<p>I am premed...and I am thinking of MCB. However, I hear horror stories everywhere about MCB. What are people's opinion about the major and how hard is it (really) to get all As doing MCB? Is it really THAT competitive? Plus, what percentage of MCB are premed?</p>
<p>MCB is an impacted major, and that makes it competitive. The first two years at berkeley just about all your MCB-based classes will be weeders: meant to be hard, harshly curved, meant to 'trim the fat'. You will be working hard for this major, but if that is what you want to do, just dig in and do it!</p>
<p>Wait. So if I can get through the first 2 years with the prereq courses for mcb, then the MCB major classes won't be TOO hard??? I know that by weeding out the students, there will probably be just the crazy smart ones left competing....but are CLASSES themselves really hard?</p>
<p>^ not true. Upper division MCB classes are still pretty hard and the curve is no more generous than that in the weeder classes. The graders like to rob points off your midterm for some random proteins that you forget to mention, which explains why everyone writes an essay for a one-sentence long question (lame).</p>
<p>...and yeah, I don't think I've ever seen a MCB person who is not also a premed.</p>
<p>im not sure about this since i’m only a first year, but it seems like many people start out as mcb, but then switch to something else like ib or meb. it’s probably because they got owned in the weeder classes. i think it is almost impossible to get all A’s (no A-s’). but maybe you’ll be the first one!</p>
<p>anon5524485: duh! of course an ib prof would say that mcb is not the best premed major.</p>
<p>If you're a premed student, then it doesn't really matter what you major in. You have to take all the premed classes that are not just specific to MCB. All premeds have to take general biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and math. It doesn't matter what you major in, you will have to go through them if you are a premed.</p>
<p>Consider your upper division courses your interest classes since med schools mainly evaluate your prereqs. Take note, though, that many med schools have begun using biochem as an additional prereq. If you do some research on studentdoctor.net, you will see that biochem is a strong predictor of first year (basic sciences) performance in med school.</p>
<p>The truth is, there is no best premed major. Any major works as long as you like the subject and you finish your prereqs with high marks.</p>
<p>anon5524485: you said that an IB prof said it, now you say it was a paleoanthropologist… also thanks for pointing out the obvious. i think almost every premed here at cal already knows that you can be any major and still be premed.</p>
<p>what i meant by ‘start mcb’ is exactly the definition that you explained.</p>
<p>"Furthermore he said that even the MCB professors aren't even saying MCB is the best and that it is only some MCB students who are saying that."</p>
<p>Maybe no one has asked MCB professors that? Let's face it, the question of which is the best premed major is simply ridiculous. There is no universal best premed major. The best premed major is one that you are interested in. In addition, why does it matter what MCB students say? What they say are opinions and you should take them as such. And for those MCB students, maybe MCB is the best for them because they are interested in the subject.</p>
<p>"Also people, don't "start MCB". Starting MCB means you declare the MCB major and you finally start taking courses from the MCB major, and then suddenly switch to another bio major. People put down MCB as their intended major, start doing the generalized bio prereqs (Chem 1A, 3A-B, Bio 1A-B, Physics 8A-B, Math 16A-B/1A-B) and then realize that MCB is the hardest ****ing bio major, and then they declare their major in something different."</p>
<p>Uh, what? If someone who is intending to do MCB, but has only done the prereqs, how does he/she know that MCB is "the hardest ****ing bio major" if he/she hasn't taken a single MCB course yet?</p>
<p>In any case, I understand your point. MCB gives out lower grades than other bio majors. But, so what? Have you ever considered the fact that premeds major in MCB, because they genuinely enjoy the major? The point is, you shouldn't shy away from a major because it gives out lower grades. Do what you like.</p>
<p>is it realistic that a person in Haas can be a business major and still fulfill the pre-med requirements?</p>
<p>It will be hard.
anon5524485: “MCB is the hardest ****ing bio major, and then they declare their major in something different.”</p>
<p>Well, there are only two bio majors at Cal, MCB and IB. So what the hell are you talking about? You mean MCB is the harder major. Also, I don’t understand your bias against MCB, considering you appear to be only a freshmen, or lower division student at the least. You would hardly qualify to give such a sweeping claim to someone else.</p>
<p>"MCB is the hardest ****ing bio major, and then they declare their major in something different."</p>
<p>If you want to be technical and go beyond the two largest bio majors in L&S, then your statement is false and ill-informed.
Chemical biology would be the "hardest ****ing bio major."</p>
<p>MCB is not impacted. It's the biggest major at Berkeley, but it's not impacted.</p>
<p>If I were a premed student I would major in something non science and take the required science courses.</p>
<p>Here’s the true story about MCB:</p>
<p>As others have noted, if you’re pre-med you have to take all the intro bio/chem courses anyway, so it’s not just MCB. Pre-med and MCB are synonymous because they have the same requirements so most pre-meds are in MCB.</p>
<p>From my experience, most first/second years who are MCB-intended are pre-med. I’d say upwards of 80%. However, this is misleading because many don’t end up declaring MCB. Why? Med schools don’t care much about the upper-division classes. So if you take the pre-reqs for med school and was intending to do MCB, but then realize MCB is hard and you don’t have to major in it since you finished your pre-med prereqs, you might decide to major in something easier, i.e. IB. But even then, you pretty much were a MCB major for the first two years, since you took the same classes, even if you don’t actually end up majoring in it.</p>
<p>Is it hard? I don’t think it’s difficult so much as it is competitive. The real difficult majors are majors like EECS, CS, Physics, ChemE. Basically, everyone hates OChem because it’s boring and tedious and confusing.</p>
<p>Is it hard to get all A’s? It’s virtually impossible. Is it because the tests are rigged to weed students out? No, the tests are definitely doable. The thing is you have to memorize so many darn reactions that it would literally take up all your time if you want all A’s, and most students (wisely) decide that it’s simply NOT WORTH IT to get the A’s.</p>
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<p>I dunno anon5524485, your posted used the word “major”. ;)</p>
<p>If we’re talking biology majors though, I wouldn’t call MCB the second hardest either. For example, I’d easily put not only ChemBio but BioE above MCB.</p>
<p>I don’t think people do MCB because they’re pre-med and it’s the most popular amongst pre-meds. I think most people who are pre-meds do MCB because they don’t have to take another set of classes. If I were a pre-med and I want to do history, I’d have to take another set of history classes on top of my pre-med classes, but if I do MCB, I’m pretty much set. I wish I could agree with your sentiment but I honestly don’t think many people really like MCB.</p>
<p>I'm too lazy to look but how complete is their data? Many websites tend to have small sample sizes.</p>
<p>Also, low GPA doesn't directly correlate with difficulty. MCB <em>might</em> be more competitive because it has more pre-meds, but I think BioEngineers have the tougher classes, hands down.</p>
<p>upper division bioe is graded very leniently. its just the first two years that are hell you have to get past.</p>
<p>You should only major in MCB because you like science and are good at it.</p>
<p>I am a MCB but I haven't decided on the premed thing. I am thinking more about grad school because I really like to do research. </p>
<p>People always put so much emphasize of "pre-med" for MCB people. Why?? ...
Gee... Can't we just like to study molecular biology and be respected as other science majors ex. chem or physics?</p>
<p>I’m about to finish my junior year MCB at Cal, I am switching to IB
To me, MCB its absolutely incredibly hard, to some people it might be not, but I am in these classes and I have experienced first hand its difficulty.</p>
<p>Mind you, I got all As in ochem, phys, calculus… all the pre-reqs… I still got Cs in some of my MCB classes, barely.</p>
<p>Then again, I might be biased, I usually sit right on the curve.</p>
<p>In most classes, professors go on a power point frenzy and its hard to catch what you think its important to know, so you end up having to learn every single thing.</p>
<p>Also, most tests are experimental questions are about cases or molecules you might have never heard of before, and must infer the information from what you know. It might sound straightforward, but not all people have the natural ability to do this. Even though they emphasize short answers, you cant help to go along and write paragraphs just to be safe you did not forget to mention a random ass detail. No wonder students in office hours ask these random, bizarre questions just to hope and nail the professors mind into one of the questions he might ask.</p>
<p>MCB is NOT impacted, but it is very popular; which makes it very competitive, maybe just as much as the weeder classes. For example, in a cancer class I took; the first mid term average was a D+ I think, then a C+, the final was like a D-. Only 3 people got A’s, out of 120. Some other classes are more leniant: 10-15% As.</p>
<p>But then again, some other people are just generally good at MCB and have great studing habits.</p>
<p>I guess, the safe thing to say is: Don’t do MCB unless you hate molecular technical details or hate studying 90% of the time. From person to person, the difficulty range can go from at least challenging to impossibly difficult; you know, walking out of those mid terms with suicidal thoughts.</p>
<p>Take for instance, the Immunology test I just took</p>
<p><em>15 minutes before the tests ends after 2 hours</em> Professor: So, I take as an indicator on the test’s difficulty on how soon people start turning in their tests, and since nobody has turned it in, I will give you all 15 more minutes.</p>
<p>Facts:
-The department average is a C
-Not impacted, but very competitive
-Long, 10 page mid terms, 20 page finals
-As low as 4-5% As on the harder classes, 15-20% As on the easiest Ones
-Do NOT need this for Med school, take ANY major so long as you take the pre-reqs and show research/extracurricular related to science
-Plenty of people transfer from MCB to IB, I have direct contact with the IB program coordinator.</p>
<p>MCB sample courses:
102: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
104: Genetics, Genomics, & Cell Biology
132: Biology of Human Cancer
150: Immunology
160: Mamalian Neuroanatomy.
140: Genetics.</p>
<p>IB sample:
Evolution
General Anatomy
Sports Medicine
Motor Coordination
Ethnobiology
Microbiology
Physiology</p>
<p>Good Luck to you all making your decision</p>
<p>lol nice 2 year bump there :)</p>
<p>From my experience, the best way to decide IB v. MCB is to take both Bio 1A and Bio 1B and decide which you like better. Almost everyone agrees that 1B (plants, ecology, evolution) is easier than 1A (molecular/cell biology, genetics, physio), but many people do find the Bio 1A material much more interesting and would prefer an interesting and more challenging track to a bland and easy track.</p>
<p>I agree that if you only want to be Premed and do not care about what you do these four years, you should probably stick with IB or Environmental Biology or something. But if you like the material from Bio 1A and think you might want to try research and get a better in-depth education on molecular biology and biochemistry, you can do really well in MCB. The upper div classes are curved easier than lower div Bio/Ochem and the averages are set to Bs instead of Cs. It makes sense though because a lot of people in Ochem/Bio1a have no idea what they want and are just not smart/interested enough to understand the material.</p>
<p>Cang087, which MCB courses in particular have you taken? Most of the MCB courses I’ve seen have at least 15% A’s, most around 20%, according to CourseRank.</p>
<p>^It’s true for the most part. </p>
<p>If you hate Bio1A and cannot manage to do decently in it, you should not be MCB. And if you like the material and can do well in the class, there is no reason to be afraid of the upper division classes.</p>
<p>(And I’m not including labs in this, **** Bio1al and meighan lol)</p>