<p>I bolded any interesting parts:</p>
<p>Applied to UCSB, UCSD and UCLA</p>
<p>African American female from upstate NY</p>
<p>UC GPA 3.9 (would be 4.2 if UC schools approved honors courses from NY)</p>
<p>ACT: 31</p>
<p>SAT 2:
Biology- 700
Physics- 620
US History- 600</p>
<p>Past honors/AP classes:
AP Physics- 4
AP US History- 4
Latin 4 University (earned college credit)
Spanish 4 Honors
Biology Honors</p>
<p>Senior year course load:
-College credit for Medical Terminology
No AP Classes this year due to a special academic program (New Visions Health Careers Exploration):
Participating in a selective program for seniors in my county who are interested in a career in medicine. 13 kids are accepted out of my entire county. The course load is VERY intense. 3 days out of the week are spent shadowing doctors to gain clinical experience.</p>
<p>Awards/Certificates:
Outstanding Participant for National Achievement Scholarship (top 3% of black scorers on psat)
Completed LeaderSpark program
2 years in a row Cum Laude Award for achievement on National Latin Exam</p>
<p>ECs:
Drama Club primary singer grades 10 and 11 (our schools theater program is very intense. we win regional awards every year)
Photography editor of Art/Lit magazine grades 9-11
National Honors Society member
Latin Club grade 10
Job part-time during school year and full-time over summer</p>
<p>Excellent essay and recommendations from two teachers and my guidance counselor.</p>
<p>Likely in, as long as you wrote an essay about overcoming adversity. But, you would be foolish to attend UC for premed. 1) At $55k/year, there are much, much better values available. 2) UC is extremely competitive in the sciences, and all intro courses are strictly curved. Many students in Frosh Chem will have already taken AP Chem and earned a 5; they are just retaking Chem for the “easy” A (and med school apps). Without a rigorous HS background, you will be behind at the start.</p>
<p>bluebayou, where do you recommend I apply instead for the better value? I’ll either be going to a private school/OOS (not interested in SUNY/CUNYs for a long list of reasons) so its going to cost me an arm and a leg regardless…</p>
<p>And would it really be better for me to attend a school that was less competitive for science? Although med schools do consider GPA, the main thing they are looking at is the MCAT scores. I imagine that I ought to go wherever could prepare me best for the tests, not where I could get an easy 4.0.</p>
<p>But thank you for the insight! I didn’t really consider the idea of the courses being curved along with the “genius kids.”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s incorrect. Every school is different, of course, and being a hooked candidate, is a big plus factor, but standard acceptances are approximately 40% gpa, 40% MCAT, and 20% all other. Thus, a 3.0 gpa is nearly impossible to make-up for in testing.</p>
<p>I would recommend applying to private schools for the same money. If you like California perhaps USC, but even it has a lot of premed gunners. Duke, Vandy, Emory, Chicago, Boston College, NYU, just to name several; there are plenty of great private colleges. If you have the $, throw in an app to Stanford or an Ivy – very low probability, but zero if you don’t try.</p>
<p>I have applied to USC and NYU. I’m looking to stay in either the New York City or southern California area.
For California privates I also applied to USD and Chapman, but to me it seemed like their academics in general were sub-par compared to the other schools I applied to. Do you think I’d be better off for pre-med at USD/Chapman than UCLA?</p>
<p>I’ve heard that UCLA is the place to be if you want to do pre-med. my friend graduated from UCLA last yr and is now attending med school. I live in So cal and I haven’t heard many good things about chapman. I think it is a good school for economics and stuff like that, I’m not really sure though. I do know that USD has a really good science program. I also want to do pre med and I would apply there if I wanted to stay in So cal.</p>
<p>Have you looked at any of the claremont colleges?</p>
<p>U-San Diego, absolutely over Chapman. UCLA offers a great bio-sci program, but is extremely competitive – outsiders have absolutely no idea, and not worth the $55k price tag, IMO.</p>
<p>marix, I looked into the Claremont schools but they were all so small 
They just didn’t seem like a good fit for my personality.</p>
<p>So bottom line, my top choice for SoCal pre-med should either be University of San Diego or UCLA (if I can handle the crazy competition between students)?</p>
<p>The claremont colleges are all quite small, but put them together and there is a schools of about 5000 kids, with excellent facilities and lots to do.</p>
<p>bluebayou, I meant to put “UCLA/USC (If I can handle the crazy competition)”</p>