<p>i think in the future i want to go to medical school, but i really love caltech...here are some of the factors:</p>
<p>Positives
caltech: love the campus and student community, great professors, many research opportunities, nice town
ucsd: guaranteed admission into ucsd medical school, no mcat, no medical school interviews, only 12 out of 200 applied were accepted</p>
<p>negatives
caltech: too narrow?, gpa will probably drop, have to go through medical applicaitons
ucsd: not the best undergrad study, huge campus, many people</p>
<p>I agree with jasonlee. The UCSD medical scholars program sounds alot better if you have your sights on becoming a doctor, because a friend I have right now is going through the medical school admissions process right now and it is EXTREMELY difficult these days to get into a UC med school. A guaranteed spot at UCSD Med School sounds like a godsend.</p>
<p>Ya know, there is a Caltech-UCSD medical scholars program. Do you think you can call up some people at both schools and try to leverage the fact that you have been accepted to both the UCSD medical scholars program and caltech to get into this program? Probably not, but it is certainly worth a try.</p>
<p>thank you for the feedback! i think i will have to talk to more people on this...i'm going to try to get more feedback from people in both schools...</p>
<p>i wish i could do that mathtastic_nerd! that would be ideal :) but unfortunately i applied regular decision and they already ended their admissions processes...but i guess it's worth a try to ask, right?</p>
<p>believe me, if you want to be a doctor and goto school in California without wasting thousands on med school apps/ mcats and just the overall headache of applying, choose ucsd. If you don't want to become a doctor midway, UCSD isn't a bad school to start an undergrad career either.</p>
<p>well, out of all honesty, we can't really give you guys any sort of advice that will help you make this decision. In the end, it's what you want.
Personally, if I were one of you guys, I would definitely attend UCSD and its Med scholars prog. over Stanford or even Harvard for the matter. If you guys want to be doctor, then it's a deal you can't really beat.
I thought Med. Scholars admits would be sure to attend UCSD.</p>
<p>I think there is a bit a bias for UCSD here (for obvious reasons). I like UCSD and the medical scholars program is great, but cmon, over harvard? Hands down? If you can get into caltech, stanford, or harvard you are probably a good enough student to do well in college (especially in schools like stanford and harvard that are known for grade inflation) and get into a good medical school. Plus you are minimizing your med school options; UCSD's SOM is a great school but there are better schools. What if you find out you have a passion for something completely different and you dont want to become a doctor (this can easily happen in college)? Remember the opportunities at places like harvard, stanford, and caltech will be numerous as well. </p>
<p>Of course there are many more attributes to consider like the campus, atmosphere, price, dorms, food, and other things that relate to the day-to-day. </p>
<p>So, we have to respond by april 25th which is this friday and i think i'm going to choose the med scholars program.</p>
<p>i think i've always wanted this in my gut but i just don't know how i could so easily give up caltech...</p>
<p>however, in the long run, i do want to be a doctor and after my four undergrad years, i want to end up at medical school, which would be guaranteed through the med scholars program...</p>
<p>plus, the great thing about this program is that it is nonbinding and there have been cases where people have gone on to other medical schools (only three cases, but still they went to harvard, ucla, and stanford or johns hopkins med school)</p>
<p>also, i know many people in the program turned down stanford and harvard (i don't know about caltech :P) and they seem to really be enjoying ucsd and don't regret their decision at all...</p>
<p>so, thank you so much for everyone's advice! it was really helpful :) and i hope i will be seeing you guys at ucsd!</p>
<p>oh and for sindhu90, you will most likely do great wherever you choose, and it's just a matter of what fits you more...oh, and i was talking to a med scholar the interview day and she said that she turned down stanford, brown plme, and wash u's med program :)</p>
<p>well it's not like caltech is that bad, right? i mean they notified me in like march 8th and i was so sure about going there...it's kind of hard to do a complete 180 esp since i only found i was accepted into this program last saturday!</p>
<p>The great thing about the Med Scholars program is that you don't have to stress yourself out like crazy, doing ECs up the wazoo, study like crazy to get the 4.0, etc. Plus, you save so much money on MCAT books, app fees, MCAT itself, all that time writing essays and getting letters of rec. You can take the time to enjoy college since you only need to keep a 3.5 (?) to go to ucsd SOM whereas getting a 4.0 isn't going to guarantee you in anywhere.</p>
<p>Makes me super jealous that people who applied themselves <em>super</em> hard in high school reap so many benefits (Med Scholar, Regents...etc.) Ugh, what about the people who work hard now! :(</p>