<p>I went to Spring Insight yesterday. Extremely fun. The campus was huge; tons of walking.</p>
<p>Everything was great until mother and I attended the Pre-Medical Presentation. It was quite disheartening, or unimpressive. I understand that they really can't 'do' much or have health connections/bridges 'because' they aren't a Medical school like UCD. Still, it put many people under the impression that the Pre-med track at the school isn't as solid and you weren't going to get support. When I actually talked to some of the students and Pre-Med clubs it was a completely different story. Supposedly the program is incredibly underrated at UCSB.</p>
<p>My mom however is changing her mind about letting me attend. She wants me to do pre-med AND pre-nursing at the same time!(?) Mainly she wants nursing to be a side job while go to med-school to be a doctor. She thinks that it isn't worth it to attend UCSB if there's already UCD. The UCSB program isn't anything special nor reliable for my future and I should just go to UCD because it's so much "better" for being a Pre-Med student. "You get your pre-requisites done in 2 years and go to med school, yada yada." I got put on the waitlist for UCD and I'm not even sure if that statement is true in the first place. I also don't think she understands that Pre-Med is only label.</p>
<p>The tone of the presentation made the current situation worse. It turns out that I have a parent that is afraid to let their child go off on their own to college. UCD happens to be only 30 minutes away. I want to get the heck out of Sacramento and last time I visited the campus my junior year, it seemed so boring. I'm trying to escape boredom and being in mom's nest. A couple of days ago, she was talking about calling me everyday.
:-/</p>
<p>Does it really matter where I go off for my Pre-Medical?
Is UCSB worse than UCD in that area?
I'm really confused. I have a choice between doing nursing at two privates or Pre-Med UCSB and UCD.</p>
<p>hey myKitsune, im going to UCSB as a bio major to be a pre medical student and I couldn’t make it to the spring insight, I dont know much about the pre med program at santa barbara either but what did they say during the pre medical presentation vs. what the actual students said from the clubs?</p>
<p>The overall tone of the presentation is probably what bothered people the most. Some got up and left.</p>
<p>Basically they said they aren’t a medical school but a research school. Certain opportunities for pre-health students aren’t right in your faces. They don’t have everything you would need if you want to do pre-nursing/BSN or getting a PharmD, for example. It’s better to go to a different school that will provide those things already if you have you have the opportunity to do so. Like if you want a BSN, go to the college that has it. If you choose UCSB, you’ll have to do extra and take some of your needed classes at the community college. Make things easier for yourself.</p>
<p>The students said that you will get a lot of support and the advising is amazing. The program is great and doesn’t receive enough credit. To do Pre-Med at the school, you have to make the decision early(within the year) and be a go getter. Even though there are a lot of research opportunities, they won’t come to you because of the school once again not being a medical school like UCD. Instead, you must go out and find them but there will be help for that.</p>
<p>The average for acceptances into medical school from UCSB was lower than the national average but the national average itself was pretty low. Everyone seems to have a 50/50 shot.</p>
<p>Did they state UCSB has a lower than average acceptance rate into medical schools?
I’m looking to do pre-med at UCSB, but this statement worries me.</p>
<p>I don’t think that I’ll be missing out or at a huge disadvantage if I go to UCSB for my Pre-Med instead of UCD. From my research, it doesn’t really matter where you go or what major you take, as long as it prepares and fulfills your med school prerequisites.</p>
<p>I really hope that I get to go but <em>apparently</em> it’s not my decision, it’s my parent’s… well more of my mom’s. Not fair. :-@</p>
<p>The fact of the matter is none of the UCs do that well in sending students to med school. If you want a school with a good pre-med track, Johns Hopkins would be ideal. 98% of students who apply get into medical school there.</p>
This is going to be true at any UC, at any large public. And its not juust for premed, its general advice. Its easy to plod along anonymously at a large public, only to discover when you near graduation that employers and grad schools are looking for students that have internships or research experience (depending on your goal), that have solid recs from teachers they got to know, etc.</p>
<p>Do not deter from a university just because of the pre-med scare. I graduated ten years ago from ucsb, I too were at spring insight with my son. I was a Biology major at Ucsb, I took every pre-requisite course available for entry into med school. And upon doing well on the MCAT in which I studied for 4 months I got accepted into med-school. While at UCSB I did work as a medical assistant. I do have my doctorates now, and I advise my son to pick a college that he likes not just because of reputation or entry into pre-med school. In fact when I graduated from ucsb 5 of us got accepted to ucla and usc. Obviously theres other small schools that have higher acceptance rate into medical school, but they have a smaller student population.</p>
<p>As a 4th year Biology student here, a large number of my friends are pre-meds who are currently hearing back from medical schools. I don’t believe any of them felt particularly hindered by going to school here in terms of pre-med. However, since we don’t have a medical school, pharm school, dental school, or nursing school there are definitely differences that people looking into pre-health need to consider. Compared to a university with all or some of these I’m sure we probably have fewer opportunities for certain things like classes, strictly medical based research, or maybe extracurriculars. That being said, UCSB still has access to everything you would need as a premed to built a successful application. We have a good amount of medical-esque classes (except anatomy which is irritating), lots of research opportunities (I’ve been doing research since sophomore year), and lots of volunteering with Cottage hospital or SBNC or Doctors without walls. Acceptance rates for schools are ridiculous to look at since admissions cares only about you (GPA+MCAT+Extras) and not really where you went to school. Supposedly there is controversy about whether or not your school ranking has any impact but no one truly knows…ex. would a 3.2 from Harvard be better than a 3.9 from CSU.</p>
<p>I really don’t understand why the tone of the presentation is negative. Following link, atleast, exhibits how UCSB is helping pre-meds. If there is no proper premed advsing, how large number of students are applying to med schools every year from UCSB. AAMC has given the data that 138 students have applied to med school from UCSB in 2011.</p>