caltech vs. ucsd medical scholars program

<p>^exactly. my class rank from my less-than-average high school was 35/350. now, I consistently rank in the top -- by that i mean 1st -- in my classes of 300 students each. what do i get? nothing. and i was given $0 in financial aid even though i'm middle class ($90,000 family income; 8-person household). what can i say? some people are just late bloomers...there are those like that out there, ya know. =/</p>

<p>but it will pay off in the end! there was an intern at my mom's workplace and he went into ucsd with a 1100 sat, low gpa and class rank...but in college he really started to work hard and became 1st in his class and got a 38 on his mcat...he ended up getting into both ucla and ucsd med school and now he's a first year at ucla med school!</p>

<p>the best thing about college is that you have a chance to start over. while there may be benefits that are now lost, at least you've started working hard now and that's the most important thing! better late than never!</p>

<p>yea don't be mad. You'll no doubt have great rewards at the end if you keep up the amazing work!! Good Job!!</p>

<p>Easy for both of you to say...you guys aren't here yet.</p>

<p>The screw-age comes the worst when signing up for classes. I hate signing up after all of the Regents/athletes/other "special" people who get to sign up on the first day, first hour. A lot of them end up f-ing me over in the times I need, classes I need or the professors I want. F all of these 5pm MWF classes with crappy professors (and no, I can't just take it another quarter unless I want to be behind).</p>

<p>/bitter. At least it's gotten significantly better in UD when I don't need to sign up for specific discussion times or compete with the former pre-meds who have dropped out to get certain classes. But it is still bad at times, especially in signing up for labs. And it was pretty horrible my first year when I didn't have too many units, but was taking pretty advanced classes.</p>

<p>wow i didn't know that it was so hard to get classes...</p>

<p>well pearapple I think being a med scholar guarantees you priority enrollment? and if it doesn't then considering you are a med scholar and you got into caltech you probably also got a regents or some other scholarship at UCSD...so you shouldn't have to worry about not getting into classes...</p>

<p>oh yeah, i just didn't know it was that hard to get classes for people without regents</p>

<p>Go to CalTech. If you do well at CalTech, you will get into any Medical Schools of your choice. The Admission Committee knows the quality of class work and grade of each school.
3.5 GPA at CalTech has different value than 3.5 GPA at other school. At CalTEcjh you has more choices and opportunities than at UCSD. If you choose UCSD at this time because you want to guaranty a seat at Medical School, it is fine but in my opinion it will limit your potential later on.</p>

<p>Anyway the choice is yours, good luck.</p>

<p>It’s always good to check the dates of the posts you’re reading. Just a heads up for next time.</p>