<p>What is the percentage rate of pre-med students actually succeeding into upper division pre-med level at Cal? Is it possible to knock down lower division courses at a junior college and head straight into the upper division within a year or so of undergrad schooling? (The second question isn't particularly a question for me, but a person I know who is expecting to do that at Cal as a freshman next year...She's taken a lot of jc courses throughout her HS year and will continue to do so until the Spring because she's a Spring admit. Her goal is to complete all of the lower division courses by the Spring '09 and begin her "uppergraduate" [thats what she calls it!] stuff from then on. The person also says that she wants to do it with as little work as possible!)</p>
<p>I thought it was tougher than that >:O</p>
<p>Hmm, well depends on what you mean by succeeding. </p>
<p>First a few stats:
Out of the Berkeley undergrads that do apply to med school only ~60% get accepted anywhere. The average MCB GPA is 2.96 so that means the majority of MCB will never get into med school. </p>
<p>O-chem usually weeds people out. It's possible to start taking upper divs if the courses are transferable as a first/second year although I think some upper divs need lower div prereqs at Cal (correct me if I am wrong); let's just say that taking them is very different to succeeding in them (i.e. maintaining a 3.7+). </p>
<p>From what I've seen in my 4 years here there are the dreamers and the doers. </p>
<p>Most first years come in with a very optimistic mentality about med school. Statistics show that most won't make it into med school. Either they will get weeded out by classes like O-chem or they will continue and major in MCB but then fare horribly.</p>
<p>I'm not pre-med, but I am a 4th year, and these are just my observations.</p>
<p>Edit: it was ~60% in 2003; here's a source, but keep in mind that this selection is only from those who released their info to UCB. I would guess that those with higher MCAT scores would be more likely to release their information, so the real percentage is lower.
Career</a> Center - Medical School Statistics</p>
<p>Thank you so much. Your post is very nicely put. And by succeeding....well, you answered that :)</p>
<p>also, 60% of those who applied. that means only a handful. most students do not apply to med school knowing they will be rejected. It's best to look at the average GPA and MCAT of those who did apply. Don't know anyone who got less than 3.5 at Cal and got into a med school.</p>