Pre-Med at UCSD

So I have to make a decision about what school I’m going to by may 1st. I want to do bio and the pre med req’s but am also worried about grades. I was wondering how the curves and scales are for UCSD and more specifically GPA and grades in general? And if theres any UCSD bio pre med kids out there, is there a way I could contact you so i can ask some questions to help my decision? It would be a blessing

I know UCSD has great research and volunteer opportunities, the only deciding factor is GPA. I also noticed that the med school acceptance rate is 40%, and I was wondering how many students that included? If anyone knows

I’m a human bio premed at UCSD, you can ask me questions if you want!

S graduated from UCSD and is a MD. He loved his 4 years at UCSD. But, especially in premed courses, you will be sitting in classes of 2-400 very smart students, both premed or not, many trying to earn top grades, with perhaps only 20% earning As, most will get Cs or lower. S finished first year with GPAs below 3.2. He had to wait to apply until after he graduated in order to give himself time to repair his GPAs.

A very important consideration is UCSD operates on a 10 week quarter system. You must stay on top on material from day one.

Unless you have aspirations of attending a big research med school, research is not an absolute must EC on a med school app. You might be better off participating in ECs that involve community service, shadowing, etc.

Keep in mind applying to med school is year long process, meaning if you’re trying to start med school after graduating at end of your senior year, you must apply in summer after your junior year. This means you have to have a competitive app in 3 years (eg top grades, MCAT, ECs, etc). You may want to consider slowing down, if anything to keep up grades, then applying after senior year, taking a gap year. It’s best to apply one time with strongest possible application.

Also understand all US med schools are good schools. Getting into one is quite the feat. Many CA students attend med school OOS as there is simply not enough spots available for all the qualified applicants.

Have a Plan B as 60% of those that actually apply will not get accepted to any med school, most who start as premed will change career paths before ever applying. No matter where you go, premed will be hard. Pick the school where you think you’d be most happy/fit in because if you are happy/fit in, you’ll tend to do better GPA wise which is something med schools care, in part, a great deal about.

Good luck.