couldn't attend the revisit weekend and party the night before.... how was it? find out anything particularly exciting/interesting?
These were some of my observations:
- The administration is very very eager to please med students. Lots of little things have been changed/improved due to student feedback, from adding the pianos to the student lounge, creating a small gym on the medical campus, minor curriculum changes, etc. If anything, this might almost be to a fault! But that's just my own opinion.
- The surrounding neighborhoods from the med center are mostly good. There's one pretty shady area (most of Oak Park), but other than that it's quiet, nice houses (if not slightly old on the outside), but very very affordable. Most med students pay anywhere from $500-700/month, living in anywhere from 1BR-3BRs. A large majority live either within walking or short biking distance of school. No one complained in the least about the cost of living, many cited it as a plus.
- Sacramento itself is really just ~1 square mile of urban city surrounded by a *lot* of suburbs and greenery. Traffic, even at rush hour, is not bad at all. (at least compared to SoCal) More than a few people described the city as a great place where one can study. (Implying that there's not a whole lot to do in the city, but it's near enough a lot of places for a quick getaway).
- Many of the current first years really went out of their way to make us prospectives feel welcome. Between the pre-revisit party to the official events that day, they were very forthcoming with information about everything under the sun! I'm sure that there are other MS1s who are far less happy with UCD, but the fact that there are even a few students who are that passionate about the school does say something (positive).
- The hospital's a mix of old and new, with some wings dating to the 1930s and some that were just built. Overall nothing bad or spectacular stood out to me. One interesting thing was when our tour guide (the associate program director of medicine for the residency program) asked our group what specialties we may be interested in. Almost all of us (8-9 out of 10) listed primary care as one of our potential focuses.
- All in all there really is a feel of family to the med school community (students, faculty, staff, etc). Not to say everyone participates in the happy fuzzy family, but it's good to see that the school cultivates that environment. I think it could help students a lot during the transition periods (studying for step 1, clinical rotations, etc).
- Not all of what I heard were bunnehs and kittens. Two HS/college friends (who are now UCD residents) have had mixed experiences with UCD med students; some great, some pretty awful. Both mentioned that the system may coddle med students a bit too much in that they don't receive as much responsibility as they might in other institutions (particularly on the east coast). I brought this up both to Dean Henderson and the associate Medicine program director (he gave my group the hospital tour), and the latter mentioned that he was aware of the discrepancy in expectations and has commissioned a study to look into it. That being said, he did say that UCD, unlike many east coast institutions, has a less 'militant' (his word) culture in that the onus was on the med students to learn and work independently without being directly pushed too hard. I don't think this really concerns us (adversely) too much as med students, but it's worth mentioning. I get the feeling that residents at every hospital have similar thoughts about med students!
- Most of the prospectives I met were 90-100% planning on attending UCD.
lol anyway, just looking it over, i have spent some time on the UCDSOM website and there are answers there to a lot of your questions. 
