Decide between UCLA (no regents) vs. UCD (with regents) vs. UCSB for a pre-med major

State Forums
1

Hi all,

We are blessed that our D was accepted to many great schools for Fall quarter 2020 (in CA and out of states) and now we are narrowing it down to three UC campuses (and USC and UF - University of Florida).

UCLA: accepted with no regents but it has higher ranking than UCSB and UCD in general and for pre-med majors. Her major at UCLA is human biology and society BS. More importantly, it is her dream school! It also have a medical school.

UCD: accepted with regents and honor program with $7.5K/year scholarship. It has a medical school.

UCSB: accepted with regents and honor program with $6K/year scholarship. No medical school.

Questions:

  1. Would she have a tough time registering for classes in her freshman and sophomore years at UCLA (being a big public school with a lot of students competing for the same courses)?

  2. Ultimately, would she being able to graduate in 4 years (or less together with her AP credits). She would not have this issue if she attending the UCD or UCSB thanks to their regents granted to her.

Additional side questions:

  1. Are we crazy not to have my D attending the University of Florida with a 100% full ride (also as a “pre-med” major)? She got full ride thanks to her being a NMSC finalist. We are from southern CA and would love to check out the UF campus and then making a wise decision but unfortunately, because of the corona virus crisis, we can not attend the campus and now are likely to decline the school (so sad especially as a parent).

  2. My D also applied to USC and if she get accepted (will know around in the next few days 3/26/20), and being NMSC Finalist, she will get half free tuition (and may be more). Should she goes to USC over the other schools? USC is a private school with smaller class size so she does not need to have early/priority registration.

Thanks.

2

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/ug-outcomes indicates that frosh entering UCLA in 2014 had a 79.8% four year graduation rate. The latest frosh entry year with full data (up to probably eight year graduation rates) is 2011, whose frosh entering had a 74.6% four year graduation rate and average time of 4.08 years.

If she is a strong student (as she will have to be to have any chance of getting into a medical school), is not derailed by non-academic problems (e.g. financial, medical), and takes some amount of care in choosing courses with respect to staying on track for her major and pre-med requirements, then she is unlikely to have a problem graduating in four years.

College graduation rates are mostly related to student characteristics – academic strength (college is more selective) and lack of financial limitations (students are wealthier and/or college has better financial aid) are the main ones that contribute to higher graduation rates.

3

UCD’s med school is located in Sacramento, not in Davis. The pre-med students do internships in local clinics and hospitals.

UCSB doesn’t have a med school but it is the same as Davis in that many students volunteer or do internships in local clinics and hospitals

Have you looked at the pre-health advising websites at the different schools?
UCSB - https://healthsciences.duels.ucsb.edu/prospective
UCD - https://hpa.ucdavis.edu/pre-health-programs
UCLA - http://prehealth.ucla.edu/