<p>UCI has really put a serious amount of energy into their bio programme the past 10 years. They are working every year to attract top people and enhance their reputation. I have a DD who double majored at UCI, one of them being bio, and a bio major at Cal. The UCI requirements were actually a bit more restrictive than the UCB ones.</p>
<p>As I am sure you have heard, UCI sciences have a good many Asian students. When my DD graduated, of more than 500 names in the program less than 30 names were not Asian. Since many of these kids seemed to be ESL it was not as easy to make friends with other Bio majors; so if that is not your peer group, you would want to go Greek or join campus clubs or something to give you a peer group and allow you to have some fun and friends.</p>
<p>At any school you will need to take a year of math (could be calc & stats) Bio at UCI will require 1 full year of calc, one year of calc based physics, and 2 years of chem including Ochem.</p>
<p>At UCI bio you must get at least a C in a class to move on to the next in the series. With an A, B, C series for Ochem & physics, DD saw way too many people retaking classes in the ochem series or just changing their major. If you know that math & chem are a weakness I would suggest tutoring all the way to learn the right ways to study for those classes.</p>
<p>As to a double major, if my UCI DD had been pre-med it would have been bad for her as she took 16-18 units and did summer school to finish a double major in 4 years. Her AP units could not be used for any class required for the major- bio/chem/calc/phys/etc. If you stay pre-med you might not want to pursue the double major or else plan for extra time to do it. Do not overload your units and kill your GPA (and remember the very respectable 3.5 GPA is barely okay for med school!)</p>
<p>I went through my class roster and we have 70% coming from Top 20-25 colleges or top 5 LAC’s (the worst colleges I counted were Berkeley/Georgetown). </p>
<p>So, (hypothetically), let’s say you have a 3% chance of getting into Harvard Med if you went to a state school and 10% chance if you went to a top college (assuming you have the same resume in both situations).</p>
<p>There’s two ways to look at this: on one hand, you can say that both 3% and 10% are such low percentages and that you have such low chances of getting into a top med school that it’s not worth it to go to a top college. On the other hand, you can say that you’ve just improved your chances 3x by attending a top college. So, it’s all a matter of perspective. Most students, even most students at top colleges, will not sniff Harvard Med. And I think school name is most important for getting into top med schools and much less important for state med schools and lower tier med schools.</p>
<p>norcalguy,
What is a chance that the same caliber student would have the same resume graduating from elite school vs state school? Is not it a valid assumtion that elite UG will produce lower GPA?</p>
<p>Applicant A: Lower GPA, top college
Applicant B: Higher GPA, state school</p>
<p>Which one gets into a top med school?</p>
<p>Neither.</p>
<p>As I said above, top med schools are filled with Applicant C: high GPA AND top college. The average GPA for my graduating class is 3.8 so my med school certainly didn’t skimp on the GPA just because they chose to enroll students from top colleges. Where you get a break is in your EC’s, not in your GPA. If you go to a state school, you’ll need high stats AND spectacular EC’s. If you go to a top college, you’ll need high stats AND good EC’s. Don’t underestimate this advantage, however. It’s not like we can just get out of bed and write a book or become a black belt or win the Rhodes Scholarship so it’s nice to not have to be a superstar EC-wise.</p>
<p>In other words, if you have to worry about your GPA, you are probably not top med school material in the first place. The students at top med schools can get a high GPA, regardless of the level of academic competition. They are the creme of the crop.</p>
<p>This has been extremely helpful, thank you!</p>
<p>I am currently a freshman at Cornell. I’ve been trying to get started on some activities, but it’s been very difficult! One of the big things I’ve been trying to do is volunteering at the local hospital, but the volunteer coordinator does not return my emails or my calls, and I have pretty much wasted the entire semester just trying to get in contact with this lady. Hopefully I’ll be able to get started next year, but what do I do if this doesn’t work out? I’ve already gone through my freshman year without any activities…
I’ve also tried to get into research, but since Cornell is a big university with grad students, it’s pretty hard to get in contact with professors as a little dummy freshman. Again, my emails are ignored, and I’m not sure how to proceed.
What do I do if I can’t get any leadership positions or anything?</p>
As to question A), I do. My D is a Bio and Chem double major with a Religious Studies minor.</p>
<p>As to B) She manages to do it. Sorority officer, intramural championships, ODK VP, a great deal of cell cycle research with presentations and posters at conferences and meetings, two intercollegiate club Ultimate teams, shadowing, volunteering both medical and otherwise, and …unfortunately a whole list more. But I don’t think she sleeps every day. I don’t recommend her schedule to anyone. Even her. She does it because she wants to. She was the same way in high school. She’ll be the same way in med school. </p>
<p>As to C) I don’t think a double major will mean squat to med school admissions committees. Neither does she , she just wanted to do it. Those are the courses she loves.</p>
<p>^ Curmudgeon is right - med schools won’t really care that you have a double major. But it is possible to do if you really felt strongly about it. If you really enjoy another subject, you could just major in that subject and take the prereqs on the side (if a bio degree isn’t all that important to you). This is what I did - got a degree in philosophy and took the science courses as extra classes.</p>
<p>First of all, thank you for your response in my topic. A question I had is can a low GPA be justified due to the subject of the undergraduate program (engineering vs humanities)?</p>
<p>I’m an international student planning to do medicine and the medical school system in the US appeals to me. But my question is: How difficult is it to enter a US med school? I’ve heard many stories of how its almost impossible, with the competition and fees. I hope to find out more before I begin my studies in August. I want to know also because I’m interested to find out the chances of entering a medical program in another country after my liberal arts studies.</p>
<p>gummy, come on, read like the first 2 pages :P</p>
<p>on a different note… :P</p>
<p>hey princessND, i havent read through all of these pages, just the first few, and i would just like to say THANK YOU! you are so amazing! you know SO much that its ridiculous and all the awesome website you dish out really help!
im an international student current in college in the us, and hoping to get into med.school all of the advice youre giving is excellent! thank you and good luck with your ongoing studies :)</p>
<p>curmudgeon, is you D able to maintain high GPA? My D is busy, but less than yours. She has major and 2 minors. Minors do not take much time, but she spends tons of time on her Zoology major to maintain high GPA.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP. Yes. So far, so good. She has had to learn the art of triage- a previously unknown concept- as her school is not generous with A’s. Her experience in high school as 4 year varsity athlete who also played at a high level in the marching and concert bands was a good primer . (Almost impossible at her high school, but she and her best friend pulled it off. But they were the only two who did.) </p>
<p>She is not a “genius” , as I interpret that word. But she is very, very bright. She has had to learn to study smarter as- unlike high school , the volume of material and intensity of material makes it unlikely that she could just over-power it with hours upon hours of studying alone. She makes use of every modality available to her (stays current or slightly ahead, goes to class, takes copious notes, asks many questions in class and in office hours, re-types her notes while they are fresh, makes out-lines and flashcards, creates pneumonics (sp?), is blessed with a very good memory, and is a gifted math student). I’m sure med school will require all these skills/techniques and more as the pace and intensity gets ramped up again.</p>
<p>Maybe I left the wrong impression. Mine puts in many, many hours. It’s just that hours alone won’t cut it in her programs at her school. At least not for her to get the GPA she feels she needs to off-set her “slightly lower than expected sophomore MCAT that was still too high to risk a re-take”. I’m not familiar enough with your D’s school to comment, but I can’t believe it is that much different. At D’s school across all disciplines, there are @ 1.5% of the graduating class getting highest honors at graduation (3.95), another @ 2% getting the next level down (3.85). The bar is set very high indeed.</p>
<p>Hey Camphall,
I see you’ve gotten many responses already, but here’s my 2 cents:
1.
It is unclear how well high school grades/SAT scores correlate with college success. It probably really depends on the high school and the quality of your high school classes. If you struggled with a college-level curriculum in high school, that means you will be seeing a lot of the material for a second/third time in college and will likely do better. If your high school wasn’t as rigorous and you still struggled, you may need to really seek out resources to learn the material once in college. If your situation is the latter, my best advice would be to choose a college that has a lot of academic support for students, especially first year students. I know my college had a whole department devoted to helping freshmen adjust academically and they had free tutors, writing guidance, study groups set up, etc. You should also attend office hours and review sessions in college to make sure you’re getting as much extra help as possible. It may also be required that you change how you study.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>
NO, DO NOT GIVE UP YOUR UC SPOT FOR CC. In my opinion, this would be a big mistake. Probably the real difference between UCI and UCLA is that the faculty at LA are much more distinguished and accomplished; my conjecture would be that the undergraduate science education would be quite similar. Also, the average UCLA student did better in high school than the average UCI student, so it’s probably more difficult to do well at LA. But in terms of what you’re learning as an undergraduate, it’s probably not that different. So go to Irvine. I answered a question very similar to this before…so check out my advice to that student too. </p></li>
<li><p>
It doesn’t necessarily help your application to double, but if you like another discipline, go for it. I actually had 3 majors and minor because I just loved everything in college. If you go on to med school, this may be your last chance to really explore your academic interests. So go ahead and take that class on Snoop Dogg if you want to (a friend from Cal told me they have classes on rappers there). IF you are choosing things that you enjoy, you will put in the effort required to make it work.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In my class 80%+ of students went to USNWR top 20 research institutions and top 5 LAC. Honestly, once in medical school, you kind of hang up your undergrad laurels and everybody is on the same playing field, so I’ve never discussed that with my classmates…</p>
<p>So for the most part, med schools give you a summer off between your first and second year. I was wondering what are some the typical (and maybe not so typical) things that medical students do during that summer? I’m heavily into research, but I think it might be nice to do something besides working in the lab after my first year. I’m also interested in business and law, so I was thinking about maybe getting involved in some sort of policy internship in DC related to medicine. This is eons away for me, but I wanted to know how long the break is, what are some interesting things people do with it, etc. </p>
<p>This is where the art of stalking (please nobody take that too literally) can really get you going. That poor volunteer lady at the hospital is probably swamped with college students who want to volunteer, so cut her some slack. I would recommend going through the hospital’s provider catalog (which should be available online) and finding a physician who you can shadow. Send them an email and if they don’t get back to you in a few days, call their office and leave messages. During your shadowing opportunity, tell them how much you love their specialty and ask if you can set up more regular shadowing visits. Make your face known around the hospital and you will be able to find other ways to volunteer. Your new physician friend may even help you work around the bureaucracy or provide other ways for you to get involved. People from the community also provide tremendous letters of recommendation because they usually don’t have 500 students to write them for at the same time. </p>
<p>Your persistence will also pay off with regard to research. Find a project you’re interested in and stop by the lab and introduce yourself to the graduate students and staff currently working there. Ask them how you can become involved. </p>
<p>You must get used to being persistent (but not annoying) and make things happen for yourself. It is very easy to sit at a computer and write an email but you probably won’t have the same results as you will with face-to-face encounters. When I was an undergrad, I was ridiculously persistent, but I was able to score some great opportunities that even upperclassmen couldn’t believe I snagged. Also, while I do recommend shadowing, remember that you can get involved in non-health related community service as well. Tutor little kids in the community, try Habitat for Humanity, do a summer service project, etc. Anything you do to better the world you live in, medical schools will appreciate.</p>
My D is a Bio and Chem double major with a Religious Studies minor.</p>
I don’t recommend her schedule to anyone. Even her. She does it because she wants to. She was the same way in high school. She’ll be the same way in med school. </p>
you know SO much that its ridiculous 
and all the awesome website you dish out really help!