Premed Decision: UCLA vs Northwestern

College Search & Selection
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Hi everyone, prospective premed student from the class of 2023 here. I recently was accepted into both UCLA and Northwestern as a New York resident and have fallen in love with both schools although I understand they’re very different. I understand they’re both great options but I was hoping to hear advice before I try and make a decision.

From what I gather, UCLA seems like an amazing school with a lot of opportunities but with so many kids and the curve on premed courses, I’m afraid competition for research and top grades will become toxic and cutthroat there. Nonetheless, I have a ton of research experience in high school and hopefully between Geffen and Ronald Reagan, I can find a lab or clinical experience. Northwestern has great advising and has a lot of resources for a smaller school, however, I know myself rather well and weather and atmosphere really affect my performance. I find it difficult to garner the motivation to keep the same energy when it’s snowing and I can’t see the sun for 5 months of a year (I know, I’m a New Yorker and it’s a struggle).

Pretty much in summary, I feel that my ceiling at UCLA is higher than it would be at Northwestern with the amount of opportunities on campus and in the greater LA area that I could take advantage of. However, I feel like my floor is higher at Northwestern and there’s less chance I’ll get swept away in the crowds of kids and a greater chance I get more personalized attention which could help my med school journey, even if I am a slightly weaker applicant in the process. Just wanted to get that out there and hear some thoughts from this amazing thread. Cheers.

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I think that you understand your options.

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Not a fan of paying OOS prices for a public – just not good value. More importantly, premed at the top UC’s is brutally competitive.

If you can’t find similar opportunities in Evanston and ChiTown, you aren’t looking very hard. :smiley:

Go Wildcats!

1 Like
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@Sulley119 . . . This might be a bit offbeat; I don’t know where it’ll end up.

You’d love UCLA I have no doubt. And there’s quite a history for New Yorkers who have attended UCLA. The New York Times pretty readily gives UCLA some really good pub, and they probably wouldn’t do this if there wasn’t interest in the University where its readership is especially strong. So even though they’re on opposite coasts, there’s an attraction, a strong attraction, that maybe belies – in the grand scheme of things – these two particles and their pull towards each other, and they might as well be a universe away; certainly it’s not gravitational force; rather it’s probably astrology.

Well, maybe not…

We know it’s because of the weather as you mentioned. Weather breeds happy students and happy students breeds success. So I believe that the higher floor you mentioned at Northwestern – the University there pulling you up, could be duplicated at UCLA by your being happy. Just as long as your happiness doesn’t lead you to spending long days at Zuma or Venice soaking up the rays and neglecting your studies. You do sound very grounded, however.

There’s the finances which you didn’t mention. I don’t believe that if you can afford Northwestern, that UCLA wouldn’t be worth attending at full tuition. But at the same time, if your parents can use their Amex to pay the amount due, then I hope they can use it to pay the amount due at whatever medical school you attend. I believe it’s got to be both, because otherwise, you probably should opt for a State University of New York campus.

You mentioned research. By board rules – unwritten in my mind – I’ll link the life sciences at UCLA, their [Majors and Minors](https://lifesciences.ucla.edu/undergraduate/majors-minors/), but this might have to be the last time. You can attach a Biomedical Research minor to your likely life science major in the left-hand column, obviously very researchy. A couple of majors have [url=<a href=“http://www.capstones.ucla.edu/lifesciences.htm%5Dcapstones%5B/url”>http://www.capstones.ucla.edu/lifesciences.htm]capstones[/url], which is a senior project with a professor, very researchy.

You mentioned cutthroat but I still don’t think the premeds are that way; I think they’re more competitive and even collaborative.

You mentioned a curve; you could talk with students openly, and ask their opinions of whomever will be teaching whatever courses you need in a following quarter. Be sure to avoid the gpa killers. Otherwise, apparently the curve is fairly generous.

You didn’t mention a fallback in case you have a hard time maintaining grades (edit:) in something like pure life science. UCLA being on the quarter system allows one to take a greater breath of courses, and even major in something other than life sciences and concurrently take the core reqs for med school.

Other than these, maybe it’s been covered.

Stay well…

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“I find it difficult to garner the motivation to keep the same energy when it’s snowing and I can’t see the sun for 5 months of a year (I know, I’m a New Yorker and it’s a struggle).”

Your choice is obvious.

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UCLA being on the quarter system allows one to take a greater breath of courses, and even major in something other than life sciences and concurrently take the core reqs for med school.“

NU is also on the quarter system…

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Not a fan of paying OOS prices for a public – just not good value.“

…but it’s worth it to pay full price for an inferior private school, right?

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“I feel that my ceiling at UCLA is higher than it would be at Northwestern with the amount of opportunities on campus and in the greater LA area that I could take advantage of. “

You do realized that Evanston and Chicago are attached right? Seriously, your concern here is not realistic.

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5 Thank you for the correction. I just assumed that quarters were now just a California phenomenon.

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Did you visit NW and UCLA to see and feel which one you like better?

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Bad idea to go OOS to a UC as a Premed. It’s practically practically suicidal to the Premed path.

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The ground is littered with the bones of once-hopeful premed students, so the OP should attend whichever school is best for him/her in the long run. As for paying OOS for a public university, it’s only a bad choice if the OP or the OP’s family cannot truly afford it. If money is not really an issue, then UCLA is as fine a choice as any.

1 Like
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I hope you are not inferring that NU is inferior than UC Los Angeles?

But if your comment was more generic, then my answer is ‘depends on how inferior’. I could easily make a case for a private school ~10 spots down the food chain over a public OOS; heck, I could make that case for a private over an (expensive) public at instate prices. Not sure I’d feel the same if it was 50 spots down the food chain.

Private schools offer a whole bunch of other things – better housing, better advising, smaller classes, easier access to research opportunities, collegiality. To me, it’s all about the value prop.

As mom2 notes above, premed at a top UC is brutal. Gunners abound. While OP is out enjoying the sunshine, there are literally hundreds of students holed up in labs and/or the library studying and restudying.

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If I could like a million times, I would to the posts from @bluebayou and @mom2collegekids. Their advice is spot on. NW all the way.

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@bluebayou. . .

You don’t have to disparage the OP based on my comments, LOL. UCB, the poster, stated that curve brutality is overstated at Cal based on links provided. It’s similarly overstated at UCLA, except for those professors who are gpa killers. I looked at about 15 courses in the Life Sciences through Bruin Walk, and I noted that the curve was pretty generous except for those couple of professors.

@sulley119 , if you choose UCLA, be sure to obtain feedback on the individual courses you take beforehand and who teaches them.

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Sorry, my bad.

Yes, I have long been aware of a more generous grading policy at Cal/UCLA over the ‘lesser’ UC and have frequently pointe that out to high schoolers when warranted…

But that’s not the point, which is that there are approx. There are ~6,200 Frosh at UCLA, of which approx. 25% (my estimate) are premed (1,500 premeds) all gunning for that A; few of those will make it thru the gauntlet to even apply to med school. And I mean gunning. Many of them already took Calc BC and aced it with a 5. Ditto AP Chem and AP Bio. All hoping for the ‘easy A’.

by gunners, I mean kids that start taking SAT prep classes as a Frosh/Soph in HS.

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Isn’t pre-med full of “gunners” everywhere?

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Pretty much.

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@mom2collegekids This seems to be a blanket opinionated statement without any back up facts or substantiation. It would be more helpful if you could include supportive reasons.

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@bluebayou . . .

Re, bold #1:

I think that’d be too high a number, but if you would provide whatever backup you had, I’d be appreciative. It isn’t based on the number of posters here who are asking about premed at UCLA v. X v. Y… is it?

UCLA had just a hair under a 50% acceptance rate in 2018-19 – the total apps unfiltered, total and complete, without doctoring by the University for promotional purposes – which is very good given the shear numbers that applied, 1,014. The fact that > 1,000 made it to applying (from bac graduation over the current and previous cycles) shows that a good many are making it to the table. And I don’t think their careers are done even in medicine by a rejection in the current term. About 1/4 of the students who apply are re-applicants. Additionally, 11% of USC Keck’s frosh are ≥ 26 years of age for the current cycle.

Re, bold #2:

I’d think the premed core would be the biggest determinant of med-school admission, so I would hope that they would know that calc isn’t factored in; then the factors expand out to overall gpa and of course the MCAT and interviews. That’s why I believe that premeds should possibly look to major in, say, French, or in whatever the student has an especially high aptitude, and concurrently take the core classes for an SOM.