Advice for an out-of-state applicant seeking to apply to UCSD next year

[Episome]

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Hello. I was born in California, and lived most of my childhood there. When I was 12 years old, my family decided to move across the country. I currently reside in Tennessee. I usually try to reconnect with my friends and relatives back home every summer. I would love to return home and attend University of San Diego for Medical school. Regardless of where I'm accepted, I plan on living in San Diego and giving back to the community after medical school. I'm wondering what qualities give out-of-state applicants the best chances of getting in at UCSD.

Here are some noteworthy stats:
Junior Biology Major
3.89 cGPA
3.85 sGPA
CLRA level 2 certified tutor
+50 Hrs Gen Biology tutoring
+50 Hrs Gen Chemistry tutoring
+50 Hrs Gen Physics tutoring
+50 Hrs Genetics tutoring
Participated in biology trip to Indonesia to research tropical biology last summer
Currently conducting research project at University
+30 hrs volunteering at local hospital
+20 hrs shadowing (I will definitely be improving this over Christmas break)

What should I work on most?
I'll be taking the MCAT this summer.

 

[dsk89]

Hello. I was born in California, and lived most of my childhood there. When I was 12 years old, my family decided to move across the country. I currently reside in Tennessee. I usually try to reconnect with my friends and relatives back home every summer. I would love to return home and attend University of San Diego for Medical school. Regardless of where I'm accepted, I plan on living in San Diego and giving back to the community after medical school. I'm wondering what qualities give out-of-state applicants the best chances of getting in at UCSD.

Here are some noteworthy stats:
Junior Biology Major
3.89 cGPA
3.85 sGPA
CLRA level 2 certified tutor
+50 Hrs Gen Biology tutoring
+50 Hrs Gen Chemistry tutoring
+50 Hrs Gen Physics tutoring
+50 Hrs Genetics tutoring
Participated in biology trip to Indonesia to research tropical biology last summer
Currently conducting research project at University
+30 hrs volunteering at local hospital
+20 hrs shadowing (I will definitely be improving this over Christmas break)

What should I work on most?
I'll be taking the MCAT this summer.

There really is no way to tell with the UC's, except to just be top notch in every category and hope and pray for the best, and even then that might be enough. Your Tennessee residency will work against you, regardless of how tied you are to California. Remember that 5,000 applicants from California are applying and the majority of them will be forced to leave the state. The out of state acceptance rates are even lower than the in state obviously. For example, according to US news- last year about 1900 out of state applicants applied to UCSD and about 140 were interviewed. Of those 140, only 50 were accepted.

You're GPA is good, you need a high MCAT to give yourself the best chance possible. I'd say 34+, but really the higher the better obviously. Your clinical experience is weak, you definitely need more hours in that. And do you any other EC's besides a bunch of tutoring? Tutoring is definitely good though. You are also severely lacking in community service and non-clinical volunteering. In the end though, just hope for the best, but don't expect anything out of UCSD or anywhere in California. Good luck.

 

[Episome]

Thanks for the informative response. The numbers you cited illustrate my chances nicely. It seems like this will be a very daring endeavor haha. I completely forgot to mention my community service hours, but that is something else I really need to work on. I'll be sure to post here if I succeed (even though it's not very likely).