<p>I got accepted into both UC Berkeley and Cornell, but I am unsure of which school to attend.
I am going for a major in Environmental Science with Pre-med
Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Cornell (10 char)</p>
<p>To clarify, Cornell for premed. I'm not sure about environmental sciences (although I took a Developmental Sociology classes called Society and the Environment that had a ton of EAS majors). 80% of Cornell applicants with 3.8 or above GPAs get into a top 20 med school.</p>
<p>If you live in California, go to Berkeley. Save all that money for med school later on! I'm sure Cornell and Berkeley are on an even footing as far as prestige is concerned, so why not go for the cheaper option? Also, Ithaca has sucky, sucky weather.</p>
<p>I think that Berkeley has pretty bad acceptance rates into med school for premeds, but don't take my word for it, do your research. THis probably isn't the best place for a nuetral opinion. Cornell people are gonna say Cornell is better, unless they're waitlisted and want you to go somewhere else.</p>
<p>Because these stats are unimpressive:</p>
<p>Looks like you would need a 3.9+ and a MCAT score approaching 40 if you want to get into a top med school from Berkeley.</p>
<p>you will probably have a higher quality undergrad experience at cornell than at berkeley, depending on what specifically you are looking for/what is important to you.. cornell is a lot more diverse racially, geographically, and probly just all around you will have a more diverse group of people (in terms of people's interests/activities). My impression also is that berkeley is more academically focused, with a greater portion of the student body highhly focused on schoolwork, whereas, at cornell, while people are def very driven and focused on school, they are involved in more "outside the classroom" activities, and cornell is def more of a party school than berkeley.. if that is important to you. let me know if u are interested in anything specifically.</p>
<p>this is obviously biased because it's under cornell forum.</p>
<p>on the other hand though.. if you dont care about location, and geographic and racial diversity isnt that big of a priority for you, Berkeley is a pretty good bet, especially if you arent getting financial aid from Cornell. </p>
<p>and also i didnt mention in my first post.. academically, you probably will get more attention at Cornell from professors and TAs because while both schools are big, Berkeley is def bigger than Cornell and i think it does make a difference, especially in certain classes.</p>
<p>I also get the vibe that Berkeley focuses on it's grad pop more than Cornell. ;)</p>
<p>The biggest difference I see is in the quality of advising. Cornell's prehealth advising is very good. A lot of schools have generic advisors who really don't understand med school admissions. Judy, Cornell's premed advisor, goes to advising conferences all the time to keep herself up to date and gives very sound advice. Cornell also has a free personal statement-editing service. The fact that Cornell has a premed committee that writes you a LOR allows you to bypass any specific LOR requirements med schools may have. </p>
<p>The crappy acceptance rates of Berkeley applicants to top med schools shows me that these people are not applying realistically (poor advising, perhaps?)</p>
<p>Anyway, if the OP has any questions about premed at Cornell, he/she can PM me. I'm a graduating senior at Cornell applying to med schools this summer.</p>