<p>I feel like I am in a slump. I don't know what my strengths are anymore. What i thought I was good at in high school, I'm barely average here. </p>
<p>I don't know, I just feel disappointed with myself. I wish I could start over from 1st year and do better, but I think i have lost out already. Are there tons of people who get below 3.0s here at berkeley? From this forum, it looks like all of you are geniuses who get 3.5+. </p>
<p>I'm not sure if I should switch majors or not. It's already too late, since we have to declare by end of 2nd year....and then there is the societal pressure from the asian community that anything other than medicine/engineering/law or whatever is the only way to go. My parents don't pressure me and want me to major in something I like, but due to influences of my asian/indian friends who are all majoring in biology or engineering or whatever and look down upon the "dumb" majors (like english or whatever...), I feel like I have to major in MCB or something "good".</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong, I do like biology. But maybe I'm not that great in all this bio/organic chem BS. Sorry for this rant. Sometimes I wish i had that time turner thing from harry potter so i could go back in time lol.....</p>
<p>have you guys ever felt this way? do you have any advice or know any people who ahve gone through similar situations?</p>
<p>I hear ya, but I think it’s all this unpredictable-ness that makes life a bit more exciting. </p>
<p>I just feel sorry for those guys who have their life set and planned even before coming to college and they actually manage to execute it beautifully. No one ever lives without failure and those poor souls will be so hurt if they encounter it sooner or later.</p>
<p>More importantly, having these high GPA and good resume is important just to get the job. They might help you to get a good job, but once you get the whatever job, it is much more important to have a good personality and network so you can advance your career even further. So… I know as a student getting good grades is important, but i have to keep in mind the even bigger picture.</p>
<p>And yeah, i wish my GPA is above 3.5 too lol.</p>
<p>There are plenty of wonderful grad schools that are “easy to get into.” There are plenty of wonderful jobs out there that couldn’t care less about your GPA. There are plenty of wonderful people out there who feel the exact same way as you.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley can sometimes feel a bit like a bubble…filled with super competitive students who seem to have tunnel vision and are only focused on two things: 4.0 and career.</p>
<p>There’s a whole lot more to life than that. Spend some more time with your friends - your friends who don’t care about your major and don’t care about your GPA, but like you for who you really are. Find some new hobbies. Meet new people. You’ll be happy, and I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll find a job somewhere along the line.</p>
<p>There’s so much life outside of the college bubble. Most people don’t even go to college. Remember how stressful high school sometimes felt, and how stupid it feels in retrospect? Realize that someday you’ll feel the same way about your college experience.</p>
<p>You’re doing fine!</p>
<p>And if you don’t like engineering, medicine, or law…don’t pursue them! Do what you like!</p>
<p>After a bit of work experience, the GPA fades away to nothing and all that matters is that you graduated from UCB, effectively a 2.2 looks just like a 3.95 from a distance.</p>
<p>And unfortunately, yours is an all too common experience for the huge numbers of pre-med bio majors at Cal.</p>
<p>thank you guys. with a lot of advice from my parents and you, i feel a lot better. i was just beating myself up because i messed up badly on the bio1b midterm, even though i knew my stuff. i just made a lot of silly mistakes…</p>
<p>so there are a lot of people with below 3.0 gpa walking around? what do they end up doing for careers and stuff?</p>
<p>soooooo. i have something that might give you hope. this was sad little sophomore me 2 years ago. also a sad, intended bio premed. i, like you, was skeptical about switching into a major that was “non-biology” (I am Psych/PH now)</p>
<p>Let me tell you, it does get better. I am not one of those kids with a 3.98 who complains about how its unfair he missed the A+ in biochem or whatever that **** is. So you can trust my words since I been through a very similar predicament once upon a time due to lack of motivation, complete absence of prior science training (no AP Bio/Physics let alone “regular” whatsoever, and a horrible hell of a living situation), but I am 1000X happier today), and the general depression that comes with being a Cal premed</p>
<p>thanks waiting4college! i am glad everything has worked out for you now! and yes, i would love a PM haha. </p>
<p>also, another question. why is MCB such a difficult major for premed? I mean, if you are premed, you still ahve to take the same classes as MCB anyway…but instead of having to take classes for another major in addition to premed, you just have the MCB classes?</p>
<p>but yes, waiting, i would love your advice since everything has been working out great. thank you so much!</p>
<p>MCB is difficult because so many of the premeds declare it, for exactly the reasons of maximum overlap that you outlined, but the consequence is that the largest part of your GPA is based on classes with the same pool being weeded down by the grade deflation curving. Same intelligence, same absolute percentage of the subject matter learned, same objective degree of mastery and sophisticated understanding, but in a class far from engineers and premeds, your GPA will be considerably higher on average than in a class infested with premeds or in one of the tough engineering courses that attract the highest performers. Also true of honors level classes, GPA tends to be lower but no compensatory effect like the boost for honors/AP courses that is added in high school to adjust GPA upwards.</p>
<p>There are published stats that list average GPAs, as have been shared by member anon2528462 many times in his exhortations to newly arrived pre-meds to consider other majors (he is/was an IB major). Search under his name to read them. MCB according to his posts yields a lower GPA than most other L&S majors. </p>
<p>Since most pre-med entrants end up with GPAs too low to bother taking the MCAT or even applying to overseas medical schools and most pre-meds declare a biology major, you can draw some conclusions about the odds taking the obvious route. While some are admitted to Cal for holistic reasons who otherwise might not be superstrong academically, for most these are the top few percent of performers from schools and one would expect MOST should be able to do well in med school and should have been competitive with the average applicant, were it not for the weeding out and grade deflation that takes place here.</p>
<p>I might sound ignorant, but I’m saying this because I really don’t know much about MCB.</p>
<p>Is MCB really that hard if you take out the competition? I’m not talking about in terms of grades, but do you take tests that you cannot answer 50% of the question no matter how much you studied for it?
This is some materials that other folks do
[Lagrangian</a> mechanics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange_equation]Lagrangian”>Lagrangian mechanics - Wikipedia), and is this actually easier what you learn as a MCB major?</p>
<p>I’m just curious, not trying to diss any hard-workers out there.</p>
<p>Okay. But what do these MCB majors or any other students with less than 3.0 do in life? do they usually make it? I mean, graduating from Berkeley has to count for something…right?</p>
<p>I like writing. A lot of people have said that I am good in writing essays/papers. Uhm, I’m not sure. I like biology… I also like expressing my opinions in politics/issues…but that isn’t a subject.</p>
<p>I’m sure that even with under a 3.0 you can get into grad school somewhere. If not, you can try to raise it in your remaining semesters. And after that and many years down the road, as Rider730 said, your ugpa will be a small part of your resume. There’s also a lot of other careers. Think about it. We can essentially do what liberal art majors do after graduation. They write essays and develop critical thinking skills through reading and writing. Bio is a very quantitative subject and you learn important reasoning skills that can help.</p>
<p>You should definitely try to get your GPA to be reasonably high - it helps you when you start off for sure. It also helps to have marketable skills, if you want jobs. Otherwise, plan on staying in school a while (grad school, etc).</p>
<p>I didn’t catch what year you are. Don’t just do what you like - do what will help your future. Part of that should ideally be what you like. I’m not sure why it wouldn’t be. </p>
<p>You can definitely major in something else to help out. Honestly, it isn’t that hard to graduate with many majors in a short time. </p>
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<p>I know for a fact that it depends how people think - people who don’t think a certain way tend to do poorly at a major that asks them to think that way. I think the tests in MCB are designed to be hard, just because they know premeds are taking the class, and a certain curve is probably maintained - if everyone scores about the same, then it throws things off.</p>
<p>That said, I doubt the material in MCB is the hardest or anything. Lots of people survive an MCB major - it’s a pretty popular major.</p>
<p>I think this whole grade deflation stuff for med school is nonsense. The smart kids who are destined to go into medicine and top grad programs will excel, and those who aren’t wont. Picking another major won’t help you out since you have to complete the same prereqs anyway. </p>
<p>Don’t believe me? Take the MCAT, which is as standardized as its going to get. If you can kill the MCAT despite having a 3.0 at Berkeley, you may not get in initially, but atleast you can prove that you’re bright, finish a postbacc, and get into a school.</p>
<p>What you’ll find is that the subpar students who don’t have high GPAs at Cal don’t tend to do well on the MCAT.</p>
<p>Success at Cal takes much more than brains, it takes motivation. But if you don’t have the former, you’re SOL. Don’t do MCB if you can’t do well in your classes, because you’re just wasting your time.</p>
<p>but seriously, can somebody answer my question or give me opinions besides the obvious fact that ‘the difficulty of MCB classes depends how students take it’ or ‘professors throw curveball questions’?</p>
<p>No, you don’t take tests like that. I’m not sure where that myth comes from. I’m a CDB Physio major and our tests are very straight-forward from lecture material and practice problems. Is the material “hard”? Not really. It’s more about putting in enough time and work to do well in these classes, and most people don’t. </p>
<p>I’ve only had 1 truly hard test in my MCB upper divs (Berleman, MCB 102). Everything was conceptual as hell and all the problems were puzzles. The average was close to 50% I think. That’s pretty ridiculous for a bio test. In fact, in all my years at Berkeley, I’ve only had 3 truly tough tests (Math 1B, Physics 8B, and MCB 102). Even then, the classes are curved so most people end up doing okay. The whole thing about super-difficult tests at Berkeley is over-blown.</p>