UC Berkeley as a Pre-Med?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

Hi guys! I’m attending Berkeley in the fall, and I’m definitely nervous about the course rigor/keeping my GPA up. I plan on going the pre-med route, so I have to take biology (which I love), chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, etc. I am not majoring in MCB, I (hopefully) plan to major in Public Health. I looked at all the upper courses for Public Health and a lot of them seemed super interesting to me so I’m really excited. I think public health is also a better route to go because realistically I need to have a back up, and health administration interests me. I also have already volunteered at a local hospital for 2 years to reassure this is what I want to do. I have a few questions: How should I plan my schedule out to fill all my prerequisites? How difficult is it to get clinical exposure? Is it a bad idea to join a sorority? I reallyyy want to learn ASL (sign language) and work with a local group at Berkeley’s community college and work with deaf people, but is the time permitted in my schedule? What are things that will make me stand out as a med school applicant, considering everyone else applying is exceptional?

On another thread I saw this was somebody’s recommendation for classes:
Fall '17 - Chem 1A
Spring '18 - Chem 3A/L, Bio 1B
Fall '18 - Bio 1A/L
Spring '19 - Chem 3B/L, Physics 8A
Fall '19 - Physics 8B

With this schedule I still need to take my one year of math though :confused: I really dislike math… I’ll have to make that work. I heard Math 1A/1B (I think these are them?) are really hard so I’m nervous. Any advice is welcomed!

2

@jujubean11

Don’t know too much about medical school admission.
But it looked like you have a pretty good plan.
Public health seemed to have higher GPA overall than other science majors, i.e., 0.5 higher in most cases.
Most importantly, public health interests you.

http://projects.dailycal.org/grades/

3

I think MCB majors (and pre-meds can) take Math 10A/10B. They are…challenging (from what D hears from her friends). I suggest taking adjunct classes if offered in addition to lecture and discussion (other STEM classes have study groups at the SLR).

4

hello! I’m an incoming freshman for this year hoping to apply for public health. I was wondering if you had any updates for how your planned schedule is going so far and if you could possibly give any advice for the classes I should take? (how are the science classe that you took?) I’m not premed, but I’m hoping to apply for a nursing program after graduating! Any help would be so appreciated!

5

Splitting chemistry and biology first semester is a good idea as many freshmen stumble, trying to handle two very hard classes while getting used to the rigors of college.
If you took calculus in high school, you take a non engineering calculus 1 first semester and a biostatistics class for second semester, or the reverse.
English and foreign language round it all out first semester, sociology or psychology second semester.