<p>Hey everybody :) So, I'm entering my first year at Cal and I've already heard plenty of horror stories from other people about how pre-med's tend to sabotage each other by ruining each other's work ( I kind've don't really believe it :P ) and extreme competition.</p>
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<li><p>I completely agree that pre-med is competitive and is competitive at many other schools and it's ok. I'm not excessively competitive, but I do like to work hard :) . The issue is that I'm quite worried about what kind of steps I should take to be successful as a pre-med at Cal. Hahaha, I know some of you will be laughing :D ,but really any answers? Any small tips of utilizing my time at Cal. I mean I'm really into volunteering and totally up for continuing that just for my own fun and not hours,but I'm scared from failing my classes and completely hitting rock bottom. Lol. I'm a pessimistic person. </p></li>
<li><p>My intended major is Public Health ,but I also like Economics. I was thinking about majoring in both, but it's impossible to major in two capped majors right? ;( Like can I apply to both as a double major or is completely impossible? I also like Social Welfare,but it's also capped. Lol :D .Me and my attraction to capped majors. Honestly, I would like a major that I really like and has good job prospects because I really need money as I'm not the most rich or upper middle class person here. I need money to survive somewhat in the future if I don't make to medical school or change my mind. I'm trying to keep an open mind here...... </p></li>
<li><p>But, honestly how's pre-med and any study tips? Any medical school success stories will be encouraging and if possible any majors you like? </p></li>
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<p>My intended schedule is:</p>
<p>Math 16A
Chem 1A/L
Nutritional Science and Toxicology 10
Psychology 1 (maybe, if I don't get waitlisted)</p>
<p>Thanks :D</p>
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<li><p>sorry not pre-med, so i can’t give you much advice on this! here’s links on this topic though and you can find more on this in the search option since a lot of people have asked about pre-med at Berkeley
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/483151-berkeley-premed.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/483151-berkeley-premed.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1067788-premed-at-berkeley-means-bad-gpa-and-no-social-life.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1067788-premed-at-berkeley-means-bad-gpa-and-no-social-life.html</a>
there are a couple of pre-meds lurking so they can answer for you though 
</p></li>
<li><p>There have been people who have doubled in two capped majors; it’s not like it’s impossible, but it just requires more work. I was a Econ major, and it wasn’t actually too hard to get declared (but you do freak out about it anyways until you get in lol). My roommate was a Public Health major, and she’s…not the smartest. Yes, there are requirements, but as long as you study hard, you can probably get into the majors. If you’re looking for a back-up in case you don’t get into med school, you should figure out early what type of career you want, and participate in extracurricular activities (pre-med club, business clubs), or whatever makes you look good on your resume. </p></li>
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<p>Here are the Public Health/Econ employment %s:
<a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/PubHealth.stm”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/PubHealth.stm</a>
<a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Econ.stm”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Econ.stm</a></p>
<p>For those who major in Public Health, the employment % is pretty low compared to Econ (makes sense), and the for those who did the survey for public health likely double majored. If you really need money, Econ is choice; or you can just double in both! you could go into consulting in the health sector or etc. Not to be mean, but if you need to make pocket money for summer, pre-med internships and the like are unpaid, and you have to spend money! business internships are usually paid </p>
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<li>If you don’t need the Psychology 1 for any major, take Psychology 2 cause its less work and easy A (easy A still means you need to do work!)</li>
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<p>MCB Major here at Cal~</p>
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<li><p>The biggest priority you have to have in your time here at Berkeley is to get an A, or the highest possible grade you can in every single one of your classes, if you want to be accepted to medical school. You have to do anything legal it takes to achieve an A on every exam, and every assignment. Berkeley lower division science classes(pre med reqs) are not hard in material, but the exam questions are very tricky, and they are meant to weed out anyone who doesn’t have the aptitude to succeed as a doctor. If your biggest concern in college is your social life/drinking/getting laid etc, you will probably be looking at a lot of C’s and B’s. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s important to have certain extra-curricular activities and friends, but your BIGGEST priority must be your academic achievement, or else you can never seriously consider medical school.</p></li>
<li><p>Nine out of every ten premeds that declare that as their “focus” when they start college never go on to be doctors. Now not every single one of them applied to medical school, there is a lot of self selection, many people switch to other focuses, or non-biological majors. Also, biology majors who are not on a pre-health track, as in premed, predental, prepharm, prevet, preoptometry etc., face poor employment prospects with just a bachelors degree. Even life-science PHD’s only average about 60-80k per year in bench research in a laboratory. So for this reason, it’s a good option to pick a major like economics, because it gives you more options in profitable careers if you opt out of being a medical school applicant.</p></li>
<li><p>make sure you keep up activities outside of school that involve patient contact, clinical experience etc. It’s important to keep involved in what your on the path to become, and it’s easy to get lost in a bunch of homework and not see the light in why your working so hard. Shadow physicians at UCSF or Alta-Bates (local hospitals) or volunteer at their clinics/nurse stations.</p></li>
<li><p>If your future income is a big factor in your career goals ( as in that you really want to be rich), medicine is a really bad idea in general. Physicians are plagued by mal-practice insurance, a huge population of medi-care patients, and in the last 15 years, physician salaries have been stagnant or decreasing an average. Also, some specialties like radiology for instance are being threatened by tele-medicine, where someone can send a chest x-ray to a doctor in India or China, to read it for one tenth of the price that you might charge. There are more examples of this, just do some research.</p></li>
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<p>Im not saying that Doctors will not be able to live a middle class, decent life style in the future or anything, but the days of neurosurgeons making $500k a year might not be the case 15-20 years down the road.</p>
<p>^ Thanks Jweinst1 for your awesome suggestions 
. I totally agree about the part of focusing on academics and attempt to achieve an A. I’m totally not a party person and tend to be a little bit introverted at times and I do agree I should think about a major that is beneficial to me to. I completely agree about the income part and how I shouldn’t base my goal of becoming a doctor on it. I tend to like the social and medicine aspect of a career as a doctor,but I also want a stable career too . I can definitely relate to your suggestions and thank you so much for commenting and telling me your experience :)</p>
<p>Here are physician pay rates:
<a href=“Latest Medical News, Clinical Trials, Guidelines - Today on Medscape”>Latest Medical News, Clinical Trials, Guidelines - Today on Medscape;
<p>But note that physicians have to pay malpractice insurance. There are also costs of running their own practices if they do that (as opposed to joining a big medical group or working in a hospital).</p>
<p>Note that medical school is expensive (see <a href=“https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/”>https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/</a> for tuition and fees per year, then add living expenses for four years of medical school, and note that the first several years after medical school is residency which will not pay enough to do much in the way of paying down the medical school loans). The large amount of debt that new physicians end up with these days can be a significant factor in choice of specialty – it may be difficult to afford to go into primary care with $300,000 of medical school debt to pay off.</p>
<p>Jweinst1 has a lot of good things to say but it seems to me he/she may not realize what does and does not classify as middle class. In today’s world, physician averages will continue to be upper-middle/upper class in terms of tax brackets. </p>
<p>Pay should never be a primary motivating factor for medicine, however it is certainly not something that should dissuade you if you truly love the career. </p>
<p>lol, my bad. Was primarily noting that the trend of physician salaries is high but has decreased over a long period of time.</p>
<p>But yes, growing up in a neighborhood right next to Beverly Hills, middle class over here is a whole different ball game here, Mercedes-Benz are thought of as economy class cars :)</p>
<p>If a Mercedes-Benz is an “economy car” in that neighborhood, what would the reaction be if you drove through the neighborhood in a Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge, Toyota, Honda, Mazda, or Hyundai?</p>
<p>I do think Mercedes-Benz is an economy class cars and I’m not from Beverly Hills. I rather drive a Ford.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus </p>
<p>The person driving one of those cars would be either thought of as a tourist, or someone that is very poor and has no money. Some residents would probably walk up to the car and offer some cash for support.</p>
<p>You can’t believe everything you read on the internet. Trust me I was there with my old(as in 180,000 miles plus) Ford Explorer and not a single person offer me cash for support. None. If they did I’d probably be back for more.</p>
. But, on a serious note, the way you’ve given me links and such great advice on the majors is great