Just Accepted and Pre-med?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - San Diego
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<p>Hello and Congratulations Potential UCSD Class of 2014!</p>

<p>I know many people who come to UCSD have aspirations of eventually going to professional or graduate school, particularly medical school. I'm currently a 2nd year here at UCSD and pre-med myself, a Biology major. I know that many of you will have questions about the whole pre-med process and if you have any questions, even if they are not pre-med related feel free to ask me. I will try my best to respond as quickly as I can but please be patient as UCSD is heading into Finals week, so although I may not answer right away I will eventually get to your question.</p>

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<p>Thanks for doing this. :slight_smile: Do premeds actually do anything other than lock themselves in their dorms and study? What are some of the activities/research you’re doing now? What’s the best and worst thing(s) about being a premed at UCSD?</p>

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<p>What percent of UCSD undergrads get accepted into UCSD’s medical school? Are they given priority spots over those from other undergraduate schools? Have you taken the MCAT? How is your GPA? How does it compare to the GPAs of other pre-meds you know?</p>

<p>I’ll think of more later. =D</p>

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<p>Of course pre-med students do things outside of studying. But for many people it really depends on how much time you yourself need to put into the material. For some people, they can quickly pick up the material for others it takes longer. The real question is determining how many hours you are willing to put into the class and still be satisfied with your performance. One of the most important things medical schools want to see is that you are also involved in other sorts of activities. Although great grades can get you pretty far along in the process if that is all you have a medical school acceptance is not likely. </p>

<p>I’m currently participating in is a program through the Student Health Services and I also work as a clinical research assistant. </p>

<p>The best thing about being pre-med at UCSD is that there are a ton of opportunities to get involved in whether it be volunteer work at local hospitals, internships, research, becoming a teaching assistant. I myself find so many thing I want to be a part of but know I can’t fit in. The most important thing in finding these great opportunities is looking for them yourself, don’t expect someone to tell you about every possible activity on campus. One of negative sides about being pre-med is its often difficult to get the professor you want for a class, this has nothing really to do with being pre-med but mostly due to the large amount of science majors here at UCSD.</p>

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<p>The Power of One, </p>

<p>According to data collected from the UCSD Career Services in 2008, 26 out 326 UCSD applicants were accepted to medical school, roughly 8%. Here is a link with the pdf file, <a href=“http://career.ucsd.edu/L3/sa/documents/UCSDAdmits05-07.pdf[/url]”>http://career.ucsd.edu/L3/sa/documents/UCSDAdmits05-07.pdf&lt;/a&gt;. In 2008, 463 UCSD students applied to medical school and 43% of them got in. Also, according to UCSD Career Services the mean cumulative GPA of students admitted to M.D. programs is a 3.6. You can more information here, [Medicine</a> (also see Health) - Career Services Center](<a href=“http://career.ucsd.edu/L3/sa/PMedicine.shtml]Medicine”>http://career.ucsd.edu/L3/sa/PMedicine.shtml). </p>

<p>I’m not sure if anyone knows whether UCSD undergraduates are given preference to UCSD medical school. I honestly believe they do not, even though UCSD accepts the most UCSD undergrads according to the pdf file above. Think about this way UCSD med school knows and understands the courses they provide that are necessary for entrance to medical school. Also, the letters of recommendation that you might be sending them are possibly professors they have even calibrated with for projects. The fact that UCSD knows its own undergrad program is most likely why more UCSD undergrads get into UCSD med school compared to the other UCs. </p>

<p>I have not yet taken the MCAT but am planning on doing so within the year. </p>

<p>As of now my overall GPA is higher than a 3.7. </p>

<p>To be honest I’m not sure how it compares with other pre-meds, many people that I know that were pre-med during their first year are no longer and some other ones that I do know like to keep it somewhat personal. </p>

<p>For more information about medical school and any sort of other professional/graduate school I recommend taking a look here, [Professional</a> and Graduate School Opportunities - Career Services Center](<a href=“http://career.ucsd.edu/L3/sa/GettingStartPGSOP.shtml]Professional”>http://career.ucsd.edu/L3/sa/GettingStartPGSOP.shtml).</p>

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<p>Just one more question, sorry</p>

<p>Out of all the other schools you were accepted to, why did you pick UCSD? Because I really love Berkeley but I think SD would be better for bio…</p>

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<p>Thank you for doing this, I have a question:</p>

<p>I am an incoming freshmen just accepted as undeclared, even though I applied bioengineering. I don’t want to major in anything else. I’m considering medical school later, but I want to get an engineering degree first because I’m not sure about med school and I know I love bioengineering.
But it’s impacted so they put me undeclared. What do I do now? What are my chances for getting in to the program? Should I just go somewhere else where I was accepted bioengineering (Irvine?). Sorry sorta complex question.</p>

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<p>figuresk8ting, </p>

<p>I’m not absolutely sure about going from undeclared to bioengineering. I’m fairly sure you can apply to be a BioE major after you have taken some of the pre-req courses but I don’t know all the details about it. Honestly though if you are seriously considering pre-med, I suggest not being a BioE major, I know many people who came in as BioE: Pre-med and their GPA got destroyed, many of these people now have a very difficult and long uphill battle to be anywhere near competitive. Don’t get me wrong if you can do BioE and keep the good GPA that’s awesome but from experience I suggest you don’t even take that chance. I suggest looking through the UCSD BioE website, I’m confident you can find the answers your looking for there.</p>

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<p>figuresk8ting,
I have a friend that was in your boat. Basically they just took the recommended courses in fall for a bio-e major and then applied for that major in winter quarter (a lot of people drop out of bio-E in fall) and got in. Don’t stress too much about it. Yes, it’s impacted, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get in.</p>

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<p>Hey, so I just got accepted into UCSD, but I did not get the primary major I wanted (bioengineering) and instead got into chemical engineering. However, I still want to go into medical school. Should I try to change my major to something under biological sciences to prepare myself for medical school? I know that you can major in anything to take the mcats, but I’d rather not waste my time taking chemical engineering courses. . . what do you think I should do?</p>

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<p>Thank you so much xpenguin and Richzz89, I’ll keep that in mind. I’m not completely sure about medical school yet, but I know for sure I want to do engineering. Keeping a perfect GPA has never been a challenge for me, I’m ready for a real challenge. ^_^</p>

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<p>i got accepted to ucsd as a human biology major? is that a good major if I’m planning for medical school?..i also got accepted to ucla as a biochemistry major…what would you recommend?</p>

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<p>I know that we should major in something we are interested and passionate about, but in terms of maintaining as high of a GPA as possible, what majors are considered much “easier” in terms of getting the best grades in?</p>

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<p>If you were to take the same classes and receive the same GPA for each, which would look better when applying to med school- UCLA or UCSD Revelle? I’m majoring in molecular biochemistry (is this the best path to take to become a doctor?)</p>

<p>Also, Richzz89, do you happen to know anything about the UCSD Medical Scholars Program? Pros? (other than acceptance to UCSD’s School of Medicine and not having to take the MCAT, thus having more free time) Any cons?</p>

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<p>I’m a 4th year biology major…I can also answer questions although I don’t frequent here as often. I’m premed (technically MS-0 since I got in this year to several schools!) so you are free to ask me anything that has to do with medicine, UCSD, applying, and the like. You can also PM me if you’d like.</p>

<p>sush1m4n, and everyone in general, if that is what you’re interested (ChemE) go for it. Happy students make good students, which means higher grades. If you’re picking up a major because it’s easy, it might not be easy for YOU since it’s not what you’re interested in and you can’t bring yourself to study. Also, tons of people drop out of pre-med to do pharmacy, nursing, dentistry, physical therapy, optometry, PhDs, etc., so don’t go in the mindset of “I have to be a doctor” because you may find in a couple years that you’re not interested in what a doctor does and you would much rather pursue research. If you feel that you want to be more on the biology side, see if you can switch into the biology major (which is impacted now, so you’ll have to do really well your first year), or bioE: pre-medical (I heard they were discontinuing that major though, but feel free to correct me on this). </p>

<p>In terms of getting into UCSD SoM, I feel as though it’s about an equal chance as anyone else, or perhaps slightly easier. Again, the admissions committee there is familiar with the coursework and some of the professors you will have rec letters from (Truth! At my UCSD interview, they asked how Professor X and Y were doing, who had recommended me), but I feel as though they distort the numbers–for example, they may be including the Med Scholars in the UCSD students accepted to UCSD SoM. I do not know if they do this for sure, but they accept about 6% UCSD students, versus 4-5% overall. I have heard they have a preference for UCSD, UCLA, Berkeley and Stanford students, and they definitely have a high stats preference (so get high GPAs and high MCAT scores!) I know several med scholars, and they’re extremely bright and nice. I don’t see any cons to it, but tons of pros (priority registration, Regents scholar, 4-years on-campus housing, etc.) They don’t even need to go to UCSD SoM if they want to apply elsewhere in 4 years!</p>

<p>jsb: Either school is fine. There is no molecular biochemistry major that I know of at UCSD though. Personally, I would go to the school that I would see myself thriving at. You have no idea how important this is! If you’re depressed all day, and have no fun outside of studying, you’re going to hate school and hate life. Don’t do this to yourself.</p>

<p>The big point I’m making here is: do what makes you happiest! Sure, you’ll <em>have</em> to take a lot of specific classes to apply to medical school, but besides those classes and your major/college requirements, take classes for the sake of it being fun! I’ve taken ukulele classes, gospel choir, English literature classes, and tons of other ones I’d recommend. And if you’re scared it’ll take a hit on your GPA, take it P/NP. :)</p>

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<p>I’m a bit confused about the pre med thing. Is there a program or something that makes you pre med? Or do you just call yourself pre med because you know that you are going to go to medical school?</p>

<p>Also, I got in to UCSD as a general bio major, is that adequate for medical school? Or should I switch into one of the other bio majors? Which one has the best med school prep?</p>

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<p>thanks, i_lose. that was some really great info!
what’s P/NP?</p>

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<p>You call yourself premed if you intend to go to medical school sometime after graduation from college. Premed simply means that you are currently taking classes that are required by medical schools, such as 1 year of general chemistry, 1 year of organic chemistry, 1 year of biology, 1 year of physics, and (depending on the schools) some biochemistry, some math, some English, some psychology and some Spanish.</p>

<p>It doesn’t matter what major you are. Look at it this way: if your friend went to School XYZ which offered 3 different biology majors, would you be able to distinguish which one is harder in practice? Probably not. UCSD has 8 biology majors which makes it all the harder. Honestly, I think General Bio is one of the better biology majors. It allows you the most options in what classes to take, and you aren’t constrained by having to take course X, which is offered once a year, to graduate. You can pick and choose which classes you think are useful or interesting. This is important because the Biology Department is cutting a lot of classes starting next year!</p>

<p>P/NP is pass or no pass. You have this option for most classes. You must take major classes for a letter grade, but for all other classes, you can take P/NP. Up to 25% of your units can be P/NP. If you are premed, minimize your P/NP units unless it’s the only option (certain classes are P/NP only which is fine). For example, I only took 4 units (1 class) P/NP in which I had an option of taking a letter grade or doing P/NP, but took some 20 units P/NP in which it was the only option (mostly research, gospel choir, etc.) It takes a lot of stress out and you learn for the sake of learning, because whether you get 70% in the class, or 99%, you’ll receive a P on your transcript.</p>

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<p>Thank you for the information i_lose! Haha I feel more relaxed now. I keep thinking that I’m missing pieces of the puzzle or like I’m a step behind, but now I’m satisfied that I’m doing okay :]</p>

<p>Another quick question, what do you do on Admit Day? (April 10th this year) How useful is it to attend?</p>

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<p>Quick question: UCSD says that all of the biological science classes are impacted. Biochemistry is listed under chemistry, so would I be able to switch into that major?</p>