- Joined
- Apr 11, 2017
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Hey guys!
Recently, I was fortunate enough to be admitted into Thurgood Marshall in UCSD for Bioinformatics. You could probably tell from the fact that I'm on this website, but in the future, I aspire to go to medical school and become a physician (hopefully serving underserved/underprivileged communities). I know that premed (especially in a place like UCSD) is uber-competitive, so I want to start planning ASAP. In fact even during Triton day, there were a bunch of premed gunners already asking about how to get research opportunities and hospital volunteering. Anyway, I feel like I should give a little background to myself, so that there is a little context to all of this.
In high school, I would call myself a "smart slacker". I got a 2350+ on the SAT and 770+ in 4 subject tests (don't want to list scores here because my identity might be compromised), but my GPA was lower than the average of most of the University of California schools I applied to due to a number of B's and C's I received. I would say most of that was due to just laziness and procrastinating (watching Youtube videos instead of doing my homework), but I've already been working on my study habits, and as a result last semester of Senior year, I managed to get all A's. This semester, I'm also (expecting) to get all A's, so I'm getting a lot better in that regard because I know how important GPA is for med schools, so no more slacking for me
. I've also taken 15+ AP's and received good scores on them, a number of them being tough exams, like a 5 on Calc BC in my sophomore year, 5 in Chem (self-studied), 5 in lit, 5 in stats, etc. So I think my academics are strong, but again, my GPA was so weak that I ended up getting rejected from UCLA, Berkeley, and all the private schools I applied to. I'll be honest: UCSD was not my first choice. In fact, I was pretty upset for a while that I would have to go here, but after visiting Triton day and researching the school more, I have grown to love it. But I don't want to make the same mistakes I did during high school, so that's why I'm trying to be proactive now. That being said, it leads me to my first question:
Since I got a 5 in AP Chemistry, I believe that I won't receive credit for taking the regular chem series (chem 6a,6b,6c). But because you need to take a year of general chem for many med schools, should I take the honors series? I've heard the honors series is unnecessarily difficult, and Med schools don't care that you took it versus taking the regular series (not like taking AP vs regular classes in high school). Is this true? I feel like I might be able to handle it because I got a 5 on the AP Chem exam and a 800 on the SAT Chemistry subject test, but who knows.
Next, I have a few general questions about making the most of the premed opportunities at UCSD: Any advice you can give me as a premed at UCSD? Any good volunteer opportunities (clinical/non-clinical) that you really enjoyed? Clubs? Student government/Student ambassador program? Did any of you work while studying? I'm thinking of joining the Indian Student Association, but I'm worried that it might be looked down on for med school admissions (since its basically an ORM club, not like Hispanic Student Association for example). But I also know that admissions officers want to see your personality, and if I can get a leadership position and take initiative to organize events, that'll be looked upon positively. Is my understanding correct?
Finally, my last few questions relate to some interesting data I found regarding UCSD undergrads getting into medical school. In 2015 (the most recent data available), 445 people applied to the UCSD medical school and only 23 students were admitted. Am I the only one who just gasps at that? I'm trying to find some sort of explanation. Out of the 445, maybe only 100 had a competitive GPA+MCAT, and then only 50 had no holes in their app (good stats but they also volunteer), and the 23 selected (out of the remaining 50ish students) did a good interview. Is it something like that?
For top schools like Stanford, Yale, Harvard, etc. Around 100-200 students apply every year and only around 1-5 students are accepted. I'm just curious....have any of you met these students? Were they extraordinary/stellar? What separates them from the other 99% of UCSD students that apply. Like I said with the UCSD medical school example, are there a bunch of kids who have low stats but apply to these top schools for fun? So really, there's only like 20 students who are competitive, and then it kind of comes down to the interview, essay, LORS? Sorry, I'm just trying to make sense of the madness that is medical school admissions. I just want to know if I have a reasonable chance of getting into a top medical school if I work hard, or if every student from UCSD who has been accepted to a top school was a URM with a very disadvantaged background and a moving story, or some legacy who's donated 6 figures to the school. Btw I'm an ORM applicant with no major hooks (haven't really had anything major happen to me, for better or worse)
Anyway, if your read this whole post thank you so much, it really means a lot to me. I wanted to put all of my doubts in one post so that I don't end up spamming this forum with questions.
Recently, I was fortunate enough to be admitted into Thurgood Marshall in UCSD for Bioinformatics. You could probably tell from the fact that I'm on this website, but in the future, I aspire to go to medical school and become a physician (hopefully serving underserved/underprivileged communities). I know that premed (especially in a place like UCSD) is uber-competitive, so I want to start planning ASAP. In fact even during Triton day, there were a bunch of premed gunners already asking about how to get research opportunities and hospital volunteering. Anyway, I feel like I should give a little background to myself, so that there is a little context to all of this.
In high school, I would call myself a "smart slacker". I got a 2350+ on the SAT and 770+ in 4 subject tests (don't want to list scores here because my identity might be compromised), but my GPA was lower than the average of most of the University of California schools I applied to due to a number of B's and C's I received. I would say most of that was due to just laziness and procrastinating (watching Youtube videos instead of doing my homework), but I've already been working on my study habits, and as a result last semester of Senior year, I managed to get all A's. This semester, I'm also (expecting) to get all A's, so I'm getting a lot better in that regard because I know how important GPA is for med schools, so no more slacking for me
. I've also taken 15+ AP's and received good scores on them, a number of them being tough exams, like a 5 on Calc BC in my sophomore year, 5 in Chem (self-studied), 5 in lit, 5 in stats, etc. So I think my academics are strong, but again, my GPA was so weak that I ended up getting rejected from UCLA, Berkeley, and all the private schools I applied to. I'll be honest: UCSD was not my first choice. In fact, I was pretty upset for a while that I would have to go here, but after visiting Triton day and researching the school more, I have grown to love it. But I don't want to make the same mistakes I did during high school, so that's why I'm trying to be proactive now. That being said, it leads me to my first question:Since I got a 5 in AP Chemistry, I believe that I won't receive credit for taking the regular chem series (chem 6a,6b,6c). But because you need to take a year of general chem for many med schools, should I take the honors series? I've heard the honors series is unnecessarily difficult, and Med schools don't care that you took it versus taking the regular series (not like taking AP vs regular classes in high school). Is this true? I feel like I might be able to handle it because I got a 5 on the AP Chem exam and a 800 on the SAT Chemistry subject test, but who knows.
Next, I have a few general questions about making the most of the premed opportunities at UCSD: Any advice you can give me as a premed at UCSD? Any good volunteer opportunities (clinical/non-clinical) that you really enjoyed? Clubs? Student government/Student ambassador program? Did any of you work while studying? I'm thinking of joining the Indian Student Association, but I'm worried that it might be looked down on for med school admissions (since its basically an ORM club, not like Hispanic Student Association for example). But I also know that admissions officers want to see your personality, and if I can get a leadership position and take initiative to organize events, that'll be looked upon positively. Is my understanding correct?
Finally, my last few questions relate to some interesting data I found regarding UCSD undergrads getting into medical school. In 2015 (the most recent data available), 445 people applied to the UCSD medical school and only 23 students were admitted. Am I the only one who just gasps at that? I'm trying to find some sort of explanation. Out of the 445, maybe only 100 had a competitive GPA+MCAT, and then only 50 had no holes in their app (good stats but they also volunteer), and the 23 selected (out of the remaining 50ish students) did a good interview. Is it something like that?
For top schools like Stanford, Yale, Harvard, etc. Around 100-200 students apply every year and only around 1-5 students are accepted. I'm just curious....have any of you met these students? Were they extraordinary/stellar? What separates them from the other 99% of UCSD students that apply. Like I said with the UCSD medical school example, are there a bunch of kids who have low stats but apply to these top schools for fun? So really, there's only like 20 students who are competitive, and then it kind of comes down to the interview, essay, LORS? Sorry, I'm just trying to make sense of the madness that is medical school admissions. I just want to know if I have a reasonable chance of getting into a top medical school if I work hard, or if every student from UCSD who has been accepted to a top school was a URM with a very disadvantaged background and a moving story, or some legacy who's donated 6 figures to the school. Btw I'm an ORM applicant with no major hooks (haven't really had anything major happen to me, for better or worse)
Anyway, if your read this whole post thank you so much, it really means a lot to me. I wanted to put all of my doubts in one post so that I don't end up spamming this forum with questions.
