<p>I've been accepted UC Berkeley and although it seems like an amazing school to attend I'm a little concerned about doing premed there. I've read in many places that Berkeley is a GPA killer (which is really important for med school admission). Also, with that many kids are premed research/clinical opportunities hard to come by? I know Berkeley has a stellar reputation but I'm just curious about how it is for students on a premed track</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Search the Berkeley forum. </p>
<p>I looked through it and it seemed like a majority of people believe it’s terrible to do premed at Berkeley. But I was wondering if any current/former premed Berkeley students think this is true as well</p>
<p>Are you instate? If not, well…</p>
<p>The truth is that Cal and UCLA have a lot of premed gunners. And yes, it can be hard to get that top GPA. The UCs are known for lousy premed advising, they have a low acceptance rate for med schools (cuz too many applicants), and they don’t do Committee Letters. Some think it’s harder to get LORs because profs don’t know their students, but I don’t know how true that is.</p>
<p>Where else have you been accepted?</p>
<p>If you’re not instate for cal, what is your home state?</p>
<p>I’m basically deciding between Cal and Emory University. I’d be OOS at Cal because I’m from Texas</p>
<p>Oh then, forget Cal. What benefit could it possibly give you? Are your parents happily paying for wherever you go? What kind of aid did Cal give?</p>
<p>What about Texas schools? Dont you realize that if you do well at a Texas school you’re practically a shoo-in for a Texas med school???</p>
<p>My financial situation makes the difference minimal. So if Emory and Berkeley were to cost me the same amount of money, would Emory’s premed be that superior to Berkeley’s? Or would they be similar in terms of grades, research opportunities, and other premed essentials?</p>
<p>I think emory/s would be better. And be sure to apply to every TX med school when the time comes.</p>
<p>m2c is right on the money. I’d take Emory as well. However, Cal also has many students got in Med schools. My Friend’s S went there and now he is in Case for med.</p>
<p>bernie12 has actually compared the rigor of final exams of various science courses at various schools, including Emory and Berkeley, and discussed some of the comparisons in various posts in this thread:</p>
<p><a href=“Schools that are considered to be on Ivy League level for undergrad? - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1619090-schools-that-are-considered-to-be-on-ivy-league-level-for-undergrad-p1.html</a></p>
<p>But if you are a Texas resident, why not just go to a lower cost Texas public undergraduate school and save your money for medical school?</p>
<p>How is Emory better than Berkeley for premed? For what its worth, there are way, way more Berkeley grads at Harvard, Yale, JHU, UCLA, UC San Francisco, USC, WashU, Duke, Brown, UPenn and Columbia med schools than there are Emory grads. There’s a thread about best premed schools on this message board. Emory doesn’t come close to Berkeley in terms of representation at top med schools in America. </p>
<p>But is that just because Berkeley has more kids? (25,000vs7000</p>
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<p>I would bet, “YES!!!”.</p>
<p>and the the Emory kids not only have their own med school, but their home states’ med school admissions aren’t crazy like Calif’s. Calif premeds have to cast a really wide net.</p>
<p>That said, it’s crazy to compare when the undergrad sizes are sooooo different. and I would guess that Cal has a higher % of premeds as well…so Cal may have more than 4 times as many premeds as Emory does.</p>
<p>The question is does going into an undergrad program with so many kids make it harder to get the things you need for premed? Like good letters of recommendation and solid research opportunities?</p>
<p>Cal premeds count more than Emory premeds for sure. But I seriously doubt it if the ratio of Berkeley grads competing with Emory grads at Harvard, JHU or Yale med schools would be that big, 4:1.
Anyways, my point was, if you’ll do well at Berkeley, which many do, btw (contrary to what’s being spread here on CC), you’ll be able to compete with the best students from the Ivies, Stanford and such schools at the very top med schools in the nation, something that is lacking in Emory’s end. </p>
<p>RML were/are you a premed student at Berkeley?</p>
<p>Bump</p>
<p>Whether or not more Cal premeds go to HYS SOMs really doesn’t matter. The fact remains that there are tooooooooo many premeds at Cal and that makes things so difficult that why borrow trouble?</p>
<p>Emory grads probably are more likely going to Vandy, JHU, G’town, Emory, WashU, or the many other excellent SOMs in the region. </p>
<p>Unlike Calif students who must either choose from a Calif SOM or going MANY states away, the Emory grad will find plenty of SOMs with the bottom right quarter of the country.</p>
<p>It’s true Berkeley has way more premed grads applying to med school. But I also think that these premeds don’t singularly apply to the same med schools. Certain Berkeley premeds apply to top med schools, perhaps the ones with the highest GPAs, and some premeds apply to less prestigious schools, and the other UC med schools. The point is, if you’ll do well at Berkeley premed, which many Berkeley premed students do, you’ll get noticed by the top med schools (Harvard, Yale, Stanford, UCSF, UCLA, JHU and such). These are med schools that rarely accept premed grads from Emory. </p>
<p><<<
, you’ll get noticed by the top med schools (Harvard, Yale, Stanford, UCSF, UCLA, JHU and such). These are med schools that rarely accept premed grads from Emory
<<<</p>
<p>Oh good heavens…that is just fluff. Top med schools don’t care whether a student went to Cal or Emory. The schools would be viewed as equal. You need to have a chat with LizzyM. If HYS SOMs are accepting few Emory med students it’s because few are applying…it’s not because they are deemed less-worthy. </p>
<p>There is no way that if two applicants (one from Cal and one from Emory) with the same stats, etc, applied to HYS SOMs, that the Cal applicants would get some kind of nudge. No way.</p>
<p>You can’t compare west coast with east coast like that. The entire west coast has too few private MD SOMs…just USC, Stanford, and Loma Linda. And there are too many premeds in Calif…they all have to cast a nationwide net. Emory grads really do not have to do that with so many SOMs within the SE quadrant of the country.</p>