<p>Hello everyone!
SIR deadline is in a few days and I would like to know what college do you think will give me the best shot of getting into med school.</p>
<p>I would be doing neuroscience at Pomona College and UCLA or Chembio at Berkeley.</p>
<p>A lot of people have been telling me to pick which ever I feel most comfortable in but for the purpose of this question I would like to know what school would give me the best shot at getting into med school or research.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>It really depends on you and how you fit. No real difference between UCB and UCLA. Cost may be an issue. If cost is not an issue I would pick Pomona. You may not have as many research opportunities but Pomona is not as aggressively competitive as UCLA or UCB or UCSD. Better advising and more personal attention.</p>
<p>For med school, Pomona would be the best choice. </p>
<p>Cal and UCLA are much more competitive, and given the numbers based med school admission, would mean you would have a harder time being admitted.</p>
<p>I think the one advantage that UCLA has is the opportunity to volunteer in excellent medical settings during the school year. A friend’s daughter had a lot of great opportunities while there. That said, Pomona is a really great school and has a lot of students who are very successful in grad school applications. There is the opportunity at Pomona to do research and to work on a senior thesis which is a great experience for someone interested in science. Plenty of people go on from Pomona to medical school and MD/Ph.D. programs. If finances are not a determining factor, I would recommend Pomona.</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/321456/data/2012factstable2-6.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/321456/data/2012factstable2-6.pdf</a></p>
<p>If you look at the chart, the numbers applying from UCLA and UCB are around 800. There might be weedout courses at Berkeley but not sure if they exist in premed or only engineering.</p>
<p>School selection involves too many factors (including some emotional) to be formulaic about it. However, have some kind of defined approach makes the process less confusing. I don’t know enough about Pomona and know a bit more about Cal and UCLA. but not enough to be able to give concrete advice. However, here is my $0.02 on how to pick an undergrad school for pre-med from among one’s choices:</p>
<p>If finances are not an issue, consider the following (in that order):
[ul]
[<em>] Which school felt like the best fit?
[</em>] Which schools gives you the best chance of scoring a high GPA? Usually it’s the same as the first.
[<em>] Which school’s curriculum has the needed rigor to prepare you well for MCAT? This is probably the least useful, because doing well on MCAT has probably to do more with the individual.
[</em>] Which school has the best (supportive) advising?
[<em>] Which school has the best research opportunities for undergrads?
[</em>] Which school has the best location for volunteering and other EC’s?
[/ul]</p>
<p>If finances are an issue, pick the most cost effective while not loosing sight of the above.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Pay particular attention to point 1a: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1484178-if-you-high-school-please-read-before-posting.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1484178-if-you-high-school-please-read-before-posting.html</a></p>
<p>A small school like pomona may not have the same number of labs that a UCLA might have, but there are no grad students above you on the totem pole.</p>
<p>One data point on Pomona and research: D2 sent out a handful of emails summer after fr year to Bio profs about WS positions doing research in the fall. Within an hour someone replied with interest in having her work in their lab. She got the job and the prof wrote her a LOR this winter that helped her to get two REU offers for this coming summer.</p>
<p>She did have three summers of full time research experience under her belt which likely helped.</p>
<p>Maybe this will be helpful, but remember, a lot of people don’t go directly to medical/grad school these days. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.pomona.edu/administration/career-development/files/where-grads-go-2012.pdf[/url]”>http://www.pomona.edu/administration/career-development/files/where-grads-go-2012.pdf</a></p>
<p>You can look at earlier years too.</p>
<p>[Where</a> Do Grads Go? - Pomona College](<a href=“http://www.pomona.edu/administration/career-development/resources/life-after-pomona/where-grads-go.aspx]Where”>http://www.pomona.edu/administration/career-development/resources/life-after-pomona/where-grads-go.aspx)</p>
<p>Pomona is going to be a very different experience than a UC. Small chemistry classes will be different than large lectures. It’s totally anecdotal, of course, but my son did very well on the MCAT and a lot of his preparation was reviewing the material he learned in college which, for him, was Pomona.</p>
<p>By my count, Pomona had 4 kids accepted to med schools from their class of 2012, with Emory being the best school. Since these days pretty much every private school claims >90% acceptance rate (:)), there must have been ~5 applicants. That’s a VERY small application pool. Unless their advising is top notch, those kids didn’t even have enough friends in the same boat to talk things over.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I applaud Pomona’s openness. Unlike a lot of others they made the details available unvarnished. I am sure others have similar kind of data. Alas, they are more interested in touting their “>90%” acceptance rates than …</p>
<p>But remember, a lot of people do not go straight to medical school. My son is Pomona 2012 and going to medical school next year, so he’s not reflected there. That statistic is probably something they collect over a period of time.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for your responses!
I ended up choosing Berkeley mainly because of financial reasons/proximity and a few other reasons as well.</p>
<p>Go Bears! :)</p>
<p>[wondering if one of your ‘other reasons’ was having reservations about being a Sage Hen ;)]</p>
<p>The school that would give you the best shot at getting into med school or research is as you pointed out correctly the one that you would “feel most comfortable in”.</p>