Hi everyone! After the long and stressful month of March, I have finally narrowed down my list of colleges to three: UCSD, UC Berkeley, and CMU. I am very sure that I want to attend medical school, so my priorities are getting a high GPA in undergrad, getting research/volunteering, and saving money. I have been admitted to UCSD as a biochemistry & cell biology major, Berkeley as undeclared (all L&S majors are admitted undeclared), and CMU as a biological sciences major.
Financially, UCSD would be the cheapest because I would commute and wouldn’t have to worry about housing, meal plan, etc. The cost difference between the other two isn’t too significant ($~10k per year I think).
In terms of rigor, competitiveness, research opportunities, etc. which of these three schools would win? I understand that a pre-med track will be very competitive at any of these places, and I am willing to put in a lot of hard work; I would just like to know which school would be the smartest choice. Also, would going to UCSD give me a better shot at their medical school? I know that some med schools tend to accept more of their own undergrads.
Ivies donot give any competitive advantage to Medical School Admission if your GPA is not within expected range.The numbers are the real people who graduate to become MD. They are not useless folks but real people.
It implies that going to those schools somehow increases chances of getting into med school.
The top 4 have ridiculous numbers of freshmen premeds, of which only a fraction even survive to apply to med school.
Both UCLA and UCB have unimpressive med school acceptance numbers. Combined, they have about 1900 students applying to med school each year, yet less than half get in. Most get rejected. (And this doesn’t count the thousands of premeds who got weeded out during frosh, soph, and junior years)
Hmmmm…with UCLA and UCB having about 1900 students applying to med school, and knowing that they heavily weed, how many freshman at those schools were premed upon arrival?? 6000? 7000? More?
<<<
know that some med schools tend to accept more of their own undergrads.
<<<
While that’s true of UMich, I don’t think the UCs with med schools are allowed to do that. Often publics schools with med schools, law schools, etc, aren’t supposed to give a preference to their own students since the state determined which campuses get those professional schools and it’s not fair to the students at other campuses to make their admissions more difficult.
My son’s med school, which is like many med schools, admits students each year from over 50 different undergrad schools. Med schools also like diversity.
Why aren’t you considering Davis?
<<<<
Which of the following UC’s do you think would be the best for premed? Best as in not incredibly difficult to maintain a good GPA, one with ample research opportunities, and of course, a fun school.
If it makes a difference, I would like to go to med school at either UCSF, UCSD, UCLA, Hopkins, or Perelman (Penn).
<<<
When the time comes, you’ll be popping champagne bottles no matter WHERE you get accepted. Focusing on a handful of med schools is a waste of time. All med schools are excellent. You’ll be thrilled and lucky to get into ANY of them.
If you’re willing to put in a lot of work, I expect you’ll take advantage of all the opportunities each campus has. I think UCSD is a stronger choice for premed than Berkeley because of the significantly higher levels of funded research ($1B vs $670M), the medical school on campus (which sadly does not favor UCSD students), the high number of hospitals within a mile of campus (4 hospitals totaling 1277 beds vs 1 urgent care center in berkeley), the plethora of nearby biomedical research institutes (Salk, Sanford Burnham Prebys, LJI, Sanford Consortium, TSRI), and the many internship opportunities at San Diego’s hundreds of biomedical corporations (admittedly, South San Francisco has this as well).
If CMU is affordable that’s what I’d choose.
Next I’d choose ucsd. However if it’s affordable I wouldn’t commute the first year at least, but try to live on campus.
<<<<
Financially, UCSD would be the cheapest because I would commute and wouldn’t have to worry about housing, meal plan, etc. The cost difference between the other two isn’t too significant ($~10k per year I think).
<<<
Tell us more about that. How will the costs that aren’t covered with “free money grants/scholarships” get paid ? Parents? Loans? What?
If you end up at UCSD, I would suggest that you live on campus the first year if you can. How close do you live to campus?
@MYOS1634@mom2collegekids Why do you think living on campus would be a good idea? I know it’s better for making friends and stuff, but is there any other advantage to it? I already know a good amount of people who go there/will be going there so I will have some friends off the bat. I like very close to campus, probably a 20 min. drive.
Because living on your own will help you establish a ‘college’ identity; because it’ll help you mature and become more independent.
More importantly, studies show that students who live on campus have better grades and are more involved in college life. Which makes sense : they’re on campus, so it’s easier for them to pull a late night study session in the library, join a study group, gain leadership skills through clubs… Finally, as a premed, you don’t want anything that’ll make your life harder - and wasting time on a commute is not what you want to do.
