USF, UCD, UCSD

State Forums
1

Hi

I have been constantly torn for the last year between deciding to be a nurse and pursue an advanced degree to become a nurse anesthetis or to become a doctor - most likely, an anesthesiologist.

I got into USF for their nursing program, a four year BSN. I would start clinicals sophomore year versus having to apply for nursing school my junior year. I was waitlisted at the University of Pennsylvania’s program.

I got into Davis for Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior and UCSD for Neuroscience and Physiology. I am quite interested in neuroscience. Waitlisted at UCLA.

I would like to know anyone’s opinion regarding the difficulty of getting into medical school. Is it realistic? It’s four years from now, however, I know it is my dream to do health care so I don’t want to go to a UC and not be quite good enough for med school and have just waisted four years.

Also:

USF:
Pros: Close to home, not typical college(set curriculum starting freshmen year), great city, like the weather, smaller school
Cons: Am I settling?

Davis:
Pros: Close to home, NPB sounds like an awesome major, less competition than at SD, more opportunities for pre meds, laid back school
Cons: Is Davis boring?

SD:
Pros: Recognized bio program, surrounding area is fun,
Cons: A lot of bio majors=competition, further from home, I prefer hotter weather, huge school

Would love to know opinion about the majors at the schools as well, if possible.

2

@averageuser UCSD’s neuroscience program is considered one of the best in the nation in terms of faculty quality, research output, and local internship/research opportunities.

Why do you say that Davis has more opportunities for pre-meds?

3

@groverrohan I mean that it’s easier to receive the typical pre med opportunities because there’s less competitive pre meds at Davis. I have two pre med friends at Davis - both sophomores- with solid internships set up this summer and leadership roles in the student clinics next year. At San Diego, from what I’ve heard, everyone’s a pre med and everyone’s fighting for those opportunities.

I would love to know if I’m off base.

4

While it’s true that there are a fkton of premeds on campus, the fact that UCSD is such a hub for medical innovation means that there are loads of opportunities around here. I’d argue that the sheer volume of paths to pursue makes the number of premeds a non-issue. EDIT: This is a longer post than I planned it to be; brace yourself.

Volunteering and shadowing opportunities: Open up Google Maps or your preferred mapping application, and search “hospitals near uc san diego”. A lot of little red dots pop up, and a lot of those are extraneous. We’re going to focus on the important ones:

  • VA Medical Center San Diego - the 304-bed hospital that I volunteer at weekly right now (my roommate and I are both in the MRI department). I know at least six UCSD students who currently volunteer here (actual stat probably closer to ∞), and it’s a really easy way to gain clinical experience and rack up volunteer hours. This is walkable from just about any dorm, as it’s immediately adjacent to Sixth College and connected to the School of Medicine by a cute bridge.
  • Thornton Hospital - the 119-bed UCSD Health System hospital on the east side of campus. You could walk or jog there for a little exercise, or just hop on a campus loop or SuperLoop shuttle to get to your volunteering or research position in two minutes.
  • Scripps Memorial Hospital - I’m sure one day a really talented Triton baseball player is going to break a window here, because it’s that close to the campus baseball field. This is a 382-bed facility across from Thornton Hospital, you know, just in case you can’t find a volunteering or research opportunity with the other two facilities.
  • Scripps Green Hospital - If you’re in ERC and all of this is sounding a little far—you know, 1.5 whole miles—Scripps Green Hospital is a 173-bed hospital just north of campus. (It’s not affiliated with the adjacent Scripps Research Institute nor the UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography, but we’ll get to those.)
  • Moores Cancer Center - my suitemate’s girlfriend is a first year and a researcher here, and he just got a volunteering position there too. This is on campus and run by UCSD.
  • Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center - also on campus and run by UCSD
  • Shiley Eye Center - also on campus and run by UCSD
  • Student Health Center - next to the library and run by UCSD, probably the closest thing to what your Davis friends have roles at
  • Hillcrest Medical Center - If all of these Level II and III trauma centers don’t sound intense enough for you, you can take the 20 minute shuttle to UCSD’s flagship hospital, a massive 390-bed hospital that I’ve only seen once (but let me tell you it looked pretty intense, like I don’t think it’ll get much more intense than this).
  • https://meded.ucsd.edu/freeclinic/ THIS (which is a pretty friggin cool program)
  • https://health.ucsd.edu/about/who-we-are/Documents/FS-Facilities-HSC.pdf the rest of the health sciences research laboratories and centers, in case hospital experience isn’t really your thing (keep in mind that this is just the Health Sciences list, excluding the biology labs and the research institutes near campus)
  • Jacobs Medical Center - a 245-bed skyscraper opening in 2016 right next to Thornton Hospital (in that big empty space between the Mesa Apartments and the existing facility). In case we run out of volunteer opportunities.

If you didn’t already check, the entire area surrounding Davis has one 48-bed hospital.

OK! That’s hospitals. Let’s take a look at research opportunities:

  • Salk Institute for Biological Studies - adjacent to North Campus, one of the premier biological research institutions and graduate schools in the world (and Roger Revelle was pretty mad that they nabbed that beautiful piece of land from UCSD). If you’ve heard of the polio vaccine, that was Jonas Salk. (Try visiting on the equinox or at least look at a picture of that day)
  • The Scripps Research Institute - slightly north of campus, another awesome biological research institution. Have you seen a Humira ad on TV with a happy-looking retiree? That was these guys. (I have an uncle who does cool biological stuff here)
  • J. Craig Venter Institute - I can see this building from Revelle. Dr. J. Craig Venter was the first guy to sequence the human genome
  • Novartis Institute - I haven’t heard of them actually, but they’re there on the map
  • Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine - run by both UCSD and the Salk Institute. There’s a shuttle that runs here every 30 minutes so you can get your stem cell research fix.
  • Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute - a lot of local wealthy people, such as the Sanfords, put their names on a lot of stuff. All the things named after the Scripps family and the Rady family can get confusing.
    …and these are the ones that AREN’T academic departments. Once you throw in the fact that UCSD has among the
  • Top 3 cognitive science programs,
  • Top 3 bioengineering programs,
  • Top 3 marine biology programs,
  • Top 5 neuroscience programs,
  • Top 10 biology programs,
  • Top 20 biochemistry programs,
  • Top 5 programs by overall university research funding,
  • Top programs by overall positive impact,
  • Top 10 programs by research impact, and
  • Top 15 programs by world academic influence,
    it seems like the problem won’t be having too few opportunities to choose from, but too many. (Damn, I should write brochures. But seriously. The only thing stopping you from beefing up that resume and application around here would be you, I haven’t even mentioned that biology and biotechnology startups would kill for a North Torrey Pines Rd or Genesee Ave address.)

tl;dr ucsd doesn’t have hella good bio programs for no reason, it’s the place to be

In answer to your initial questions, though, medical school isn’t easy. Even with all of these opportunities, somewhere close to 50% of all first-time medical school applicants from UCSD don’t get a single acceptance, which is pretty close to the national average. Keep that in mind…but even if it doesn’t work out, I highly doubt you’ll have wasted four years. That said, the USF nursing program sounds dope too. Good luck, and I’d be interested to know what you eventually decide!

5

@groverrohan thank you for all of that! Seriously, it was very helpful. I’d like to assume now that all of your pre med friends have a full slate of volunteer hours and research.

I do have a few more questions if you can answer.

Is the curve unbearable with all the pre meds?
Is the no social scene stereotype true?
And lastly, how do you view the 50% acceptance rate? Like is that because people didn’t work hard enough or applied to schools far out of their league or is there too much competition these days?

I don’t mean to pester you, and being a doctor is a dream of mine but I want to cover my bases before committing and making a mistake.

6

Is the curve unbearable: Difficult? Yes. Unbearable? No. There are some classes that are designed to test whether you are prepared for the rigors of medical school (organic chemistry), but many such weeder courses exist at all universities. It’s certainly very difficult at times, but someone different’s always gotta be at the top, right?

The no social scene stereotype is only as true as you want it to be. If college events are your thing the seven different student bodies and 450+ orgs are always organizing something. If you’re looking for kickbacks, you just need to know people living near you or be in a couple of active orgs. For parties, the Village and I-House always have something going on, and if you join Greek life you can also party on Regents Rd. If you sit at home whining about how dead it is, it’s really just gonna stay dead. For perspective, my roommate found a party or two or even five every weekend fall quarter

Bruh schools like UCSF, UCSD med, they have acceptance rates below 3%. Johns Hopkins’s was like 1.1. Even the “less selective” ones admit like 20%. While around 50% of prospective seniors do make it into one, there are no “safety” schools and the average school’s acceptance rate is like 8%. I can’t conjecture why any of these numbers are so low, but the fact remains that they are.

(I’m definitely not trying to scare you though! I just want you to be aware of the facts. The premed life is intense anywhere, UCSD might just be the best place for you to partake in it)

7

My dd loves Davis. It is a huge campus. Davis is a great school and the nice thing is that from the onset, you do have lots of undergrad opportunities in research and lab work.

Their med school is competitive, but your chances will be really good if you have good grades; you definitely will have lots of opportunities to prove yourself as an undergrad.

8

Premed at Davis is less intense but the medical schools you get accepted most likely will be OOS.