MCB Major and Life at Cal and

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>So I got accepted by Cal, pretty excited and all.
But I've read some posts on CC saying how Cal is a "crucible" for developing character
and how you gotta fight for stuff and the ppl are nasty, creating fake study notes to fail you.
I've also read other posts saying ppl at Cal are nice and friendly and helpful.
So which is the truth??
I don't know what to believe...</p>

<p>Also, how competitive is a non-impacted MCB Major (Immunology) at Cal?
is it as competitive as EECS?
If I want to get into a medical school, is attending Cal the best choice for me?</p>

2

<p>Community college is the best choice for getting into medical school, followed by the last couple of years in a very easy 4 year collage, as you get the best shot at an extremely high GPA. As long as you master the material needed for hte MCAT, you are in. </p>

<p>That of course ignores the value and quality of the education you get. </p>

<p>Depends upon your priorities.</p>

<p>Yes, there may be nasty people at Cal (and everywhere else in life), but the vast majority are nice, friendly people. Go visit and see for yourself. </p>

<p>If you just want med school, take an easy non-science major, either at Cal or somewhere easier. Other than the pre-req courses, medical schools don’t care at all what major you pursued as an undergrad. </p>

<p>If you want to take Immunology because the subject fascinates you and it is something you really want to learn more of, then a top level place like Cal is ideal. </p>

<p>Again, depends on you and what your objectives and priorities are.</p>

3

<p>Time for my public service announcement; if you are not premed, please ignore this</p>

<p>MCB is the hardest bio major not including Chemical Biology. Doing MCB does not help at getting into medical school than any other major. Medical schools don’t give a flying **** what your major is.</p>

<p>If you genuinely like MCB, major in it.
If you think you need to be MCB to be premed, you are horribly wrong. MCB has a good chance of crushing your GPA. Not good for medical school
If you are doing MCB because you ‘just want to be a biology major’, reconsider your actions. There are plenty of biology majors and if you just like biology in general, there is no real reason for you to specifically be MCB</p>

<p>Average departmental GPAs from CampusBuddy</p>

<p>IB is 3.34
BioE is 3.51
EPS is 3.50
ESPM is 3.45
ES is 3.39
PMB is 3.28
Public Health is 3.62
NST is 3.37</p>

<p>MCB is 2.96</p>

4

<p>So if MCB is really tough, what about majoring in psychology and taking pre-med prerequisite classes?</p>

5

<p>Thank you for the replies rider and anon5524485.
Your posts enlightened me. I actually thought a biology major was the way to get
into a medical school.
But if MCB major is so tough, what do people generally plan to acheive from majoring in MCB?
Are there decent job offers after 4 yrs of undergrad or anything like that?
Also, what other biology major are offered at Cal besides MCB?</p>

<p>LAstly, is it possible to switch major now? XP</p>

6

<p>if you’re a new l&s admitted student you are considered undeclared.</p>

7

<p>Look at biology.berkeley.edu for a list of biology majors; one, side note, the university considers Earth and Planetary Sciences to be a biology major, but I don’t think very many people would agree with that.</p>

<p>I personally am an IB/Latin double major (non-premed though). I generally try to avoid pushing IB.</p>

<p>I read somewhere that a careercenter report showed that 75% of MCB majors were premed or other prehealth, 10-15% were going off to use their BA (lab work and teaching are basically the main jobs a biology degree can get you), and the remainder were graduate school bound.</p>

8

<p>Here’s some real sensible advice devoid of nonsense.</p>

<p>Take your lower divs, then actually take a MCB upper division class. See how you like it first hand instead of listening to posters who have never even taken a single MCB class. Taking anon2528462’s PSA without a grain of salt is basically akin to a blind mouse leading other blind mice. Except, in this case, the leading blind mouse isn’t even looking for the same thing as the blind mice following. Yeah, he’s not a premed. It makes more sense to seek advice from IB or MCB peer advisers who are actually going through the med school process right now.</p>

<p>Sure, MCB has a lower average GPA, but if you’re serious about being a GPA whore, then attend an easier college. Where you get your Bachelor’s degree from matters little to med schools, especially within the UC system. In fact, a 3.6 from UCI will always trump a 3.3 from Berkeley in the eyes of med school admission committee, ceteris paribus.</p>

<p>However, if you want to attend Berkeley and find MCB interesting, take a course in it first, then judge the department. Don’t take the words of people who have never taken a single MCB class.</p>

9

<p>1st - Bio 1A/L is an MCB course, so yes I have taken an MCB course.</p>

<p>2nd - the MCB department themselves told people to judge their major based on Bio 1A/L and how much the modules interest them to determine whether MCB is for them; apparently, they got rid of the display that said that. It was on the south-side of VLSB.</p>

<p>3rd - Most of the IB/MCB staff advisers weren’t premeds either; you don’t need a premed to be able to explain premed requirements, if so most biology professors would not even be worthy of advising premeds</p>

10

<p>I am a 4th year, MCB Immunology track 2 major. I’ve taken MCB102, 142, 150, 103 and 114, the last three being Immunology, Bacterial Pathogenesis and Virology, respectively. Currently taking 150L. Plus, I did undergraduate research for 9 months in a Bio lab on-campus, so I think I’m qualified to answer.</p>

<p>First things first. I am not pre-med, though many of my friends are. And the answer to competitiveness is: YES. MCB is the most difficult Bio major on campus. It has too many students overtaxing too few resources and people. Immunology in particular is hit hard, having one faculty adviser and 2 peer advisers to the 3-4 of each for the other emphases. </p>

<p>In terms of cooperation, there is not too much incentive for it. Things are civil in labs or discussion sections, where cooperation and respect are needed. But what motivation is there to study together outside of class, really? Unlike EECS and most of Engineering, there are no long-term projects that you have to get a group of 5-6 to do, so basically outside the classroom, all bets are off. On the plus side, if you do find a study buddy, odds are you two will become close friends, since you’ll be studying many, many hours. I would say I study 4-6 hours a day, if you average it out.</p>

<p>Honestly speaking, if you want to do Bio and Immunology or diseases, go for CNR’s Microbial Biology or Molecular Environmental Biology (MEB). You take essentially the same courses, but since you’re in CNR, there are a lot more resources to draw upon if you need them. </p>

<p>Furthermore, you may find that once you get into the upper-divs specific to Immuno, that you actually don’t like it as much. That’s what happened to me when I took 150, 103 and 114. There was little change from the lower division courses; in fact, it was more of the same cell bio I had been hearing since second year. Also, they actually had more memorization than the lower divs. All those stories about how the upper divs are conceptual? Not really true. </p>

<p>As for crowding, upper div MCB courses never fall much below 130-150 people in class size, so if you plan out your schedule and are aggressive in signing up early, you should be fine. The problem arises with some of the courses that are only offered 1 semester/year, eg 103 and 114.</p>

<p>Finally, thanks to the Internet, you can actually watch some Cal Courses online at webcast.berkeley.edu. I particularly recommend watching Bio1AL, who has one of the most unpopular professors on campus. How bad? When I took it in Spring07, he was covering 60-70 slides in a 50 minute lecture period. The kicker? Each week there were 100-130 slides in the entire presentation.</p>