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As you can see, Berkeley applicants' acceptance rates to top med schools are absolutely atrocious. The few that do get in have exceptional GPA's (3.9+) and MCAT scores (35+). Med schools seem to be requiring HIGHER GPA's from Berkeley applicants than they do from everyone else for some reason.
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<p>norcalguy,</p>
<p>I wasn't a premed and don't really know the process well. But I have heard that besides the academic record, premed advising and recommentions from the premed committee are also very important. I suspect that's what the problem is. I don't think the med schools hold Berkeley applicants to higher standard. My guess is it's a manifestation of a weaker component among many Berkeley's applicants and sadly, they have no control over it. Those guys with 3.9+ GPA and 35+ are accepted probably because their grades/scores are strong enough to offset the mediocre recommendation letters. Resource like this isn't reflected by published ranking yet they can be crucial to some people (in this case, the premeds). Some people say Berkeley adminstration cares little about undergrads. I don't know if it's true since I didn't go there. But those numbers do make me wonder about the resource for premed advising/med school admission.</p>
<p>Poor advising would explain the lower acceptance rates at top tier med schools by Berkeley applicants but it doesn't explain why top tier med schools are requiring Berkeley applicants to have unreasonable GPAs and MCATs. I think you would admit that most of the applicants to med school have similar problems with recommendation letters as Berkeley applicants (let's face it, most med school applicants do not come from small Ivies or LAC's but rather from state schools) so it doesn't explain why for instance Harvard only accepts Berkeley applicants with 3.95 and 38 MCAT's when they only require 3.8 and 35 MCAT for everyone else. If anything, recs from all of the big name Cal professors should give Berkeley applicants a slight edge over a typical state school applicant. </p>
<p>You can also argue that perhaps Berkeley applicants have substandard EC's or essay writing skills that would require them to have to compensate with higher GPA's and MCAT scores but there's no data to support that claim.</p>
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Poor advising would explain the lower acceptance rates at top tier med schools by Berkeley applicants but it doesn't explain why top tier med schools are requiring Berkeley applicants to have unreasonable GPAs and MCATs.
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<p>Actually, you just answered your own question. Top tier med schools requires Berkeley applicants to have unreasonable GPAs and MCATs because of poor advising, and also, in my opinion, extra-curriculars.</p>
<p>I haven't seen any data that shows that top tier med schools require lower GPAs and MCATs from applicants from much less prestigious schools...if you have them, I welcome you to post them. All that's been posted in this thread are data from Berkeley and Cornell.</p>
<p>But even if that were true, I would attribute it to advising and lack of ECs. First of all, just because Berkeley may be a better school than say...UCLA, doeson't necessarily mean it has better advising, so UCLA students with the same GPA may still get in over Berkeley students. Secondly, because the grading at Berkeley is so harsh, students probably have less time to do things like ECs, volunteering at hospitals, research, etc. which could also explain why they need such high GPAs and MCATs to get admitted.</p>
<p>I had to make this decision but I don't necessarily see one school as completely dominant over another. Get a grip people. If you do have to make the decision, be glad that you can. It'll always come down to personal fit anyways.</p>
<p>Sam Lee: I don't know if Berkeley has a premed committee. At Cornell, you have 3 profs write recs and then send them to the committeee which will then write you a 4th rec.</p>
<p>Hey I checked out UC berkeley this summer with my friends for a roadtrip, along with other colleges. Dude honestly if your like most southern california kids, like I am - you know the kind that likes beaches and doing "oc" stuff - then your in for a shock. Hell I was shocked, but if I get accepted I'll still go because its that good of a school on my list.</p>
<p>Sorry to burst your bubble pepz3, but if you're the type who likes to go to beaches, then you'll find a much bigger shock at Cornell. At Berkeley's it's at least sunny for a good part of the year, and people do go (rarely) to beaches. Cornell is in the middle of New York, which means hundreds of miles away from any resemblence of a beach at all, which on the East Coast, isn't that great, plus the weather is much harsher than either Southern California or Northern California weather. If you really like hitting the beaches I would recomment UCSD or UCSB, and possibly UCLA. But let's be honest with ourselves, if you're really serious about going pre-med at Berkeley or Cornell, you probably won't have much time for a beach trip anyway.</p>
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Maybe it should. Why doesn't Berkeley have one?
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<p>Good question. I can only think of one reason why not - cheapness on the part of the administration. Same thing goes for why Berkeley doesn't have better premed advising. </p>
<p>I sadly recall the story of bluedevilmike (another poster) who goes to Duke and who told me that his friend who goes to Berkeley primarily used HIS premed advising services (at Duke) in order to help him get into the med-schools that he wanted. It's rather sad that a Berkeley student would feel that he has to use the advisory services of an entirely different school. This is something that Berkeley needs to put more resources into. It's sad to me that Berkeley premeds often need HIGHER grades to get into various med-schools than the average acceptee does.</p>