You’ll be fine @thegriz01 . . . if I were to assign a probability based on your qualifications of your becoming an MD, I would say you’d have > 90%+ chance that you will become one and in the specialty you greatly desire, so take aquapt’s exhortation to heart. The constant, dour theme on these boards that so-and-so UC campus is a grade deflator isn’t true. Those who present these themes are comparing UC students’ grades to Ivy students’, which is not really fair in the first place.
There will be some occasional professors that will individually work to deflate grades, but they are not all that common. Therefore, one more piece of advice if I may: try to plan your schedule in advance – some of this will occur naturally as some courses foundationally will lead to others; then obtain word of mouth as to the professors who’ll be teaching the next quarter’s courses and stay away from the ones who receive very poor student evaluations. I don’t know how comprehensive the offerings at Bruinwalk is, but perhaps this might be a good source as to the grading, teaching, etc. of professors at UCLA.
I believe the problem is the way you state this. I’ve seen you present this same data in other threads, but you’re looking at things as a negativist when you can state that one applicant being accepted to medical school – i.e., that this same individual will receive at least one acceptance from all of his or her total applications – is 40-41%. This, rather, should give students hope based on the acceptances at the various SOMs. Here are the rates of acceptance at some of CA’s medical schools:
……………………USC, Keck……………………….2.2%
……………………Stanford………………………….1.3%
……………………UCD….…………………………… 1.6%
……………………UCI.……….………………………1.6%
……………………UCR………….…………………… 1.3%
……………………UCSD……………………….…….1.9%
……………………UCSF………………………………2.1%
……………………UCLA, Geffen…………………….1.2%
I think you’d be better served to present things in more of a positive light; in other words, try to be more encouraging. California’s rates are just a tad above the national’s as noted at ~ 41%, but in either way I believe this is very good. The greater number of applications across a greater array of esteemed SOMs undoubtedly improves an applicant’s chances of being accepted, for those who need to become doctors. For California residents, this means a much greater probability of attending med school at one of the other 49 states and possibly outside of the country.
I wouldn’t worry about the other ~ 60% who weren’t accepted in the current cycle. They’ll have options to attend a grad life-science, public-health program to keep their hopes alive of becoming MDs and reapplying in a subsequent cycle, or they may settle for being pharmacists or dentists, which are major options particularly in CA. Either way, their futures are not doomed, but if they desire to be MDs, then they should by all means try to continue that pathway.
If I can, I’ll try to work with some of the data from aamc.org to see how CA residents, particularly those at the UCs are doing in gaining med school acceptances, with some moderate inferences, etc. (even if stats is not one of my stronger suits).