UCLA has two medical schools?

Started by automangts
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automangts

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I was just browsing through Mdapplicants and saw that UCLA has two accredited medical schools, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine.

I was just wondering if I have something wrong here, or if not, a little background on the differences between these schools.
 
UCLA has a few programs that one can obtain a MD degree from.

The most well known one is the Geffen School of Medicine. All 4 years are completed at UCLA & affiliates.

The two other programs (that I know of) are:
a) Charles Drew: Geared more toward underserved populations. Students who are admitted into the program spend the first 2 years of medical school on the campus of UCLA at the David Geffen School of Medicine. The 3rd year of medical education is spent at the Martin Luther King Jr. / Drew Medical Center located in South Los Angeles approximately 35 miles from the Westwood campus. The fourth year, called the Urban Underserved College, begins with a one week time commitment designed to hone clinical skills and prepare students for residency. Applicants apply through AMCAS.

There are some issues surrounding Drew Medical Center - google it if you're interested in this program.

b) UC Riverside/UCLA: Working in conjunction with the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, UCR provides a unique path of entrance to one of the country's leading medical schools. The UCR/UCLA Thomas Haider Program in Biomedical Sciences, Riverside County's only medical program, provides UCR students (including transfer students) exclusive access to 24 medical school seats each year. Applications for these seats are accepted only from UCR students, from any major. Each medical school class size of 24 students allows for close faculty/student interaction and personalized attention.
Students accepted into this prestigious medical school program complete the first two years of their medical education at UCR in an intimate learning environment before moving on to UCLA for their remaining two years. They receive their M.D. degrees from UCLA. To be in this program, you must be a UCR undergrad.
 
Wow, that Charles Drew program looks really great.

Do you apply for the Charles Drew program in a separate application or is there a combined application for all the UCLA programs?
 
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Neelesh said:
Do you apply for the Charles Drew program in a separate application or is there a combined application for all the UCLA programs?
Click to expand...


You have to designate Charles Drew as a school on your AMCAS. It is distinct from UCLA Geffen.
 
The King/Drew hospital is in bad shape, but a lot of work is being done to repair the damage. There are plenty of other UCLA-affiliated hospitals for the underserved (especially Harbor and Olive View) that are available for the Drew students, in the mean time. It's not the same as doing clerkships at King/Drew, but it's not like the Drew students will be left out in the cold. The Drew med school program is still up and running. 🙂
 
UCLAstudent said:
The King/Drew hospital is in bad shape, but a lot of work is being done to repair the damage. There are plenty of other UCLA-affiliated hospitals for the underserved (especially Harbor and Olive View) that are available for the Drew students, in the mean time. It's not the same as doing clerkships at King/Drew, but it's not like the Drew students will be left out in the cold. The Drew med school program is still up and running. 🙂
Click to expand...

Thanks for the perspective UCLAstudent, it's nice to hear that first-hand 🙂
 
Have past applicants been accepted to both Drew and UCLA SOM since they are suppose to be separate schools? I was told their adcomms are linked which scares me. I hope interviewing well at Drew does not jeopardize an appliacant's chances of getting into UCLA SOM.
 
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Silverfox said:
Have past applicants been accepted to both Drew and UCLA SOM since they are suppose to be separate schools? I was told their adcomms are linked which scares me. I hope interviewing well at Drew does not jeopardize an appliacant's chances of getting into UCLA SOM.
Click to expand...

I don't know. I was rejected pre-secondary from Drew and interviewed at UCLA. ?
 
Just so you know, Drew is a historically-black school, though it's getting a bit more of a Latino presence, as the community's demographics have changed.

I don't know how much Drew will actually factor into the Drew-UCLA program now that King/Drew Medical Center has lost its accreditation, but it's probably a good thing that you won't be spending time there as a student. From everything I've heard and read, it sounds like it was the worst teaching hospital in the country.
 
Boris Badenov said:
Just so you know, Drew is a historically-black school, though it's getting a bit more of a Latino presence, as the community's demographics have changed.

I don't know how much Drew will actually factor into the Drew-UCLA program now that King/Drew Medical Center has lost its accreditation, but it's probably a good thing that you won't be spending time there as a student. From everything I've heard and read, it sounds like it was the worst teaching hospital in the country.
Click to expand...

Boris, everything you have heard is from the popular media. Consider the population the Drew/King serves, and think now where that population must go if Drew is no longer accessible.

It's much like the neighborhood of the Hopkins campus. Most dead-on-arrivals and level one trauma cases come from within a one-mile radius of the hospital. Closing this facility would be a devastating loss, both for the community and the didactic potential that it possesses.

Also, the program embraces anyone willing to serve the underserved populations of Los Angeles, of which there are many.
 
plutonium said:
Boris, everything you have heard is from the popular media. Consider the population the Drew/King serves, and think now where that population must go if Drew is no longer accessible.

It's much like the neighborhood of the Hopkins campus. Most dead-on-arrivals and level one trauma cases come from within a one-mile radius of the hospital. Closing this facility would be a devastating loss, both for the community and the didactic potential that it possesses.

Also, the program embraces anyone willing to serve the underserved populations of Los Angeles, of which there are many.
Click to expand...
Oh, I agree completely that the hospital serves an important need in the community and needs to stay open.

And you're right that most of my opinion of the place has been sculpted by what the media says.

Like this piece on KDMC from the LA Times (Deadly errors and politics betray a hospital's promise).
 
Boris Badenov said:
Oh, I agree completely that the hospital serves an important need in the community and needs to stay open.

And you're right that most of my opinion of the place has been sculpted by what the media says.

Like this piece on KDMC from the LA Times (Deadly errors and politics betray a hospital's promise).
Click to expand...

Yea, Boris...the media does kinda skew things but here's another more positive media article: http://www.today.ucla.edu/news/061024_mlk-drew/ King/Drew is no longer going to be a teaching facility but will be revamped into outpatient clinics under the management of Harbor-UCLA. UCLA-Drew students will be using UCLA affiliated hospitals. And I agree with plutonium...if you look at the stats, the class at Drew is very diverse, not just blacks and latinos. Please take no offense, just wanted to set the record straight. 😎
The most important thing is the mission of the school 🙂
 
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