Hey, everyone!
I’m a pre-med hopeful looking into where I should do undergraduate studies/research and I’m really having a hard time choosing between Berkeley, UCLA, Davidson, and Vanderbilt. I did get waitlisted at Vanderbilt, but I’m hoping/trying to get off of it at the moment.
I’m curious about what current students and parents of current students think about each of the schools for a pre-med track (and which you all would recommend attending) first amongst Berkeley, UCLA, and Davidson, and then thinking about how that school’s program would compare to Vandy’s pre-med program/opportunities.
Any thoughts? Thank you so much!
Any can get you to med school, as long as you earn teh GPA + MCAT scores. The privates have more opportunities for EC’s.
are you instate for UC?
Did you earn any scholarships at Davidson?
Medical school is very expensive, so consider cost of undergraduate in terms of whether lower cost undergraduate can result in lower debt at the end of medical school.
Congrats!! All great schools – very different from each other.
Other than being pre-med, what factors are important to you? Can you attend all debt-free? Size, campus culture, location? What are you looking for?
Obviously these are all warm weather locales. I can mainly speak to Davidson. It is tiny compared to the UCs and every class will be small. Davidson has a lot of pre-med students for its size, but a collaborative environment. Strong sense of community among the students and amazing resources on campus, including a new science building. Town is very old and cute – area around it is suburban.
I don’t have much direct knowledge about the Vandy or the UCs. I’ve heard here on CC that Berkely is competitive but that may be isolated to the engineering /CS majors – not sure. Greek life is very big at Vandy which you may want or not want.
Have you visited all of them?
Congrats again!
Pre-med at the UCs is a bloodbath due to how many talented California students attend and how few med school places there are.
So, if Davidson is affordable, that’s what I’d pick: you’d have rigorous classes and it wouldn’t be easy, but you’d have a personal relationship with professors and lower odds of weedout.
I would take UCLA and Berkeley out of the equation. Davidson is solid but Vanderbilt has a well regarded medical school and more research opportunities. Since you don’t actually have an offer from Vanderbilt, Davidson is your best bet IMO.
You need to visit all three options as Davidson College offers a very different environment & campus culture than those found at Berkeley & UCLA.
UCB engineering is highly competitive for frosh admission, but admission is direct to major, so there is no secondary admission to compete for once enrolled as an engineering major, unlike at some other flagship universities. UCB CS is either direct admit in the engineering division, or through earning a 3.3 GPA in the first three CS courses for students in the L&S division (the first two CS courses have grading scales not on a curve, presumably to discourage competitive behavior).
For competitive behavior in college, you can probably find it in pre-med courses and majors with many pre-meds (at most colleges), or where there is a competitive secondary admission process to get into a major (e.g. UCB business).
@bluebayou I am in state for UC and did not get scholarships but got generous FA from Davidson
@AlmostThere2018 Thank you!
I am able to attend all three campuses debt-free.
In college, I hope to be able to develop close relationships with my peers and professors, as well as get acquainted with working at/in a hospital and conduct research. I’m looking for a campus that will give me a rigorous academic course load, allow me to meet a variety of people with various passions (which I think would make for lively discussions!) but also make it easy (relatively, of course) to find clinical volunteering opportunities.
I’m going to visit all three campuses, and I hope to talk to students about their experiences on campus.
Thank you so much!
@Publisher Thank you!
Yes, I hope to visit all these campuses and talk to students about their experiences to really get a feel for each campus.
@panda616 : if you want close relationships with professors, then UCs won’t be the right choice. When you visit, as yo attend first year classes, you’ll notice the difference immediately.
All three universities will provide you with clinical volunteering opportunities.