Hello! I’m sure that many of these types of posts appear in this forum around this time of year, so I’m thankful for anyone who humours me and offers any advice.
I’ve been accepted to transfer into both Davis and Riverside and I need to decide which to attend. I couldn’t care less about campus culture, climate, safety, etc. In 2-3 years, I’m going to get my degree, skip commencement, and never see the undergrad friends I make again (outside of networking and important connections). Instead, I’m basing my decision solely on what would best support my future.
I’m leaning towards Davis based on my perception that, as a bigger campus, there are more clinic positions there. I’m flip-flopping on going to med or vet school, and having clinic hours in undergrad is important for both. However, I’m worried that Davis is saturated with other pre-med and -vet students, which would make clinic positions much more competitive than at Riverside.
I’m also concerned about GPA. I get the impression that, at Riverside, it would be slightly easier to get a good GPA and stand out. I tend to do alright, academically; I had a 3.8 GPA at Cal Poly’s biology programme and ended up on the president’s list, somehow.
God. I’m really unsure. Any input from alumni/current students would be greatly appreciated.
If you leaning towards Pre-Vet, then take a look at this admission data for UCD Vet school.
https://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/admissions/application-statistics-class-2023
If you are interested in Medical school, then both schools will be equally challenging but UCR has an early assurance program which may be of interest.
https://somsa.ucr.edu/thomas-haider-early-assurance-program
I find it very sad that your giving up on having a fulfilling college experience and are mainly there to get your degree over with. Making friends in college along with the interpersonal communication skills needed to keep these friends are a great foundation for the Medical and Veternarian professions. Compassion is key and not being an academic robot will let you succeed. (My 2 cents worth),
Best of luck with your decision.
Thank you so much for your reply!
I fully understand your note about college experience, and I want to clarify that I didn’t spend the last two years grinding out grades. At my previous university, I made great friends; went to several parties and, consequentially, went to several 8ams desperately hungover; and did questionable things in the student-driven police vans at my school’s UPD. My favourite memory is lying on the ground shirtless outside my RA’s room, drunk, at 11pm, whining to my good friends about my favourite Autobot’s death in the 1986 Transformers movie, then doing three hours of calculus homework after I got yelled at by said RA.
The thing is, the “college experience” is impermanent and unfulfilling. The fun I had amounts to, in the end, cute little memories I’ll forget in time. I imagine it’ll end the same as high school did for me. I don’t have the time or finances to be picky. I network and interact easily that I’ll be able to both succeed and pick up friends to kill time with on the way.
Back on topic: thank you for the information you linked. It certainly gives me a lot to think about. The UCD vet school has a higher acceptance rate than I expected (~28%), but the UCR program is equally as intriguing.
I’d love to hear alumni experiences and opinions from their respective schools, particularly on availability of volunteer/clinic experience. That is my primary concern, as both are required for vet/med school.
College experience wouldn’t mean getting drunk and other sophomoric hijinks. Rather, trying to grow as a person through the clubs and other opportunities, making friends you want to keep and invite to your wedding (and not “someone I threw up with several times”). As a transfer student hopefully you’re done with the sophomoric hijinks and can think of meaningful involvement with clubs and people.
I’d say Davis. You’ve shown you can be competitive academically. If you can make it at Cal poly SLO then you’ll be ok at Davis. It’ll provide a better springboard if you end up not attending vet or med school and arguably also if you do make it to either type of school.
Thank you for replying!
Ah. I see now what you mean by “college experience”. In any case, then, I’ve done alright towards that end; I’ve interned under my professors and at SLO’s vertebrate collection, worked on some actual experience and positions to bolster my resume. A school that would allow me to continue to earn these experiences would gain priority, in my eyes.
Would it be better to go somewhere with easier academics, though, to stand out academically? Med and vet schools all have high GPA requirements across the board. (Assuming that I’m reading impressions right and that UCR is indeed slightly easier than UCD.)
I really take issue with you saying that you want to go to somewhere with “easier” standards.
If anything, you’ll want to have the toughest courses possible because all of that will combine with your interview questions and MCATs to make you a stronger applicant. You are still thinking in terms of being in high school. You really don’t understand what it takes to get into med school. If you can’t take it in undergrad, you wont make it to medical school.
No UC “lowers” its bar to make it easier for students. It’s an insult.
My daughter was admitted to UCSF after attending UC Davis. Most of her friends were admitted to medical schools all over the country in their first attempts.
Part of the “college experience” for her was networking with her classmates about internships, and lab jobs that pay well because med school is very expensive. Davis encourages that “college experience”. I’m sure that Riverside has similar supports. The clubs are not the “fun” clubs-that you are thinking about-these are more pre-professional clubs who sponsor conferences and invite noted medical speakers, they volunteer in lower socio-economic areas with information (speaking in Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Filipino) on high hypertension diabetes, heart disease, exercise, etc. They post jobs leads from current med students.
The highly sought, “underserved” clinics, where you need to get your exposure to real medicine, require interviews by panels of students, physicians, and nursing staffs. If they don’t know you, your networking, or your interactions, you will struggle with getting your clinical experiences.
@WayOutWestMom can give you even better information.