<p>I hope to one day attend medical school. Which do you think would better prepare a pre-med student and would look more prestigious on med school applications?? I am not worried about the financial issues, simply about getting the best possible college experience and hopefully gaining acceptance into a good med school. Any input is greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Posted this previously, but you all have the same questions! Overall Berkeley will give you an amazing college experience - the city is fantastic, you can walk to literally hundreds of restaurants within minutes, and San Francisco is only 20 minutes away. Live in the units and you’ll immediately love Berkeley.</p>
<p>A lot of people complain about being premed at Berkeley, but there are also a lot of Berkeley grads who end up at great medical schools. I majored in the hardest biology major (MCB), ended up with a 3.8 GPA which was good enough to get me accepted to the PhD program at Harvard Medical School. </p>
<p>Going to Berkeley will mean that you have to work hard and take difficult classes like Organic Chemistry and Molecular Biology/Biochemistry. But if you like the subject, the classes are actually really interesting and well taught. And you learn SO MUCH with each class. And honestly, if you’re not smart enough to survive in these classes, are you really going to be happy in medical school?</p>
<p>So I guess it depends on who you are. Go to Berkeley if:
- If you are actually interested in science and you like biology
- You’re actually smart. Good GPA from good high school, good SAT scores, did well in advanced biology, etc</p>
<p>If you’re unsure about either of these, but you’re still 100% sure you want to be premed → go to Rice</p>
<p>^ I agree. If you’re not absolutely confident you can thrive in a very, very challenging environment, you’ll probably end up jeopardising your GPA here. That said, if you love learning and are determined to excel, you’ll get loads more out of your intellectual college experience here.</p>
<p>Also, congrats, flutterfly!</p>
<p>I was admitted to Rice and Berkeley this year. I am probably going to end up choosing Berkeley due to financial reasons. However, if I take those factors out of my decision, I would definitely choose Rice over Berkeley.</p>
<p>In my personal opinion and from what I’ve personally known from some people who graduated from both schools, one doesn’t give you an advantage over the other on med school application. But I do know that based on raw numbers and percentage-wise (based on the number of applicants), Berkeley is more represented than Rice is at most top med schools such as Harvard, JHU, USSF, Stanford, Yale and UCLA.</p>
<p>A friend of mine moved out of Rice and transferred to Berkeley because he wasn’t happy at Rice, though he was prelaw, not premed.</p>
<p>If you’re pre-med go to Rice. Due to the very fierce pre-med competition at Berkeley it’s very likely that your hopes of getting into a medical school will be crushed rather quickly 
Or you’ll need to sacrifice a large chunk of your social life. </p>
<p>Berkeley is not an easy place to be for pre-meds. I personally know lots of pre-meds who deeply regretted choosing Berkeley over an easier school. And for pre-med admissions your GPA will play a large factor than the school name as long as you went to a decent one.</p>
<p>Only choose Berkeley if you are VERY confident that you’ll be among the top-students, or if you’re willing to risk your med-school dreams.</p>
<p>PS: Above post is solely based on people I know and threads I’ve read here. I never took any pre-med classes.</p>
<p>Rice premed is just as rigid as, if not more rigid than, Berkeley’s.</p>
<p>i agree that grades are easier at rice than at cal. so if you’re sure that you want pre-med, rice is a better choice. mind you i didn’t consider any other factors.</p>