California schools

Hey guys,


Any thoughts on why the Cali schools are “so tough” to get into? I’ve been poking around the SDN site (which has totally raised my anxiety level about the whole “getting into med school” thing) and it seems that everyone on that site says getting into Cali schools is near impossible unless you have amazing GPA/sGPA, research, >32 MCAT, etc.


I’m a California resident, hoping to go to a California school to be close to my family. Just wondering if any of you have any stories/experience with this.

I think its a combination of small class sizes and high pool of applicants who want to be on the west coast to do their studying. I’ve learned after this quarter that SDN is not a good place to spend my free time. There is only so much ‘ZOMG YOU DIDN’T CURE CANCER AS YOUR EC?!?!?!111 YOU’RE NOT GETTING IN!’ that I can take before I want to gouge my eyes out.

The building and expanding of California medical schools hasn’t kept pace with the exploding California population over the years. The past president of the California Medical Association commented on this (about the fifth paragraph down): http://www.cmanet.org/publicdoc.cfm?article_id=375…


I’ve heard that North Dakota residents and Puerto Rican residents have the best chances to get into their respective state/commonwealth medical school(s).

No kidding…I am staying off SDN, I always feel discouraged when I’m on that site, and that’s just not anything I need. Most of the people on there are kids, without much life exp (let alone a previous career), so I guess the perspective is much different.

Thank you for the link - yes, it is alarming how many people live here…and how much Spanish is becoming a requirement to get a good job.

Just remember that UCI, UCD, and UCSD only accept, for the most part, California residents. USC, Stanford, and Loma Linda are private schools and have no geographical restrictions. UCSF and UCLA accept both in-state and out-of-state. If you want to stay on the West Coast, pretty much your only other option would be Oregon Health Sciences.


Cheers,


Judy