Is it that you want your daughter to go to med school, or that she wants to? The issue is that when she selects her classes during orientation- it’s called Pass-she’ll be noting the diploma requirements for the major.
The following is what our daughter’s experience was at Davis. She eventually moved onto UCSF for her med school training. If your child doesn’t get into Davis, then the following is moot because every UC is DIFFERENT:
She’ll receive a booklet that shows the courses she needs for the major for graduation, and, what credits from AP scores she’s received.
I will comment on the Davis program because that’s where our middle daughter attended and majored in NPB. (Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavioral Science)
They don’t have “premed” as a major. You have to seek out the pre-health advising team.
This team is separate from the department and covers a slew of majors. In her year, the College of Biological Sciences graduated 1000 students in the Spring. That’s 2000 students a year from just one UC, in just one discipline. I believe that a majority of those students were initially seeking med school, but grades and attrition slowly diminished those numbers. My daughter’s best friend, switched to electrical engineering, because it was easier.
If your child is currently not strong in math, physics, and science, then this program will be extremely tough. Every student in this discipline tends to be really strong. The thing about Davis’s pre health advising is that they have a slew of references to volunteer clinical and lab experiences that a student can choose from. Davis has their hospital facilities and clinics in the Sacramento area, twenty minutes away from the campus on I-80 east. Those experiences, however, can get inundated with students which require interviews.
If your child hasn’t already started, or had volunteer hours in med-related areas, then she may not have the experience to acquire lab positions. Our daughter was selected for her well-paid lab position because, during the summers, she volunteered at a large pet hospital where my friend was the supervising physician.
Plus, our daughter took an elective biotech course at her high school, where she was required to have an internship at a local medical facility. Her medical facility was UCSD. As a fluent Spanish speaker, she was selected as a volunteer there to interpret. Because of these experiences, she pretty much nailed any interviews she went on for volunteering in the Davis area.
Your child has to want it, and must work hard at it. Our daughter led her experiences and came to us when needed. She would ask us for help to network our friends. This was while she was in high school doing her ECs and sports, and we thought it was a bit too much for her. My point is that she directed us. We’d hear about her volunteer and job positions after the fact. Make sure that these are things that she wants to do.
