2019-2020 UCLA (Geffen)

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Hi all! Haven't posted in this thread but I've been following it for a while. I don't know anyone at the school and I'm not able to go to Second Look, so I wanted to ask if anyone here could speak to the culture at DGSOM.

When I've mentioned to people that I'm planning to enroll here, I've been met with second-hand anecdotes that this school has somewhat of a toxic/tough atmosphere and that people don't really know each other/get along much. I'm sure people could say that about most medical schools just because of how tough med school is in general. However, I just wanted to get a vibe check from people who can first-hand speak to DGSOM, either as a current student or alumni, or someone who is close to someone in the program.

Would also love to hear of positive things about the school too. I have seen a lot in this thread about the clinical site issues that will happen in future, but less about things that make this school enticing.

Thanks!
 
Nrzajn said:
seemed like it worked 😳 Congrats!
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IT ABSOLUTELY DID!!!! Threw it away that day!
letmebedoc said:
OMG CONGRATS!!! Did you receive an email before the call? Also, when did you interview?
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I received the e-mail a minute or two before the call! E-mail had all the details including Geffen but I didn't read that far before he called cause I was freaking out so much about the A! Interviewed WAAAAY BACK IN SEPTEMBER so there is still hope my friends!
 
docb2 said:
IT ABSOLUTELY DID!!!! Threw it away that day!

I received the e-mail a minute or two before the call! E-mail had all the details including Geffen but I didn't read that far before he called cause I was freaking out so much about the A! Interviewed WAAAAY BACK IN SEPTEMBER so there is still hope my friends!
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Congratulations!!!!!
 
Nrzajn said:
Hi all! Haven't posted in this thread but I've been following it for a while. I don't know anyone at the school and I'm not able to go to Second Look, so I wanted to ask if anyone here could speak to the culture at DGSOM.

When I've mentioned to people that I'm planning to enroll here, I've been met with second-hand anecdotes that this school has somewhat of a toxic/tough atmosphere and that people don't really know each other/get along much. I'm sure people could say that about most medical schools just because of how tough med school is in general. However, I just wanted to get a vibe check from people who can first-hand speak to DGSOM, either as a current student or alumni, or someone who is close to someone in the program.

Would also love to hear of positive things about the school too. I have seen a lot in this thread about the clinical site issues that will happen in future, but less about things that make this school enticing.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

The culture has been getting worse. No offense, but as the school picks more “neurotic” people with higher scores to attend the school the more toxic and cut throat it becomes. I’m class of 2021 and this may be arrogant, but we may have been the ideal class for the school both culture-wise and performance.
The good things about the school are that the faculty are generally pretty nice and that we’re in sunny CA. The curriculum is pretty chill. Nobody really fails, unless you really don’t try.
 
Nrzajn said:
Hi all! Haven't posted in this thread but I've been following it for a while. I don't know anyone at the school and I'm not able to go to Second Look, so I wanted to ask if anyone here could speak to the culture at DGSOM.

When I've mentioned to people that I'm planning to enroll here, I've been met with second-hand anecdotes that this school has somewhat of a toxic/tough atmosphere and that people don't really know each other/get along much. I'm sure people could say that about most medical schools just because of how tough med school is in general. However, I just wanted to get a vibe check from people who can first-hand speak to DGSOM, either as a current student or alumni, or someone who is close to someone in the program.

Would also love to hear of positive things about the school too. I have seen a lot in this thread about the clinical site issues that will happen in future, but less about things that make this school enticing.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

My tour guide said it can get difficult to make friends because of the large class size and that he probably won't know everyone in his class even by graduation. He did not say anything about toxicity, but he is the tour guide and probably supposed to sell.
 
ExtraRoughWheatBread said:
My tour guide said it can get difficult to make friends because of the large class size and that he probably won't know everyone in his class even by graduation. He did not say anything about toxicity, but he is the tour guide and probably supposed to sell.
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you wont know your class. By the time you’re in 3rd year the class is like 220+ students.
 
bbx-8995-1 said:
The culture has been getting worse. No offense, but as the school picks more “neurotic” people with higher scores to attend the school the more toxic and cut throat it becomes. I’m class of 2021 and this may be arrogant, but we may have been the ideal class for the school both culture-wise and performance.
The good things about the school are that the faculty are generally pretty nice and that we’re in sunny CA. The curriculum is pretty chill. Nobody really fails, unless you really don’t try.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply (and to the other replies too)! How do you see that cut-throatedness manifest given that it's P/F? Is it in the clinical years or even before?
 
Nrzajn said:
Hi all! Haven't posted in this thread but I've been following it for a while. I don't know anyone at the school and I'm not able to go to Second Look, so I wanted to ask if anyone here could speak to the culture at DGSOM.

When I've mentioned to people that I'm planning to enroll here, I've been met with second-hand anecdotes that this school has somewhat of a toxic/tough atmosphere and that people don't really know each other/get along much. I'm sure people could say that about most medical schools just because of how tough med school is in general. However, I just wanted to get a vibe check from people who can first-hand speak to DGSOM, either as a current student or alumni, or someone who is close to someone in the program.

Would also love to hear of positive things about the school too. I have seen a lot in this thread about the clinical site issues that will happen in future, but less about things that make this school enticing.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Just my 2 cents, but I think every school has toxic people no matter what their ranking or grading system is. I’ve interviewed at 10+ schools this cycle and there was always at least one person either during the interview day or on the SDN thread Later on that mentioned toxicity at the school. I think as medical school admissions gets tougher and tougher each year, the neuroticism and competitiveness in students increase as well (as another poster mentioned) and this is largely a product of the medical school admissions process. I’m personally not terribly concerned about this because imo for every “toxic” student, there are a handful of very helpful, genuine students who want to help each other. I’m also surprised to hear this specifically about DGSOM because almost everything else I’ve heard about this school was how chill and fun it is! But at the end of the day You get to choose your friends so regardless where you go make good choices 😀
 
N=1 my friend who hosted me here said he has a tight knit group of classmates, but there are also classmates he would prefer to avoid completely. He gave me an example of an alpha jock future ortho athlete forcing classmates to stay longer when he leads a PBL, but I think every school will have some kind of variation of that. However, I do think toxicity in clinical rotations is an absolutely valid concern because who wants to be stuck with an a-hole classmate who tries to sabotage them to look better? No one.
 
strappysandals said:
Wow in all 52 pages not one positive thing has been said about this school by current students...except for “sunny CA.” Makes you wonder
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Right? I've seen this a lot as well, and besides the "prestige" factor, I'd like something to look forward to regarding the school itself besides my personal reasons for wanting to be in LA :') It also doesn't seem to me that people on the Internet would confidently choose UCLA all over again for medical school. Reading about the people posting on SDN and reddit with full rides here who are considering other places makes me a bit confused (understanding that every case, person, and situation is different)

Of course, the people I met in person were very kind and the school itself seems beautiful so I'm not trying to sound negative. And definitely agree with others saying that neuroticism will exist at every school.
 
thesecretisme123 said:
N=1 my friend who hosted me here said he has a tight knit group of classmates, but there are also classmates he would prefer to avoid completely. He gave me an example of an alpha jock future ortho athlete forcing classmates to stay longer when he leads a PBL, but I think every school will have some kind of variation of that. However, I do think toxicity in clinical rotations is an absolutely valid concern because who wants to be stuck with an a-hole classmate who tries to sabotage them to look better? No one.
Click to expand...


"We are going to stay later when I lead"

"no"
 
Agent Burt Macklin said:
I thiiinkkkk DG still has a ranking system, even though it's technically P/F. Maybe this is why?
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No, first 2 years are completely pas fail. Whether you get a 75% on the block exam or 99% you are the same.
Yet, people gun hard and then transmit their stress and anxirty upon everyone else and then everybody is stressing when the entire point of pass fail was for students to be less stressed and actually learn and do extracurricular activities and spend time on research or career exploration.
3rd year is tiered grading, but you’re not ranked against one another.
 
bbx-8995-1 said:
No, first 2 years are completely pas fail. Whether you get a 75% on the block exam or 99% you are the same.
Yet, people gun hard and then transmit their stress and anxirty upon everyone else and then everybody is stressing when the entire point of pass fail was for students to be less stressed and actually learn and do extracurricular activities and spend time on research or career exploration.
3rd year is tiered grading, but you’re not ranked against one another.
Click to expand...

This seems like an issue at most med schools. But I guess that's where the pro of UCLA comes in: Sunny CA. So many fun things to do and so much life to be lived that you can ignore these people? Just a guess/hope...
 
strappysandals said:
This seems like an issue at most med schools. But I guess that's where the pro of UCLA comes in: Sunny CA. So many fun things to do and so much life to be lived that you can ignore these people? Just a guess/hope...
Click to expand...
Yeah, there’s a LOT to do in LA. But it’s a really expensive city... doing those cool/fun things is rarely free.
 
Nrzajn said:
Hi all! Haven't posted in this thread but I've been following it for a while. I don't know anyone at the school and I'm not able to go to Second Look, so I wanted to ask if anyone here could speak to the culture at DGSOM.

When I've mentioned to people that I'm planning to enroll here, I've been met with second-hand anecdotes that this school has somewhat of a toxic/tough atmosphere and that people don't really know each other/get along much. I'm sure people could say that about most medical schools just because of how tough med school is in general. However, I just wanted to get a vibe check from people who can first-hand speak to DGSOM, either as a current student or alumni, or someone who is close to someone in the program.

Would also love to hear of positive things about the school too. I have seen a lot in this thread about the clinical site issues that will happen in future, but less about things that make this school enticing.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

This honestly depends on your class.

Nrzajn said:
Right? I've seen this a lot as well, and besides the "prestige" factor, I'd like something to look forward to regarding the school itself besides my personal reasons for wanting to be in LA :') It also doesn't seem to me that people on the Internet would confidently choose UCLA all over again for medical school. Reading about the people posting on SDN and reddit with full rides here who are considering other places makes me a bit confused (understanding that every case, person, and situation is different)

Of course, the people I met in person were very kind and the school itself seems beautiful so I'm not trying to sound negative. And definitely agree with others saying that neuroticism will exist at every school.
Click to expand...

People I've talked to in this school absolutely hate SDN since it's neuroticism to the maximum. I agree.
 
1581033746635.png

.
 
For this year’s incoming class, is the preclinical curriculum a full 2yrs or 1.5 yrs?
 
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Engrailed said:
I thought so as well... UCLA is a bit confusing isn’t it? Lol :sorry: :sorry::sorry:
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I think they're transitioning to 1.5 but our class would be the final class to have the old 2 year pre-clinical curriculum. 🙁 Which is why there's some worry over how things will pan out with our clinical years overlapping with next year's class'.
 
sweetpotatofriess said:
I think they're transitioning to 1.5 but our class would be the final class to have the old 2 year pre-clinical curriculum. 🙁 Which is why there's some worry over how things will pan out with our clinical years overlapping with next year's class'.
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I thought next year's class was 1 yr and our class was 1.5 yr?
 
Okay so I actually just looked it up and if I'm understanding correctly, our class basically has 2 years pre-clinical and class of 2021 has 1 😵 Our clerkships begin the May after M2 and theirs begin in July following M1. I definitely prefer their curriculum. 🙁
 
sweetpotatofriess said:
Okay so I actually just looked it up and if I'm understanding correctly, our class basically has 2 years pre-clinical and class of 2021 has 1 😵 Our clerkships begin the May after M2 and theirs begin in July following M1. I definitely prefer their curriculum. 🙁
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I completely agree; as an MSTP applicant, I think the one-year preclinical curriculum would really cut down on time-to-degree for MD/PhD and the ongoing curriculum restructuring is the only part of UCLA that worries me :/
 
tardigrade88 said:
I completely agree; as an MSTP applicant, I think the one-year preclinical curriculum would really cut down on time-to-degree for MD/PhD and the ongoing curriculum restructuring is the only part of UCLA that worries me :/
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Yeah, definitely! Because with the new curriculum, M3 could theoretically be dedicated entirely to research if that's the discovery path you select. Personally, I'm drawn to the 1-year preclinical curriculum as I'm interested in the ability to take additional electives as an M3 to make a more informed residency decision and have time to craft a more compelling application. I almost want to defer a year because of this, though I'm not sure that'd be allowed. It's definitely something that's steering me away from UCLA unfortunately. 🙁
 
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some Friyay thoughts:

1) I've hidden that lunchbox in the very depths of my closet...you acceptees are right! perhaps I truly need to throw it out for the geffen gods to send an A.
(May place in garbage disposal for better, more violent mojo)

2) After crunching the numbers, I've come to the conclusion that vocal sdn neuroticism and ucla acceptance are directly related. So I will now make a confession: I only recently made an sdn account, but 100% I've been snooping this page since my Sept interview.
(@admissions, does this count as a LOI?)

just wanted to say I appreciate everyone else's nuttiness on this page, because it's made me smile through the darkest periods of bruin silence.
btw I think this sdn camaraderie definitely counts as bruin spirit.
*eight claps*
 
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