<p>i was wondering if there is a program for pre-med students to apply in their junior year? such as how there is a haas program for business majors, is there another type for pre-med students? sorry if this question is stupid</p>
<p>No, there is not a major for professional school preparation - neither medical school or law school has a specific undergrad degree that is expected or even preferred. One can take pretty much any major they want as an undergrad, then apply to Law or Med school, because there is no linkage. It is not like general grad schools, where someone pursuing a masters in astrophysics would generally have accomplished a bachelors in that subject or a closely related one. </p>
<p>Medical schools have a set of pre-requisite classes they expect for applicants to complete before they start medical school - the lists are very similar across all the different med schools but not absolutely identical. A year of physics with lab. A year of general chemistry with lab. A year of organic chemistry plus lab. A year of biology plus lab. etc.</p>
<p>Any student at Cal who is intending to apply to med school can take the courses that correspond to those requirements, whether they are part of a major the student is pursuing or not. </p>
<p>The other dimension of interest to a potential med student is the availability of support services, such as counseling, to help premeds figure out the best way to study for the MCAT tests, help them find volunteer activities, prepare recommendation letters, provide information on career alternatives and the differences between the medical schools, guide them in preparing the med school applications, and so forth. It is in this area that Cal is not particularly good - there is no support system like this. Yes, there are some DeCal classes and premeds can organize in clubs to help each other, and there is some rudimentary information and advice on the career center website, but most of that handholding is missing here.</p>
<p>The courses themselves are excellent - reports back from Cal students who went on to med school show that those who entered med school tend to perform quite well compared to their general peers, having a better understanding of those core subjects that the average peer. They also tend to score better on the MCAT that other applicants at a similar GPA from a different university.</p>
<p>The downside to the courses is that Cal works hard to protect against grade inflation, thus actively curving and tuning those classes to keep the grade distribution very bell shaped. If only 15-20% of the students in an ochem class are to be allowed to earn an A, but a very large percentage are potential med school candidates, then there are going to be a LOT of students in that class whose GPA is pushed downward. Med schools base their admissions in part on GPA and do not do much weighting to adjust for differences in the universities - thus a 4.0 from a CC will trump a 3.5 from Cal, all else being equal.</p>