The Truth About UCSD!!!

[Milhouse Van Houten]

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My friend just interviewed at UCSD, and she fell in love with the school. The dean actually addressed the issue of UCSD's supposed "hard-core" reputation. He said it's just a myth that for some reason or another has been propogated throughout the nation. He gave the interviewers a sheet comparing the total number of hours (lectures, labs, seminars, small group sessions, and clinical correlates) at UCSD vs. other schools. Here's the details:
Average number of hours in first 2 years among US medical schools, according to AAMC curriculum derectory 2000= 1592 hours.
UCSD has 1517 hours.
Now, comparing the UC's:
UCI-1467
UCSF-1475
UCSD-1517
UCLA-1520
Stanford-1571
UCD-1597
Whether or not total hours correlates well with how intense a school is--that's another issue. But, at least in terms of class hours, UCSD is actually very good!

 

[lilycat]

Yeah, the class hours data, and other information like that, has been available for at least a few years on the AAMC website. I declined to go to UCSD last year in part because of the stressful atmosphere, which just isn't a "myth" I'm sorry to tell you. However, my new theory on it is that maybe the students there are just more honest than they are at other schools throughout the whole process. I was actually just talking about this last night with another classmate of mine, and her friend from Tulane. Basically, I think that the students I spoke with at UCSD were more or less expressing dissatisfaction with med school in general, rather than just the school. Whereas other schools are a little more skilled at projecting the necessary cheery propaganda at interviewees. Anyways, that's just my theory. I'm glad to hear that your friend liked UCSD -- it's a great school, and in all honesty, I think going there will be a "tough" experience, but that's just med school in general.

 

[Darwin]

I spoke with the tour guide about this issue while at my interview...UCSD makes up for it in "at home" study hours. The curriculum is by far the most intense I've seen, but the board scores speak for themselves and UCSD remains my top choice. I absolutely loved the school despite its rigorous reputation.

 

[BeckyG]

I would agree with Darwin's statement. UCSF "decreased" its in-class hours for the new curriculum, but we end up teaching ourselves a lot more (things that would have normally taught in a lecture). So, look at those in-class hours with skepticism - we all have to learn the same info -- whether its taught in class or you learn it on your own is a minor issue and really doesn't correlate with "competitiveness" or being "hard-core."

 

[BlackPuma]

Originally posted by petros:
•My friend just interviewed at UCSD, and she fell in love with the school. The dean actually addressed the issue of UCSD's supposed "hard-core" reputation. He said it's just a myth that for some reason or another has been propogated throughout the nation. He gave the interviewers a sheet comparing the total number of hours (lectures, labs, seminars, small group sessions, and clinical correlates) at UCSD vs. other schools. Here's the details:
Average number of hours in first 2 years among US medical schools, according to AAMC curriculum derectory 2000= 1592 hours.
UCSD has 1517 hours.
Now, comparing the UC's:
UCI-1467
UCSF-1475
UCSD-1517
UCLA-1520
Stanford-1571
UCD-1597
Whether or not total hours correlates well with how intense a school is--that's another issue. But, at least in terms of class hours, UCSD is actually very good!•••

umm like I don't know where u got that stats, but UCI has classes from 9 to 12 everyday, unlike UCSD which has class from 9 to 5 MWF. So lets add up our math kids....9 to 5 that is 8 hours times 3 (days) 24 hrs per week....lets add up UCI....5x3 = 15 hours per week...so can you please explain to me how the math ends up saying that UCI's total lecture hours are only 100 hours different from UCSD?! or do you blindly accept any statistic given to u?
😱

 

[Milhouse Van Houten]

i highly doubt class 9 to 5 everyday means 8 hours of straight class--in fact, i know it doesn't. second, does the 9-12 thing include all labs and seminars (for first and second year)? if it does, then go UCI!!! something sounds off about that though. if it is, then uci is WAY below the mean number of hours according to AAMC. either way, so is UCSD. i'm just writing what AAMC has published. there are schools out there like pritzker that have WAY more hours than the national average. that school is hard-core, but the students really learn their stuff (i think the same argument was used for UCSD).

 

[BlackPuma]

Originally posted by petros:
•i highly doubt class 9 to 5 everyday means 8 hours of straight class--in fact, i know it doesn't. second, does the 9-12 thing include all labs and seminars (for first and second year)? if it does, then go UCI!!! something sounds off about that though. if it is, then uci is WAY below the mean number of hours according to AAMC. either way, so is UCSD. i'm just writing what AAMC has published. there are schools out there like pritzker that have WAY more hours than the national average. that school is hard-core, but the students really learn their stuff (i think the same argument was used for UCSD).•••


oh ok kewls..sorry didnt mean to sound like picking an argument...but did u say AAMC published it ?! ummm isnt that the same organization that takes care of AMCAS? umm enuf said...(hint hint not reliable source) hehe

 

[Triangulation]

Seems like the best way to settle the 'hours in class' dispute, if it's worthy of settling, I'll take any UC, would be to inquire with med students from UCI and UCSD. There should be an abundance on this site.