<p>Hi, i got into the major "biochem and molecular bio" at berkeley and "biological sciences" at Cornell. I visited both campuses and i loved them both! I'm still deciding where to go, and the remaining factor that can change my direction is their biological science reputation. Please help and thanks!</p>
<p>Are you premed?</p>
<p>Yep, i'm planning to pursue pre-med</p>
<p>For premed, Cornell's acceptance rates are noticeably better than UC Berkeley's. I'm not sure why Cal's rates are so low. A couple of years ago they were actually below the national average.</p>
<p>Hmm...yea i noticed that, are there rankings for undergraduate bio programs?</p>
<p>bump i also wanna know about rankings for cornell's undergrad biology</p>
<p>Isn't the national average in the 40's? That's pretty bad for Berkeley. Wow.</p>
<p>CORNELL... berkeley is very big and impersonal</p>
<p>Cornell. Although Berkeley may be in a bigger city/warmer weather, Cornell's focus is on undergraduates. I think they are just overall better than Berkeley for your first four years. After that, I would love nothing more than to go to Berekely!</p>
<p>I'd say it will depend on what you prefer in a school. Both offer great programs, and both have top-notch bio programs. </p>
<p>However, Cornell probably does have the smaller classes.</p>
<p>Then again, Berkeley is of course cheaper (if you are a California resident) and the intellectual atmosphere can't be beat. And I liked Berkeley (the town) more than Ithaca, but that's personal preference and rather tangential.</p>
<p>you know...it was at cornell that FIRST integrated zoology AND plants/ecology into INTRO TO BIOLOGY...a class we ALL take for granted now worldwide to have both animals and plant study (well, according to my bio professor anyway who gave out some award the other day).</p>
<p>biology major is a very hardcore, competitive major. Suffice it to say, it has probably one of the hardest graduation requirements (up to 60+ credits to fulfill in your major alone, so if you are in CAS...your electives better fulfill some distribution requirements!) but you will graduate feeling very good. Everyone who I have talked to who have gone on to medical school not only say that the science courses at cornell prepared them well, but that medical school is now LESS stressful because they had to work so hard at cornell. Even if they go Cornell Medical and Harvard Medical to NYMC.</p>
<p>being a bio major also has the constant fear of having a lower gpa (similar to engineering) than a humanities/social science major. At berkeley, I don't know if that would be okay (considering some are saying that the acceptance to med school is sometimes below national avg) but at cornell, even a 3.4 gives you a pretty darn good chance of getting into an ALLOPATHIC medical school. </p>
<p>My friend is studying neurobio (in CAS to boot) and she has maintained such a high gpa, that all she really needs that is weak in her application would be faculty recommendation (which is probably a weak point at berkeley too) but that is due to being lazy and not getting to know her professors. It is VERY easy to get to know professors, and the early you get to know them, the more opportunities they will give you. They will start recommending you to other professors, if you have a research interest/thesis interest, they will guide you to the appropriate faculty member who is also interested in that same area, and from there, you can really do great and wonderful things.</p>
<p>anyways, I don't think you can go wrong going to either, and I wish you the best of luck in your studies, wherever they may be.</p>
<p>Wow thanks, everybody! That really helped!</p>
<p>darn a few more days till i have to make a decision...</p>
<p>Try flipping a coin or maybe rolling dice and assigning values.</p>
<p>Arbitrary, and fun!</p>
<p>Hrm, I would vote Cornell. I mean, UCB's acceptance rate to med schools scare me. That would convince me enough to go to Cornell. But then again, it's a personal matter. I'm sure it's not impossible to go to Berkeley and a great med school. I agree with UCLAri-- look at other personal factors.</p>
<p>Have any of you seen, on paper, Berkeley's med school yield? I mean, are you going by hearsay or not dissecting the stats?</p>
<p>Don't trust stats. Look at the sources and what they actually measure. Cornell boasts an 80 something percente med admission rate if you have a 3.4+. Is Berkeley's number based on the same criteria?</p>
<p>That's the problem. I'm sure the stats are including the 2.9s who are just hoping for "the best."</p>
<p>Remember everyone, there are three types of lies in this world: lies, damned lies, and statistics.</p>
<p>Cornell's stats:
<a href="http://www.career.cornell.edu/HealthCareers/acceptedApplied.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.career.cornell.edu/HealthCareers/acceptedApplied.html</a>
They note that Cornell does not prevent anyone from applying and the charts do not include URMs.</p>
<p>Berkeley's stats:
<a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/MedStats/national.stm%5B/url%5D">http://career.berkeley.edu/MedStats/national.stm</a>
Includes all applicants, regardless of ethnicity.</p>
<p>Stats from both schools only include the applicants who decided to release their AMCAS info. What's interesting is that, despite the fact that Berkeley is much much bigger than Cornell, it only has 1/2 the number of med school applicants reporting.</p>
<p>This either means:
1) For some reason, Berkeley applicants are more private than Cornell applicants and most did not choose to release their info.</p>
<p>2) The weeding out process is much more agressive at Cal than Cornell.</p>
<p>I would tend to believe #2 would be true but if that's the case, why is Cal's acceptance rate so low?</p>
<p>I submitted my SIR for Cornell already, but i just saw yesterday that Berkeley's graduate programs in the sciences, such as biological sciences and chemistry are all very high, higher than rank 5 or so. Are the rankings the same for undergraduate? I hope i didn't make the wrong decision :(. Ahh this is so stressful..</p>
<p>There is no such thing as undergraduate program ranking. Feel good, Cornell is a great school!</p>