<p>I’m doing an MCB major and I enter with 35 AP units, so I was thinking if I take 18 units/semester and 10 units in summer session, I can graduate in maybe 2 years.</p>
<p>So the question is:
Will I be saving any money by graduating in two years (I’ll be paying non-resident tuition)? Isn’t Berkeley tuition $X/credit, so even if I graduate early, I’ll be paying the same in tuition as someone who graduates in 4 years, because we graduate with the same number credits?</p>
<p>The only money I really save is food/housing, right?</p>
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<li>How hard is it to do 18 units per semester on an MCB major? I get to waive most of my prereqs, so I will be starting with Chem3A, Physics 8A, and then the upper-division bio courses.</li>
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<p>It doesn't matter how many units you take per semester. The tuition would remain the same. However, in summer it depends on the number of units you take. So.. if you graduate in 2 years, you can definitely save money.</p>
<p>However, you probably can't take upperdiv bio because literally all upper div MCB courses have chem 3b and bio 1a as the prereq. </p>
<p>Do not forget that you would also need to take the breadth requirement, which you cannot use AP credits for. </p>
<p>If you plan on going to med/grad school, you might also want to double check if they would accept your ap credits even when berkeley accepts it.</p>
<p>If you really want to save money, enroll for a semester, drop out, go to community college for a year to do your lower division requirements, then go back to Berkeley.</p>
<p>why are you mcb? are you interested in mcb or are you premed who wants a bio major? </p>
<p>if you're premed or pregrad, ap'ing out of chem 1a and math 1a-b is a stupid move.
if you're premed and want a bio major, keep in mind that with the exception of chembio, mcb has the lowest average gpa of all bio majors (see thecampusbuddy.com)</p>
<p>I am MCB because I am really interested in neurobiology, which is Path II of the MCB major. I'm definitely pregrad or premed, maybe even both.</p>
<p>I'm rather confident in my math skills, but why is it stupid to waive the beginning sequence of Chem and Bio?</p>
<p>I know I can take upperdiv courses, because I will be taking Chem3A/3B anyway, and Berkeley lets me waive Bio1A/B. Why would grad/med schools be worried about general bio? If it's about lab experience, there will be plenty of labs in OChem, later bio courses, and also my undergrad research.</p>
<p>I'm not worried about breadth requirements. I know I'll have a lot of those, but I might take them in the summers.</p>
<p>Finally, if MCB is so notorious for low GPA/difficulty, won't med/grad schools take that into account?</p>
<p>@Emiko: You're basically saying I'm only saving money when I take summer courses.</p>
<p>nope. They won't differentiate an MCB major from an IB major from an English major. They just want to see lots of A's and B's. They don't care what major.</p>
<p>Med schools need to see your Bio 1A-B and Math 1A-B grades, so that they can compare you against everyone else applying for med school. Med schools don't prefer any specific major in admissions. All applicants, even those who are non-bio majors will have to complete the intro bio sequence.</p>
<p>Med school doesn't care what major you have...as long as you have a 4.0</p>
<p>You save money if you take a huge load of classes during the semester (you will pay the same amount of money no matter how many units you are taking). However, in summer, you will need to pay tuition by the units</p>
<p>Just to let you know, some med schools don't accept ap calc. You can decide that you want to take 53 and 54 or upper div math, but they are harder than 1a and 1b (I am taking 54 as a premed for fun). </p>
<p>Med school do require 1 year of general chemistry, and chem 1a is an excellent course to take for that requirement. </p>
<p>btw, if you don't know chem 3a stuff? how can you take upper div mcb classes? they are very largely based on the things you learn from classes like bio 1a (which has chem 3a as pre-req). Don't tell me that you have ap bio for bio 1a because most of the people in bio 1a have ap credits too. It's simply that bio 1a covers much more molecular bio that you have learned in ap bio.</p>