- Joined
- Dec 17, 2002
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No more talk of darkness.... <<who knows where that is from... it was resident in SF was years!!!>>
First of all, CONGRATS Dodger dog and sdnsdn!!
Sorry if I don?t sound as happy as I usually do! I just wrote a big long thing, and the cpu ate it again. =( Cest la vie! =) Anyhoooo!!!! WELCOME to paradise!! Again, if you have any more questions?even if it?s whether or not UCSF is right for you, please let me kno. Also, if you?re going to be in the area, lemme kno! We can hang out or something =)
souljah?thanks for answering the questions people have been having about waiting. I totally agree! Just be patient; if you haven?t been rejected, you?re still in the game!! If you do get a rejection letter, appeals are possible, especially in the first week or so.
dodger dog--see you in may at second look. hopefully, i'll be one of those busy bees showing you everything!! =)
sdnsdn?darling, I totally kno what you mean about UCLA and your fears! I felt like the vast majority of the thirty or so pre-meds I knew closely, at least ten of them I felt were extremely qualified, did not get to go where they wanted to so you and I are incredibly lucky =) Not only does UCLA provide inadequate direction to pre-meds, I felt like it made it harder at times. I?ve been told the wrong classes to take, and it was hard to get the letters of rec service to fulfill your order let alone write a committee summary letter or rank your letters for you like they do at other schools. Coincidentally, I felt pre-meds at UCLA were competitive towards each other sometimes... because they had to be; it was so hard sometimes! But, I?m thankful for the experience in a way because I learned some great survival skills!! Anyhow, the other three UCLA students in my class and I aspire to open a supportive, collaborative, touchy-feely and useful pre-professional advising office on-campus when we can! Please help!! UCLA students are bright and talented as any other students, and they deserve proper guidance (I get so excited when UCLA people come up to interview!)!! Actually, I was so glad when I was applying that the Peer Medical Group (something like that) formed because I got some good interviewing experience that way =) Go team!!!
Anyhow, the main difference between UCLA undergrad and UCSF is that the latter is not undergrad. I could say for any UC school, you?ll receive much more support, and personalized and warm support, than you did as an undergrad. I could also say I strongly believe you?d get as much as you would at a private school. It?s a well-known fact that once someone gets into medical school, it?s not a survival of the fittest anymore, especially at a purely pass-fail school (we work together all the time... I feel like I learn mostly from my classmates =P ). Also, medical schools want you to do well so the intrinsic support system the school provide are extremely good?much better than high school even.
Specifically, at UCSF, we have advisory support systems at just about every level. On the macro level, each one of us was assigned to one of five advisory colleges when we got here. We same in this college, with the same advisor that oversees that college, for all four years. As you can imagine, there are first through four years in each college, and a lot of great information gets exchanged at college events that we have. In addition, your advisor is not only a valuable source of information, but your advocate. This aspect becomes important if you have a complaint/concern about a class/professor that cannot wait until evals or you have a question about residency that you can?t/shouldn?t ask yourself. Your advisor totally will make him/herself available for you. Professors are a great source too!! For instance, this one professor I especially adore gave us his home, work, and cell number so we can seriously contact him anytime (and this is no rookie professor either, very busy guy, but his true passion is teaching?he gets SO SO excited to hear from us!!). If you have personal problems even, the course chair or any professor will want to hear and help you about it as best as s/he can. I?ve had several classmates go to professors for guidance on academic and personal problems. On a more personal level, there are classmates. I had no physio/anatomy in my undergrad training so the first week was a shock for me, but everyone offered to help!! Even now, if I ask a classmates about something during small group, s/he will offer to stay after and explain it to me in detail! Everyone I?ve been around seems to love to teach and learn =) We also all have big sibs, a second year, who is another built-in support system for us. I get along beautifully with mine (well, other than the fact that I hit him all the time, but that?s only because he?s got a dislocated shoulder), and it?s not too uncommon because 1) everyone here is so awesome (you knew that was coming, and 2) the big sibs pick us based on forms we fill out after being accepted so it?s likely you and your big sib will have things in common. My big sib also likes T-cells?go figure! Student affairs is great. I wanted to do an event for the class, and it was not hard to get funding for it from them... The school works with you to the extreme on the curriculum and so that you can do what you want (the electives are initiated and run by students... the school tries to fund everyone who wants to travel abroad to do a project during the summer, and funds all that do research). These are all just examples... There?s support everywhere!!
The curriculum here is one of the school?s strengths. We all fill out evals for each block, and each small group we participate in. Each one of the lectures are evaluated too randomly (so that each of us evals a few lectures rather than all of us doing them all). These evals are taken very seriously, even considered for whether or not a professor should be promoted. There are forums where students speak up about the curriculum, and there are students that dedicate their summer (some take the year off) to work on the curriculum. We?re always encouraged to be as honest and critical as we can be about the curriculum. =) As proof of the power of students, the curriculum is running a lot more smoothly than last year, and I?m confident it will keep on getting better. We had very few complaints about the curriculum so far. Some said prologue was too easy. I personally would?ve added a few things to the prologue and the pulmonary block... But other than that, the biggest complain has been that the B lab groups have better times than the A lab group!! Really, no big deal.
If you have any more specific questions, let me kno!!
Hope to meet you all soon!!
Bien =)
First of all, CONGRATS Dodger dog and sdnsdn!!
Sorry if I don?t sound as happy as I usually do! I just wrote a big long thing, and the cpu ate it again. =( Cest la vie! =) Anyhoooo!!!! WELCOME to paradise!! Again, if you have any more questions?even if it?s whether or not UCSF is right for you, please let me kno. Also, if you?re going to be in the area, lemme kno! We can hang out or something =)
souljah?thanks for answering the questions people have been having about waiting. I totally agree! Just be patient; if you haven?t been rejected, you?re still in the game!! If you do get a rejection letter, appeals are possible, especially in the first week or so.
dodger dog--see you in may at second look. hopefully, i'll be one of those busy bees showing you everything!! =)
sdnsdn?darling, I totally kno what you mean about UCLA and your fears! I felt like the vast majority of the thirty or so pre-meds I knew closely, at least ten of them I felt were extremely qualified, did not get to go where they wanted to so you and I are incredibly lucky =) Not only does UCLA provide inadequate direction to pre-meds, I felt like it made it harder at times. I?ve been told the wrong classes to take, and it was hard to get the letters of rec service to fulfill your order let alone write a committee summary letter or rank your letters for you like they do at other schools. Coincidentally, I felt pre-meds at UCLA were competitive towards each other sometimes... because they had to be; it was so hard sometimes! But, I?m thankful for the experience in a way because I learned some great survival skills!! Anyhow, the other three UCLA students in my class and I aspire to open a supportive, collaborative, touchy-feely and useful pre-professional advising office on-campus when we can! Please help!! UCLA students are bright and talented as any other students, and they deserve proper guidance (I get so excited when UCLA people come up to interview!)!! Actually, I was so glad when I was applying that the Peer Medical Group (something like that) formed because I got some good interviewing experience that way =) Go team!!!
Anyhow, the main difference between UCLA undergrad and UCSF is that the latter is not undergrad. I could say for any UC school, you?ll receive much more support, and personalized and warm support, than you did as an undergrad. I could also say I strongly believe you?d get as much as you would at a private school. It?s a well-known fact that once someone gets into medical school, it?s not a survival of the fittest anymore, especially at a purely pass-fail school (we work together all the time... I feel like I learn mostly from my classmates =P ). Also, medical schools want you to do well so the intrinsic support system the school provide are extremely good?much better than high school even.
Specifically, at UCSF, we have advisory support systems at just about every level. On the macro level, each one of us was assigned to one of five advisory colleges when we got here. We same in this college, with the same advisor that oversees that college, for all four years. As you can imagine, there are first through four years in each college, and a lot of great information gets exchanged at college events that we have. In addition, your advisor is not only a valuable source of information, but your advocate. This aspect becomes important if you have a complaint/concern about a class/professor that cannot wait until evals or you have a question about residency that you can?t/shouldn?t ask yourself. Your advisor totally will make him/herself available for you. Professors are a great source too!! For instance, this one professor I especially adore gave us his home, work, and cell number so we can seriously contact him anytime (and this is no rookie professor either, very busy guy, but his true passion is teaching?he gets SO SO excited to hear from us!!). If you have personal problems even, the course chair or any professor will want to hear and help you about it as best as s/he can. I?ve had several classmates go to professors for guidance on academic and personal problems. On a more personal level, there are classmates. I had no physio/anatomy in my undergrad training so the first week was a shock for me, but everyone offered to help!! Even now, if I ask a classmates about something during small group, s/he will offer to stay after and explain it to me in detail! Everyone I?ve been around seems to love to teach and learn =) We also all have big sibs, a second year, who is another built-in support system for us. I get along beautifully with mine (well, other than the fact that I hit him all the time, but that?s only because he?s got a dislocated shoulder), and it?s not too uncommon because 1) everyone here is so awesome (you knew that was coming, and 2) the big sibs pick us based on forms we fill out after being accepted so it?s likely you and your big sib will have things in common. My big sib also likes T-cells?go figure! Student affairs is great. I wanted to do an event for the class, and it was not hard to get funding for it from them... The school works with you to the extreme on the curriculum and so that you can do what you want (the electives are initiated and run by students... the school tries to fund everyone who wants to travel abroad to do a project during the summer, and funds all that do research). These are all just examples... There?s support everywhere!!
The curriculum here is one of the school?s strengths. We all fill out evals for each block, and each small group we participate in. Each one of the lectures are evaluated too randomly (so that each of us evals a few lectures rather than all of us doing them all). These evals are taken very seriously, even considered for whether or not a professor should be promoted. There are forums where students speak up about the curriculum, and there are students that dedicate their summer (some take the year off) to work on the curriculum. We?re always encouraged to be as honest and critical as we can be about the curriculum. =) As proof of the power of students, the curriculum is running a lot more smoothly than last year, and I?m confident it will keep on getting better. We had very few complaints about the curriculum so far. Some said prologue was too easy. I personally would?ve added a few things to the prologue and the pulmonary block... But other than that, the biggest complain has been that the B lab groups have better times than the A lab group!! Really, no big deal.
If you have any more specific questions, let me kno!!
Hope to meet you all soon!!
Bien =)
