<p>i read in the MCB packet i got at WONDERFULLLL cal day that US news rankings rated cal's biological sciences 2nd in the nation. well, if that is true, then why are only 67% of kids who apply to med schools admitted???...i got into Notre Dame (in my hometown) and their rate it a whopping 90% while their premed program ranks nowhere near Cal's and University of Michigan (another place i was considering) is high 70's and Cornell (another one of my choices) is 86%...and i know at Cal i'd have to work my butt off to get good grades...i mean just the premed seminar was intense enough to scare me...and i know kids at UofM and Notre Dame who are premed, got into med school and didnt work as hard or live in as cut throat of an environment as Berkeley.....i guess im just asking if its worth killing myself at Cal when I could go to an easier school AND have a higher % chance at med school.....whats up with the 67% stat? if they're ranked so high (which i believe, the program sounds REALLY tough) then how is THAT possible? Why isn't the rate like...95% for cal? thanks for the help...i, btw, LOVED cal day! berkeley students are so nice and laidback!</p>
<p>i'm in the same situation. Brown premed vs Berkeley. AHHhh 67% vs 92%</p>
<p>keep in the mind three things,
1. the quality of the students at berkeley vs. those privates. 2
. how accurate the data is, being that when privates give those stats the track the students that maybe applied after a few years of doing other things (like a masters or job) and THEN applied ALSO i know some privates weed out in the sense that if you don't have certain stats they will bar you from applying by not writing rec letters<br>
3. berkeley's information is incomplete, the career center only has data from those who provided it , and those numbers are too small to make a conclusion by.</p>
<p>oh and do a lot of kids at cal take a yr off between med school and cal? cuz thats not very common at my other schools but cal kids said they're so burned out they take a yr off...</p>
<p>God, how many times do I have to go over this??? BERKELEY DOES NOT HAVE A PRE-MED COMMITEEE THAT DECIDES IF A POTENTIAL APPLICANT WILL MAKE A GOOD CANDIDATE AND THUS IT ALLOWS ANYONE TO APPLY, EVEN IF THEY HAVE A GPA OF 0.0002 and MCAT SCORES OF -13. NOTRE DAME AND MOST PRIVATE SCHOOLS HAVE A COMMITEE AND HENCE THEY SCREEN OUT STUDENTS THEY THINK WILL NOT GET INTO MEDICAL SCHOOL...AND THUS THEY HAVE AN ARTIFICIALLY HIGH MEDICAL SCHOOL ACCEPTANCE RATE. IF NOTRE DAME HAD THE SAME POLICIES AS BERKELEY, THEY'D PROBABLY HAVE a <70% MED SCHOOL ACCEPTANCE RATE AS WELL.</p>
<p>Thanks for that clarification...but was all caps really necessary?</p>
<p>Its this difference in sampling which makes it incredibly difficult to tell how good of a school Cal really is.</p>
<p>Of Course Caps Are Necessary...they Look Sexy-coooool</p>
<p>How does quality of the biology program actually affect med-school admissions? Is there even a correlation, one that goes away if the school as a whole is say, out of the US News top 50 or something? Why assume the correlation?</p>
<p>i doubt there is a correlation.</p>
<p>Well, I bet there is to some leve, because many students think bio=>med school, and better bio programs tend to be at top schools, which tend to have better students and tend to have higher med school admissions rates, but . . . yeah. Who knows? It's just speculation. The op's question assumes the rule. I just wanted it to be pointed out, because we have no reason to believe it.</p>
<p>Harvard doesn't screen its pre-med students either and yet it boasts a 90% acceptance rate...</p>
<p>well, afterall, it is harvard.</p>
<p>There you go. You can't deny that Cal is second-rate when it comes to pre-med.</p>
<p>what are you talking about, how can you say its pre-med is second rate when all you have compared it to is harvard!? so, your saying that since princeton rates below harvard as an overall undergraduate school, it too is now second rate!
your logic appalls me...</p>
<p>HYP and several other top programs all have med-school admit rates in the 80-90s. UCB is a notch below them, and therefore it is second-rate.</p>
<p>do all of those schools not have screenings for med school students? and even if that is true, even if berkeley's pre med does not send as many student to med school as HYP, it is still very strong and if that is your classification for second rate, then so be it. most colleges then fall between 4th and 5th rate for you then.</p>
<p>Its true that there is screening at other midtier schools like Berkeley. But the top schools also get an added boost by having great career counseling and offering a letter review service and networking with dean's so that students know exactly what is needed for top schools in terms of recommendations and writing. Berkeley has no such service which hurts a lot at the very top schools due to the predominance of soft factors at their level.</p>
<p>Harvard screens its pre-meds- it's called the acceptance and rejection letters.</p>
<p>I have a few questions about your posts, CantSilence.</p>
<p>1- what other schools are "mid tier" like Berkeley? Is this generally mid-tier, or mid-tier with regards to med school acceptances, or pre-med experience?
2- when you say networking with deans, are you talking about deans at medical schools? Does the career center not have people on campus fairly regularly from different places? Does the career center not also help students with what is expdected of them? I'm not saying that they couldn't do more, but you make it sound like they do almost nothing. In fact, you say they do nothing with regard to bringing any deans on campus.</p>
<p>1) I meant mid-tier as in just below the top 10. I guess I wasn't clear enough in my posts. Most privates have better 1on1 counseling, which is part of the reason they cost more in the first place.</p>
<p>2) Yes, they have people visit, but compared to what the top tier schools do, its very minimal and industrial. From what I've seen of the career counselors, I really don't feel like they're qualified to do their job and know very little about anything truly useful.</p>
<p>Now career fairs are great and all, but having the dean at a top law school speak personally with you by appointment or having a person dedicated to reading and critiquing your recommendations and essays (on a level necessary for say Harvard grad/professional school) is quite useful. Berkeley does not seem to offer anything off this caliber on campus. </p>
<p>In addition the alumni network blows chunks for top tier schools (I was initially interested in medical and graduate school). At the top there isn't much feeling of community it seems, at least through the career center.</p>
<p>It seems to me from my experiences with the career center, they don't really offer any useful advice for top tier schools at all. As a law school applicant I've actually asked my friends at other schools to foward my essays and recommendations to their advisors instead, having found the Berkeley ones largely useless for what the type of schools I plan on applying too.</p>