Hi everyone!
I’ve been following so many of the threads, but I’ve never posted before. I didn’t have an account. I like and trust the community, so I’m coming to you guys for help.
I am a pre-med psychology major. I have been accepted to UCSB, UCI, UCD, and UCSD. I am waitlisted at UCB and UCLA.
My number one is UCLA— if I get off the waitlist, that’s where I’m headed. However, I can’t decide which four of the schools to SIR too.
Can you guys give me your thoughts as far as academics go for what I’m trying to do (neurologist)? And how life is at the campuses, especially if you’re already attending one?
Thank you in advance!
P.S. If you’re in the same major as me or pre-med, please let me know what school you chose and why!
This is a very broad question to be asking 5 days before you need to SIR. Have you visited any of the schools? If you have read the other threads, can you narrow it down to two schools?
My only suggestion is that, if you are interested in neurology, you might look at Cognitive Science with a neuro emphasis. All of the schools offer cog sci except for UCSB but they recently changed their psych degree to be similar. Also, when we were looking at UCI, they made it very clear that psych and cog sci majors (in social sciences) could not be used as pre-med degrees. You might check to see if that has changed.
UCSD: http://www.cogsci.ucsd.edu/undergraduates/major/neuroscience.html
UCD: https://cogsci.ucdavis.edu/
UCI: https://www.cogsci.uci.edu/undergraduate/bscogsci.php
UCSB (Recently changed their department from Psychology to Psychological and Brain Sciences. They eliminate the BA degree and now only offer BS) https://www.psych.ucsb.edu/undergrad/majors-offered-dept-psychological-brain-sciences
Five days? The deadline isn’t until June 1st.
Interesting. I was told you could get into medical school with a degree in anything. I don’t think I’ll be changing my major— as I really do enjoy psychology and I don’t see a reason to change it.
Furthermore, I will be visiting each school in the upcoming weeks. Thank you for your help! 
Edit: You’ve got the cognitive sciences in my mind now. I clicked on the links, but I don’t know if I should change it. I was hoping to study something I really enjoy before delving into all those classes. I’ll talk to the admissions office at the each campus when I visit and figure something out. Thanks again!
@NeuroNeg You should major in what you’re interested in because if you like material you’re more likely to do well GPA wise which is something med schools care, in part, a great deal about. Med schools do not care what you major in as long as you complete a med school’s premed reqs. If anything, as most premeds change their minds, consider what you plan (aka Plan B.) to do with your major should you change your career goals.
Not sure what @ lkg4answers is referring to at UCI with premeds can’t being psych and cognitive science majors.
Okay, perfect. Thank you! Sigh of relief.
I assumed you were a freshman. If so, you need to SIR by May 1. Are you a transfer?
We were looking at CHP at UCI and at the CHP open house, they said that in order to get the classes you want for pre-med, you should be in Biological Sciences and not Social Sciences. Yes, I know you can apply to med school with any major as long as you take the pre-req classes. At UCI, they said that it was difficult to enroll in pre-med required courses if your major is in the social sciences. They repeated it over and over and over again. Maybe someone who goes to UCI and has tried to register for classes outside of their department can speak to this. For us it was enough of a reason to take UCI out of consideration.
As far as cog sci vs psych, they are often in the same department so likely an easy switch if you are interested. Definitely major in what interests you . If you were interested in being a pediatrician it wouldn’t matter but you mentioned neurology so I wanted to point out a neuro based major that you might not be aware of.
Yes, I am a transfer. I should have mentioned that— sorry! Ah, okay. That makes sense. That would definitely take UCI out for me as well.
UCSD makes it super easy to change to cognitive with a neuroscience emphasis. If it’s anything like UCI, I might do that. Thank you for the great tips!
By the way, what school did you choose? Sounds like you’re a pre-med in the social sciences too, right?