CA Med School Bias for Alma Mater Undergrads

[scrubedin]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but is there a bias for Medical Schools and their respective undergraduate schools? I'm specifically asking about UCLA.

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[eyang22286]

dunno, but i've heard many times that UCSD isn't a big fan of UCSD undergrads

=( yeah i'm a triton

 

[nick_carraway]

Regarding UCSD, straight from your admissions director:

"[The] numbers usually come out at about 20% of the incoming class being from UCSD undergraduate.

"In the last 5 years, the percentage has been as low as 15% and as high as 24%."

I can say that UC Davis doesn't give its alumni special treatment, though.

 

[thegetupkid]

Since before I enrolled at UCLA for undergrad, I've been told that it is harder to get into UCLA med if you go to UCLA undergrad. Still, every piece of evidence leads me to actually believe that it is MUCH EASIER to get into UCLA med school if you went to UCLA as an undergrad. Just looking at Mdapps stats, so many non-ucla people have been rejected that are "more qualified" than UCLA students that have been accepted... IMO

 

[fizzle]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but is there a bias for Medical Schools and their respective undergraduate schools? I'm specifically asking about UCLA.

Not particularly. That said, students at the top UC's and Stanford tend to make up most of the top students in the state, so it's not a surprise that they'd compose a very large portion of the classes at the UC medical schools; I wouldn't be surprised if over half of the classes at the UC's were from the UC system plus Stanford. Besides, even if there were a bias for UCLA students at UCLA med school, that bias would be all but invisible, what with UCLA having one of the largest pre-med populations in the nation.

 

[nick_carraway]

Bear in mind that UCLA doesn't even have a strong preference for CA residents, in general.

 

[kdr411]

Regarding UCSD, straight from your admissions director:

"[The] numbers usually come out at about 20% of the incoming class being from UCSD undergraduate.

"In the last 5 years, the percentage has been as low as 15% and as high as 24%."

I can say that UC Davis doesn't give its alumni special treatment, though.

In 2005, 2006, and 2007, UCSD admitted 33, 38, and 36 of its undergrads respectively.

http://career.ucsd.edu/sa/PDFs/UCSD Admits 05-07.pdf

 

[scrubedin]

Bear in mind that UCLA doesn't even have a strong preference for CA residents, in general.

You're joking, right?

http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2008/2008school.htm

 

[scrubedin]

In 2005, 2006, and 2007, UCSD admitted 33, 38, and 36 of its undergrads respectively.

http://career.ucsd.edu/sa/PDFs/UCSD Admits 05-07.pdf

Is there one of these stat sheets for UCLA?

 

[RySerr21]

In 2005, 2006, and 2007, UCSD admitted 33, 38, and 36 of its undergrads respectively.

http://career.ucsd.edu/sa/PDFs/UCSD%20Admits%2005-07.pdf

that probably counts the students who were admitted straight out of high school, who agreed to do 4 years at UCSD undergrad and 4 years at UCSD med school. Skews the data kinda since those students were not in the regular application pool.

At my interview at UCI there were only like 1 or 2 UCI grads out of 40 applicants. There were quite a few UC students in general tho. Probably just b/c many CA students go to UC for undergrad and then of course they will apply in state for med school and UCI definitely gives preference to CA residents.

 

[chessknt]

UCI rejected me post-sec.

 

[nick_carraway]

You're joking, right?

http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2008/2008school.htm

You're right. In fact, we can just ignore this tidbit from UCLA's website:

"Residence: No preference is given to state of residence. However many applicants come from California. Acceptees from California are more likely to matriculate at UCLA. Out of 145 freshman, 85 percent were from California." (15% OOS)

And just for kicks, here are MSAR matriculation data for the UCs:

UCLA - IS 148 - OOS 21 (12.4% OOS)
UC Davis - IS 102 - OOS 2 (1.9% OOS)
UC Irvine - IS 101 - OOS 3 (2.88% OOS)
UCSD - IS 123 - OOS 11 (8.2% OOS)
UCSF - not included since they don't have strong preference either

I want to point out that your own link shows an even greater difference between the schools that demonstrate strong preference (UCD, UCI, UCSD) and the UCs that don't (UCLA, UCSF).

 

[jehrdoc]

I listened to a presentation by the Dean of Admissions for a UC med school. This question came up in the Q/A.

He said that although they do not have an official bias, they do end up interviewing and accepting more people from the home institution because a) their letters tend to comes from people they know and trust, b) they are more familiar with their activities, c) they are more familiar with their coursework.

I think this makes great sense. The admissions committee are people too, sometimes we forget that.

 

[JeetKuneDo]

You're joking, right?

http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2008/2008school.htm

Yeah, I think only UCLA doesn't have preference. The other UC's do though.

 

[go lakers]

I listened to a presentation by the Dean of Admissions for a UC med school. This question came up in the Q/A.

He said that although they do not have an official bias, they do end up interviewing and accepting more people from the home institution because a) their letters tend to comes from people they know and trust, b) they are more familiar with their activities, c) they are more familiar with their coursework.

I think this makes great sense. The admissions committee are people too, sometimes we forget that.

Right.

Plus it's just sheer numbers. Look at how many applicants come from Cal, UCLA, and UCSD alone: http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/start.htm
There are bound to be a number of very strong applicants when you have 750+ apply from the university.

 

[Shawnpremed]

I think as much as the UC's try to filter out their instate applicants, they try just as hard to keep non-CA students out.

 

[majahops]

UCD tries NOT to take its undergrads (although there are exceptions) into their medical school.

 

[nick_carraway]

UCD tries NOT to take its undergrads (although there are exceptions) into their medical school.

Yeah and they have a preference for older applicants who y'know... have accomplished something outside of school...

 

[copingmethods]

Since before I enrolled at UCLA for undergrad, I've been told that it is harder to get into UCLA med if you go to UCLA undergrad.

I think UCLA students say that because so many of them get rejected from UCLA med. There are hundreds of premeds/med school applicants at UCLA, and the med school can't accept all of them, so many more get rejected than get accepted.

 

[WannaBePreMed]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but is there a bias for Medical Schools and their respective undergraduate schools? I'm specifically asking about UCLA.

UC - University of California -> Public schools -> for the most part they want people from California.