How stressful is UCSF???

[livingdaylights]

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Just wondering how stressful is UCSF. When I took tour at USC, the guide told me that she chose USC because UCSF seemed very stressful. Is that true?????😕

 

[64microbus]

When I took the UCSF tour, the host took us by the game room. It had ping-pong tables, foosball, TV, new carpeting, and a beautiful view - nobody was in there. When we went by the library, the carpet was worn out, all the study rooms were occupied, and everybody was hitting the books hard - on a Saturday. I'm not trying to make any point, just sharing an observation. I'm sure a UCSF student will share their experience, and I'll be eager to read about it.

 

[UCSFpharmgirl8]

Hi you guys,

In my opinion....I don't really consider UCSF to be as stressful as some people might believe. In comparison to USC...yes we do have additional classes (such as P-chem....which your not gonna need afterwards), electives and their some days that just drag on. However, I still make time to work, volunteer, participate in club activities and hang out with friends. I believe that a school is "stressful" when you as an individual put too much stress on yourself to strive for A's and not enjoy the time you spend. Yes I strive to do good in class....however I find it really important to just relax and go out with friends.
In response to "64microbus" observation. This past Sat....all pharmacy students (I, II, & III) were studying for exams we had this week. All 2nd year students had 4 exams this week and my last one is tomorrow. If you would of came any other week...you would of seen students in the game room or at a "pub" chilling with friends.

 

[ucdbiochem]

yes, it can get pretty stressful here in terms of the course load. like pharmgirl said, life can be hectic when you have school work, volunteer/club activites. but when you realize that you have classmates going through the same thing, it's not that bad. and whenever we're done with midterms, we go out and have fun!!

 

[neonam11]

Hmmm, so it would seem that my good friends UCDbiochem and UCSFpharmgirl are going out after their midterms, lucky bastards. Yeah, this last couple of weeks for the P1's and P2's have been tough since we have about on average 2 midterms every week for three weeks straight (for the P1's anyway).

How stressful life is at UCSF really depends on how well you want to do and what you want to do with your degree after you graduate. If you want to chill and pass your class with a D's and C's, your stress level barely reaches lift-off. However, if you want A's and B's you gotta work your arse off as I have seen many of my classmates practically living either in the library or student lounge. UCDBiochem is definitely right though. After exams we do go out and have fun. During your first year, you do have opportunities to join clubs and socialize although only sparingly, in my opinion. For me, I study pretty hard but also play hard, so it was pretty easy for me to choose UCSF and be around people who share my philosophy.

 

[livingdaylights]

Thanks!! its really helpful. I think UCSF is a great school and I definitely hope they will accept me. I was just worried since I did not really get a chance to go on campus tour or take advantage of the chat room.

Also, how supportive is the UCSF community? Do they offer tutoring service for struggling students? I don't mean to tell you that I am lazy; but I would love to go to cooperative environment.

 

[neonam11]

Don't believe everything you read on the UCSF Pharmacy webpage about tutoring services. Only if you are in danger of flunking a class will they match you up with a tutor. For the P1's, I think the hardest subject to grasp is P-chem and there were some people who got tutors after the first midterm. Yeah, so if you got a 85% on the first midterm and want that A by getting a tutor, OSACA will pat you on the back and tell you how well you are doing thus far before they push you outside (kidding, OSACA is very cool to us). There are formal review sessions scheduled for specific classes, but I personally think that they are a waste of time, especially if it's a question and answer session. Sometimes, you will have an awesome TA who will hold review sessions before an exam to tell us what the important points we should have learned .

Your classmates can also become indispensible because we often study together and quiz each other on the materials we are learning. Some classmates e-mail cheat sheets (allowed by the prof's) and notes. I think the 2nd years even have people who scans old exams and post it on their class website as pdf files.

Although my class is very serious when it comes to their academic life, we help each other as much as possible. Yeah, competition is not so big here since most of the courses are graded on a straight scale. Besides, we're in professional school and for many of us this is our last chance to be in this kind of setting, so we might as well learn as much as possible before we find ourselves in the real world, earning a wage.