UCSF Preview Day - Part 1 - Overview

My first blog post about my trip to UoP wasn’t thorough enough to really break down all the information. This time I’m going to break down my experience going to the University of California, San Francisco into several parts, starting with a quick overview.

The first thing of note is that this was a short two hour presentation. UCSF has about one a month. The longer, full day experience is held in SF, LA, and Fresno, but only in the Spring. When May 22, 2010 comes around, I’ll be there to check out the full length experience. (For info on all three Information Days, go here.)

Getting there wasn’t too much trouble. I received an email a few days ago reminding me about the event, including telling me the time and building to go to, as well as including a PDF of the campus map with a big red arrow pointing to where I was supposed to be. I left later than intended, but since I intended to get there more than half an hour early, I still arrived with plenty of time to find the place, and I even lucked out and found good street parking and didn’t need to use the garage.

The campus itself is a bit maze-like, and it did take some effort to figure out how to get to the Nursing Building where the presentation was to take place, because the entrance to that particular building wasn’t along the main road. (The road Parnasus cuts right through the campus with a lot of the buildings facing that street.) Once I found the building, the room itself was no problem to find.

When I took my seat, I was approached by someone who asked for my name, and after confirming that I signed up for the event, handed me a folder filled with all sorts of useful information:

- Program & Admission Facts Sheet

- Doctor of Pharmacy Curriculum Sheet

- PharmCAS Index Card

- UCSF School of Pharmacy Brochure

- UCSF’s Pharmacy, Nursing, and Medicine Rank web printout

- Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook web printout

- “Bill of Health” – Pharmacist Shortage webprint out

- A Pharmacy Today pharmacist profile web printout from pharmacytoday.org (March 2009, pg 32)

The presentation started on time and was broken down into two parts. The first part was headed by the Admissions Director, Joel Gonzalez (I hope I spelled his name right.) and he covered a whole range of topics including what makes UCSF so special, the uniqueness of their curriculum, and admissions information. The second part was a Q&A session with three students. A 1st year, 2nd year, and 3rd year.

After the two hour presentation, some people left, and those that stayed broke down into three smaller groups and we had a small tour of the important areas of the campus.

And that was it. At about 5:30 the tour was over and I left. Part 2 will delve a bit more into the details of what went on.