Life as a pre-med student at UCLA?

Hello there!

I am a prospective student at UCLA. As a Bio major, what opportunities are there at UCLA which might offer a competitive advantage over other UC campuses?

I am pursuing a pre-med path so I would appreciate it if anyone had experience regarding the amount of opportunities there are for someone like me. I’ve gotten an invitation to join the honors program at UCR, however, I don’t fancy the location too much which is why I am giving thought to other UC’s. What do you guys think would be the right move to make in this situation? On the one hand, I really value involvement and closeness from teachers. However, I also believe that the LA location would suit my life-style better. I have heard great things about both schools and I want to get an outsiders perspective on the issue.

Thanks yall!

Hi there!

My wife was a pre-med at UCLA and the UCLA experience was, at least for her, phenomenal as a pre-med.

She had access to tons of great labs, great internship opportunities (she worked at Jules Stein for a while) and just generally enjoyed her overall resource pool there. Downside: pre-med at UCLA is pretty cutthroat competitive and weeder classes are real.

However, and this is key: if you can’t make it through undergrad weeder classes, you likely would struggle in med school itself. Med school is a fire hose, so getting used to pushing past a bunch of competitive folks in the beginning is good anyway.

A few things to note overall:

  1. Med school admissions are a numbers game. GPA, MCAT, school ranking, etc. Having more of these stacked in your favor is always better.
  2. Time is your most valuable resource, and having so much in a relatively small campus is pretty nice.
  3. The pre-med machine at UCLA is pretty well-oiled overall.

Good luck!