Questions for current UCLA bio major students!

<p>im trying to decide whether i should attend ucla or not :/ and i should say this decision is REALLY hard to make.</p>

<p>well, I got admitted to ucla bio major, and I was wondering how many hours you spend studying. although this may sound kind of ridiculous, i want to get a tangible idea of the workload i have to go through.</p>

<p>and how hard is it to get 3.5-3.8 gpa as a bio major student?</p>

<p>i understand that i DO have to study a lot but I wanted to get some kind of numbers that could help me (i know it's different for everyone :) so i just wanted to ask all the bio students)</p>

<p>would going to usc be easier for me to get into pharm graduate school? :/</p>

<p>thanks for your replies!</p>

<p>Heh.. my friend is in the same place as you. He is choosing between UCLA and USC and is heavily leaning towards UCLA (for biochem i think). He would be very interested in your input current UCLA students :D.</p>

<p>me too I am premed biology</p>

<p>i'm a mcd biology major, 1st year</p>

<p>"how many hours you spend studying."</p>

<p>i do a lot of studying. i was studying chemistry for most of the day yesterday, but i should tell you that all i do is study ( unless i get distracted by computer games :rolleyes: ). there are plenty of people who study less than me but still get good grades. total ~ 18-20 hours a week</p>

<p>"how hard is it to get 3.5-3.8 gpa"</p>

<p>not hard at all. pick your courses wisely. dont let the competition get to your head. as long as you manage your time well, you should do extremely well. my gpa is in the upper part of the range.</p>

<p>"would going to usc be easier for me to get into pharm graduate school?"</p>

<p>pre-pharm is difficult too. here at ucla, i think you have to take the 20/30 series of chemistry for pharm. pre-med students take 14 series, which is much easier. i dont know how usc's system works.</p>

<p>feel free to ask any other questions</p>

<p>hours a week i study: 3-4 for weeks when I have no exams (like this week), 4-7 when I have midterms, and the week before finals im usually studying all day (and night sometimes).</p>

<p>how hard to get 3.5-3.8: people will tell that it isn't hard if you just study, and there is a lot of truth to this. if you put in the time, its easy for most people. however, some people study all day for the entire quarter and have trouble breaking 3.5. it depends on the person, but you will most likely be fine (plus you don't even need a 3.8 for pharm school-you do for med school tho)</p>

<p>would going to USC be easier: NO</p>

<p>thanks everyone for your input :)</p>

<p>bruinboy: by "if you just study" do you mean, if you study A LOT with very little free time, or just what you are talking about? would it be okay to ask you for your current gpa? are you studying hours normal hours for ucla bio major people?</p>

<p>thanks for all of your help!!! :)</p>

<p>the "if you just study" part varies HIGHLY from person to person. some people just need to put in their 2-3 hours a day and they'll be fine. some people, like you said, will have very little free time from studying. the general trend I see is that most people study 2-3 hours a day (leaving tons of free time that can be used to socialize or do ECs).
my gpa is above 3.7 and i would say that i study at least as much as all my friends (if not more). so it is possible.</p>