Brown Or UC Berkeley?

<p>Hey Guys. I am honestly stuck between the two schools. I really want to get into a good pre-med program, and in the end, med school itself (Stanford, Harvard, or any other good med school).
Which college would be best for me? Brown or Berkeley? I am honestly stuck between the two schools, and I have no idea which to pick because both have pretty good strength and weaknesses.
Anyone care to share their personal opinions? Thanks :) </p>

<p>You need the highest possible GPA to get into med school. Choose Brown, which is hugely forgiving (read: grade inflation and not hard) over Berkeley, which is a cold machine in which you will be competing with 50% Asians who get no sleep and who have been at this maximizing, cut-throat GPA game longer than any of us and really know how to crush it. You will find elsewhere on this board a forum specifically devoted to how Brown is the best place for pre-med. </p>

<p>^ Haha! A little over-dramatic… Yes, Berkeley is a big, competitive place. Brown will likely provide more care and feeding, but I doubt it’ll be a cakewalk. </p>

<p>What are the cost differences? Medical school is expensive.</p>

<p>While it could be a rude awakening to think that Brown is not ‘hard’, it does have a lot of safety valves built in that could make your journey a bit less stressful, and doing hard work in college can be stressful. There is very good support for premeds. If the cost isnt an issue I’d choose Brown. There is an MD/PhD student posting in the Brown forum, but he has decided he doesn’t have the time to post any longer so this is his last week. Get any questions in now to I<em>Wanna</em>Be_Brown. He has been posting here since he was a HS student!</p>

<p>Net price at each school?</p>

<p>Where are you from? I think going away to school is a good thing to do. Get out and see the country so to speak. Another thing to consider is what happens if you change your mind about med school (as many do.) Brown’s flexible curriculum might make that easier to do.</p>

<p>If you decide not to go to med school, which would you prefer? A LOT of students come into college positive they will become doctors, but the overwhelming majority end up not doing so, often for reasons having nothing to do with GPA. </p>

<p><a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/medstats/MedStats.stm”>https://career.berkeley.edu/medstats/MedStats.stm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Here’s the link to UC Berkeley’s Career Center page that details medical school acceptance rates for their graduates. Contact Brown’s pre-med advising office and ask them for the same information.</p>

<p>If you are OOS, then Brown is a no-brainer. UC are not worth the OOS fees for most programs, IMO.</p>

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<p>That’s a very poor link/data source. I would guess that many/most premeds never visit the career center – there is no need/no value to them. Thus, all the ‘data’ that they have is self-reported by students who take the time to report back.</p>

<p>Here is what the data sets contain (for the specified years):</p>

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<p>Thanks guys (: i really appreciate all the feedback! I honestly currently leaning towards Brown for the same reasons that some of you guys posted earlier. I think the only thing that’s making me hesitant from choosing Brown is the fact that Berkeley is in Cali. I don’t know, but coming from a pretty tropical island is gravitating me toward Cali’s weather and atmosphere. I’m not really fond of the cold to be honest aha.
Any other suggestions about that? </p>

<p>You aren’t an international are you?</p>

<p>Berkeley has much milder weather, yes.It will still get cold and rain in the winter but no snow. My daughter went to Brown from California and it didn’t bother her at all. You just wear suitable clothing. But I wouldn’t like it much I admit. I like the Calif weather, and I love the Bay Area. But she wanted to experience the East Coast. </p>

<p>I’m actually from Queens, NYC and I moved to Guam just a few years back. To be honest I do not fully remember my weather experiences in the East Coast, but I guess you do have a point. Maybe I should try the East Coast life for a change. Guam is like California anyway. Is your daughter, if i may ask, really happy at Brown? (:
Thank you again!</p>

<p>She graduated a few years back. Yes, very happy there, had a good life, friends. Many opportunities for research, and went on to grad school. Not your area at all, she was math-cs.</p>

<p>West Coast life is great too. Wonderful area. Clearly outcomes at Berkeley are good. I just don’t know how ‘weeder’ it is in the early stages. Brown isn’t weeder at all. It’s going to be an entirely different experience in class sizes.</p>

<p>Brown, Brown, Brown.
UCB will have milder weather, but it is by no means SoCal. It will still be cold.
Again, your GPA will be much higher at Brown than UCB (most likely). So if medschool is your goal I would do Brown. </p>