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I was born in 1949 in Dallas, so I can only answer this as it relates to my childhood in the 1950’s and time at the family ranch in Texas.The roads were lousy. There were no interstate highways, so a trip across county was on state and federal highways that meandered from town to town - like Route 66 - from one Texaco or Gulf station to the next. This was the heyday of billboards, including the sequential Burma Shave ads. It was a lot of fun to travel by car, bus or train - I rode passenger trains all over Texas and as far north as Milwaukee, including a Pullman sleeper car attended by courtly black porters - when I was 12.There were no fast food chains with the notable exception of Dairy Queen, which, late on a Saturday night, was often the only light on in town. How people socialized before Dairy Queens, I haven’t a clue. Most restaurants were Mexican cafes, cafeterias, one-meat-and-two-sides cafes, BBQ joints or simply glorified truck stops, like the Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls. The finest restaurant in Texas was the Old Warsaw near downtown Dallas. The Cattleman’s Steak House was the place to go in Ft. Worth.No alcohol served at restaurants. You brought your own booze and bought a “set up” to pour it in. The way around this was to join a “club” which you could do for a fee at most restaurants. Or join a country club - most small towns had one, even Archer City (“The Last Picture Show” and “Hud”)Everyone went to church. If you could not get to church, you listened to the church service on the radio (there were only a few TVs and the programming day was limited.) You could still hear Lutheran services coming from New Braunfels and Fredericksburg (Texas German enclaves) in German. The best church services were the black churches - the singing, the preaching, the testifying. Funerals were a particular treat.Radio, not TV. You could listen to Mexican super-stations from hundreds miles away particularly if the cloud cover was right, even on a crystal set, which was all I had, tied into the bug screen to get a better signal. The music was primitive rock ’n roll, starting with Bill Haley and the Comets. The Caravan Show played Ray Charles and Lightnin’ Hopkins.We went to Mexico for vacations. From where I lived, the closest major international metropolis was Mexico City. So a trip to Mexico City by car was special. Both grandparents drove all the way to Acapulco on separate trips - well over 1000 miles on bad roads. Kids held up iguanas by the side of the road so that you could take their picture (for a price).Rural poverty could be positively medieval. Whether poor whites or blacks, some extremely poor people in the country lived the way people lived in the Middle Ages - no health care, no family services, sometimes no electricity. In tar paper shacks. One shantytown was called “Lolaville.” In rural Texas, I don’t just mean Dickensian poverty, I mean like Tara after Sherman had marched through. Poverty in America like only a Southerner can comprehend. Right out of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.People were frugal. Nothing went to waste, not pennies, not nails, not even rubber bands. Everything was re-used and repaired until it disappeared. My mother made many of her own dresses and preserved fruits and tomatoes in Mason jars and Ball jars. We did not have toothpaste, we brushed with salt and baking soda.Everything was made in the United States. Everything. I can distinctly remember items that were not make in America - a Rolleiflex camera, Swiss watches, British lead soldiers, Jaguars, MGs and Triumphs, Scotch, German kitchen knives, Mexican sombreros, Italian switch-blades and chianti wine bottles in straw covers - and that was it. Anything made in Japan was considered ersatz.Everybody worked - the men until they dropped dead (my father went to the office every day until three months before he died at 98), housewives without help in the kitchen, did laundry, cleaning, if they had help, they did volunteer work via the garden club, Junior League, or church. Blind people re-caned chairs. I worked at a cafe, mowed lawns, my friends had paper routes.No video games ! We played checkers, chess, cards, board games - Monopoly, marbles, played cowboys (Hopalong Cassidy and Davy Crockett), tree houses, Christmas tree forts, rope swings, and made our own gunpowder (salt peter + sulphur + powdered charcoal) for bombs. Whoever invented the bottle rocket should be in the schoolboy hall of heroes.We ate a lot of canned food - vienna sausages, canned tuna made into casseroles, canned spinach, Wolf Brand chili and ranch style beans, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bologna sandwiches, frozen fish sticks - quality cuisine ! Plus fried chicken (scrawny flavorful chickens) and fried fish - preferably crappie (perch) breaded in corn meal. With ketchup, everything with ketchup. But not on homemade pecan pie, or homemade apple pie with a slice of cheddar cheese on top.Hardly anyone was fat. Men tended to be thin, women slender, an older man might become “portly” an older women “plump” but nobody was morbidly obese - I only knew of one such woman and she was pretty much a recluse.Everyone had served in the war. My father had been a captain in the Army. my mother was a nurse, my future wife’s father had been an (gaijin) officer in the 442nd Infantry Regiment. The more combat you had been in, the less you talked about. Our pal Congressman Jim Collins had been an Army officer in the Battle of the Bulge and he didn’t talk about it at all - ever.Nicknames - everyone had one. Anglos had Spanish ones - Lupe Murchison, Pancho Sutherland, Paco Hunt, Quatro Tolsen and El Rey Mullen. Girls had guy’s names - Toni Jacoby, Toni Franke, Toni Trojack, Micki (aka Spic) McNamara, Kelly (my mother) but only one man had a “girl’s” name: Carrol Shelby, whose son’s Pat & Mike went to my high school. (And yes, they had the coolest cars). There was C.B. (Cigar Butt), Bubba Giant, Red Dog, Black Jack, Peachy, Patches, Bubbles, Sugar, Potly, Snake, Drifty, Shorty x3, Mullet, Odor and Nostril. I was Stretch.A Coke was a rare treat - bought from an ice chest at the corner store, pulled from a metal rack via a metal trap - Royal Crown Cola, Dr. Pepper, Nehi Root Beer, 7-Up - read the top and take your pick.Social events consisted of church picnics (horse shoes, three legged races, spoon races), softball games, barn dances, square dances - including Musical Chairs, the Cotton Eyed Joe and later, the Chicken Dance - bingo, birthdays outdoors, weddings outdoors, funerals in un-air-conditioned churches, first communions and the 4th of July parade, complete with patriotic floats pulled by trucks or tractors.We rode horses, my grandfather’s Tennessee Walker was called “Lucky Strike” - my mother’s walking horse was “Sally Foot.” A saddle was a prized possession. My great grandfather invented one of the modern western style saddles in 1890. My walker is named “Blevins,” after Jimmy Blevins in All The Pretty Horses.Peddlers would come down the road pushing a cart, the most common of which was an Italian who sharpened knives !Sonic booms - every time an Air Force jet broke the speed of sound, you’d hear a horrific boom that could shatter windows. This happened regularly without warning, at a time when we lived in constant low grade fear of a nuclear attack.Fallout shelters - people had fallout shelters built so that they could go hide in the event of nuclear attack and the resultant fallout of radiation. The McEntires had a real beauty of a shelter built in their backyard. Buildings had fallout shelter signs posted directing you to the basement.Trolley cars were being phased out to electric buses that hooked onto overhead electric lines via pantographs. Daredevils on bikes would hitch a ride hanging onto the side of the bus. Children rode the bus alone - even to another town - with a note pinned on them.Parades and Pageants - small towns amused themselves, told their story and attracted visitors by throwing annual festivals/fiestas, parades - like the Tyler Rose Parade, and pageants, such as the Fort Griffin Fandangle, (mocked in Waiting For Guffman) or plays, usually associated with the local high school or church. Kids would put on costume shows to amuse themselves and the neighbors, right out of The Little Rascals. Carnivals would go from town to town, but if you wanted to see the circus or the Ice Capades, you had to go to a city.State Fair - before Disneyland and other mega amusement parks, the state fairs were the main forms of mass entertainment - an annual pilgrimage to the Midway, the livestock shows, the Auto Building, Big Tex welcoming the crowd, the extravaganzas at the Cotton Bowl (Elvis in 1956), salt water taffy, cotton candy, candied apples. It was the best.Everyone smoked. We kids smoked dried grapevine. Men smoked hand rolled cigarettes, Lucky Strikes, Camels, Pall Mall and Chesterfields - no filters. Men smoked pipes and chewed tobacco loose out of a pouch - Red Man - or cut off of a “plug” of compressed tobacco - Bull of the Woods or Day’s Work. I rode my bike to the store and bought chewing tobacco for the yard man Shorty Robinson when I was ten years old. Totally Huck Finn. Women smoked filtered cigarettes like Kents.There was very little dope. The Mexicans may have had some marijuana, but I never got any until I was in high school and it was garbage -leaves, stems, the whole plant.Booze - I had my first beer when I was about 10. It tasted nasty. Beers were local, Pearl, Lone Star, Shiner, and the Wisconsin beers - Schlitz, Hamms, Miller. Men drank bourbon. Mexicans drank tequila or pulque. The only wine was Gallo and kosher - Mogen David (Mad Dog) 20/20, “Man, oh man, oh Manischewitz !” Later Lancers and Mateus from Portugal. Yum.Adults didn’t “exercise.” The notion that someone would go “jogging” down the road in shorts and T shirt would have defied comprehension. There was one local gym frequented by “body builders.” Kids rode bikes, grownups did calisthenics with Jack LaLanne on TV, played golf with caddies carrying their bags, or pulled a bag cart, or they played tennis in all white garb - with Wilson/ Jack Kramer, Dunlop or Imperial wooden rackets with “cat gut” strings.Football - we (boys) all played football, with the highlight to play “under the lights” when it was cooler at night. The social, athletic, ambience and gestalt of a school could revolve around football. No game with the regional rival was complete without a fight under the stands or on the field. The terror of all 4A teams statewide as Odessa Permian High School - MOJO - whose exploits were made into the movie “Friday Night Lights.”Hunting and fishing - We all hunted and fished. George Norsworthy and I would come home from school, get our BB guns and proceed to kill every bird we could find. My mother fished and when she caught a big bass, she would cut its head off and nail it up onto the side of the garage. I killed my first deer when I was 14. Buying a new Remington 700 BDL bolt action 30–06 was one of the biggest events of my life. I still have it. Dove season was the highpoint of the hunting year - they’d come in like drunken jets to the maize fields. Picking lead shot out of duck meat as you ate was a real culinary adventure.Driving tractors, jeeps and trucks before I got my farm hand “hardship” license at 16 was a blast. We had a tractor that ran on butane - the same fuel we cooked with. Whenever we filled it, flies would swarm around the filler cap thinking it was something else. Plowing a field in a tractor with a lot of low end torque and a tight turning radius is a treat only known to farm kids. Opening that rig up on a dirt road - with the rain flapper bobbing up on the smokestack - was solid glory at 30 mph. Cars had stick shifts - “4 on the floor” or “3 on the tree.” No AC, “bat-wing” swivel windows, roll down side windows, no seat belts !Wind mills - were common in pastures without power; a top hand was one who could keep them working; Chicago Aermotor was the Cadillac. The rhythmic flap of the vanes in a breeze was soothing. Even the squeak of the gears sounded good, sounded country.The aroma of new mown hay was wonderful. The crackling sound of the cicadas in the summer was magical. The pulsing glows of hundreds of lighting bugs along a creek was amazing. An in-coming thunderstorm was sublime, Wizard of Oz stuff. People had storm shelters. I remember many tornadoes - several near misses - and each one was thrilling.No air conditioning- except in movie theaters and banks. At night, you slept on a cot with no sheets on a screened-in “sleeping porch” sometimes under wet sheets. You had an evaporative cooler - a “swamp cooler” in the living room. After Sunday supper (lunch) the men would take a communal nap on the living room floor - where it was cooler. If you could, you got out of Texas in the summertime - to the Ozarks, New Mexico, Colorado or to the Sierra Madre of Mexican - Cuernavaca, Taxco (where I got Montezuma’s Revenge) or San Miguel de Allende.School - we rode bikes to elementary school, then took the bus to junior high and drove to high school. The ‘hoods’ road motorcycles. In addition to the 3 R’s (readin’, ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmetic) boys took wood shop and metal shop, girls took home economics. If we misbehaved, we were paddled with a board like a cricket bat. I was paddled more than most but it didn’t seem to register, probably because, to plagiarize Gertrude Stein, “there was no there there.” The largest “ethnic minority” in my school were Mexican Americans, followed by Native Americans, including Lois Matthews, who was gorgeous. There were no blacks due to segregation.We got into fights. In a street fight in high school, two guys squared off, Jay Neathery was smoking a cigarette, he cooly removed the cig and flicked it past the other guy into the crowd, Bryan Wildes turned to look at the flying cigarette and Neathery cold-cocked him. John Norsworthy was particularly adept at feigning being hurt - doubling over in mock pain, the other guy would stop and then John would gut punch him. What was important was speed, hand speed, which I didn’t have. I teased a guy, Keith Phillips, about having an older girlfriend. We went to the gym to fight it out with boxing gloves. I held my own. Keith killed himself a short time later by hanging himself. More going on there than I realized at the time, but clearly teasing him and fighting him was not particularly helpful.Larceny and mischief - we stole things: shifter nobs, hubcaps, we disconnected distributor wires, shoved potatoes up tail pipes. Randy Hancock and I would put our school books on top of Playboy magazines and walked out of the store - then sold them to other boys. Riding bikes down an alley pulling over trash cans was considered quality entertainment.UFOs - we made fairly convincing UFOs by taking plastic dry cleaning bags, sealing the openings with tape, then filling them with natural gas and fashioning a fuse of cotton lightly dipped in gasoline. We took these gas bombs out to a field in my truck (my first car was a truck) lit the fuse and released them - they would get a couple of hundred yards up before they exploded. We did this often enough to have these “UFOs” written up in the local paper.College - about half of my high school class went to Texas Tech. Almost no one went out of state except a football star that went to Yale. Until my senior year, I had no clue if I would go to college, then I applied to Brown and got in as a “geographic diversity/token hick” acceptance - along with some other generally clueless Texans. My best friend was an American Indian from Texas who was recruited to play football. My GPA 1st semester was 1.6. The only reason I didn’t drop out was because I had no particular beef with the Vietnamese.Drought - the 7 year drought in the ’50s in Texas was so bad, many people had to go get water from other people’s wells - and the other people shared their water; I remember this distinctly, the sharing.Politics - everyone was a Democrat in Texas in the ‘50’s. My parents made an exception for Eisenhower (who was born in Texas), and then went for Goldwater in 1964 - to the horror of their friends. Nixon’s “Southern strategy” kicked in and Texas flipped Republican. For awhile.Being a rancher or an oil man was all we aspired to. The first movie I remember was Giant. The bad guy wildcatter - Jett Rink - was played by James Dean. I wanted to be Jett Rink. All of my friends wanted to be Jett Rink. To this day, when we compliment a guy for being clever we say “He’s so Jett.” Dean paced off the boundary of his place “Little Riata” by goose-stepping the metes and bounds. I was 7 and I knew right then and there what I wanted to be in life -an oil man, preferably a wildcatter. When I walked out of the theater, I goose-stepped just like Jett Rink. I was on my way.All public places were segregated- in the county courthouse there was a “colored” water fountain.Black people did the most menial jobs. At the ice rink at the State Fair, old black men would lace up your skates for tips. When I went up North to military academy, I saw a white man pushing a lawn mower. My friend George and I had never seen a white hired-hand pushing a lawn mower before, so we assumed he was retarded. When we spoke to him we were astonished that he was normal !The domestic help - the maids, yardmen, etc. were black. Trudy Miles, the cook, Shorty Robinson, the yard man. They raised us white children - all of the kindest, friendliest faces of my childhood were black. They worked hard all their lives, never complained, treated us kids kindly, and never had half a chance.No one in my family ever used the “n” word. Never. No one. Honest. It’s not that we were so enlightened, it was just considered low class. We all said “colored man/ woman.” If I had said the “n” word, my mother would have washed my mouth out with soap - which she otherwise did, often.Our church -Holy Trinity - was not segregated. About half of the congregation were Mexicans and there were many black members, mainly Cajun creoles from Louisiana. When Kennedy was shot, we went to the McEvoy’s house and just sat their stunned watching pastoral American scenes loop on the TV. In Texas, Kennedy was our political redemption - a Catholic President.Everyone else was a Baptist or Methodist. When I told my friends that there were more Catholics in the world than Baptists, they did not believe me. They had to look it up in the World Book encyclopedia. There were very few jewish kids. I can remember only 4 and they were all my friends, including Louis Silver, who, when his father died, my mother baked them a cake and I delivered it. No one else was there, just Louis and his mother and me and the cake. It was the saddest thing. Jackie Schnel had a sad smile and was killed when her Trans Texas Airways flight crashed in a storm. Beth Eldridge, a super bright gal, was my dance partner at cotillion where we won the Fox Trot contest. Richard Goldman was a “spastic” who Glen Shepherd, the captain of the football team, befriended and made clear that picking on Richard - which had not been uncommon - was thereafter a one-way ticket to Fist City. I don’t think anyone ever picked on Richard again at our school. Richard died in a convalescent home recently. Glenn lives out on a ranch near Italy, Texas, pronounced IT -lee.Queers - One of my best friends growing up “turned out to be” gay. I didn’t know it growing up, I didn’t know anyone that was homosexual - that I knew of, but when I learned that Charles was gay, I was convinced of something profoundly: that being gay is not a whole lot different than being left handed. Because Charles was such a great kid - one of the best guys on our block - and if he was gay, then being gay must be OK. Years later, he asked me to accompany him to what turned out to be an ugly confrontation with gay bashers in Fort Worth. Accompany him I did, armed with a semi-automatic pistol tucked into my belt. No one bothered Charles that day.Mexican Americans were our friends. They were our priests and nuns - who were Sisters of Charity, aka Flying Nuns. My first ‘sort-of’ girlfriend was Olga Gonzalez, or that’s what she thought.The ranch hands were Mexicans - vaqueros. They would come wandering up the road asking “Tienes trabajo ?” - “Do you have work ?” I remember them fondly: Cruz, Moises, Luz. Vaya con Dios companeros.Cisco & Pancho. When we got a TV, my favorite show was “The Cisco Kid.” When he came to Dallas, my mother took me to Love Field to see him. His sidekick, Pancho, had a sign-off at the end of every show: “See you soon !” (Hasta la vista).To this day, I don’t say goodbye, I say “See you soon.” Just like Pancho.

The Human microbiota. Everyone has a slightly different mix of bugs that live in us and on us. They out number the cells of our body and perform many critical functions that are not well understood. They are as intimate to who we are as our own blood but we know very little about the role they play other than we could not live without them.The Elizabeth H. and James S. McDonnell III Genome Institute at Washington UniversityOur bodies are teeming with life – trillions of microbes occupy virtually every surface – inside and out. They even outnumber our own cells ten to one. And much like our planet has its ecosystem of plants and animals interacting with their environments, we have our own microscopic one filled with living organisms that inhabit our bodies’ diverse environments.“Our bodies are part of a microbial world,” says Dr. George Weinstock, associate director of The Genome Institute. “You can think of our ecosystems like you do rain forests and oceans, very different environments with communities of organisms that possess incredible, rich diversity.”A Microbial EcosystemMost of the time this microbial ecosystem coexists peacefully with us. Many of our microbes help us digest food, strengthen our immune systems and even protect us from dangerous pathogens. But it has proven very difficult to study many of these microbes, which differ depending on body site and individual. The microbes are also difficult to isolate and grow in the lab. As a result, researchers have understood little about which microbes reside in specific sites of the body. Now, a consortium of some 200 U.S. scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and elsewhere report findings from the most comprehensive census of the microbial makeup of healthy humans.Published June 14 in Nature and in several Public Library of Science (PLoS) journals, the research offers new details and even some surprises.Know Thy MicrobesFor example, the researchers found that even healthy people typically carry low levels of harmful bacteria in and on their bodies. But when a person is healthy, these pathogens don’t cause disease; they simply coexist in an abundance of beneficial microbes. Now, scientists can investigate why some pathogens can suddenly turn deadly, an endeavor that will refine current thinking on how microorganisms cause disease.“It’s not possible to understand human health and disease without exploring the massive community of microorganisms we carry around with us,” says Dr. Weinstock, one of the project’s principal investigators. “Knowing which microbes live in various ecological niches in healthy people allows us to better investigate what goes awry in diseases that are thought to have a microbial link, like Crohn’s, acne, periodontitis, vaginosis, or urethritis, and why dangerous pathogens sometimes, but not always, cause life-threatening illnesses.”Human Microbiome ProjectThe Genome Institute played a major role in the new research, known as the Human Microbiome Project. The five-year initiative was funded with $153 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with some $32 million coming to the university. TGI scientists decoded about half of the 5,000 specimens from nearly 250 healthy volunteers.To get a handle on the healthy human microbiome, the researchers sampled 15 body sites in men and 18 in women, including areas of the mouth (nine sites, including the teeth), skin (two behind the ear and each inner elbow), nose, vagina (three sites) and lower intestine (stool). In St. Louis, most samples were collected from study participants enrolled at the School of Medicine. Teeth and gum samples were collected at Saint Louis University’s dental school. Other samples came from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, the other site that enrolled study participants.In all, the scientists identified more than 10,000 species of microbes that occupy the human ecosystem, documenting the impressive diversity of microbial life in the human body with more accuracy than earlier studies.Taking InventoryUsing new genomic techniques, TGI assistant directors Dr. Erica Sodergren and Dr. Makedonka Mitreva, took an inventory of the microbes in the samples. One approach involved sequencing a gene found in all bacteria. "This gene, 16S rDNA, serves as a barcode of life to indicate which species are there and their prevalence in the microbial community," says Dr. Sodergren. Another approach included sequencing the DNA of entire microbial communities in a subset of samples. "With this information, we could identify viruses, fungi and other non-bacterial organisms and put together a catalog of all the genes present in the samples," Dr. Mitreva says.The researchers noted unique communities of microbes in every site in the body. Interestingly, the microbial communities that live on the teeth are different from those in saliva. And the most diverse collection of microbes was found to live on the skin, which might be expected because it is the body’s barrier to the outside world.The scientists also reported that the body’s collection of microbes contributes more gene activity to human health than humans themselves. While the human genome includes some 22,000 genes, it’s a mere fraction of the 8 million genes that are part of the human microbiome.Genes Critical to HealthThese microbial genes are critical to good health. Those in the gastrointestinal tract, for example, allow humans to digest foods and absorb nutrients that our bodies otherwise could not handle. Microbial genes also produce vitamins and compounds that naturally suppress inflammation in the intestine.Also, confirming earlier, smaller studies, the new research shows that components of the human microbiome clearly change during an illness. When a patient is sick or takes antibiotics, the species of the microbiome may shift substantially as one bacterial species or another is affected. Eventually, however, the microbiome settles into a steady state, even if the previous composition is not completely restored.As part of the Human Microbiome Project, the NIH funded a number of studies to look for links between particular communities of microbes in the body and illness. Results of some of this research, reported in PLoS, underscore the clinical applications of microbiome research to improve human health.Unexplained FeverAt Washington University, researchers led by Dr. Gregory Storch, Professor of Pediatrics, examined the microbes in the noses and blood of children who developed sudden, high fevers that couldn’t be traced to a specific cause. Unexplained fever is a common problem in children under age 3, and they are often treated with antibiotics as a precaution, which contributes to antibiotic resistance.Dr. Storch and his colleagues, including Dr. Kristine Wylie, a postdoctoral research associate at The Genome Institute, found that specimens from the sick kids contained more total viral DNA and more species of viruses, some of them potentially novel, than children without fever, who also were included in the study as a comparison.“We found things we did not expect to see,” says Dr. Wylie, including the discovery of astrovirus in the children with fever, a viral type that causes childhood diarrhea and one that had not been previously found in blood. The researchers also showed that children without fever carried viruses, though in lower numbers. They plan to follow up this work with the most extensive characterization of viruses to date of healthy people. Understanding the difference between viral infections with and without fever will be important in applying microbiome techniques in the clinic, the scientists say.New Unnamed MicrobesIn another project, Dr. Weinstock, Dr. Wylie and their colleagues, along with Dr. Katherine Pollard and her team at the University of California, San Francisco, identified previously unknown types of microbes in stool samples from 11 healthy individuals. Stool samples are among the most well-characterized of any from the Human Microbiome Project, yet the group was still able to discover new bacteria. While these new, not-yet-named microbes were found in relatively low levels, the research indicates they may be quite common because they were found in multiple volunteers.Life-Threatening Illness in PremiesAnd in research at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Dr. Phillip Tarr, Professor in Pediatrics, and neonatologist Dr. Barbara Warner, and others are investigating whether a life-threatening gastrointestinal illness in premature babies is linked to microbes in the intestinal tract. Necrotizing enterocolitis affects about 10 percent of premature babies, usually in the first month of life, and is fatal in 15 percent to 30 percent of cases. The researchers are collecting stool samples from premature babies to identify and quantify differences between the microbial communities of the infants who develop the illness and those who don’t. This information may provide a foundation for developing ways to prevent or cure the illness.NIH has funded a number of other medical studies using HMP data and techniques that TGI is involved in, including: the role of the gut microbiome in Crohn’s disease; the skin microbiome in acne; and the urogenital microbiome in sexually transmitted infections.“The future of microbiome research is very exciting,” Weinstock says. “This large-scale effort will open doors in many areas of medicine to improve our understanding of good health and the treatment and prevention of disease.”All the data collected on the human microbiome is uploaded to a central repository called the Data Analysis and Coordination center (Human Microbiome Project DACC) and is available for free to the scientific community.

Q. Will graduating from a lower-prestige university affect my medical school admission? I currently study chemistry at California State University, Northridge.A.Choosing the best premed school to get into medical school (generic article)New medical school in Elk Grove makes history (newspaper) (CNUCOM)Can CSU students get into medical school in California? (SDN discussion thread regarding CSU success with UC admissions)Pre Med 101 - Know What You Need to Get Into Medical SchoolChoosing a Pre Med School It does not matter what pre med school you attend to get your undergraduate training. The only thing that matters is that you are in an environment that YOU can be successful in. You may think it is hard to believe that it doesn’t matter, but once you are in medical school and see the vast diversity of your classmates you will agree that it does not matter if you went to Harvard or a small liberal arts college.[Pros and Cons of Liberal Arts colleges for the premed]The simple recipe to get into medical school:Get great grades in your pre-req classesHave a solid plan for your MCAT prep and get a competitive scoreGive yourself plenty of time for extraordinary volunteeringChoosing the best premed school to get into medical schoolDo not go to a great school. Go to a school that will make YOU great. – Ryan Gray, MDThere is no perfect or wrong choice when it comes to selecting a pre med school. The biggest considerations for most high school seniors are geographic location, proximity to family, size of school, range of degree programs offered, and cost. There are, however, some other important things to think about if you are thinking about becoming applying to medical school someday. Read below to find out 5 criteria for choosing a pre med school.Type of Experience: Happy Hour vs. Study BuddyFirst, before you even think about particular pre med schools, you should know that becoming a physician is a long journey requiring a lot of work, patience, and dedication. That said, if you are thinking of spending your college years as your chance to party every weekend and booze it up, you may want to reconsider your career aspirations. There are undoubtedly some professional schools which may still accept you if you skate by with a decent GPA and entrance exam score despite frequent nights of inebriation. Medical school is not one of these. Medical schools take your college transcript GPA and MCAT scores very seriously, as well as how you spend your time in college. They require several letters of recommendation and expect a certain amount of volunteer work or research while you are in college. This does not mean that you can’t have a certain amount of fun in college – of course you can. But, you have to remember the larger picture and that college is the first step in a long journey toward obtaining your medical degree.Type of School: University vs. Liberal Arts collegeThe next big choice to make when choosing a pre med school is whether you want to attend a large university or a small liberal arts college. Can you get an adequate pre-medical education at both of these types of institutions? Yes, for the most part. Almost all big universities will have the necessary pre-med science courses as they typically will have several science departments. Lots of liberal arts colleges, on the other hand, may have a wealth of courses in literature and the humanities but only a few in the biological and physical sciences. Given that your advisor and dean’s office can play a large role in the application process to medical school, you should ensure that they have the necessary services should a student wish to apply to medical school. Remember, you can major in Chinese or Art History and still go to medical school, but you also need to make sure that you will have a good science background in preparation for your future studies in medical school as well as for your MCAT preparation.Type of Competition: Cut-throat or Laid-backSome universities will have hundreds of premed students and inevitably have a high level of competition among the students. Others will have a more laid-back vibe. Given the importance of your college transcript, make sure that you select a school which will be a good fit for you. If you are someone who thrives in high-level competition with your peers and is not bothered by long hours and putting aside your weekend plans with your friends for some extra time in the library, then a very competitive pre-med program at a top university may be for you. If, on the other hand, you are someone who gets nervous around competition and 100% final exams, you may want to select a school with a more nurturing and laid-back environment.Type of Curriculum: Easy A vs Sweatin' BulletsMedical schools will look at your science GPA, your total GPA, and the level of rigor in your curriculum. If you have a 3.99 total GPA, but if most of your courses were in rock painting, your GPA will not be taken as seriously as someone with a 3.85 GPA with courses in integrative neuroscience and analytical chemistry. Most medical school requirements include many hours of studying very involved science material, so you admissions committees are looking for applicants who have already applied themselves, and succeeded, in difficult science courses in college. All of that being said, even if you going to major in History or German and only do the required pre-med sciences, courses, you need to make sure that the rest of your courses are challenging. Also remember that because med school courses are very challenging, you want to prepare yourself well for the level of rigor that you will face in medical school by challenging yourself in your undergraduate studies. The better the study habits that you form in college, the more prepared you will be for weekend-long studying sessions in medical school. The adjustment will also be easier if you are used to studying a lot before you set foot in medical school.Type of Matriculants: In-State vs OutMed schools and the AAMC keep public statistics of where students come from. It is not always as easy as public vs private medical school. If you have any idea about what medical school you are truly interested in attending, review the data and figure out if you should try to gain in-state residence. You might be able to gain the residence by attending an undergraduate school in that state. Many schools also keep data on the exact undergraduate school that their matriculants come from, although I think this data is less important.New medical school in Elk Grove makes historyCalifornia Northstate University College of Medicine (CNUCOM)California Northstate University is the first for-profit traditional medical school accredited in the U.S.The school, with an initial class of 60 students, hopes to make a dent in the nation’s physician shortageA total of 1,232 new students enrolled in California’s 12 medical school programs last fallMedical students Jonathan Huang, left, Zain Lalani, and Tyler Ellis observe a demonstration on performing an orthopedic exam at California Northstate University College of Medicine in Elk Grove last month. These first-year medical students are attending the first for-profit medical school in the nation. Randall Benton [email protected] KATHY ROBERTSONAmie Cai, 25, took a year off after she graduated from UC Berkeley to work as a laboratory manager and apply to medical school. She didn’t get in. Anywhere.Cai, who grew up in Folsom, decided to get more experience. She “shadowed” Dr. Kenan Si at a walk-in clinic on J Street in Sacramento where she could talk to patients in Chinese.First-year medical student Tyler Ellis takes notes at California Northstate University College of Medicine in Elk Grove last month. . The school was accredited in June 2015. Randall Benton [email protected] a new medical school in Elk Grove opened for business last year, Cai jumped at the opportunity. So did 59 other students in the inaugural class at California Northstate University College of Medicine.The first for-profit traditional medical school accredited in the United States hopes to make a dent in a physician shortage and lack of medical school slots in California and nationwide.The school was accredited in June 2015, took applications over the summer and signed up a full class by its launch in early September.Students who landed a spot still pinch themselves to be sure it’s real.California Northstate’s opening comes at a time when many for-profit colleges are under fire for misleading students about their job prospects and earnings, and saddling them with high student loan debt. In the most recent case, the Federal Trade Commission sued DeVry University last month.Students at California Northstate acknowledge the risk, but say they’re glad they got in.“When I heard about this new school in my hometown of Elk Grove, I thought, ‘What the heck?’ ” said Chris Phillips. “For me, this is a dream come true.”WHEN I HEARD ABOUT THIS NEW SCHOOL IN MY HOMETOWN OF ELK GROVE, I THOUGHT, ‘WHAT THE HECK?’ FOR ME, THIS IS A DREAM COME TRUE.Chris Phillips, a student at California Northstate University College of Medicine in Elk GroveAt 30, Phillips is the oldest in the class. He’s married, has three children and a master’s degree. He taught high school physics and shadowed a doctor at a local pediatrics clinic before applying for medical school in 2016.“It’s an interesting group,” Susan Ely, assistant dean of student affairs, admissions and outreach, said of the student body. “It tells you immediately there are way more qualified medical students than places for them, especially in California.”More than 52,500 students applied to medical school for the 2015-16 school year, but only 20,631 enrolled, according to the American Association of Medical Colleges.A total of 1,232 new students enrolled in the 12 medical school programs in California last fall, AAMC figures show. There were more than 67,000 applications. Students typically apply to two dozen schools or more because the market is so competitive.“That’s a lot of wasted talent,” said Dr. Joseph Silva,California Northstate medical school dean.California is particularly tough because people like to attend school in the state — and practice here afterward.“It’s a risk to go to a brand-new school, but (California Northstate) is an accredited California medical school, ” said Shermilla Pia, a new student from Davis. “It’s close to home. My family is here. So is my boyfriend. I’m part of creating something – and that’s pretty huge.”The class is diverse. More than half the students are Asian. Male students outnumber females by more than two to one. Almost 80 percent of students are California residents. For now, the school is not accepting applications from foreign students.The lopsided gender mix was a surprise. Women usually equal men in enrollment or come in a little higher.“(Selection) was all done in seven weeks, in batches,” Silva said. “In the first rush, men, quite frankly, had a better record. In the second batch, fewer women were invited for interviews.”Beyond that, Silva had no explanation. This is something the school will watch, he said.Students don’t seem to care about numbers. They see themselves as pioneers.“It doesn’t feel like a rigid, set-in-stone program,” Cai said. “We are the school. We can help improve it along the way.”California Northstate is the first traditional for-profit to be accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. The only other for-profit is a Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Parker, Colo. It opened in 2006.The plus of starting a school from scratch with investor funding is the ability to get the program off the ground quickly.Backers raised more than $50 million to fund the school. Now open for business, the school gets more than $3.2 million a year in tuition and fees from a class of 60 students.“Profit, nonprofit makes no difference. The school is what you make of it,” said Gopal Kodumudi, another student in the inaugural class. “The matriculation rate at the pharmacy school is great, so I have no worries.”Debt is a fact of life, students say. The $54,000 annual tab is lower than some private medical schools. In-state tuition and fees at UC Davis, the other medical school in town, are about $43,000 this year.“We’re taking out loans,” said Cai. “Anywhere you go, it’s going to be high.”The school launch was quick, but the program has been in the works for years.It’s part of a university that also includes a school of pharmacy, undergraduate college of health sciences and post-baccalaureate program to help students who want to improve their chances of getting into a medical, pharmacy or other health-related school.The medical and pharmacy schools share a campus on West Taron Drive in Elk Grove. The building used to be an AAA call center. California Northstate bought it in 2011 for $7.1 million.The model at the medical school is an integrated approach that brings basic science and clinical expertise together from the beginning. The traditional approach is two years of basic science and anatomy before two years of clinical study with patients.“We actually start with clinical study and the 120 different ways a patient presents to a physician,” said Dr. Ann Poznanski, associate dean of curriculum.Then students learn the underlying science behind the patient condition and see what it looks like in the anatomy lab.“This gives them something that actually makes sense,” Poznanski said. “Teaching in this more integrated way has more sticking power.”Students also teach each other.The focus recently was on hip, knee and joint pain. Broken into groups of four, students practiced their medical skills on actors posing as patients with a joint problem. Students took turns knocking on the door, asking questions and examining a patient. Those not on the spot scribbled notes, wondered out loud – and occasionally laughed.“It’s really cool how we can really interact with a potential patient and see how we come off as doctors, even though we are still students,” said Zain Lalani, who drew the short straw and had to go first.“This is a safe environment where they can make a mistake and can correct it,” said Dr. Ralitsa Akins, senior associate dean of medical education and accreditation. “We are developing a habit.”In one exam room, professor Hanns Haesslein kept a steady banter going as he watched each student.“We’re not just interested in the bones, for crying out loud,” he said. “What do you feel? Push it in and out.”Physical diagnosis is part of the detective work of being a doctor, said Haesslein, an obstetrician/gynecologist in private practice at the Sacramento Maternal-Fetal Medicine Medical Group. “I’m doing this because I love it. It’s a challenge because every day, there is another thing we need to work on, plan for, assess and change.”Dr. Ravinder Khaira, a local pediatrician who is medical director of four clinics in the area, is another member of the faculty at California Northstate.“It takes advantage of my advanced degree and offers a chance to form the new school,” he said. “The students? They are amazing. They are intelligent, very enthusiastic and happy they’ve been given this opportunity.”There is a looming problem for medical students here and throughout the nation, however. About 1,000 current medical school students won’t match with residency spots when they graduate this year, said Dr. Julie Freischlag, dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine.The federal government pays for most resident training, but capped the number of positions in 1997. There are more graduates, but the only new slots are funded by hospitals or other sources.“It’s good to have an increase in the number of medical schools as the nation tries to solve the problem of not enough doctors,” Freischlag said. “But we do need to find new places for them to train.”AT A GLANCECalifornia Northstate University School of Medicine’s inaugural Class of 2019:Enrollment: 60Total applicants: 686Acceptance rate: 8.8.%Female students: 19 (32%)Male students: 41 (68%)California residents: 47Out of state residents: 13Race/ethnicity: 19 Caucasian; 33 Asian; 3 African American; 3 Hispanic; 2 Pacific IslanderAverage Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) score: 32Average GPA: 3.48Source: California Northstate University School of MedicineRead more here: New medical school in Elk Grove makes historyCan CSU students get into medical school in California?DISCUSSION THREAD REGARDING CSU SUCCESS IN GETTING ADMITTED TO UC MEDICAL SCHOOLS (A BIT DATED, STILL RELEVANT)Discussion in 'Pre-Medical - MD' started by missbones, May 7, 2010.missbones: Been reading some pretty disheartening comments on hsdn and elsewhere from people on adcoms or current med students in California stating that unless you apply disadvantaged, you wont get into a California med school with a CSU as your undergrad.Can anyone confirm or deny this or provide insight? I plan to speak to a counselor on campus next week. Just wanted as many viewpoints/experiences as possible. Also this thread might be helpful to other CSU students.I am a cc --> CSU transfer. Just decided to go pre-med in my senior year so I potentially have 4 more semesters ahead of me to complete all the chem prereqs. I'd like to know what my chances are and if would be smarter for me just to graduate with my BA and then try to get into an SMP or Post-bacc at a more prestigious institution in order to improve my chances for acceptance in California, instead of continuing on my current plan to just postpone graduation in order to take the required pre med classes.my gpa is around 3.56-59. I have 4 units I failed at the CC level. Am I dead in the water adding this to my CSU status?Chemokine7 I know people who went to a CSU and got into UCLA and USC but they had solid MCAT scores to back up their high gpa. If you have a high gpa at a csu and a low MCAT score, it will not reflect too well. One of my interviewers even said that he believes CSU gpas are way inflated compared to UCs. So make sure you do well in your MCAT and do not leave the adcom room to question it.mspeedwagon Status:Medical Student I know CSU kids in the CA med schools, but all had 30+ MCAT.plsfoldthx Status:Medical Student doesn't everyone in med school have 30+ mcat?Meat Status:Medical Student Check out my MDapplications link to the left. CSU student, good GPA, solid MCAT, some research, volunteering, etc. I was a bit late to the game (started doing health care activities two years before applying). I was murdered at the UC level in CA. Not one interview. Not even secondaries at UCSD or UCSF.I'm sure some will say "obviously something was wrong with your application," which may have been true, but not ONE UC invite with my numbers? I assumed there was some state hate.Good luck man! I would suggest transferring to a UC.EDIT: I do have a URM friend at my school that had a USC and UCLA interview. So its not totally impossible.missbones Status:Pre-Medical Did you apply early?Meat Status: Medical Student Submitted end of June, verified mid / late July, all secondaries in early August. Certainly could have been earlier.silverhorse84 Status:Resident CSU grad. Got into USC and was waitlisted at Irvine (never sent a letter of interest, which they highly suggest, so who knows what would have happened). Had a 3.6 something GPA, and 30 MCAT. No, I'm not URMIgnore what other people say - unless you want to go to a "top" medical school you'll be fine. Get a good GPA and a good MCAT, speak the truth in your essays and interviews, you'll be fine.Meat Status:Medical Student For sure. Do the best you can, you'll totally make it!missbones Status:Pre-Medical Thanks for the advice. I was thinking of doing the USC post bacc. I was all over that recent CSU thread, and I don't think anyone said it was impossible - just that it is much easier coming from Berkeley/UCLA/UCSD.lord_jeebus SDN Moderator Status:Attending Physician That said, with your GPA you will need a strong MCAT and maybe a post-bac.longhorn09 Status:Medical Student Have you tried Loma Linda?missbones Status:Pre-Medical the statements that you made, among what others said, that pretty much made me feel like I had no chance because I lack "near perfect GPA" and "extraordinary accomplishments":"Those very few successful applicants from the Cal State system tended to have extraordinary accomplishments outside of the classroom, near-perfect GPAs, and high MCATs""Can the CSULB student overcome this disadvantage? Of course, but most don't. It's not just a matter of scoring high on the MCAT. You would need to distinguish yourself in ways going above and beyond most pre-meds.""Again, the few CSU students that were accepted, in my adcom experience, were not accepted because they had great numbers (although they had to have that also just to be looked at) but because they had unusual life achievements."I also asked in that thread about people who attend post-baccs at CSUs and how they could have any kind of success rate if little to none of CSU med school applicants make it in, as you were saying. Since you didn't respond on that thread would you mind addressing this here if you have any experience in that area?missbones Status:Pre-Medical Loma Linda? Not interested. I'm very anti-christian.mspeedwagon Status:Medical Student I'm assuming you mean everyone that gets into a CA M.D. program... then the answer is likely yes (with a few exceptions).Of course 30 is close to the 80% percentile, which means only 20% of all test takes score at or above. So no, not "everyone" scores 30+.Side-note in response to another poster: Loma Linda is a terrible place to apply unless you are a 7th day adventist. They send you an automatic secondary (thus get your money) and then reject you (for the most part).lord_jeebus SDN Moderator Status:Attending Physician I was talking about my medical school in particular. Your odds at getting into a medical school somewhere in the US are not as bad, if your numbers improve. I think that if you improve your grades from this point, maintain 3.9+ in postbac and 30+ MCAT, you will be able to attend medical school somewhere in the country. You can't be picky though.U Turn Status:Pre-Health (Field Undecided) A high school friend of mine graduated from San Jose State last year and is currently an M1 at UCLA. She had a 3.9 GPA and a 32 MCAT from what I remember. She's not an URM but apparently adcoms at her interviews were impressed that she's a hardcore mountain climber and has climbed numerous mountains including Mt. Everest and Mt. McKinley.lord_jeebus SDN Moderator Status:Attending Physician Sounds like "extraordinary accomplishments outside of the classroom, near-perfect GPAs, and high MCAT" to me .missbones Status:Pre-Medical I already have ~110 units. So the best I can do is maintain and raise it maybe .1 in 2 years... Postbac seems like the best option for me. I really don't want to leave California.Maneuver Status: Pre-Medical CSU GPA's ARE inflated. You shouldn't have more than one or two B's. Certainly no C's, D's, or F's.MichaelRW Status:Pre-Medical plsfoldthx said: ↑doesn't everyone in med school have 30+ mcat?seriously?lord_jeebus SDN Moderator Status:Attending Physician If I were you, if prereqs are all fulfilled I would apply simultaneously to med schools and post-bacs - just in case you get in somewhere. But you'll probably need the post-bac.Even with the post-bac, your odds of staying in CA are not good. 4 years is not that long and if you work hard you should be able to come back for residency.missbones Status:Pre-Medical I'm not sure I understand this. If my pre-reqs are fulfilled why would I do a post bacc?lord_jeebus SDN Moderator Status:Attending Physician GPA boosting, especially if your GPA in the prereqs is similar to your overall GPAmissbones Status:Pre-Medical lord_jeebus said: ↑GPA boosting, especially if your GPA in the prereqs is similar to your overall GPA I guess you consider my gpa extremely bad because most other people I've talked to said it was fine/competitive. My gpa is a 3.5 ish mostly because of those 4 units I failed. I have only one other c and the rest are As, A- and a few B+'s, I think 5.JokerMD Status:Medical Student yes, its possible.amikhchi Status:Medical Student Calstate northridge grad 3.47 gpa and 36 mcat... Absolutely no love from any california schools... Congrats to those who got in from csu system, but looking back I would have gone to ucla... I'm rather confident if I had went to ucla (got accepted to all UCs for undergrad) I would be in med school right now with my 31 and wouldn't have had to retake mcat...Oh wellmissbones Status:Pre-Medical What are your ECs/volunteering/shadowing etc. Please be honest.amikhchi Status:Medical Student i've gone over this in several threads, and honestly they are avg i'd say, about 200 hrs of shadowing over the course of about 2 years, about 150 hrs of other volunteer community service, about 120 hrs of research (through my school), and an undocumented amount of hours that would probably fall under ECs, but not community service or clinical experience.missbones Status:Pre-Medical i know my gpa is on the low end, doesn't need to be stated, but my mcat is also on the higher end... anyone i talk to says it's "weird" that i get no interviews from CA schools, or that "something must be wrong with your application"... i think it's the CSU...sounds like it. I think id rather just stop taking pre-reqs, graduate, get into a uc post bacc and see how it goes from there. Its just scary because you can only get loans for those programs and most dont want you to work so what do you do after 2 years of debt if you dont get in? Get to work in the real world, I guess.Meat Status:Medical Student i think it's the CSU...Maybe there are just too many UC applicants applying for us CSU kids to be competitive. Why even interview CSU students when UC students are lining up with similar scores (albeit possibly slightly lesser scores in some cases). Maybe from the prospective of an adcom, with so many people to pick from the UC system, why even interview a CSU kid unless he / she has some REALLY unique features.All speculation of course. I certainly wish I would have had some UC interviews. Don't let this discourage you OP, there are plenty of other med schools out thereteenmachinery1 Status:Medical Student 200 hours of shadowing is NOT anywhere remotely near the average.amikhchi Status:Medical Student what's the average? ~4 hours a week for about 2 years with the exception of breaks and special circumstances.lord_jeebus SDN Moderator Status:Attending Physician Shadowing hours is never the issue. People don't get accepted because they shadowed a lot.JJMrK Status:Resident It's possible but you put yourself at a disadvantage.lovemesomeTJ Status:Non-Student UC post-bacs are for URM students who consider themselves disadvantaged and can back this claim up in their essays. I think the only one that might not require this is UC Berkeley, and it is not apart of the UC Post-Bac Consortium (or whatever it's called) that provides you with the extra help of getting in (I believe). If you meet this criteria, then all is well. But if not, you're going to need to figure out another alternative.I really don't see what the big deal is about California. Born and raised, all of my family and majority of my friends are here, and I could give a rat's *** about staying here for the rest of my life. Not to knock you and your motivations, but my goal is MEDICAL SCHOOL, not medical school in California. If you do exceptionally well at a school anywhere else in the country, you won't have trouble coming back here. To me, 4 years is a breath of fresh air from California and a chance to see another part of the country and how it lives. But again, we all have our motivations and reasons for our desires so I wish you luck in remaining in California.missbones Status:Pre-Medical USC takes non URM students. But other than that I was also looking into Mills, which has a high success rate of placing post-bacc students at UCs.casillas Status:Pre-Medical I can't say whether there is a bias, but it is not impossible. I met a few CSU students during UCSF second look weekend. so it definitely happens.Appless It happens, but as a whole CSU are going to be less competitive then UC students. They are seen as inferior schools like it or not and probably 95% of people who want to be pre meds end up at a UC somewhere. Furthermore, the opportunities at a CSU are going to be less which regardless of whether or not the CSU name matters, will hurt your app. Research is obviously a huge part in getting into UC schools as well as USC and other top schools and at CSUs, research just isnt going to happen at near the same level as a UC if it happens at all since not even all CSUs can grant phds for science. UCs have the monopoly on research in cali. Unfortunately, you should have transferred to a UC. Your chances arent over but you need to have other areas such as a great mcat to help you out. CSU gpas are indeed insanely inflated. If you dont just straight dominate the mcat, I would look into a SMP type post bacmissbones Status:Pre-Medical Follow up question: I have one more year of undergrad left, minimum because its too late to apply for fall graduation.I have taken bio 1 (this semester), and stats several years ago. I was planning on taking chem 1a fall, chem 1b spring. Should I stop pre-reqs completely, just finish up my major (only need 2 courses) and maybe add a minor to maintain FT status? Then apply for post bac/SMP for summer or fall 2011? I wonder if it will hurt my chances to spend another yr with no pre-reqs or if its a bad idea to keep taking them at a CSU if I intend to go to a post-bac anyway?Musclemass Getting admission to the CSU system is the opposite of competitive, it's almost open. There are no doubt many capable students at CSUs for reasons of economics, circumstances, etc., but med schools know the score and probably anything much less than a 4.0 and a strong MCAT is going to be a problem.Elijah05 said: ↑probably 95% of people who want to be pre meds end up at a UC somewhere.Not true, many go to private schools or go out of state. Funding and diversity problems at many UC campuses make them a less attractive choice to many.ILikeDrugs Status:Pre-Health (Field Undecided) I graduated from a CSU with a bachelors in psychology. If my applications weren't free I wouldn't even bother applying, but since it will be free I will apply just for the hell of it, even though I know I won't be going to school here in CA. I could probably also put down that I am a mex-american urm without lying since my family came from mexico and I am a first generation US born, but I don't consider myself an urm because I don't consider myself mex-american, nor do I look it, act it, or feel like it. I will check off "other" and put down "human".So why bother applying? Out of spite and to waste their time, of course.Sometimes this process/field/people in this field make me feel like I'm on Gossip Girl. I think someone on here actually said that being in med school is kind of like going back to high school in a Gossip Girl like setting.missbones Status:Pre-Medical I get the feeling. My high school record gave me the capability to attend any school in California I wanted, including Berkeley, UCs etc. I chose community college in the local area to figure out wtf I wanted to do before spending thousands of dollars. Plus my parents wouldn't drop a dime, but their income made it impossible for me to obtain financial aid. Basically Wah wah wah.I'm wondering if I can even get into a reputable post bacc like scripps or mills or usc tho... still being a csu student and all