<p>I got accepted to Cal and was wondering how strong they are in supporting premeds in terms of advising/research opportunities for undergrads/MCAT preparation (if any). And also, would grade deflation make it more difficult for premeds, if so is it a huge factor. Basically, is Cal a good school if medical school is a goal?</p>
<p>**I got accepted for spring admission if that affects anything, I'm planning on doing the Fall Program for Freshman -- UC Berkeley Extension</p>
<p>As of now it's between Cal, Boston College, and Boston University</p>
<p>Cal is not a good place to be a premed, to put it brutally honest.
There is many research opportunities, but I think every current premed students can agree with me that the school is pretty harsh with students when it comes to academics.</p>
<p>UpMagic, do you think that UCLA would be better than Cal in terms of trying to get into medical school?</p>
<p>ALL UCs have crappy advising. Period.</p>
<p>Cal is brutally competitive. And as a spring admit, I’m guessing you had lower numbers…have you completed the AP sciences? Did you earn all 5’s? (Many of the Cal premeds did, and you will be competing with them for the A’s._</p>
<p>UC Davis has amazing advising for pre med students.</p>
<p>And I don’t think being a spring admit has anything to do with being less of a qualified student than fall admits…</p>
<p>I took the AP bio test and did not care/try at all… So I got a 3, I don’t know why I signed up for it to be honest
I’m not a big fan of AP tests</p>
<p>According to the Hout report, spring admits tend to be on the margin with respect to their holistic review admissions reading scores, although some were admitted because they had better academic stats than other admitted students from their high schools. I.e. the spring admits could include those who did well in school and on standardized tests, but did not impress in the essay and other criteria the admissions readers used.</p>
<p>Makes sense, my essays were horrible for the UC schools, I realized this when I started the common application while applying to other schools but by then it was too late, my common app essay kicked ass though</p>
<p>Don’t do pre-med at Cal.</p>
<p>I would say UCLA is better in terms of volunteer/shadowing opportunities because they have a medical school. From what my friends tell me, there is grade deflation at both schools, though I took physics at UCLA over the summer and it was much easier than physics at Cal. I can’t speak for BC or BU.</p>
<p>You can read about average grades at [url=<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com%5DNational”>http://www.gradeinflation.com]National</a> Trends in Grade Inflation, American Colleges and Universities<a href=“list%20of%20schools%20at%20the%20bottom”>/url</a>.</p>