<p>i know this is the 100th thread here, but I had specific questions. I know UC-B is probably a notch higher in prestige, but is the difference noticable when applying to med. school, or should one go to LA if one feels he may be more comfortable there? Or is LA better and vice versa?</p>
<p>I don't think the name factor is quite as important in this specific case, since both Cal and UCLA are world-renowned research institutions that produce many great students. The name factor would be huge in, say, Cal vs....I dunno, Long Beach State or something. Also, grad school admissions know about the difficulty of Cal, so it's okay if you have a slightly lower GPA at Cal. However, if you went to a CSU and didn't end up with a 3.9 or above, there are gonna be some questions raised.</p>
<p>You might be able to find some UCLA statistics. Cal has them on the internet. I would say that you should go to UCLA if you think you'd be happier there. If there is a discrepency, I doubt it's that large.</p>
<p>3.9 even at a CSU seems like a lot of work is needed..</p>
<p>how would you rate cal vs. la when it comes to 1. how easy it is to get grades 2. quality of profs. 3. wealth of ec's</p>
<ol>
<li> Both are about the same difficulty. Cal might be a bit harder.</li>
<li> Cal has a leg up</li>
<li> About the same</li>
</ol>
<p>
[quote]
Also, grad school admissions know about the difficulty of Cal, so it's okay if you have a slightly lower GPA at Cal.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Actually, Sakky has demonstrated more than once that it takes a HIGHER GPA at Cal to get into top med schools than the median.</p>
<p>Well, I've seen him do it for law, but not med.</p>
<p>I've seen Sakky posting it for med school as well.</p>
<p>I don't think you can say anything truly conclusive about what Sakky posted, even as a well-known anti-UCB poster on this site.</p>
<p>For one, I pointed out in my analysis for law stats that UCB'ers seem to do exactly as well as expected given their gpa's and overall academic index, at least in law school admissions. </p>
<p>Also after even further investigation, it turns out Berkeley has a pretty poor alumni network, at least through the career center website which gathers these statistics. Since there is huge self-selection in who responds to career center surveys, any statistical relationship derived from career center data is highly suspect. </p>
<p>I would expect UCB'ers to do about as well as UCLA students in general since they are about the same size and have similar quality student bodies. Both UCLA and UCB send about 15 students to Harvard Law a year for one, and I'd expect the same trends to be reflected in med school admissions.</p>
<p>For the questions listed:</p>
<p>1) I would suspect UCLA grading is easier from what I've heard and from taking Cal's classes which are pretty difficult, especially for really rigorous upper div MCB classes.</p>
<p>2) Cal has a significant leg up.</p>
<p>3) Not sure, Cal ec's do seem to eat up a lot of time though IMO.</p>
<p>For Law School, I have absolutely no idea how Cal students' GPA correlates with acceptance. But I DO KNOW that the law school admissions rate is close to 80% though.</p>
<p>For Medical School, the average GPA for admitted Berkeley students is something like this: 3.5 science GPA, 3.6 non-science GPA, 30-31 on MCATs. BUT keep in mind the one thing Sakky and others seem to neglect: We're a California public school and hence most of our students are california residents. When Cal students apply to med school, they apply to: UC Medical Schools (ridiculously comptetitive admissions) and private schools. When students of other public universities and private schools apply to med school, they apply to THE MEDICAL SCHOOLS OF THEIR HOME STATE (not even remotely as competitive as the UCs) and to private schools. Not many Berkeley (or UCLA) premeds apply to out-of-state public med schools (e.g. U of Kentucky Medical School) but the ones that do almost always get in somewhere.......despite the fact that they are applying out of state and thus are at a disadvantage. Many UC pre-meds neglect to apply to out-of-state state schools, despite the fact that most non-UC state med schools have average GPAs of 3.5 and MCATs of 29 (In other words, signifcantly lower than that of the UC medical schools). At least 2 other states have top-tier medical schools: Michigan and Virginia...and maybe even Texas....but they also have many ho-dunk state schools that pre-meds from those states can apply to. This is a luxury that UC pre-meds don't have, as the only state med schools in California are the UCs. </p>
<p>AND ON TOP OF THIS, Berkeley does not have a pre-med commitee like most other schools do, and thus Berkeley does not screen out applicants who probably won't get in like other schools do.</p>
<p>Considering Berkeley is in the top 3 in the country for the number of medical school applicants among its students, a medical school acceptance rate of around 70% is truly astonishing. </p>
<p>For Grad school, the Berkeley name and the letters of rec from Berkeley faculty go a long way...even with a somewhat low GPA, demonstrated aptitude in a certain field (through research, for example) WILL get you into a top graduate school.</p>
<p>Well, something many neglect is what is valued in different academic graduate programs. Not everything is about GPA, in some fields more than others.</p>
<p>CantSilence, I forget, how many law schools did you use in that analysis?</p>
<p>i was speaking for pre-med in specific. The way I figure it MCAT is up to me, not the school, so I don't my MCAT score woul be different if I went to La or B and ec's will be vast at either school so it comes down to gpa and prestige when comparing the two. So comparing those two, La or B?</p>
<p>in my humble opinion, i think you should go to the campus that you like better, regardless of academics.....because the education at UCLA and Berkeley is going to be pretty much the same, and i'm sure med school admissions people see it that way too.</p>
<p>I WANT to reach that conclusion but the fact that UCLA doesn't release any stats about pre-med it makes me uneasy.</p>
<p>Well, that's good, you're tryng to refrain judgement until you have evidence.</p>
<p>of course, but i dont think ucla has that data available so i'll have to go off what i know and what people tell me, the deadline is comming up!</p>
<p>Just go where you will be happier.</p>