2016-2017 University of California - San Francisco Application Thread

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Just got the call from JMP-PRIME


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Wow congrats! That was a quick turn around.

I'm pretty sure we interviewed on the same PRIME day. Do JMP applicants typically hear back sooner than MD?

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Wow congrats! That was a quick turn around.

I'm pretty sure we interviewed on the same PRIME day. Do JMP applicants typically hear back sooner than MD?

Thank you! I'm pleasantly surprised at how fast the decision came.

They said 4-6 weeks for UCSF. If we interviewed the same MD day, then we just hit 3 weeks for the MD program so a bit more waiting.

I don't think the JMP has any set waiting period so you could hear back at any point. The PP above said it took 2-3 months, so clearly a lot of variability.


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When do the separate PRIME phone call interviews happen? Will the PRIME class be decided before we have to choose a school on April 30?
 
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I hope so. Someone who knows let us know!
I interviewed mid January and am checking my email every 5 minutes because we should be hearing back soon. The result would not be changed nor would it come any earlier though. Does anyone have good tips for quitting this anxiety ?
I'm trying to focus on my research and to leave my phone alone.
 
The same person who called me for JMP prime is in charge of the UCSF prime and she told me that I should expect to wait two more weeks for a decision from UCSF and that the PRIME interview would be shortly after.

Then she was talking about people that get accepted for JMP Prime usually get accepted for UCSF Prime and said I "should expect to be making the decision between the two" and that I should have everything to make a decision in a few weeks. -Paraphrase

From that convo I got the impression that the Prime decisions would be out by the end of March.


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To any current students - do you know if waitlist movement will occur in March again this year?
 
To any current students - do you know if waitlist movement will occur in March again this year?

Absolutely no way of knowing. It didn't happen the year before I applied or the year after, but it did my year - it honestly seems to be down to whether they feel like they've hit their target number of acceptees by Accepted Students Weekend, and on years they come up a bit short, they pull from the top of the waitlist to hit that number.

I certainly wouldn't bank on hearing anything back in March - if it happens, it'll be a pleasant surprise, and if not then you know things are going as usual and to wait for May.
 
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Absolutely no way of knowing. It didn't happen the year before I applied or the year after, but it did my year - it honestly seems to be down to whether they feel like they've hit their target number of acceptees by Accepted Students Weekend, and on years they come up a bit short, they pull from the top of the waitlist to hit that number.

I certainly wouldn't bank on hearing anything back in March - if it happens, it'll be a pleasant surprise, and if not then you know things are going as usual and to wait for May.

Got it, thanks so much! I'll temper my expectations then :)
 
Got waitlisted today, interviewed 1/26. Super bummed out because I absolutely love the school so hopefully there's a lot of WL movement.
 
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Interviewed mid-January, accepted last night. :) This was a pleasant surprise, so good luck to those still waiting to hear!
 
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accepted a couple of days ago! any current MS1's can talk about pros and cons of the new curriculum? or things they like and don't like about the school in general? Thanks!
 
accepted a couple of days ago! any current MS1's can talk about pros and cons of the new curriculum? or things they like and don't like about the school in general? Thanks!


Congrats! When did you interview? And what date and time did you hear back?


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Any clue when we will hear back about fin aid?

They have a history of releasing it right before Accepted Students Weekend, if I recall correctly, so that you can arrange to meet with a FinAid advisor while on campus.
 
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Is anyone out of state thinking of going to revisit weekend? Wondering if it's worth flying over to help me make my decision.
 
I really need to block the UCSF Pulse emails until I get the acceptance/waitlist/rejection email, I get a mini heart attack every time I see "UCSF" in the subject line :laugh:
 
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Has anyone else from mid-Jan onward heard regarding rejection? I interviewed mid-Jan, and the people who heard back were accepted and waitlisted, so that might be only the last option left for me? Then I think sometimes people get passed several rounds before getting a decision...:help:
 
Has anyone else from mid-Jan onward heard regarding rejection? I interviewed mid-Jan, and the people who heard back were accepted and waitlisted, so that might be only the last option left for me? Then I think sometimes people get passed several rounds before getting a decision...:help:
Wofsy said that the amount of time it takes them to release their decision post-interview is completely meaningless and there's no way to predict what your decision will be or when you'll receive your decision based on when other people from your interview day hear back, so don't read into it at all! :)
 
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Wofsy said that the amount of time it takes them to release their decision post-interview is completely meaningless and there's no way to predict what your decision will be or when you'll receive your decision based on when other people from your interview day hear back, so don't read into it at all! :)

If there's anything I loved about the interview day was Dean Wofsy's true trasparency in the whole process. I think other school's can learn a lot from the admissions at UCSF.
 
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Got an acceptance email today (Thursday, March 2) at 8:30 PM EST! I love this school and this city so much! Gonna have a tough decision to make in April.
 
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Accepted to the MD Program tonight! Interviewed on 1/24


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Waitlisted today :( Interviewed on a PRIME day- early January
 
Congratulations!! Can I ask which schools you're choosing between?

Got an acceptance email today (Thursday, March 2) at 8:30 PM EST! I love this school and this city so much! Gonna have a tough decision to make in April.
 
Accepted today by the same e-mail mentioned about, 5:30PM PST. Applied just MD, traditional applicant, interviewed 01/26.

Yay!
 
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Accepted today by email!!!!! Interviewed MD, awaiting PRIME interview (if worthy) but Aaaaahhhhhhh
 
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Accepted today by email!!!!! Interviewed MD, awaiting PRIME interview (if worthy) but Aaaaahhhhhhh
Congrats! Assuming you interviewed late Jan too?

Has anyone else heard from JMP? I've only seen WhittyPsyche ( if I recall correctly) post re: JMP recently.
 
Haven't heard from JMP yet either :(. Crossing my fingers for both of us!
 
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Ah, think that was the last interview day. I was Feb 8th! Tracey first said would hear by mid-March then said early March, so hopefully it's the latter.
Yup it was! Oh that's good top know, I'm so anxious :confused:
 
How does the waitlist work at this school, I really like this school and hope to get off the waitlist soon.
 
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^^I was wondering about this too. Does anyone know if we're ranked in some way, or if it's just about when you were WL? I'm trying not to obsess but clearly that's not going well
 
Congrats!

Also interviewing PRIME, any idea when the will start scheduling calls?


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Hi! If you've been e-mailed about making it to the phone interview they should contact you soon with a couple of dates/times to choose from. Let me know if there's any specific questions I can help with.
 
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accepted a couple of days ago! any current MS1's can talk about pros and cons of the new curriculum? or things they like and don't like about the school in general? Thanks!

Congrats to everyone who's been accepted thus far! It's hard to list pros and cons given that MS-1s haven't had any past experiences with medical school curricula to compare it to. Although all elements of the new curriculum have been piloted and tested in the past few years, it is currently in it's first year to be fully launched and as such will have aspects that need to continue to be ironed out. Overall, I feel as though we are getting an extremely well-rounded experience. I can list a few highlights that I can think of:

- early immersion in clinical environments (you spend half a day each week at one of the UCSF training sites, such as Zuckerberg SFGH, the VA, etc.)
- direct experience with quality improvement projects (every student gets put on a QI project for the first year and we also receive training on QI skills/processes such as root cause analyses, PDSA cycles, etc.)
- case-based learning and understanding how to critically appraise scientific and medical literature
- mentors/coaches: every student gets put in a group led by a physician who has a strong interest in teaching medical students and acts as a tremendous resource for being eased into the role of a student doctor. Coaches are there to guide you through the process of taking patient histories, learning all the different parts of the physical exam, honing your clinical reasoning skills, and mainly just serving as an extra support system while you're a medical student
- strong focus on research: we spent the first two weeks in Jan. after winter break in an intensive research immersion course that introduced us to research being done across many domains (so not only biomedical and clinical research but also population/epidemiological, public health and disparities work, education science, etc) and got to explore topics in discussion groups facilitated by experts in their field. My particular course was centered on precision medicine and it's capacity to either alleviate or exacerbate health disparities, which was conducted by physician researchers who have worked on state and national policy in these matters). I do want to stress that although research is a huge strength here, students are by no means funneled into strictly biomedical/clinical research and the strengths in community-based work and other domains are huge too
- public health-centered blocks: interspersed between our regular organ-based blocks, there are two month-long blocks centered around the issues that affect our patients outside of the "medical" factors. Some topics off the top of my head that are taught in these blocks: stress and resilience, motivational interviewing, addiction, health care systems and health insurance, culture and identity, medical ethics, heuristics and decision making, examining our implicit biases, integrative and complementary medicine, health inequalities and justice. I have no idea how much these things are touched upon at other medical schools but I think it's really cool to be given the formal space to learn about these important topics while we're medical students.

That being said, one of the honest truths is that it is difficult to ascertain how well the pacing of our material has been conducted thus far. With all the really cool opportunities we're are given to be trained as well-rounded physicians and explore the unique aspects of our curriculum, some times the amount of time we are given to master the basic science and foundational material is challenging. Since I've never been a medical student at any other school before, I don't know whether the pacing of material is on par with the average med school or if it is more intense. With the Bridges curriculum being in its first year, the curriculum developers and block directors are extremely receptive to our feedback and are making adjustments as it continues to roll out and as it is adapted for new incoming classes.
 
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Hi! If you've been e-mailed about making it to the phone interview they should contact you soon with a couple of dates/times to choose from. Let me know if there's any specific questions I can help with.

Thank you!


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- strong focus on research: we spent the first two weeks in Jan. after winter break in an intensive research immersion course that introduced us to research being done across many domains (so not only biomedical and clinical research but also population/epidemiological, public health and disparities work, education science, etc) and got to explore topics in discussion groups facilitated by experts in their field. My particular course was centered on precision medicine and it's capacity to either alleviate or exacerbate health disparities, which was conducted by physician researchers who have worked on state and national policy in these matters). I do want to stress that although research is a huge strength here, students are by no means funneled into strictly biomedical/clinical research and the strengths in community-based work and other domains are huge too
- aking, examining our implicit biases, integrative and complementary medicine, health inequalities and justice. I have no idea how much these things are touched upon at other medical schools but I think it's really cool to be given the formal space to learn about these important topics while we're medical students.

Can you comment on the research opportunities here? Are there any mechanisms in place to link med students to labs/PIs? Are there any stipends or funding resources we have access to? Is it difficult to do research at Berkeley? Any red-tape to be aware of?

Thanks!
-CL
 
Can you comment on the research opportunities here? Are there any mechanisms in place to link med students to labs/PIs? Are there any stipends or funding resources we have access to? Is it difficult to do research at Berkeley? Any red-tape to be aware of?

Thanks!
-CL

I think a lot of my classmates are opting to do summer projects this upcoming summer. I'm not sure if this is unusual or typical but I don't know of any MS1s (there may be some) that have already started doing research since the year so far has been pretty busy. With sooo many researchers here, there are plenty of people to contact and try to find a good fit to get on a project. The first two weeks of this year in our research-intensive course was when most people were being exposed to the different opportunities and PIs since we had talks every day being given by people in different fields. There was also time designated for speed-mentoring (like speed-dating style) to meet with potential PIs, and a few lectures dedicated to how to apply for funding, write a proposal, or explore other options for the summer. Personally, I kind of slacked on contacting potential PIs and when our next didactic block came up was too swamped to take the time to properly choose a mentor and project and whatnot.

Funding opportunities here: http://meded.ucsf.edu/raptr/funding-opportunities

I don't know of any students based at UCSF doing research at Berkeley; however we do have our Joint Medical Program (JMP) based in Berkeley so obviously all of them are doing research there. You are absolutely open to contacting professors for projects, especially if you're looking to do more public health type research.
 
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Congrats!

Also interviewing PRIME, any idea when the will start scheduling calls?


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So happy to see that you're accepted too!

I think sometime in late March or April. I don't remember much other than motif how late prime interviews were. I interviewed on Feb 14th
 
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I got the most amazing email from one of my interviewers from my MD-interview today.

I can say that I truly know in my heart that this is the place for me . Will definitely be matriculating!


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^^I was wondering about this too. Does anyone know if we're ranked in some way, or if it's just about when you were WL? I'm trying not to obsess but clearly that's not going well

From what I know, the waitlist is not ranked. I was told that they pull people from the waitlist to balance out the class. So for example, if more males matriculated this year so far, females will be taken off the waitlist to balance the male:female ratio. I might be wrong, but this is what I was told from friends at UCSF!
 
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