Okay, first off my gpa. If i calculated it correctley (i included classes like art, a semester of entrepreneurship and Spanish 1 and 2. I did not include P.E. I gave myself 6 semester of uc approved honors/ap. (3 ap classes, i was upset to find out that honors English 10 is not a uc approved honors course, this dropped my gpa one whole point) correct me if i made a mistake. With that said my uc gpa is a 3.4 (was a 3.5 with the honors English). Now if that’s my gpa for applying to a uc, is it calculated the same way for states and other colleges? I just received my sat scores and i got a 1190. I know that its not the best, but i did not study and i am retaking the test in the fall. ( any study tips) So which colleges should i apply to in California? (i simply can not afford the tripled price tuition out of state). Now, I am planning on going to med school after my 4 year so keep that in mind, i want to go to the best pre-med school i can get into. Btw, extra curricular wise, i have a few service hours from school school clubs and i applied to the young senators leadership program for my senior year. (i understand that i do not have much, but what can i do now, its too late). Now I know it is a reach for a uc, but what are the differences between other types of colleges just inn case i have no other choice? (state and whats the difference between a uc and just a university, are universitys private therefore more expensive? Also what happens (regarding med school) if i go to a state? Would i have to eventually transfer to a uc for any of my pre med courses to count? and would that take longer for me to get my 4 year? any help would be greatley appreciated. thank you
Hi–It’s great that you’re ambitious. That will help a lot. It also helps that you know you will need to study to bring up your stats.
The first thing I would suggest is to not worry about how fast you’re getting through school, at least not right away. Take a semester or a year off. During that time, try to train yourself to study well. (You can work during that year at a health-related job, or do something like EMT training or working at a hospital. This job would count as clinical work for your premed ambition.) Work on your study skills through the rest of high school. Once you learn how to study effectively, then worry about speed. Studying is a skill just like any other. See if you can ask your guidance counselor for suggestions of how to learn effective study habits.
You would need probably to learn:
- to study every day;
- executive-functioning skills like planning ahead, keeping your things organized, organizing your day so that you have time to study first (then you spend time on other things), and making sure that every assignment is done fully and reviewed;
- how to memorize well;
- being satisfied only with excellent work, and redoing something until it is excellent and perfect;
- how to present your material so that others can understand you;
- self-discipline to do these things.
There are many other skills beyond these that will help you.
Once you learn these skills, then you should probably try the community college-to-UC route. Or a Cal State.
My understanding from others on this forum is that for premed you will need A grades in all of your core premed basic classes and you will need to ace the MCAT.
If you decide not to become a doctor, the health field has a wide array of other careers you might enjoy. Ask your guidance counselor to suggest other areas of study, including radiology technician, health-related research (which also has an administrative side to it–research centers need administrators to help run the studies and to run the office); dental hygienist; nurses–male and female–are in short supply and make a good living (and there’s an administrative side to nursing, too, and research, and computer tech side, etc.). Nurse anesthetists make more money than many physicians, fyi.
The most important thing now, though, is to teach yourself to become an A student. The rest will follow. Best of luck.
try the SuperMatch function on the left side. It’s good you’re wary about potential med school costs. You should also try to use a keyboard when sending emails or making forum posts. Your lack of formatting )paragraph breaks) and punctuation represent you poorly.
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
A 3.4 GPA and an SAT score if 1190 could get you in UC Merced and Riverside, possibly Santa Cruz.
For the Cal States, you have a good chance at all except for Cal Poly’s SLO and Pomona, CSULB, CSUF and SDSU.
As stated above, you could try the CC to UC route, CC to CSU route or even the CSU to UC route.
In California, you have options including private universities as long as these options are affordable. You want to keep your debt as low as possible if Medical school is your ultimate goal.
I agree that Merced and UCR are viable (but not certain) targets. UCSC could happen but, you’d really need a compelling application.
CSUs (except Cal Poly SLO) all use the same eligibility index to rank applicants. They combine your CSU GPA and SAT (or ACT) to create a number (CSUGPA *800 + SAT). Read about it here:
http://www.csumentor.edu/planning/high_school/elig_index_calculator.asp
So, yours would be 3910 which should get you into most majors at CP Pomona, CSULB and CSUF. Some majors (like Nursing and Computer Science) are more competitive.
Not sure what else you are looking for from a school but, there are many to choose from. Sonoma is small and very residential, Chico is larger but, surrounded by an idyllic college town, Humboldt is in the redwood forest, CSULB is HUGE and has D1 sports.
You will spend more time outside the classroom than in… what else do you want from your college experience?
UCR and its medical paths would be your best bet.
http://medschool.ucr.edu/admissions/haider_program.html
http://faststart.ucr.edu/
http://msp.ucr.edu/
http://fpl.ucr.edu/
I second Sonoma and Chico (apply to Honors?)