Pros and Cons of doing pre-med at UCLA vs. UCB. vs. maybe USC??

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Los Angeles
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<p>Ari, another great point, and we are not considering going to a lesser school at all at this point. It’s Cal all the way… unless we hear something else this afternoon. She did apply to a handful of Ivy’s, but only really liked two of them when we toured there, so we’ll see what happens. All gung-ho on Cal right now. Rejected by Stanford yesterday, as was expected, but once she had her Cal admittance, she knew she was not going there. She spent a good deal of time at Stanford over the past three years, starting with a live-in summer course, and the more she did, the less she liked. </p>

<p>And you’re absolutely correct about a possible major change. As a father of girl, it seems like an awfully long road to me. Assuming a mid-range four-year residency (she wants to do ophthalmology at this point) she’ll be almost thirty when she is done with all the formal studies, so when does she have a family and kids? It’s a little different for males that way. </p>

<p>She is also highly social and extroverted. Sells snow to the Eskimos. She’s been heavily involved with a couple of charities during HS, developed relationships all by herself with some corporate donors, and became a big star fundraiser. A couple of weeks ago, we happened to watch this reality show on the tube together, about these three very successful young real estate agents in LA, all in their twenties, and making a killing by moving multi-million dollar properties, and I told her how similar those guys were to her. I said “I bet if don’t go to college and just become a RE agent right after HS, in five years you’ll be earning more than an average M.D. But you better get at least a bachelor’s first, it’ll mature and round you as a person.” She said it looked like a fun career, and it didn’t go any further, she is still all in on medicine, but it is in the back of my mind. We all want easy and comfy rides in life for our kids, I suppose. </p>

<p>Drax, Thank you so much for such a thoughtful post. I realize that such info is unfortunately not easy to come by, and it is exactly what I was looking for. I am gonna have to re-read your post a couple more times.</p>

<p>Dunn, I don’t care what they say about you on the hidden threads, I still say you’re a classy guy. Thanks for slapping me out of the easy way out. I actually have not been to the Berkeley pre-med horror thread until you linked it, but I found plenty of solid pro arguments on just the first couple of pages that I managed to plow through so far. How does one post an emoticon here? I always forget. :stuck_out_tongue: will this work? Shhh, don’t tell me…</p>

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Hidden threads?</p>

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<p>ConcernedDad,</p>

<p>My wife often complains that as she’s just starting her career, her friends are already having families. It’s a bit frustrating for her, as she wants to have children, but what’re you gonna do?</p>

<p>She’ll do great at Cal, and even if she doesn’t become a doctor, there are many many great careers out there.</p>

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<p>Sentiment,</p>

<p>A joke.</p>

<p>Ari, </p>

<p>Yeah, a tough thing for any career woman, but seems especially tough on doctors. Of course people are starting families at a later and later age these days, and there are some definite advantages to being an older parent. I already told my daughter that she can get married and have kids while at med school/residency and my wife and I will help her take care of them. Now that we have a little experience and are still young enough to handle it. But we’ll see about that.</p>

<p>I do know some women who had kids while at med school/residency without taken time off, but they basically just gave birth and had a close family member (moms usually) take care of the kid. Not the ideal way for sure, but it’s something.</p>

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<p>

Sorry, there are actually some forums with “hidden threads” accessible to non-moderator members. They are used frequently for bashing other members behind their back and so any allusion to this riles me up. -.-</p>

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<p>Good grief. A lot of nonsense spouting off in this thread. Dunnin, you know for certain attending USC will result in 0.2-0.3 GPA points higher…I wish I was as omnisicent as you.</p>

<p>The kid liked Berkeley best and she’s Regents. Go to Cal and ignore the stupid stereotypes. You’ll do best where you’re happiest and she likes Cal best. She’s a very smart girl, indeed, and obviously has great taste. ;)</p>

<p>UCSF is Cal’s medical school. Read the history. Cal and UCSF have many joint programs.</p>

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<p>UCB:</p>

<p>This is Concern’s initial post:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Dunn stated that it’s probably opposite to what he stated. </p>

<p>No one knows for sure, but if we assume that the student works equally hard at all three, that grades would be easier attained at USC of the three.</p>

<p>We know wrt a group of premeds, that higher competition would bring forth greater effort, pulling up those who weren’t as competitive in high school, producing greater effort by this group as, leading to most likely higher mean grades for them as a whole.</p>

<p>I think this is the dynamic leading to Cal first, then UCLA, then USC.</p>

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<p>I decided from the beginning I wasn’t going to join the med school race (too long a pay off for me! I’m all about instant gratification baby!), but even with that, I had great opportunities at UCLA to be involved in research (bioengineering professors who sat on the adcom boards wanted you to have published before you applied if possible), watch open heart surgeries, catheter lab procedures, laparascopic robotic surgery, beyond other things. I’ve also talked to friends at Cal who are looking very hot for UCSF since they were lucky enough to be lab assistants under surgeons or MDs at UCSF high on the food chain and performed well. </p>

<p>From what I read regarding the thread - she should go where she wants to end up and from what I’ve heard described so far, if she continues to work at the same clip she’ll be a-okay when it comes time to go to med school. Best of luck!</p>

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<p>Thank you for your wishes, Deuces.</p>

<p>Well, all straight rejections from HYPSCP and Duke last night. Tough year for all those. Onward and Upward we go. After a couple of hours of mopping, D renamed our clumsy honey-colored basset hound “Golden Bear”. So, it’s all good, she is plenty happy and excited with what she’s got.</p>

<p>Now I am getting some more specific questions popping up in my head. Like major. I keep hearing that major does not matter do Med adcoms, but find that hard to swallow, just like the claim that choices of schools does not matter. She is admitted as a genetics major. Just looked up Geffen’s requirements:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.medstudent.ucla.edu/offices/admiss/admreq.cfm[/url]”>http://www.medstudent.ucla.edu/offices/admiss/admreq.cfm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I found this bit interesting:</p>

<p>“In the time not occupied by the required courses, students should pursue studies in the social sciences and humanities.” </p>

<p>Daughter loves life sciences and has a great curiosity about them, but they don’t always come easy. With social sciences, OTOH, she usually breezes to easy A’s. Also has a knack for languages and is nearly fluent in Spanish, from what I understand, after taking it for several years. She told me that she should minor in Spanish as med schools require some proficiency, at least in CA. I am even thinking now to may be even major in it. Would leave plenty of time to study hard at the pre-req classes, as I know she will need a lot of time to get A’s in many of those. </p>

<p>Any thoughts from the distinguished panel are really appreciated. Thanks, guys.</p>

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<p>I’m only just starting down the pre-med path at UCLA, but I wanted to say that I was considering majoring in French for easy As, just like you want for your daughter with Spanish, and I have decided that Biology is the best way to go. Humanities majors may be easy, but they are also time-consuming. Your daughter may end up falling behind in studying for her pre-reqs, whereas life-science classes would only enforce the knowledge she needs to do well in the pre-med classes AND the MCAT. But that’s just my opinion.</p>

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<p>I’m all for med students being more well-rounded. My close friend and classmate of my wife double-majored in poli sci and biology. It’s helped him to understand a lot of the health insurance policy changes, so I suppose that’s good!</p>

<p>In any case, YES TO SPANISH. Very very important to have more Spanish-speaking doctors. At the very least, a minor couldn’t hurt.</p>

<p>Major doesn’t matter much: what matter is how you do in the required pre-med courses. Unfortunately, the only way to get those done is to usually major in a science major anyway.</p>

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<p>Haven’t checked this in a while, glad to see this thread has grown with great advice around. </p>

<p>Ari: Did your wife attend NYMC by any chance? I was just in White Plains/Valhalla last week for my interview there, great suburban atmosphere with Manhattan close by for days out. Loved it. </p>

<p>ConcernedDad: Major doesn’t matter as long as you complete all the requirements that medical schools stipulate. My B.S. was in Psychobiology, so I was able to handily fulfill most humanities requirements at my schools. General education classes should be able to fill in the rest of the requirements, such as English. Ari’s advice on this is sound, so that’s why you see a majority of accepted applicants with science majors; when you spend about 2 years completing your bio/chem/physics/math requirements, you might as well major in it. </p>

<p>Spanish will be very useful, especially in a state like California. The UC PRIME programs (MD + masters) exist to help underserved populations, and some like UCI PRIME require Spanish proficiency as a prerequisite prior to applying to their program. If she has time and motivation, go for a Spanish minor; if not, at least spend a summer studying abroad in Spain or another country.</p>

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<p>Jinobi,</p>

<p>Actually, she’s a second year going into third.</p>

<p>Feel free to email me or PM me and I can get you in touch with my wife and you guys can talk about NYMC. I’m glad to help you out.</p>

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<p>Jinobi, yeah, I definitely got lot of good advice from you and others here. And I am sure I’ll be back for more :slight_smile: Like where do I find emoticons codes? No really, I have not clue.</p>

<p>Back when you posted last week that you already had nine interviews, I did not realize what an impressive feat that was. I’ve learned a little about Med admissions since. You must be a pretty solid applicant. Good luck to you.</p>