2016-2017 University of California - Riverside Application Thread

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Please post the essays or lack thereof (in addition to word or character counts) in this thread and tag me and/or @Ismet and we'll update the OP.

Good luck to everyone applying!

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What's the deal with applying here only if you're from the Inland Empire? Each entering class certainly can't be made up of 100% IE residents, correct?

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Current medical student here. A little bit more than half of the students have some kind of connection to the IE (either they went to UCR or grew up in the IE). I personally had no connection.
 
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Current medical student here. A little bit more than half of the students have some kind of connection to the IE (either they went to UCR or grew up in the IE). I personally had no connection.
Great, thanks for the info! I'll add it to my list :)
 
Current medical student here. A little bit more than half of the students have some kind of connection to the IE (either they went to UCR or grew up in the IE). I personally had no connection.
I am stumped on what to write about for the "single most important event or non-academic activity" question. Did you or anyone else write about "single most important event" in your life? What were some of the topics considered? I'm wondering if there are certain events that are more appropriate to discuss than others. "Single most important event" is very subjective, whereas "single most important non-academic activity" is a lot more straightforward.
 
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If you search on YouTube "UCR Medical Application Process", there's a pretty helpful video on putting together your application.
 
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So this school is 100% in-state students? Can a current student comment on that?
 
So this school is 100% in-state students? Can a current student comment on that?

Although I am not a current medical student here at UCR, I do go to UCR for undergraduate. What I know is that their mission is to keep physicians here in the Inland Empire, which means they want students that are residents of California (they have a higher chance of serving in the state they were born and raised). If you look at the MSAR, they didn't interview a single person that was out of state let alone accept. Hope this helps!
 
Although I am not a current medical student here at UCR, I do go to UCR for undergraduate. What I know is that their mission is to keep physicians here in the Inland Empire, which means they want students that are residents of California (they have a higher chance of serving in the state they were born and raised). If you look at the MSAR, they didn't interview a single person that was out of state let alone accept. Hope this helps!

I was hoping someone would say it was an error. Been wanting to go to a UC school since undergrad and I really liked UCR. Oh well!
 
I was hoping someone would say it was an error. Been wanting to go to a UC school since undergrad and I really liked UCR. Oh well!
There are still other UCs like UCLA and UCSF with no in-state bias? Or maybe you can live and work out in the IE for a bit in something health-related?
 
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Hi everyone! I apologize for being the bearer of bad news for the Haider applicants, but apparently 9 out of the 24 spots are already taken from Early Assurance Program. That leaves just 15 spots for us, but I believe we can do it!
 
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Secondary received!!!!
 
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anyone know what the speculated entering class size for 2017 is?
 
Congrats! Do you mind sharing your connection to the inland empire?


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I'm from Bakersfield, CA. Doing a quick Google search, it doesn't seem to be part of the IE, although I could be wrong.
 
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What are scholastic activities? Is there an error in my application? It just says "Scholastic Activites" with a 250 word limit... No question or explanation....
 
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Anyone mind posting the secondary prompts?
These all have a 250 word limit...
Describe the single MOST important event or non-academic activity in your life and explain why it’s significant.
What activity or accomplishment are you MOST proud of?
What experiences or activities have prepared you to work with medically underserved communities?
Scholastic Activities
Describe a major problem you have had to deal with at some time in your life. Include how you dealt with it and how it influenced your growth.
What kind of health care setting do you envision yourself working in?
How do you see yourself contributing to the mission of the UCR School of Medicine?
PERSONAL STATEMENT: Your personal statement from the AMCAS application will be used in our admissions process. You do not need to duplicate it here. At your option, you may use this space to provide any further information you may want us to consider in addition to the AMCAS personal statement. THIS IS NOT MANDATORY.
 
Hi everyone! I apologize for being the bearer of bad news for the Haider applicants, but apparently 9 out of the 24 spots are already taken from Early Assurance Program. That leaves just 15 spots for us, but I believe we can do it!
Hey man, I totally feel your pain. EAP killed us this past cycle too. They accepted 8 EAP individuals for this upcoming class of 2020 I went to this year's EAP session in November and according to Schiller (he is one of the Deans of the SOM), it was an incredibley high number and he doesn't anticipate ever granting that many early seats again. So them accepting nine this year is really shocking to me. that is a whole bunch.

So a little bit of bad news and a little bit of good news. Bad news: they still offer the same amount of secondaries and interviews as if they had 24 available seats, so it is much more competitive even after you get an interview. for the good news and in an effort to brighten your spirits, they typically accept more than what is availabe seats because people drop. So if there are 15 seats left, they will likely accept in the ballpark of 25? just a guesstimate. also, this is not confirmed by the deans or anything but I called during this past cycle and according to the admissions hotline, the lady said that they actually accepted more than 24 seats this year since the entire class expanded to 60. Although it makes sense that they would do this, I also have been told that they will not expand the haider seats. So basically they said haider seats will remain the same, but they expanded it anyways. lol. figures.:rofl:

edit: I think h0w I stated it is confusing. I called a couple times this past application cycle. early on they said that they will NOT expand the haider seats beyond 24, but the latest time I called which was in early May, one of the admission secretaries said they did, in fact, expand the seats to more than 24 this year. a bit of a disclaimer: the secrataries have given me conflicting answers a few times (on other topics, not just this one), so I dont know how reliable this info is since I did not hear it from schiller or lytle or anything. I don't think the secretaries are kept in the loop of what is happening, and if they are, they are told to not let it get out.
 
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What are scholastic activities? Is there an error in my application? It just says "Scholastic Activites" with a 250 word limit... No question or explanation....
I tried contacting the school about this but I haven't heard anything back yet (I emailed yesterday). Did you figure out what this section means?
 
I tried contacting the school about this but I haven't heard anything back yet (I emailed yesterday). Did you figure out what this section means?

Not yet, I was planning to call tomorrow. I will report back with info!
 
They won't answer the phone about the "Scholastic Activities" question. Tried calling 4 different times today. I will try via e-mail.

Does anyone else have updates?
 
They won't answer the phone about the "Scholastic Activities" question. Tried calling 4 different times today. I will try via e-mail.

Does anyone else have updates?

I just talked to them! They said to write about the scholastic activity that is the most important to you and why. The woman in admissions made it sound like it was better to talk about one thing, rather than multiple experiences.
 
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Just got a secondary (IS applicant)!
 
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I feel like their secondary email is such a bait because it says "you appear to be a good fit for the school" makes sounds like their screening criteria is beyond MCAT/GPA lol but who knows
 
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Ok, so for the most important activities section of the secondary (where we are basically having to put in the same info thats on AMCAS) how many of these are we supposed to list? Should I relist everything that was listed on AMCAS?
 
Ok, so for the most important activities section of the secondary (where we are basically having to put in the same info thats on AMCAS) how many of these are we supposed to list? Should I relist everything that was listed on AMCAS?

I called and they weren't very specific, so I assume it us up to us. I think they want to know what activities most impacted your life overall, so this most likely is not every single one of your 15 (or so) AMCAS experiences. Planning to pick my top 6 or so
 
Invited for a secondary today, with cGPA 3.78 and sGPA 3.60, with two MCAT scores (504 from 7/18/15 and 512 from 6/2/16).

I'm also baffled that they're asking us to re-iterate our "most important activities"--I mean, come on, that's explicitly written on the primary app!
 
hey guys! for the "What kind of health care setting do you envision yourself working in?" are you guys mentioning specific fields/specialities or just sticking to health care setting?
 
hey guys! for the "What kind of health care setting do you envision yourself working in?" are you guys mentioning specific fields/specialities or just sticking to health care setting?
A little of this, a little of that
 
hey guys! I just wanted to clarify, for the "has your education been continuous since high school?" If we are taking a gap year, would we say no?
 
hey guys! I just wanted to clarify, for the "has your education been continuous since high school?" If we are taking a gap year, would we say no?

I'm a non-traditional applicant and I said 'no'. Even though I went straight through college after hs with no breaks, I thought it was better to make everything clear and explain my situation in a couple of sentences. I don't know if it would be the same for a gap year but I don't think it would hurt to explain things.
 
I'm also baffled that they're asking us to re-iterate our "most important activities"--I mean, come on, that's explicitly written on the primary app!
Just got secondary today, I literally groan when schools want me to re-list all my activities. I actually feel like this might be a test of patience or compliance of applicants or something...they have the primary right there!
 
What are some examples of scholastic activities? I'm confused does it have to be academic? Like honor societies? Would clubs count?
 
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I had a question about these two questions:
Describe the single MOST important event or non-academic activity in your life and explain why it’s significant.
and
What experiences or activities have prepared you to work with medically underserved communities?

What if my most important non-academic activity (which is working in my student-run clinic) is the same as my experience that has prepared me to work with medically underserved communities?
 
For the description box in the list of activities, are we simply writing the name of the activity? Or should we include a couple sentences about what it is?

Also can I leave the hardship section blank?
 
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For the description box in the list of activities, are we simply writing the name of the activity? Or should we include a couple sentences about what it is?

Also can I leave the hardship section blank?

I wrote one sentence max to describe the activity if it's not obvious from the name alone.

And I believe the hardship section is optional if you really don't have any of the hardships listed.


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