Premed Students - UCs vs Liberal Arts Colleges

Pre-Med & Medical School High School Student Topics
1

<p>I am currently a senior in high school and an aspiring premed student. I am considering whether to go to a UC or a private liberal arts school next fall. (More specifically, a top-notch UC such as UCLA, UC Berkeley, or UCSD versus a top-notch liberal arts college such as Amherst, Williams, or Swarthmore, which tend to be much smaller in size). </p>

<p>I have spoken to people familiar with the learning environment of the top-notch UC schools. Many have told me that it is in my best interest to attend a small liberal arts school if I want to pursue medicine, both for its cooperative learning environment and for its general greater rate of acceptance to medical school. I have heard that the UCs provide a cutthroat, competitive, and impersonal environment for those who wish to pursue medicine. (I'm not talking about business, economics, history, or engineering, but medicine specifically, with an emphasis on biology and chemistry). </p>

<p>Would anyone please support or refute this? If you have any experience with premed, UCs, or liberal arts colleges, I'd be very grateful if you could share your experiences.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I would recommend going to spend some time at the UCs that you are interested in rather than taking the opinion of others without your own experiences to compare them to. I would not concern yourself with acceptance rates at the UCs vs Liberal Arts Colleges (which, btw, often inflate their percentages by tracking students that take a year or two off before applying). Those are solely reflective of the average quality of students at that institution, not some special boost you get by attending. LACs have much smaller class sizes and are generally more selective. This makes the range of student quality much smaller than at a UC (though the top students at each are comparable).</p>