2015-2016 University of California - San Diego Application Thread

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Just submitted! Last secondary for now. Is there any way to check if my app is complete? (i.e. if rec letters have been received) Or do they send out an email later?
 
For the Most Meaningful section of the secondary, do we have to repeat the three activities we chose on our AMCAS application? Or can we choose to highlight new activities to make our application more comprehensive?
 
So UCSD finally asked me to create an account. So I made one. Then I get another email from them with the first word of their email subject being "Welcome.."

It was completely illogical, but my heart dropped because I thought I already got accepted... :bang:

How long after being requested to make an account did people get a secondary?
 
Ah I am struggling to cut this down to 6000 characters!
 
Ehh the prompt makes it sound like you have to include all the topics they listed. Is it okay to just focus on a few of them? lol finally getting around to starting this...
 
pineapplecake said:
Ehh the prompt makes it sound like you have to include all the topics they listed. Is it okay to just focus on a few of them? lol finally getting around to starting this...
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I ended up covering all bases mentioned just in case, but I was pretty brief when it came to talking about family and my early life. The bulk of my focus was on elementary school through high school. Good luck with the essay! 🙂
 
Is anyone else having problems paying the $90 fee? It's said for about 2 days now that the payment system is down...
 
I put off this secondary until the very end, and now, I can't get myself motivated to write something even half-way decent. I have a draft of my autobiography, but even I can't bear to read it all the way through because it is so long, boring, and poorly written. Oh well, I don't really have a chance here anyway. Might as well turn it in so I can say I finished all of my MD secondaries.
 
winterwind_23 said:
I put off this secondary until the very end, and now, I can't get myself motivated to write something even half-way decent. I have a draft of my autobiography, but even I can't bear to read it all the way through because it is so long, boring, and poorly written. Oh well, I don't really have a chance here anyway. Might as well turn it in so I can say I finished all of my MD secondaries.
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You DO have a chance! I know it's hard to stay focused, but you don't want to have any regrets!
 
neonghost said:
When did you finish those secondaries?! I still have 5 left!
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I've been really productive the last three weeks! Hoping to finish my 37th (UCSD) today, and just waiting on UCSF. 🙁 How many schools did you apply to?
 
winterwind_23 said:
I've been really productive the last three weeks! Hoping to finish my 37th (UCSD) today, and just waiting on UCSF. 🙁 How many schools did you apply to?
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Whoa good for you!
I applied to 28, I think UCSF, UCSD and Boston University were my highest tiers/reaches. But I'm in cali so it doesn't make sense to not apply to UCs.
Definitely no II's yet :/
 
neonghost said:
Whoa good for you!
I applied to 28, I think UCSF, UCSD and Boston University were my highest tiers/reaches. But I'm in cali so it doesn't make sense to not apply to UCs.
Definitely no II's yet :/
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I'm from California, too, which accounts for large number of schools I applied to. Good luck, it's still early!
 
neurotroph said:
Just got mine too. And it actually has a hard two-week deadline! Oh lord.
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Isn't it a one-month deadline...I got mine July 17 and still haven't turned it in. EDIT: realized that the MD/PhD deadline is two weeks.

And my autobiography reads like an extended version of my AMCAS disadvantaged status essay. 🙁
 
Just received my secondary too! They just keep piling up...
 
Secondary here too! I received the create-account email 7/31 and added them 7/23. My first UC! Stats are lopsided and no research, so pretty stoked.
 
Secondary received!!! LM ~65

Verified: 7/30
SSN: 8/4
Create account: 8/6
Secondary: 8/7
 
Hey guys, I've received the secondary but I can't authenticate my single-sign on. Is the PID/Application number not your AMCAS ID? What other ID numbers are there, and where would one find this? Very frustrating not being able to access the file...
 
Is the photo a passport "sized" photo or literally a passport style photo where we don't smile?
 
Just received my secondary (verified 7/28). My PhD is from their Biomedical Sciences program in the med school. It would have been pretty sad if I did not get this one.
 
Did anyone take the new mcat. I got a secondary with a 3.4 gpa 506 mcat. Unique life experiences though.
 
SECONDARY WOOOOO
Oops 9000 characters got carried away there.

Did you guys mostly write about your upbringing or college experience? Because I have 90% of it talking about my upbringing and up to college years. I figured college and later is covered in the primary and personal statement, no?

Also what is the tone you guys are writing in? I feel like I'm going to much Chuck Palahnuik darkness meets Vonnegut stream of consciousness.
 
neonghost said:
SECONDARY WOOOOO
Oops 9000 characters got carried away there.

Did you guys mostly write about your upbringing or college experience? Because I have 90% of it talking about my upbringing and up to college years. I figured college and later is covered in the primary and personal statement, no?

Also what is the tone you guys are writing in? I feel like I'm going to much Chuck Palahnuik darkness meets Vonnegut stream of consciousness.
Click to expand...

Yeah same I covered mostly childhood, formative experiences and only a little bit of college. I also tried to organize it topic/experience wise and not chronologically because I thought that made it stronger. At least its done haha.
 
A couple of days after submitting the secondary and payment, did others also receive an email from [email protected] about a "
UCSD Electronic Billing Notice AUGUST 2015" or something of the sort? On the portal it says that my payment has been received so slightly confused.
 
NotAnotherPreMed said:
Yeah same I covered mostly childhood, formative experiences and only a little bit of college. I also tried to organize it topic/experience wise and not chronologically because I thought that made it stronger. At least its done haha.
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Glad to hear this, because mine is very heavily pre-college. I mean, otherwise they'd get a lot of repetition from my PS.
 
hueso said:
Glad to hear this, because mine is very heavily pre-college. I mean, otherwise they'd get a lot of repetition from my PS.
Click to expand...
NotAnotherPreMed said:
Yeah same I covered mostly childhood, formative experiences and only a little bit of college. I also tried to organize it topic/experience wise and not chronologically because I thought that made it stronger. At least its done haha.
Click to expand...

Ok good. good. Because college has been 3/21 years of my life and they already know about most of that through my activities and most significant and what not.
ALSO TIME TO START CUTTING THOSE CHARACTERS. I feel like I'm cutting out pieces of my childhood...
 
Did anyone else do something closer to 50/50? I discussed my upbringing and my hobbies but I didn't really do much as a kid....lol. I felt that my experiences in college really had a big effect on my motivations and career aspirations.
 
I think that the idea of childhood experiences versus college experiences is kind of a moot point. You need to think about it from the perspective of an adcom. They essentially want a narrative that explains what you have done in your life and why you want to go to medical school. So if you have childhood experiences that will help admissions understand your desire better then you should include them. But if it is just fluff that doesn't contribute to the thesis of the paper then I would cut it.

It's like in a job interview when they say "tell me about yourself." They don't actually care about the names of your pet cats. They want you to explain your resume in a logical narrative that outlines your experiences and proves that you would be a good person to fill their position.

Edit: I just want to add that I'm definitely not a professional essay writer and I haven't got a II yet. But I've talked to the adcoms at UCSD and they are just normal people that are looking for candidates that will do well at their school. Show them that you would be a successful student.
 
To be fair, not all of your accomplishments and life events have played a direct role in you wanting to become a doctor. My autobiography isn't the story of things that happened. Yes, I reaffirm my interests and desires in medicine here and there in my essay, but I don't think talking about a tumultuous upbringing necessarily implies THATS why I want to go into medicine.

But kudos to anyone who was as an infant looked at other infants and thought: "I'm going to become a doctor and help all of you one day..."
 
37 MCAT, 3.7 undergrad gpa
taking two years off to do research
 
rayjune said:
just got an interview invite!!!!!!
Verified primary 7/2
Rcvd secondary 7/16
Submitted secondary 8/3
Rcvd interview invite 8/10
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Congrats!! I submitted 7/25 but still waiting haha. Oh well, happy for you!! 🙂
 
Hi all! For the auto, did you guys write more narrative form of what you did in your life or did you write reflectively about the experiences you had growing up? I don't know how much to explain what each experience meant to me/what I learned vs just saying I did this, that, went there, traveled here and went to college here....
 
I finally finished this beast... Hopefully I didn't get it in too late. I held onto it for a while (after all, this required a bit of soul searching/self-reflection).

Good luck everyone!
 
thought i was screened out of this school with my numbers but just got a secondary today....
at least i have 2 chainz new mixtape to keep me company
TYBG
 
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