University of San Francisco for pre-med?

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rashmi_101

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Can anyone who went to University of San Francisco tell me how difficult of an institution it is for pre-med? I want to go to a school that fully prepares a student and has the students best interest at heart.
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To the OP: I would not choose University of San Francisco as your undergrad for premed. At my T20, we have never interviewed a student from your school. Very few students from USF apply to medical school, and their average MCAT is low. In addition, the school is more than 65K per year to attend, and there is not much financial aid or scholarship money. (There is some $, especially for some students in the Honors college, but it is hard to tell how many students and how much they are awarded). Even if your family is very wealthy, I would not go there.

The UC's are a much better deal and are more respected for a student who wishes to stay IS California. Everyone, even on the east coast, understands the UC system and that community college is the way into the undergrad UC's for some students.

If you are a college senior and USF is your only acceptance, consider taking a gap year and applying to college again, perhaps widening your scope. All 4 of my own children did gap years before they went to college. They did all get into college as seniors in HS, and then deferred, but it did take the pressure off when they were seniors in HS, bc they knew they could apply again if they did not like any of the schools to which they were accepted the first time. At your age, there is no rush.
 
DrFortiusNatando said:
To the OP: I would not choose University of San Francisco as your undergrad for premed. At my T20, we have never interviewed a student from your school. Very few students from USF apply to medical school, and their average MCAT is low. In addition, the school is more than 65K per year to attend, and there is not much financial aid or scholarship money. (There is some $, especially for some students in the Honors college, but it is hard to tell how many students and how much they are awarded). Even if your family is very wealthy, I would not go there.

The UC's are a much better deal and are more respected for a student who wishes to stay IS California. Everyone, even on the east coast, understands the UC system and that community college is the way into the undergrad UC's for some students.

If you are a college senior and USF is your only acceptance, consider taking a gap year and applying to college again, perhaps widening your scope. All 4 of my own children did gap years before they went to college. They did all get into college as seniors in HS, and then deferred, but it did take the pressure off when they were seniors in HS, bc they knew they could apply again if they did not like any of the schools to which they were accepted the first time. At your age, there is no rush.
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It's my first time on SDN, Thanks for your input!! I'm a high school senior who got into UC Riverside and UC Santa Cruz (from the UC's), 11 cal state schools, and 4 privates which are University of the Pacific, University of San Francisco, Santa Clara University, and Mills College. I'm not really considering any of the state schools I got accepted into. The bad things I've heard about UC Santa Cruz are that it's hard to get shadowing opportunities since it is surrounded in such a populated place, and the hospital to volunteer at has a waiting list, so I'm kinda iffy about going there but it is an option. UC Riverside has an early assurance program to their med school but it is only for 24 people out of the whole pre-med class which can consist of thousands of kids. It is still an option, but what had me leaning towards University of San Francisco was that they claimed in the letter that they mailed me said quote "It is worth noting that the admission rate for USF graduates into health professions graduate programs for 2017 was 71%, and for medical school was 61%. This is well above the national average." They claim that their students' acceptance to med school is 20% the national average, which is why I was leaning more towards USF. I have been accepted into their honors college and got somewhat of a scholarship from them which makes me wonder if this is a better option for me as it has a 61% acceptance rate to medical school which aids me in my goal to pursue the medical field. Any thoughts on this?
 
Yes, but you have to ask yourself...that acceptance rate of 61% of how many applied? If I were you, I would seriously consider UCR or UCSC as your best options. If you have trouble with volunteering or shadowing at UCSC, do it during your summer breaks.
 
rashmi_101 said:
I have been accepted into their honors college and got somewhat of a scholarship from them which makes me wonder if this is a better option for me as it has a 61% acceptance rate to medical school which aids me in my goal to pursue the medical field. Any thoughts on this?
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If the mean MCAT from USF is 500.6 and the mean for successful CA applicants is 513.4, it is essentially impossible that USF could have had a 61% acceptance into US MD schools. https://www.aamc.org/download/321502/data/factstablea20.pdf
If you ask for clarification, you may discover that they are including podiatry, other health fields and even international schools as a "success."

The University of California is arguably the finest public school system in the nation.
If you are quite confident that you will do much better than the average applicant from USF and the school offers a education that is at least equivalent for the price (for you), the only things you are forgoing is name recognition (compared to a UC) and the dramatically increased chance of matriculating at UCR. To have 25 seats reserved for their own students (when only about 200 of them apply MD) is unique to UCR. https://www.aamc.org/download/321450/data/factstablea2-3.pdf
 
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rashmi_101 said:
"It is worth noting that the admission rate for USF graduates into health professions graduate programs for 2017 was 71%, and for medical school was 61%. This is well above the national average."
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While this may be very presumptive of me, it is highly likely that with such a discrepancy between national standards and schools published numbers that the school actively selects who is allowed to graduate and move on towards graduate health professions. A student likely can't apply to medical school if the school won't give them a committee letter, and the school may only give committee letters to students with >3.xx GPA or >51X MCAT. Or the school does not allow students to register for biochemistry without advisor approval etc. There could be any number of methodologies behind it, but I would guess that it is likely not the school itself that gives the benefit, rather how they operate their pre-health programs.

***I have no data, this is merely presumption based on 3 of my local private schools that do this.
 
MemeLord said:
While this may be very presumptive of me, it is highly likely that with such a discrepancy between national standards and schools published numbers that the school actively selects who is allowed to graduate and move on towards graduate health professions. A student likely can't apply to medical school if the school won't give them a committee letter, and the school may only give committee letters to students with >3.xx GPA or >51X MCAT. Or the school does not allow students to register for biochemistry without advisor approval etc. There could be any number of methodologies behind it, but I would guess that it is likely not the school itself that gives the benefit, rather how they operate their pre-health programs.

***I have no data, this is merely presumption based on 3 of my local private schools that do this.
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And yet, 39 of them applied in 2018 with a mean of 500.6.
 
gyngyn said:
And yet, 39 of them applied in 2018 with a mean of 500.6.
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Exactly, which supports that there must be some form of statistical quackery within their self reported data that they are doing to provide such an inflated number.
 
Hold up did I just read that a state flagship of 30,000 students had TWO applicants to med school? That cant be right...right? Maybe misread one of the satellites instead the main campus???
 
gyngyn said:
If the mean MCAT from USF is 500.6 and the mean for successful CA applicants is 513.4, it is essentially impossible that USF could have had a 61% acceptance into US MD schools. https://www.aamc.org/download/321502/data/factstablea20.pdf
If you ask for clarification, you may discover that they are including podiatry, other health fields and even international schools as a "success."

The University of California is arguably the finest public school system in the nation.
If you are quite confident that they will do much better than the average applicant from USF and the school offers a education that is at least equivalent for the price (for you), the only things you are forgoing is name recognition (compared to a UC) and the dramatically increased chance of matriculating at UCR. To have 25 seats reserved for their own students (when only about 200 of them apply MD) is unique to UCR. https://www.aamc.org/download/321450/data/factstablea2-3.pdf
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I ended up finding out that the 61% included dental, med, and optometry dating back to 2010. yikes
 
rashmi_101 said:
I ended up finding out that the 61% included dental, med, and optometry dating back to 2010. yikes
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Never trust a school. Their job is to get you to matriculate. They're not gonna tell you about harsh weedout, stats cutoffs to get committee support, or their dishonest ways of fluffing up their stats in their brochure
 
efle said:
Hold up did I just read that a state flagship of 30,000 students had TWO applicants to med school? That cant be right...right? Maybe misread one of the satellites instead the main campus???
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This is University of San Francisco. It is a private university. NOT one of the UC's or the CSU's.

University of San Francisco - Wikipedia
 
puahate said:
So many low tier schools are adding "University" to thier name to sound legitimate.
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Well, it's not like USF hasn't been around since forever...it is older than any of the UC's or CSU's and it has had university in its name for a very long time. USF isn't just some random school out there. It's just not a med school feeder.
 
rashmi_101 said:
wait so you mean only 2 people got into med school from USF???
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No, I was referring to Eastern WA.

USF had 39 applicants in 2018. The number of MD matriculants is unknown, but with a mean MCAT of 500.6 and a mean gpa of 3.44, there probably weren't very many. This is especially true since successful CA applicants had an MCAT of 513.4 and mean gpa of 3.68.
 
rashmi_101 said:
I ended up finding out that the 61% included dental, med, and optometry dating back to 2010. yikes
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And realize that a school quoting their acceptance rate likely is going to include all DO, all international; some undergrad schools even include "naturopathic medical" acceptance. And many schools will only allow top students to count in their total denominator, bc they do not give committee letters to anyone except the tippy top students, etc.

You can look into the acceptance rates of the other schools to which you were accepted. You might consider going to one of the state schools (a UC or a cal state) and consider transferring to one of the better fit/better schools if you find that there are not enough research or EC or clinical opportunities in the place where you start out. And remember, you will have your summers as well and you might also want to do a gap year after college. I am a huge proponent of gap years - all 4 of my kids did gap years BEFORE college, and the one going to medical school did one after college too. During a gap year or two, you can earn some money which will help you have some cash in medical school. You can also get more community service, as well as research experience and clinical experience during a gap year.

Your money is much better spent at a UC or a Cal State. Tell your parents to save their money for medical school if they have enough to pitch in. But USF with a small scholarship would seem to still be much more expensive than your great state schools. If you save your parents' money now, maybe they will not be all drawn out by the time you go to medical school.

Go go the college where you are most excited to go, after looking at their medical school acceptance statistics. Look at the total numbers who apply - and not just percentages. Look at what they count as success in terms of getting students into professional school. Ask what their MD acceptance NUMBERS are, and ask what their DO acceptance numbers are, as either route might be a reasonable choice for you, but just make sure they do not include Caribbean acceptances. Get excited about an undergrad school that has a history of getting their good students into medical school (MD and DO) and go there and do what brings you joy once you are there.
 
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UCR 58/216 27%
UCSC 23/107 21%
UOP 7/14 50%
USF 10/39 26%
SCU 33/73 45%
Mills 2/6 33%

I didn't compute all the CSUs, but among the most popular:
SJSU 9/25 36%
SLO 19/57 33%
CSUF 10/41 24%
SDSU 14/64 22%
SFSU 9/52 17%

(Edited to correct bad case of Zanki-induced column drift)
 
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Santa Clara University was my best hunch, followed by UC Santa Cruz and UC Riverside. However, I am not sure the numbers are reassuring.

UCR has more than 20K students, and only 205 are applying to medical school, which is 1% of the graduating class. (And some of the med school spots are for their pipeline program).
UCSC has about 20K UG students, and only 101 apply to med school, which is only 0.5% of the class.
Santa Clara has about 5000 UG students, with 71 applying to med school, which is slightly higher at 1.5% of the class.

These all seem like sort of low numbers applying to medical School, given how large these undergrads are. Clearly there is some dampening down from above, or serious weeding out.

Again, I make a plea for a gap year to reapply again for undergrad or plan to start somewhere and transfer if your chosen school is under-resourced. But it is apparently possible to get into medical school from all of these schools, but it will be harder from some schools than others.
 
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