received UCSF secondary with 27mcat

Congrats, Bruin4Life!!

 

congrats, i'm jealous!

 

I dont want to be in any way condescending, and in no way is my following question meant to imply anything negative?

but bruinlife, didn't you mention you are a minority?

thanks....

 

affirmative action isn't legal in california.

 

That doesn't mean that they haven't found ways to "work around it," particularly if you are from anything at all like a socioeconomically disadvantaged background.

 

The statement by Petros that "affirmative action isn't legal in California" is a common misperception. Prop 209 bars race as a criterion for state hiring and contracting and admissions procedures. However, there are many contracts and programs that are still mandated by the federal government to use affirmative action in hiring, contracting, and admissions. Institutions such as UCSF and other government-funded schools must still abide by the law of the nation, or else risk losing funding. The elimination of affirmative action by the state of California has had a tremendous negative effect on the percentages of underrepresented minorities admitted to the top UC schools.

Lilycat, I just wanted to say that your post intentionally or unintentionally was fairly condescending and judgemental. It implied that Bruin4Life got the interview because of his/her race. I doubt that Bruin4Life got the interview because of a "work around" in the system. A 27 MCAT doesn't rule one out for admissions and there could be other aspects of his/her application which are tremendously strong. As a moderator on this forum, I would expect your future comments to be more impartial and less loaded with negative connotation.

 

Vader, I'm extremely impressed that you gleaned so much information about me and my beliefs regarding Bruin's qualifications from one sentence. Truly impressive deductive reasoning.

I was not commenting on Bruin's interview invite one way or the other, hence why I only copied Petros' response -- that was the only portion of this thread that I chose to comment on. Perhaps it was unfortunate that it was in the body of a thread regarding this applicant's interview invite. My experience with the UC system has been that while they may not explicitly factor race into account, they do seem to pay some significant attention to socioeconomic background, hence a way to "work around" whatever limitations they may face as result of recent legislation regarding affirmative action. Hence, my reply to Petros' comment.

As for any comment regarding Bruin's qualifications -- I have none -- I know nothing about his application, besides the fact that he has a 27 MCAT. If he received a UCSF invite, I can only assume that he is a competitive candidate. I may not know what it is like to be a URM, and feel like you constantly have to defend yourself and your credentials. However, I have quickly discovered what it is like to be a female in medicine, and realize that because of your gender your abilities and career goals are continually questioned. I won't bore you with the number of times that I have been asked if I'm a PA or nursing student -- not that these aren't challenging programs in their own right, but somehow I doubt that most of my male classmates get these assumptions made about them. I wonder how often people have asked that question of you Vader? But wait, I forgot dammit, I'm supposed to be the condescending one here!

The nature of many threads on SDN is that they go off course of the original topic, and various sidebars and side-topics become embedded within them. As I mentioned previously, it was perhaps an unfortunate accident that Petros' comment and my repsonse to him was embedded within this particular thread -- for that I apologize, since it seemed to detract from the other comments made. But I stand by my statement, and do not apologize for it, because I don't think there was anything to apologize for. However, I do think that in the future you may need to take a second before you jump to such rapid judgments and conclusions. Of course, it's always easier to make flip judgments based on limited information -- that's why we have such abundant bigotry, ignorance, and racism in this country.

 

"Well I don't think I'm too cool or very interesting, plus I have a 27 MCAT, and I just recieved their secondary. "

bruin4life, in one post you say you aren't interesting, then you say you might be, which one is it?

i know you may and probably did not get a secondary just because of your ethnic origin, but the reality is the rest of your life you will probably be questioned that, whether people say it to your face or not.

Also, I believe that it is a good idea for the medical schools to admit different people, from varying ethnic origins, because the population of the doctors should represent the population in general.

just thought i'd put what i think in this discussion.

 

Bruin4life, I can see your concern over somewhat of condescending nature in the tone of the post you felt insulted. However, Watchamcallit's obvious blunder may have precipitated from your description of yourself. You did not mention all the cool extracurricular activities you have done-i think they are cool and interesting-and rather implied them to be somewhat unimpressive. You omitted your awesome GPA, and emphasized the only weakness in your application, less than norm MCAT score. While all these do not excuse the slightly belligerant post, just understand that he probably thought you a poor MCAT, likely poor GPA, uninteresting extracurricular, and an URM. Just make light of his statement, and forget about the whole thing. SDNers are still the most polite group of people on an anonymous internet bulletin board.

 

I guess we can all see that it sucks to jump to conclusions without knowing the full story or letting it play out. So bruin found out UCSF isn't all about numbers, people found out that being black/mex isn't all about being black/mex, and that things are easily taken the wrong way in this medium. So why don't we go back to our regularly scheduled programming? Best of luck bruin! they sent me a little something too, but i'm out of state and don't know if they're really considering me as I can imagine how strong the out of state pool must be. Well, it'll cost me $40 to find out, and i've come this far, so why not? --Trek

 

Wow, you guys, this is getting ugly. Bruin was just happy, and he/she wanted to share it, and you tearing him apart. As Becky previously noted, UCSF pays a lot of attention to the essays; hell, I am white and got a secondary from them, and I have a lower GPA than Bruin and it is not from a famous school like UCLA. 27 on the MCAT is not a death sentence, I don't know where you got that idea, and there are PLENTY of white people who get that score and lower and still get in.
We also got to give some credit to Watcha; I don't think he was condescending or anything; he, like everyone else is just obsessed with the whole admissions gamble and was trying to find any litttle fine details to see "WHY" somebody would get a secondary or interview or acceptance. So lets wrap this up and don't fight.
Bruin: Congratulations!!!!!! Are you a CA resident?

 

HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY!!!!!

GUYZ honestly, your WAAAAY extending my comment...I am in no way shape or form a racist...have lots of minority friends, can be considered a minority myself....having said that

you mentioned bruin4life, that you weren't "interesting" and with a 27 MCAT you got an interview....I merely asked if you were a minority? why is disclosure of one'e ethnic status regarded as derogatory...

if anything, UR own comments were misleading....listing all those extracurricular activities, your great gpa...it is CLEAR that YOU ARE INTERESTING, and you have LOTS going for you....I know realize you were being humble, but I merely asked if you were a minority.......that DOES not imply that all minorities have less than subpar grades!!! my own physician is a hispanic, and I love him, he went to columbia and harvard!!!

however, you created this thread to imply...like "I am not even remotely competitive and I got an interview" which is so NOT true..it is clear that you are one of the top applicants...and I am more than happy that you got an interview...

I was simply asking that maybe an ethnic status was regarded as a "diversity"....YOU MUST ADMIT one thing, that affirmative action ruined the image of great hardworking students such as yourself....it is clear that you are of a great caliber, however your own comments were misleading!

anyway, if you were offended I sincerely apologize

and I hope you get in to your top choice

 

Lilycat,
My apologies. I think I must have taken your post the wrong way. Please realize though that because this is written word and not verbal communication, that short, slightly off-topic statements that involve controversial subjects like the one you posted can easily be misinterpreted, especially in the context of the larger discussion. I think it is clear from this thread that there were a bunch of misinterpretations, so I think it is best to leave it alone at this point.

To Bruin4Life: Congratulations on receiving the UCSF secondary. There definitely is a lot of pre-screening, so that is definitely good news. It sounds like you have done some excellent extracurricular and academic activities. UCSF definitely is not a numbers-hungry school and looks for people with a wide variety of interests and abilities. Good luck on the rest of your application and if you have any questions about UCSF, please let me know.

 

rohitbest,

That was one of the most ignorant, condescending comments I've ever read!!!! How DARE you say that someone will always question whether or not they deserved to get into school on their own merit or because of their socioeconomic status! Clearly you are a well-fed white person who's always had everything; or you could possibly be a poor white person who is angry because he doesn't have SE status to blame stuff on...

WOW, DIDN'T THAT JUST SOUND IGNORANT AND PRESUMPTUOUS?! (it's sarcasm but possibly true).

Someone got a secondary at a med school with a 27 MCAT...YEAH! That's what you're supposed to say...YEAH! Don't question the person. I really hope I'm not in school with people like that...

 

actually rohitbest is a non-white.....just to let you know....hehe