<p>Hello everyone!
I am a sophomore at San Diego State University and after reading some discouraging things online, I've come to the understanding that med schools look down at undergrads from CSU, especially med schools in California. My dream med school is USC (Keck) and I am trying to do everything that I can in order to reach it. With that said, does anyone think that transfering to USC from SDSU after this year would help me? I currently have a 3.81, majoring in anthropology while taking pre-med classes. Additionally I am involved in multiple organizations, and etc.</p>
<p>So, in conclusion, should I do this? I've heard that Keck likes to take their undergraduates, is this correct? And if so, what are my chances of transferring?</p>
<p>It is not a good idea to pin all your hopes on a single medical school because each has such a low acceptance rate no one is assured of getting into a particular school. You have a competitive GPA and if you can maintain it and then score 30 or better on the MCAT you have a good chance of being accepted somewhere. Acceptance at a California medical school is difficult for everyone since there is a particularly disparity between the size of the population and the number of seats open each year in California medical schools.</p>
<p>I live in California and am aware of the higher education heirarchy and it is possible that the UC medical schools would rather take their own graduates than graduates from CSUs. You need to apply broadly and will not be stigmatized for coming from a CSU in the rest of the country. In Philadelphia, where I went to medical school, I can assure you that nobody knows nor cares what the difference is between a UC and a CSU.</p>
<p>If you stay at SDSU you are seen in CA as having a weaker cohort of students, therefore you need to make sure you are really strong, solid GPA, high MCAT, great LORs, and excellent ECs.
Yes, a UC knows that the admissions standards are a bit lower at a CSU, but they also know that UC qualified kids do choose CSUs at times, prove that you are that kid, the one who would do well at any school.</p>
<p>I think you also have to weigh the soft factors of transferring. What would it be like to lose your friends? Your community? Your apartment? Your daily routine? What would it be like to have to start brand new relationships with peers, professors, mentors? What about starting from scratch with your involvement in organizations, volunteer work, leadership potential? What about finding a new research lab? New docs to shadow? </p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like you hate SDSU, that you can’t stand living there, that you think your life is miserable because of how terrible your school is, etc. It sounds like your main reason for transferring is so you might have a better shot at Keck. I think it sounds like you’re taking a huge gamble, because there’s way more at stake than just the name on your diploma. If I were in your shoes, I’d absolutely ramp up my efforts at SDSU to prove that I’m a fantastic student regardless of that name on my diploma. </p>
<p>If going to USC were the magic ticket to getting into Keck, you can bet your bottom dollar USC would be chock-full of premeds and Keck would be full of USC grads. I don’t know for sure, but I really doubt those are true. There’s no simple way to get to med school. You really just need the right combination of skills, scores, experience, and charisma the school is looking for–and you need a helluva a lot of luck too. </p>
<p>To transfer or not is a personal question. You transfer if you want, you do not transfer if you do not. So, you are the only one to answer this question. Med. School has nothing to do with it. Anyway, anything that you are planning to do in UG, should be treated just like that. That is outside of clear requirements of completing certain courses and certain EC’s, getting high GPA/MCAT score that Med. Schools are clearly looking for. The rest is for your personal and proffessional growth.</p>
<p>agree 100000000% with Kristin. I’ve said it before on these boards, you don’t transfer because the grass looks greener elsewhere, you transfer because the grass you’re standing on is so toxic it’s killing you. A 3.81 GPA with involvement in numerous organizations does not sound like a school that’s killing you.</p>
<p>Agreed with everyone else here. Transferring to USC will barely increase your chances at Keck, and only probably make your college education more expensive. Besides, they only interview about 9% of their in-state applicants and accept 71% of those they interview, so your chances are only around 6%. With med school your strategy shouldn’t be to go all out into getting into a single med school, but instead apply broadly so you can get into at least one (the possible exception would be if you go to a state with an mid to lower tier state school and you have above average stats for the school, but that’s not the case with any of the UC med schools). </p>
<p>And IMO, unless you really like USC Keck for some personal reason, I would rather go to the UC med schools. Keck is a mid tier school and is very expensive (average graduation debt hovers around $186k), while in CA you have top tier options like UCSD, UCLA, and UCSF that are much cheaper (average debt of $90-110k). If you add a 34+ MCAT score to your already high 3.8 GPA, you should have a reasonable shot at these 3 UCs regardless of which undergrad you went to.</p>
<p>I concur with your first par, but not your second. Average debt at the UCs is really misleading today, since the prices have skyrocketed in the past few years. Thus, the average debt of a student entering a UC today will be a lot more than one entering 4-5 years ago. Second, even with a 34 mcat, an unhooked Cal Stater will need something special to get a serious look at the big three UCs.</p>
<p>For example, approx. one-third of SF’s class hails from just two undergrads: Cal and Stanford. Add in the competition from all of the top students from the other top California colleges, such as Pomona, USC, Caltech, and the like, not to mention all of the California residents who attend top tier colleges OOS, such as the Ancient Eight or top LACs. Then add in all the hooked candidates, and those who have overcome “adversity” which is big for UC. And, finally, the big three are nationally-ranked, and draw from a national applicant pool of excellent candidates.</p>
<p>From a practical matter, an unhooked Cal Stater just does not have a “reasonable shot” at UCSF, UCSD, or UCLA. There is just too much competition, perceived to be “better”. Local adcoms know with certainty that a 3.8 at Cal State San Diego is not the same as a 3.8 from UC San Diego. They know with certainty that an A from Cal State LA is not the same as an A from UCLA. (btw: rumor has it that UCLA Med also draws heavily from its undergrad.)</p>
<p>It is hard to give you advice on this topic as you are doing well academically at SD state. If you stay and do well on your MCATS, volunteer, do research etc, you have a good chance of getting into medical somewhere in the US. If you transfer and your grades fall you chances will also fall.
Transferring to USC may not cost you anymore than San Diego State if UCS meets full need for transfers. (unless you are full pay) If you do well at USC it would help you get into USC Med school and other medical schools but mostly because you will have proven that your academic credentials bear up in a more competitive University. A transfer to UCSD or UCLA would be just as good.
Bear in mind that most medical schools draw most of their students from those who have either lived in the area or those who went to undergraduate school in the area. It has been a long time since I interviewed at USC but I can recall that there were a significant number of USC grads in their medical school. UCSF also draws many of their students from the local area with UCB and Stanford, and if you add UCLA it probably amounts to about 40% of the total. UCLA medical school is dominated by UCLA than UCB and Stanford. Very few Cal state graduate at either school, perhaps 6-8 for each.
I would disagree that Adcoms in Philadelphia do not know the difference between the CSU’s and the top UC’S. My CV includes a Philadelphia school and I have several friends still left in some of the medical schools there. Outside of Penn, the other medical schools in Philadelphia are less competitive than any of the California medical schools so you chances of acceptance tend to be better.
So assuming everything is equal you would have an easier time getting accepted to medical schools with a transfer to USC but if your grades were to fall it would hurt you.</p>