<p>I'm curious if anyone has heard of or knows anything about this program. I am about to enroll as a freshman; at 22, I'll be a little older than most prospective freshman on this site. My goal is to become a physician, and to set myself up with opportunity at the country's finest medical schools. From what I've seen, UC Santa Cruz, although, as I'm sure a lot of you will point out, is a lower tier UC, it's really trying to beef up its standing as a feeder school to some of the finer medical schools. Like I said, I'm sure a few of you will laugh at this, but here's a link from their site. Health</a> Science Home It basically says that they've compiled this program based on what top medical schools look for in applicants (there are internship and spanish language requirements, in addition to the standard pre med requirements) in the interest of training more qualified physicians for the state of California. I know this is a lot of hype created by the university itself, but I wonder if there's some validity to it. It seems rare that a university would have an actual pre med major, as opposed to a biology major, with the other prerequisites for medical school to be met of the student's own accord (i.e., the internships and Spanish language components). This program, on the other hand, offers an actual "Internship Coordinator" to place students in health care facilities within the community. Sorry for the long-winded entry, but what do all of you think of this as a path for a motivated student interested in opening the door to some prestigious medical schools?</p>
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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/214387-what-should-premed-major.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/214387-what-should-premed-major.html</a></p>
<p>What would you guess is the reason for students with the specialized health sciences major scoring lower on the MCAT? Also, it may be worth noting that UC Santa Cruz’s Health Sciences major is not a nursing program, physical therapy program or anything else. It is essentially a Molecular, Cell, Developemental Biology major with required and assisted internships, and a Spanish language requirement. I don’t know if that’s what you meant by “Specialized Health Services” but after following your “What should a premed major in?” link, it’s what I surmised. </p>
<p>What I’m really curious about, and you can see what I’m talking about if you follow the link, [Health</a> Science Home](<a href=“http://www.biology.ucsc.edu/healthsci/]Health”>http://www.biology.ucsc.edu/healthsci/), is it possible that UCSC’s claim that their program is uniquely structured to prepare students for medical school is in any way founded? Is their program just another premed program, something common to almost all universities, or does theirs offer something special, specifically the internship coordination and requirement and the Spanish language component? Is university assistance and professional coordination of internships for premed students common among universities?</p>
<p>It may be wishful thinking, and obviously UC Santa Cruz is not a top rated university or anything else, but if I am correct that it’s biology program and research is in relatively good standing, and it is a fairly small school, it could be a unique opportunity for me. Providing me with more individual attention than most public universities, an excellent premed program that would set me up for success with some prestigious medical schools, while being relatively inexpensive. Is this school a diamond in the rough, or am I buying into unfounded toots that they are giving their own horn?</p>
<p>Thanks for taking the time to respond.</p>
<p>I think you would fare much better, even if you attended that school, as a MCB major. Take Spanish classes and find internships on your own initiative. For a strong student with good initiative, the internships will be difficult (labor-intensive) but not difficult (low-probability). The Spanish requirement, obviously, is worthless, since you can just take Spanish anyway.</p>
<p>The problem with a major like “health sciences” is that you get tagged as a vocational major. Even if you were set on UCSC anyway, I wouldn’t take this major; I certainly wouldn’t choose a school specifically for it.</p>
<p>Who exactly would be tagging me as a vocational major? A med school adcom? And why should that matter as long as the coursework prepares me for the mcat and more than fulfills the premed requirement?
I definitely hear you on not choosing Santa Cruz specifically for this program though.
I looked a little more into the internship program and, although very good, it seems geared toward juniors and seniors, which, correct me if I’m wrong, wouldn’t help me very much with medical school admission anyways.
Thanks a lot for your input, even though I’ve read in some of your previous posts that you despise the UC system anyways, hahaha.</p>
<p>Yes. It matters because there’s a risk that an apparently vocational major will make a bad first impression, which can kill you when a dean of admissions is sorting through 7,000 applications.</p>
<p>And yes, the UC system in general is a terrible place to be a premed.</p>