<ol>
<li><p>how easy is it to change majors within the biological sciences division? I was admitted under biochem/cell, but I may want to change later. </p></li>
<li><p>how large are upper division class sizes? </p></li>
<li><p>how well known is the faculty in the biological sciences division? (like... nobel laureates, etc.) I heard biomed. engineering has dr. fung (father of biomechanics) and I was wondering if the bio department has any well-known professors as well.</p></li>
<li><p>is it easy to transfer into biomedical engineering? or other engineering majors? (i'm not too sure what i want to do yet)</p></li>
<li><p>in your opinion, how does the bio department here at ucsd compare to berkeley's bio department? as a regent scholar at ucsd (guarenteed research??) will that open up more opportunities? is it easy to get to know teachers and get research opportunities?</p></li>
<li><p>i am considering many careers, but one of them is nursing, and i realized that ucsd doesnt have nursing (berkeley is close to ucsf, which has nursing). since ucsd medical school does not have a nursing department, does this mean it will be harder to find opportunities for pre-nursing students? </p></li>
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<p>I am currently choosing between ucsd and berkeley, and I'm having such a hard time. I've visited both schools already. (wish I went to UCSD's admit day... T__T I watched the scholars' reception webcast on youtube though :D)
I like both campuses, but ucsd gives me more of a "bio" feeling... lots of medical buildings and bio-related research going on. However, I talked to a lot of bio students at berkeley and they all tell me that the faculty at berkeley is amazing, with nobel laureates and masters of their fields, etc.. so in the future, grad school letters of rec will hold a lot of weight.
I was wondering if this holds true for ucsd bio as well? berkeley may be a higher ranked school, but does ucsd have comparable faculty in bio field?</p>
<p>I’m sorry I can’t answer any of your other questions, but I know about 4.
It is NOT easy to transfer into UCSD’s bioengineering program. Or it’s aerospace or mechanical program. I asked as I wanted that major myself, and they told me at open house they only take TEN students into that program a year, after the original admits, ranked by GPA. D: That was a blow for me. You would have to apply at the end of your freshmen year.
But the other engineering majors are all open. Best of luck deciding!</p>
<ol>
<li>Yes. Bio majors are all the same except for maybe 2-3 classes that are different.</li>
<li>50-350 people. Depends on popularity of the class, whether it’s needed for the major, etc.</li>
<li>Most of my professors are rockstars in their own field. And by rockstars, I mean like…the Beatles, not some garage band started up 2 months ago by teenagers and have 25 fans. It hardly matters that your school has Nobel Laureates or incredibly famous people (in my opinion). They’re not going to be the ones teaching you because they’re too busy giving talks and becoming more famous than they already are, and they will only take on the best of the best graduate students and maybe the occasional undergrad to autoclave. But it is cool to have professors talk about big names like Fred Gage (guy that said neurons can regenerate), Bing Ren (transcription regulatory elements) and Roger Tsien (GFP) in class. However, if you really want some names dropped, Kadonaga, Price, Crawford, Gage (adjunct), Nieh, Saier and Berg are pretty darn cool people that you can take classes with. I took classes with 3 of them.</li>
<li>Most engineering, yes. Some are hard to get into, like bioE.</li>
<li>comparable. Research is plentiful and amazing. Given the CA budget, you may even be safer taking the Regents offer. Guaranteed housing, money and MOST IMPORTANTLY, first to sign up for classes. They’re cutting classes every year and you’re going to kill yourself trying to sign up for classes that have a 200 person waitlist. Telebears at Berkeley doesn’t sound too fun either.</li>
<li>There is a pre-nursing club and wide-ranged support for all pre-health students. HMP3, PASS, and others will point you in the right direction as well. Volunteering is abundant and easier than Berkeley simply because within 2 miles of campus, there are 3 hospitals and many special clinics (Cancer Center, Eye Center, etc.)</li>
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<p>Oh goodness… 50-350 people even in upper division for bio?!
I know lower division is smaller, but is upper division so big as well? I thought it was impacted… T__T</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, i_lose! </p>
<p>it seems to me that ucsd bio might be just as hard as berkeley’s…</p>
<p>Lower division is larger, at 350-400 per class. (lower division biology classes for non-majors are smaller, at 200ish)</p>
<p>If you take specialized classes, classes will be small. Lab courses are small. The classes with 350 people are ones everyone needs to take to graduate, such as genetics or biochemistry. Biology has only been recently impacted so we may not be able to see the effects at the upper division level courses yet. I suspect they’ll get smaller.</p>
<p>Honestly though, take the Regents offer, unless you have a big reason not to (NOT for prestige reasons). Classes are getting cut and it’s ridiculous. I’m a 4th year with 200 units and I still couldn’t get into a class I wanted to take this quarter. If I had Regents, I would be in that class now. (To be fair, it was a popular class with a 25 student capacity. I had no problem getting into the other classes I wanted) You can also pick the time and schedule you want and you will be able to graduate on time/early because you’ll never have to defer taking a class because you couldn’t get in</p>
<p>PC Theater. EASILY. Amanda Roberts’ psych classes in the past were capped to 475 students.
Peterson 108
York 2722
RBC auditorium?
WLH 2001</p>
<p>Just because your courses have 275 students doesn’t mean the classrooms also hold 275 students. My BILD classes were held in Peterson 108, Solis 107 and Peterson 110.</p>
<p>^I’ll admit to possibly being wrong about WLH and Peterson, but I’m almost certain York 2722 maxes out at just above 300. But whatever, I’ll take your guy’s word for it. But here, let me put it this way. You guys will be fine with big classes. Just sit in the front row and you can pretty much ask the professor a lot of questions. Go to your discussion section. Ask questions there. Go to the professor’s office hours. Go your TAs office hours. All will be well.</p>
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