2022-2023 UC San Francisco

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IS Secondary. Primary verified 7/11
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Just got the secondary.

A question about the interview availability question, I'm based abroad but I plan on accommodating the time difference regardless of when the (hopeful) interview takes place. I explained that I don't live in the US but I can attend interviews at any time. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can explain this alternatively without hurting my chances of getting an interview?
 
poptrop said:
Just got the secondary.

A question about the interview availability question, I'm based abroad but I plan on accommodating the time difference regardless of when the (hopeful) interview takes place. I explained that I don't live in the US but I can attend interviews at any time. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can explain this alternatively without hurting my chances of getting an interview?
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If you don't have any dates that you absolutely cannot do the interview, then I would just say leave it blank.
 
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ManWithoutPlan said:
If you don't have any dates that you absolutely cannot do the interview, then I would just say leave it blank.
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That's what I considered, but it shows up as an explanation where it directly asks you to check a box if you "will be out of the country - provide additional info below (e.g. dates, best way to contact, etc.)" which technically I am. Perhaps I'm just overthinking it too.
 
poptrop said:
That's what I considered, but it shows up as an explanation where it directly asks you to check a box if you "will be out of the country - provide additional info below (e.g. dates, best way to contact, etc.)" which technically I am. Perhaps I'm just overthinking it too.
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In that case I would probably just explain it like you did here - I'll be out of the country but with internet access and available for interviews during business hours California time
 
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walking into the ADCOM office to release II's (they don't know i don't work there)
 

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ssf20000 said:
It's on the aamc interview procedure pdf, which has literally been wrong for every single school so i would put no weight into it..lol
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Ah gotcha. Yeah i’m not putting weight into that - in prior years it’s been after labor day so i’m not getting my hopes up until next week.. but ofc also not getting my hopes up for an II altogether lol
 
Secondary received! Verified very early 6/14 | GPA 3.81 | MCAT 525 | IS Asian
Also repeated a course, 2 Pass/Fail during COVID
 
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Secondary received! Verified very early, 6/7. OOS
 
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Secondary received 9-1-2022, OOS, 516, verified early. Do they do a holistic process before sending out secondaries? Is a secondary a good sign for UCSF?
 
crowsnest55 said:
Secondary received 9-1-2022, OOS, 516, verified early. Do they do a holistic process before sending out secondaries? Is a secondary a good sign for UCSF?
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IMO, getting a secondary means that your application didn't raise any flags and its pretty good all around. They def do screen holistically
 
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FutureDrCoochies said:
Still waiting on a secondary, verified 8/8. 518 MCAT 3.9 GPA in-state, 500 hrs clinical, lots of service and leadership experience. honestly glad ucsf is taking their sweet time. less pressure while i complete other secondaries LOL
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Ya theyre hellla slow, someone ik who was verified around the same time as you last cycle didnt get a secondary till late September
 
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As I have heard it eloquently put, Where II?
 
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Mannnnn, I just realized I got a secondary for UCSF on July 20th and completely missed it. Feeling pretty sad right now :(
 
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MCAThiccy said:
Jesse, if I were you, I'd still send that bad boy out.
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I appreciate the response. However, according to their email, they don’t accept the secondary 4 weeks after we receive it. So I’m passed the deadline
 
jessef55 said:
I appreciate the response. However, according to their email, they don’t accept the secondary 4 weeks after we receive it. So I’m passed the deadline
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Wow I'm really sorry, that stinks. Maybe you should email admissions? Couldn't hurt
 
A question about the secondary question: "Do you identify as part of a marginalized group socioeconomically or in terms of access to quality education or healthcare? Please describe how this inequity has impacted you and your community."

I'm not part of a historically underrepresented community, but my family faced many challenges due to socioeconomic status (wont say specifics but I was a pell grant recipient). Our situation really impacted my life, and it's something I carry with me to this day. However, I'm a bit confused if I should answer this question because I still had access to healthcare through medicaid and fought tooth and nail to get a great education. I also feel like the challenges we faced don't align with a "community" so I'm not sure how it plays into that. Any thoughts on if I should answer this question would be greatly appreciated.
 
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No secondary and I was verified on July 28 lol. Why they take so long haha
 
Also are they mcat blind, meaning to give you a secondary they won’t look at your mcat?
 
if this cycle is in the same timing as last year, first day of II's should be tomorrow!

literally unable to focus on anything but II's rn :/

wavyboys21 said:
Also are they mcat blind, meaning to give you a secondary they won’t look at your mcat?
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i think "MCAT blind" at UCSF is specifically for interviews, i.e. they have access to everything but your MCAT score in your interview
 
poptrop said:
A question about the secondary question: "Do you identify as part of a marginalized group socioeconomically or in terms of access to quality education or healthcare? Please describe how this inequity has impacted you and your community."

I'm not part of a historically underrepresented community, but my family faced many challenges due to socioeconomic status (wont say specifics but I was a pell grant recipient). Our situation really impacted my life, and it's something I carry with me to this day. However, I'm a bit confused if I should answer this question because I still had access to healthcare through medicaid and fought tooth and nail to get a great education. I also feel like the challenges we faced don't align with a "community" so I'm not sure how it plays into that. Any thoughts on if I should answer this question would be greatly appreciated.
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I was in a similar situation as you and decided to answer it anyways and talk about how that experience has affected me personally. Idk if that was the correct decision but I felt like that was a big part of my app that they would otherwise be missing.
 
poptrop said:
A question about the secondary question: "Do you identify as part of a marginalized group socioeconomically or in terms of access to quality education or healthcare? Please describe how this inequity has impacted you and your community."

I'm not part of a historically underrepresented community, but my family faced many challenges due to socioeconomic status (wont say specifics but I was a pell grant recipient). Our situation really impacted my life, and it's something I carry with me to this day. However, I'm a bit confused if I should answer this question because I still had access to healthcare through medicaid and fought tooth and nail to get a great education. I also feel like the challenges we faced don't align with a "community" so I'm not sure how it plays into that. Any thoughts on if I should answer this question would be greatly appreciated.
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I see being low-income being a part of a marginalized group.
 
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IS MSTP secondary received 9/6, verified 7/19
 
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Secondary received yesterday. Verified early June. Had already accepted my fate lol, but grateful for the (tiny) chance.
 
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mdTheState said:
Secondary received yesterday. Verified early June. Had already accepted my fate lol, but grateful for the (tiny) chance.
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+1 secondary received 9/6. IS verified 7/18.

Same feel, I'll bite haha.
 
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mdTheState said:
Secondary received yesterday. Verified early June. Had already accepted my fate lol, but grateful for the (tiny) chance.
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It really gives me hope lol I was verified in late June, and haven't heard but I really wanna go there
 
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secondary received yesterday. IS, LM 68! my primary app was verified on june 28.
 
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Saw this post by @Cole42 a while ago regarding comments made by Dean Wofsy (past dean) from UCSF and thought that I would post it here for everyone because it was very insightful!


General Comments:
  • Remember there are human beings on the other end of this process - often get different answers to the same question
  • Every school does it differently and individuals have different opinions
  • Don’t get thrown by conflicting advice - you will get conflicting advice
  • People on other end of process are more like us than we think - trying to do right thing, looking for things we would value
  • What would I be thinking if I were in their shoes?
  • What weakness should I address or strength I want to shine through?
  • In the end, medical schools have limited information to judge based on
Schools have 5 things in mind: think about where do I stack up on these 5 things?
  1. Academic Work: You can do the academic work when you get there - not a contest or game of who has best GPA/MCAT - know broad range of grades and MCATs can be great doctors and don’t believe you have to score in 99th percentile on MCAT or 3.8+ GPA but need to know you can do the academic work (shown by undergrad GPA - for those people, MCAT doesn’t matter much; MCAT for those who have lower undergrad GPA; for career changers or those who didn’t do well in undergrad, can prove academics in postbacc program but file has to do that)
  2. Something "Extra": Need to do more than just satisfy the academic work - must have something extra (research, community service, or a talent that has nothing to do with medicine but shows devotion to excellence, etc.) - for many people something extra comes from life experience - can be shown during letters, ECs or personal statement
  3. School Mission: At UCSF, they look for graduates to contribute to society in every area that physicians have an impact - like people for different reasons (if they aren’t going to be a great scientist, don’t need to be judged by that metric and can judge them on narrowing healthcare disparities in California or health policy changing way health care is delivered) - at UCSF, looking for different strengths in different people, no formula for getting in - looking for "Who are the good human beings?"
  4. LORs: So important for letter writers to speak to committee not about the highest grade but what we were like and to some degree that interviews give insight into that too
  5. Diversity: every school interest in diversity in a broad sense - includes racial and ethnic diversity (compelling data that if you want to serve all communities, need to train physicians who will go back and care about them) - diversity includes race, ethnicity, geography, etc. and also sexual orientation, SES, gender, and so on
Interview Offer:
  • Offering an interview is where the decision gets made - the decision doesn’t get made at the end after you interview - the reality is that the hard moment is getting the invitation to get interviewed
  • Tables have turned when you get an interview application (though most applicants and committees aren’t conscious of that) - at that point, you’re being recruited, not judged
  • At UCSF, interview 500 people and by the time go down waiting list, have sent 280 acceptances for 160 spots - over 50% chance of getting in if you got an interview
  • The real hurdle is getting invited for an interview
  • By interview, school has already decided you are good enough - if UCSF interviews you, chances are you will go somewhere great (absent really bad luck)
Mistakes applicants make:
  • Biggest mistake - don’t look at it as if they are on the other side of the process - they don’t identify weaknesses
  • Other applicant mistake - they think they have to stand out in the personal statement - very few people who get into medical school get in because of what they wrote in personal statement (but many tried so hard to stand out that it hurts them)
    • Show you can command the English language, write coherent relevant page (why medicine)
    • If personal statement is wonderful and rest of the file isn’t, you’re not getting in
  • Common interview mistake - deciding before interview what you want to say (need to be thinking on feet and responding to the questions)
Other interview tips:
  • Don’t talk for 10 minutes - make it conversational in classic interview
  • Pretend you’ve just sat down to lunch with someone you don’t know (family friend or something) and they are getting to know you and you’re getting to know them - comfortable, relaxed, conversational interaction where genuinely listening and genuinely interested
  • Over-rehearsed interviews are noticed and not liked (still rehearse but to practice comfort, not what you are going to say - need to be able to think on your feet and respond)
  • Other pitfalls: name-dropping, acting too arrogant/big for yourself (especially at schools where you have a prior connection)
How UCSF eliminates people after interviews:
  • Approach is that the interviewers are not decision makers - they write narrative reports like another letter of recommendation
  • Entirely different committee looks at whole file and makes decision (20 people on the committee look at whole file to make decision)
  • Moved to that 5 years ago because before they were basing it on personality of interviewer - prejudiced process too much based on luck of draw on interviewer (who would advocate most strongly for final decision based on personality)
  • Now 20 people who have not met you integrate information in file and those 20 people vote
  • 3 outcomes - accept/reject/alternate list
  • If just voted, everyone would be accepted after interview because you have 500 interviewed people who were chosen because their file is great and had a positive interview
  • At UCSF, what they do is say to the committee, have to divide up your votes into thirds
    • Which third impresses you the most?
    • Which will be waitlist?
    • Which will we decline?
    • Dean tracks it and over course of the season he tries to force the committee to vote 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 in those 3 categories
    • Usually 40% or more accept and 20-25% reject - it’s close enough and they have enough spots for it to be the way it comes out - will be done that way again this year even though Dean Wofsy isn't running it this year
  • They aren’t deciding who is not good enough - it’s not based on weakness or doing something wrong but rather the intensity of the competition
Screening process for secondary applications:
  • There are 3 ways to use data they have to make decision
    • 1. Can have strict numerical cutoffs
    • 2. Can have a formula (what UCSF used to do) - get points for everyone you can think of like are they in-state, GPA, MCAT, etc. and more than a certain number of points got a secondary automatically
      • UCSF threw out this system because they didn't want to throw out an applicant for getting less research points if their "something extra" was community service - because UCSF judges based on different metrics, this system didn't make sense
    • 3. Now they look at every file (but don't read every word in every application)
      • It would take 20-30 minutes to read every word in app, which isn't feasible
      • They look at every file now but stop looking at it if they decide this person has no chance of making it to the end (acceptance) based on something they read
      • Going through files and giving everyone the benefit of a look until it’s obvious the person has no chance or until it’s obvious there is a chance and they should get a secondary
      • Exclude about 1/3 of people through this screening process and don’t exclude anyone in that process who Dean Wofsy thinks ultimately could make it to an acceptance - secondary screening eliminates about 1/3 of candidates - go from 8,000 applicants to 5,000 secondaries
 
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anyone verified in july not receive a secondary yet?
 
They slow, don’t worry. It seems theyre still working on ppl in mid July
 
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For this question "Please list all states of residence including where you have had an official address within the past 10 years." in the secondary, do they just want the states of residence or do they want the states AND the exact addresses?
 
premed21medlife said:
For this question "Please list all states of residence including where you have had an official address within the past 10 years." in the secondary, do they just want the states of residence or do they want the states AND the exact addresses?
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Pretty sure just states (at least that's what I did)
 
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