service," "Research," "Clinical," and "Leadership." Do they only want us to list these types of activities? How about hobbies and jobs? Should we also include shadowing?
 
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winterwind_23 said:
Thanks! The only thing is, I did this activity a few years after college, and the question asks specifically about honors from college.
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You don't make this easy for me 🙂 lol. But you can always see how it can be squeezed in during the post bac years. That's still college.
 
general987 said:
You don't make this easy for me 🙂 lol. But you can always see how it can be squeezed in during the post bac years. That's still college.
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Oh, I didn't think of that. Unfortunately, I just submitted my application! I just went with the research fellowships that I got while in undergrad. Hopefully that'll work out for me. Thanks for your help!
 
musicalfeet said:
Has anyone else's application have a little lock on it that says "Not scheduled yet" or something? AHHH stop teasing me UCR you naughty school. 🙁 I think I'm overthinking it lol...
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I just submitted my secondary and checked my status. I also have the lock on the interview status, so it must be there for everyone.
 
cstsss said:
I believe this question is optional - an opportunity explain a bad grade or bad semester.
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I agree. Unless you have an absolutely perfect record and nothing bad happened, this would be a perfect place to explain it.
 
winterwind_23 said:
For the Activities section on the secondary, should I list jobs that I've held after college? There is only "Community Service," "Research," "Clinical," and "Leadership." Do they only want us to list these types of activities? How about hobbies and jobs? Should we also include shadowing?
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Are these in your primary as well? You can consider jobs and hobbies as leadership positions if you consider it so (supervisor, leader of a hobby group or president, etc).
 
What should I do if I don't remember the exact date I started and ended an activity? I was thinking of just putting the first of the month...Thanks!
 
Does anyone know if we're just supposed to be entering all 15 activities we did in our primary application in the "Activities" section of the secondary? How do we categorize the things that don't fall under "Leadership", "Community Service", "Clinical", or "Research"? Or do they only want us to include specifically what falls under these categories?
 
Also of note:

Last year UCR received around 5200 applications. They gave out around 2000 secondaries. They interview 264 people for 50 seats, with around 1/3 of the interviewees getting acceptances.
 
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cstsss said:
Does anyone know if we're just supposed to be entering all 15 activities we did in our primary application in the "Activities" section of the secondary? How do we categorize the things that don't fall under "Leadership", "Community Service", "Clinical", or "Research"? Or do they only want us to include specifically what falls under these categories?
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When I did my secondary, I only listed activities that fall under the specific categories they wanted. Hope this helps!
 
If we did not received a secondary with that first batch that received them.. I'm assuming we will never get one right?
 
youngDOve said:
If we did not received a secondary with that first batch that received them.. I'm assuming we will never get one right?
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Don't worry if you didn't receive a secondary in the first batch!

I received my secondary last year in late September.
 
xyphr said:
Can anyone corroborate this?? 800 secondaries for 264 interviews sounds nuts! Thats almost a 1 in 3 chance of receiving an II if you were given a secondary!
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From my interview date I recall they send around 2000 secondaries. I specifically recall them saying about half of the applicant pool receives a secondary.

For those with secondaries please, please really work hard on this one!
 
@mexdoc91 Hey dude (or dudette), would you mind if I sent you a PM? If not it's totally cool, just wanted to ask you some things. Thanks!
 
As long as this secondary was, I really liked it because I got to show a whole lot of who I was and what I cared about. Other schools had secondaries where I could pretty much only talk about a few facets of myself. Here's to hoping UCR likes who I am and what I am passionate about! If not, I guess we're not meant to be and we wouldn't be a good fit. I just wanted the chance for them to know me before rejecting me 🙂
 
youngDOve said:
If we did not received a secondary with that first batch that received them.. I'm assuming we will never get one right?
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Wrong assumption. Plenty of people in my class got their secondaries late. Play the song thunder in your heart and live to win to get through the secondary period.
 
musicalfeet said:
As long as this secondary was, I really liked it because I got to show a whole lot of who I was and what I cared about. Other schools had secondaries where I could pretty much only talk about a few facets of myself. Here's to hoping UCR likes who I am and what I am passionate about! If not, I guess we're not meant to be and we wouldn't be a good fit. I just wanted the chance for them to know me before rejecting me 🙂
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Awesome attitude. This is the type of attitude needed when applying.
 
xyphr said:
Can anyone corroborate this?? 800 secondaries for 264 interviews sounds nuts! Thats almost a 1 in 3 chance of receiving an II if you were given a secondary!
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I recall there being quite a bit more secondaries when I applied.
 
I think it was 200 as well. 800 was a number for a different school's number of II. Thanks for the clarification all.
 
xyphr said:
After that ridiculously long PM i just sent mexbro, you might want to reconsider. Haha jk! You guys are awesome!
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I absolutely don't mind. I've helped out enough people with essays sent to be somewhat not scared 🙂
 
To clarify, did you guys describe your activities or simply list them? Instructions say "list" so I would assume descriptions aren't necessary, especially if we mention all of them in our primary application.
 
dopedamine said:
To clarify, did you guys describe your activities or simply list them? Instructions say "list" so I would assume descriptions aren't necessary, especially if we mention all of them in our primary application.
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For the section of the secondary that I think you're talking about, it only gives you space to write the name, start date, end date, and hours of each activity, so I think you can't give descriptions even if you wanted to, haha.
 
mazarine said:
For the section of the secondary that I think you're talking about, it only gives you space to write the name, start date, end date, and hours of each activity, so I think you can't give descriptions even if you wanted to, haha.
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Haha I actually called both of the admissions numbers in the email to clarify. One said give however much of a description I think is necessary and the other said just to list. Apparently, they hardly refer to the primary. In the application review, the secondary is given essentially all the attention.
 
When they ask "Has your education been continuous since graduation from high school?"

Does this include the year I have while i'm applying?
 
nRomaleos said:
When they ask "Has your education been continuous since graduation from high school?"

Does this include the year I have while i'm applying?
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I called admissions and I was told it includes gap years. Basically, if you didn't finish high school and college in eight straight years then plan on starting med school right after undergrad, explain why.

If you want to make sure, give them a quick phone call.
 
dopedamine said:
I called admissions and I was told it includes gap years. Basically, if you didn't finish high school and college in eight straight years then plan on starting med school right after undergrad, explain why.

If you want to make sure, give them a quick phone call.
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For everyone who submitted already and misinterpreted this as not including the current year, I emailed admissions and they said it was totally okay! Apparently you're right either way.
 
suchbrio said:
For everyone who submitted already and misinterpreted this as not including the current year, I emailed admissions and they said it was totally okay! Apparently you're right either way.
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I'm a non-trad and I selected that my education was not interrupted. I hope that this is OK, too!
 
suchbrio said:
For everyone who submitted already and misinterpreted this as not including the current year, I emailed admissions and they said it was totally okay! Apparently you're right either way.
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I have been in contact with the student affairs office and it is completely up to you how to interpret these questions when it comes to specifics such as do you count a gap year as a break of continuous education (many say yes but if you did a fellowship that could be interpreted as not being a break). As for them not paying attention to the primary that is not true. Everything is taken into consideration. Remember this is a mission driven institution.
 
xyphr said:
Quick question before I submit: for the question
"Has your education been continuous since graduation from high school?"

Can I treat this the same as "tell us what you've been doing since graduation?" Because I talked about how I took a gap year to do research and volunteer etc, but I'm not sure if thats appropriate here or if I should have simply said "no"
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Just refer to what I said slightly above to this post. But it's however you interpreted it. I didn't see my gap year necessarily as a break of education because I was in a research fellow like position.
 
pendaflex said:
Should I call if I didn't get a secondary? I was verified in Early July. I'm a reapplicant that got a secondary last year relatively quickly.
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You can call if you want but it does take time. After speaking with them they do pre screen to a certain extent on whom is given a secondary.
 
How is everyone doing on their secondaries? Keep writing! If you have any questions again please feel free to contact me. We have the new class starting Monday and I find it incredible it's been a year already. It will all blink for you
 
general987 said:
How is everyone doing on their secondaries? Keep writing! If you have any questions again please feel free to contact me. We have the new class starting Monday and I find it incredible it's been a year already. It will all blink for you
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just finished this weekend.

It appears that the length of the secondary is a screen in of itself. If you really have no ties to their mission, why would anyone bother to finish it?

It would be awesome if UCR could handle a class of 120+ at this moment. Certainly, would up my chances. Great values here.
 
nRomaleos said:
just finished this weekend.

It appears that the length of the secondary is a screen in of itself. If you really have no ties to their mission, why would anyone bother to finish it?

It would be awesome if UCR could handle a class of 120+ at this moment. Certainly, would up my chances. Great values here.
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Yeah it would be nice if they increased it to something of that size, but it is quite charming to have a class of 50, although rumors are flying about an increase to 65. I had absolutely no ties to the IE, but I guess my statement fit with their ideals. So for those who think they have no shot getting in because they have no ties, there is plenty of hope in that category.
 
As a point of information, a cool thing about UCR SOM is that they have funded externships over the summer between MS1/MS2. These pay out $3000 to work in basic science labs or in hospitals doing rounds. Each year there is some specialized ones you can do and still get paid. 2 students have done a 6 week internship in a reconstructive surgery office.
 
Is there a distinction between the two secondary prompts:
-What has been the single MOST important volunteer work you have done and why was it meaningful?
-Describe the single MOST important event or non-academic activity in your life and explain why its significant. (250 words)

I see the terms "non-academic activity" and "volunteer work" as interchangeable.
 
flaindablueska said:
Is there a distinction between the two secondary prompts:
-What has been the single MOST important volunteer work you have done and why was it meaningful?
-Describe the single MOST important event or non-academic activity in your life and explain why its significant. (250 words)

I see the terms "non-academic activity" and "volunteer work" as interchangeable.
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I think for "non-academic activity" they want you to talk about something that doesn't fall into the category of any of their other questions. Things like club activities and hobbies that aren't related to your classes or the MCAT.
 
Does anyone know when they start giving out II? Just curious...

From everything I've heard about it, I find myself fixating on this school even though it's probably really not good for me to do that at all..
 
flaindablueska said:
Is there a distinction between the two secondary prompts:
-What has been the single MOST important volunteer work you have done and why was it meaningful?
-Describe the single MOST important event or non-academic activity in your life and explain why its significant. (250 words)

I see the terms "non-academic activity" and "volunteer work" as interchangeable.
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They are two different prompts.

For clarification, I used a club that I was a part of for the "non-academic activity" and for "volunteer work" I talked about the work I did as part of a free clinic.

Hope this helps!
 
musicalfeet said:
Does anyone know when they start giving out II? Just curious...

From everything I've heard about it, I find myself fixating on this school even though it's probably really not good for me to do that at all..
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September I believe was the first II last year.

Also, Alumni receive II's typically later in the cycle.
 
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