<p>I got into Cal and i didn’t declare my major
but planning to go to med school…
but wut I heard is that Cal and MIT is the worst choice for pre-med students.
bcuz of all the competition and low gpa and stuff…
Also Cal doens’t have itz own med school…
ppl around me say that if i wanna go to med school
i gotta go to a undergrad which i can be the top students…
and gpa over 3.8
Any opinions about it?
Any Cal students considering going med school?
I need ur help!!!</p>
<p>I’m deciding among Cal open major L&S / UCLA open major / UCSD bioengineeing pre-med (Northwestern Bioengineering / Cornell biological engineering)
i guess i’d like going UCs than privates</p>
<p>ppl say like UCLA has better pre-med programs and
UCSD has better research program…
but i guess Cal has the most name-value…
also i’m concerned about social life… (SD looks socially dead… in comparison to Cal or UCLA)</p>
<p>wut do u think about Cal as undergrad for med school…</p>
<p>Go to the school you'll enjoy the most! If you hate going to LA or SD, your grades will suck anyway!</p>
<p>You are not a pre-med, you are a pre-nothing. You are a student at Cal. Don't think of your undergraduate experience as a stepping stone to graduate school. Instead, think of it as an end unto itself. You'll do better, and you'll still get into grad school.</p>
<p>i'm so impressed of ur saying...
colleges not as a stepping stone to grad school but as an end unto itself.. hm.</p>
<p>actually.. u r right.
i'm visiting LA tomo and Cal this thurs..
and i already went to SD...
i'm just hoping that one of those schools make me so want to go there..</p>
<p>but the thing is that some of my friends went to Cal or graduated from Cal and they say the competition at Cal is killing them..
I just need more advice about research opportutnities and stuff at Cal!</p>
<p>Cal, like UCLA, is an endless field of opportunity, ripe to be picked by the grazing intellectual. You will not be bored at either one, I promise! One of my hardest decisions was choosing one or the other!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, you are not going to find either UCLA or UCB any more or less competitive. They are both tough schools for serious students. However, both will offer you an open door to great graduate opportunities if you apply yourself.</p>
<p>Just don't let Puzzles make you fat. UCLA and it's dorm food...</p>
<p>There are plenty of research opps at Berkeley (and some at UCSF)........Cal is a big school. DON'T EVEN THINK OF RESEARCH UNTIL YOUR 3rd year. Concentrate on classes and volunteer work your first 2 years.</p>
<p>Haha you say tomo... sound like you are from hong kong or something? (or should i say smth =P)</p>
<p>but yeah.. i duno which is "technically" better for what, but my sis did "pre-med" (double major in biology and social work w/ minor in english) at Cal and then she went to med school at university of illinois. for residency she got into Johns Hopkins so she'll be going there next year... and she loved Cal like no other, so, if you like where you go and you work hard, (at least from her experience) you can still go to the best</p>
<p>abcdefg..why do you say not to start research until the 3rd year? Research is a good opportunity to get to know professors and develop good relations w/ them. It is also helps get you into the subject your majoring in.</p>
<p>Not when you're a freshman/sophomore in a molecular biology lab with many other postdocs, grad students, and upperclassmen....You'll rarely meet your PI (principal investigator)...professors are VERY busy ALL the time...esp. if they're assistant profs. Instead, you'll be working for a post-doc or graduate student. There are better ways to get to know professors: go to their office hours where they are expecting you to ask them about course material. Bugging them with mundane stuff about the lab as a lower-div student (when you can easily learn what you need to know from google.com or asking grad students/postdocs/upperclassmen) isn't going to get you browning points. Working hard for your grad student/postdoc WILL, as they will be the ones writing your reference letter (the professor just signs it). Does that make sense?</p>
<p>I guess I forgot to answer the question: why wait till your 3rd year.......that's just for MCB type research. The first two years you'll be taking your core lower-div reqs....these are the pre-med reqs. The third year, you'll start working for a grad student/post-doc and learn practical lab skills. You may even take an upper-div lab class during your 3rd year. 4th year, you'll actually be prepared to do your own research. Starting on "research" so early will only drain your precious time (esp. precious if you're premed) doing mundane stuff for your grad student/post-doc....running gels, doing PCR, etc for someone else's project for more than 2 semesters is a waste of time if you ask me. It's to your advantage to really start research once you have enough upper-div knowledge under your belt.</p>
<p>a lot of discussion going on about the research.
i got your point. abcdefg...</p>
<p>actually i visited UCLA and USC today.
i really like the campus of USC. what do u guys make of the field of bio
or biomedical engineering at USC?
i didn't go to Cal yet. but actually i didn't like the campus of SD or LA.
i know it's a wrong place to ask this question.
but is there really an advantage if i go to private school like SC?
any grade inflation there? active alumni? internship opportunities?</p>
<p>haha Skylin, I'm actually in the same situation that you are in. I'm worried about the pre-med program and the competition at Cal.</p>
<p>I have connections at SD but i don't particularly like their campus that much.</p>
<p>At any rate, if you go to UCLA, you are going to be 1 person in the pool of 720+ med school applicants, so I don't think it would be a wise decision.
USC... well if you can handel the surrounding area, then go ahead. since you're from Korea, you won't be like me and my friends who complain about it being way to expensive. In terms of prestige, USC is not the place to go.</p>
<p>Tree, how is the UCLA number of med hopefuls different from Cal, if both have similar yield? Think about it. Just because MORE students apply doesn't matter as long as lots of the students get into med school. If 10,000,000 UCLA students applied, and all but one got in, would it matter?</p>
<p>Again, don't look at your undergrad education as a stepping stone, but as an end unto itself. You don't know what will change in your life in 4 years, and while long term plans are good, make sure to pick a school based on the overall opportunities offered to you as an individual. Med schools aren't looking for people with high grades, they're looking for dynamic, intelligent, interesting ADULTS with high grades. Both Cal and UCLA offer you the opportunity to grow or flounder. It's important to pick the one which you think will foster the former, of course.</p>
<p>Back to the research question, wouldn't getting your feet wet in a lab be helpful, esp. when applying for grad school? I'm going to be a chem major and i've worked in a university lab for 3.5 years, and i see that undergrads can get quite a bit of work done in the lab. I understanding what abcdefg is saying about learning the material before going into a lab, but i still think that working in a lab early in the undergraduate studies can help, or am i wrong?</p>
<p>I have to agree with abcdefg on this. When you're an underclassman, your focus should be on getting settled in. At the very least, wait for your second year.</p>