<p>ESPM C12 (3)
Slavic R5B (4)
UGBA 10 (3)
Math 16A (3) At Berkeley City College
Frosh Sem (2)</p>
<p>16 units total.</p>
<p>Will all the papers in Slav R5B be overwhelming with the curve of UGBA 10? I can drop the freshman seminar if I take 16A at Cal, should I do that? I got in the BCC course in hopes of avoiding the dreaded Cal math classes.</p>
<p>Math16 at Cal isn't that bad, from what I hear. Math is a lot more brutal at the 1A/1B level because that's what all the premeds take.</p>
<p>And which freshman seminar is it? If it's not too big a time commitment, don't worry about dropping it. 16 units isn't that bad; in my opinion, you're fine. Except change Math16 to take it at Cal.</p>
<p>That's fifteen units. The only classes that I've heard are quite difficult at Cal is 1A and 1B as well because all the engineers and pre-meds have to take it; it's a weeder class. 16A and the like are what a lot of the business majors take, if I recall correctly.</p>
<p>16 units was fine for my first semester... with 15 units you should have a reasonable courseload. The 13 units counselors recommend only hurts most people since they fall behind. It's always easier to drop than enroll anyways...</p>
<p>^^premeds don't actually have to take 1a/1b... they're mainly taking it since the MCB major requires 1a/1b (or 53/54). Med schools do take 16a/b so some students use a 5 on BC calc to fulfill MCB requirements and use 16 for med school gpa boosts.</p>
<p>^ make sure you are only MCB is you love it. MCB is the hardest bio major minus chem bio. There is no best premed major and if one existed there would be no reason for it to be MCB of all things</p>
<p>^yea people are still surprised when I say you can graduate w/ an English major and still go to med school</p>
<p>what do you think about cog sci major for a premed?...it fits the type of doc i want to be when i graduate and i still plan on taking all the required scie classes, etc...or would this major be construed as "fluffy"??</p>
<p>^^cogsci isn't fluffy at all, especially if you have a neuroscience focus, then it would actually be pretty hardcore</p>
<p>thanks kenf1234! yeah i really actually wanted neurosci but obviously cal doesn't offer it specifically...</p>
<p>But you do realize that the cogsci major with the neuro emphasis PLUS all the premed courses is a LOT to handle, right?</p>
<p>It's really good that you're interested in cogsci - but take a look at MCB's Neuro emphasis first. The depth of education is really good. So Cal pretty much does offer it specifically, even though it's billed as under MCB (in my opinion, it shouldn't be under MCB at all; I think they just did it because all the lower divs are the same)</p>
<p>tastyb33f: i know...but i'm kind of hoping to stand out from the other 1000 mcb premeds..why kill myself when i dont have to, right? PLUS some of the cogsci courses genuinely seem more interesting to me...thx for being the only reply to my schedule thread btw...lol</p>
<p>I don't want to dissuade you from pursuing what you enjoy, because people like you are in the minority (meaning premeds who are in MCB just because they feel like they have to as opposed to really enjoying MCB).</p>
<p>Go to Cognitive</a> Science at UC Berkeley: Welcome and take a look at the upper div cogsci-neuro courses - they're virtually identical to the upper div requirements for MCB-neuro. The lower divs, then, are what set these two majors apart, for your case. True, there really aren't that many lower divs for the major, but keep in mind that cogsci isn't really even a department and there's really no such thing as a "cogsci" class - cogsci is a truly interdisciplinary field. The lower divs are classes like CS, Math, etc - the courses that are actually labeled "Cognitive Science" are just kinda rudimentary ways of thinking about the field of cogsci; they're all broad sweeping courses that teach you more HOW to think than straight material. So when you say "some of the cogsci courses genuinely interest" you, do you mean the CS and math stuff? Because those are the bulk of the major.</p>
<p>"So when you say "some of the cogsci courses genuinely interest" you, do you mean the CS and math stuff?" (sorry i still dont know how to quote in reply)</p>
<p>yes i do ( and im hoping the whole interdisciplinary thing will keep things vareid)...also i am not if this is correct or not but i have also heard of cal implementing some sort of quota on how many premeds are allowed to actually apply to med school from each major out of a desire to keep med school acceptance rates decent or something of the sort...so essentially that it weeds by grading on that notorious curve to discourage those with lower gpa's (<3.6 im guessing) from bothering to apply...so instead i figure that while the upper divs ARE virtually identical, i will try to salvage my GPA with the help of the cog sci lower divs</p>
<p>Cal absolutely does NOT implement a quota on how many premeds apply to med school. How on earth would they possibly regulate something like that? Hell, the MCB major isn't even capped. Med school acceptance rates aren't required to be "decent" - they can go as low as they want because, unlike undergraduate at public schools or whatever, the mission is no longer to serve the general population; the mission is to train the best doctors possible, so they would rather have extremely low acceptance rates than let in a student who doesn't deserve to be there.</p>
<p>Instead, what Cal does to discourage people from declaring the MCB major is by making the lower divs really hard weeder courses. And 3.6 is definitely competitive for med school - sure, maybe not the top 5 med schools, but for med school in the United States, know that getting into any med school PERIOD is good enough. There is no such thing as a "bad" med school in the US (some are worse, but all of them will teach you to be a good doctor) - it's all about how you do during med school, how you do on your boards, and what residency you end up in that more determines how your future goes. You really can't think of med school in the same paradigm as undergrad. But I agree with your plan to try and boost your GPA, and having the CS background to show for it is actually a plus.</p>
<p>I just want you to make sure you know what you're getting yourself into. This isn't high school anymore - Berkeley's a whole 'nother echelon.</p>
<p>ah well thats good to know then about the med school..thx...just out of curiosity are you mcb, tasteb33f?</p>
<p>Yes, MCB-Immuno.</p>