Transfer as a Premed to UW or a UC?

Transfer Students
1

Since my mom is going to move with me wherever I’m attending community college and community college is rather cheap, tuition and residency isn’t an issue. I would be a resident in both state by the time I finish my two years in community college.

Would it be better to attend a community college in California and transfer into a UC? Or attend a community college in Washington and transfer into UW?

I am planning to premed and heard UCB, UCLA, and UW have lots of grade deflation. Would that matter since I would be transferring in as a junior anyway? Of course, I’m fine with transferring into other UCs as well(UCSD, UCSF, UCI, UCSB…).

I am a bit conflicted. My aunt who have been through UW and is finishing up medical school says she almost didn’t get into medical school because of UW’s grade deflation, uncaring professors, and poor advisings, telling me to stay far far away from UW. lol. My cousin who is in UW currently as a premed says these are true, but UW gives lots of opportunities and are known for their prestige worldwide. She says she have a love-hate relationship with UW. My aunt then said that getting into any medical school is good enough. That the most important factors for premeds were GPA, EC’s, and MCAT score and UW wasn’t going to help with the GPA part, while those other factors can be found in any other good school. My cousin says that medical school admission officers would take that into consideration. My aunt says, “not much” as long as I don’t transfer into a college in the middle of nowhere, but I think my aunt might just be one of the few that had a really bad experience at UW to the point that she thinks it’s not worth it. Maybe?

Thanks

2

UC doesn’t accept your previous GPA from CC. It will be wiped away and your graduating GPA will be based on UC only.

Grade deflation is a thing-- It’s funny I was looking at Berkeley’s graduate programs stats and it seems like most of their own graduates wouldn’t even qualify because their GPA took such a beating for going to Berkeley.

Would be interesting to know if UW incorporated your CC grades into their GPA

3

They do!

I guess that’s the upside to UW in terms of GPA as opposed to a UC.

4

Bump

Anyone? I understand this topic isn’t easily black or white. I just hope to hear some experiences or opinions.

5

It really depends on the UC… The grade deflation and competition at UCB is worse than it is at the other UCs. It also doesn’t have a medical school, although many students travel to UCSF for premed opportunities. If you must choose a UC, I would go with UCLA (the weather is also better there).

6

Post a question in the premed section about choosing premed in cali or not. I can’t remember the person who knows about this best, but they often caution against being premed in cali because there are just so many people from cali gong into medicine and you have a small chance of med school as a result.

7

from my experience uw is highly highly known for their med and cs programs. whereas the uc’s are typically known for engineering. I would probably opt to attend U-dub if it were up to me.