I originally committed to the University of Rochester, but I recently got off the waitlist at UC Berkeley for Undeclared Letters and Sciences and will be required to start with FPF in order to start in the fall. I have always wanted to pursue the pre-med track, and I know that the pre-med track at Berkeley is not ideal, not to mention grade deflation. I also know that the name “Berkeley” has a lot of weight for any job or career path. At 18, I have no way of foreseeing exactly what my career will be in the future, but I definitely have the ambition to pursue med school whichever school I go to. However, because premed weed-out courses are so notoriously ridiculous at Berkeley, it probably would not be realistic to do the premed route if I were to attend Berkeley. At the University of Rochester, despite having less name recognition, there is an open curriculum and no general requirement courses, and professors, research opportunities, and volunteer opportunities are known to be accessible. There is also a by-application take-five program which allows students to take a fifth year researching in something unrelated to their major tuition free.
As more context, with the financial aid and merit scholarship I received from the University of Rochester, it’s still expensive to attend UR, but my parents would be able to afford both schools. Also, I did grow up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and many Berkeley students who have attended my high school have said that the academic environment is similar to the academic environment that I experienced in high school, both the good and the bad. Also, I really wasn’t expecting to be admitted into Berkeley in the first place, and initially, I really wanted to experience a totally new place in my college experience. Both schools are definitely great schools, which unfortunately only makes make decision more difficult.
That is a tough decision and apparently cost is not a big factor in your decision . You can probably end up with a higher GPA at UR than at UCB. You also will need to score high on the MCAT if you have medical school aspirations. I cannot see why the academic environment in a high school would be as intense as at UCB. At UCB, you would be competing against only all other smart kids similar to you and at UCB, the professors Bell Curve the test grades to weed out pre-med students. At a private school like UR, there may be a weed out process, but not as bad as a public school like UCB. Private schools want to keep their students enrolled to collect tuition money and their curve is not as bad as at UCB.
For what it is worth, I know of a UCB student who was a National Merit Winner who had a 3.6 UCB GPA and still got into UCD medical school about 5 years ago. Maybe the GPA for someone from UR would be closer to 4.0 to get into UCD medical.
You might want to talk to others who are in medical school or post this question in the medical forum under profession and graduate schools in this forum.
What about the weather factor? Are you an outdoors person? I went to college in upstate NY and it is extremely cold in the winter with lots of snow, and you don’t see the sun very much at all. It would definitely be an adjustment for a CA person (I live in CA now).
I would recommend you read the thread just started by @DVmom18 concerning the differences between Berkeley and other schools in terms of the expectations of knowledge and grades.
I’m a graduating senior at UC Berkeley (CA resident, international student) and I really think it depends on your major and how hard you’re willing to work even when things don’t go according to your original plan. One of my friends is a cog. sci. & computer science double major, who is graduating with a 3.9 GPA (got internships, lab experience, grad-level courses) and she’s still worried that she might not get accepted to an elite graduate school. But she keeps all of her career paths open just in case something unexpected happens. I think that’s a smart way of approaching any competitive track (comp. sci. or pre-med) at a school where most students are great test-takers and the faculty are top-notch. However, I believe it’s the people who work the hardest, the ones who continually strive to learn more who make the whole Berkeley experience so worthy in the end. They completely changed my GPA/check-list way of thinking.
Are you a California resident or OOS?
Which school you should pick for premed undergraduate depends a lot on where you want to go to medical school.
The UC system medical schools are a lot more competitive than most, and they do have a bias toward California students from California universities. The medical schools are aware of the grade skew of each schools, so if you are competitive relative to your peers at Berkeley, you should do fine. If you are not competitive at Berkeley, then chances are you are not getting into one in California anyway.
If you want to go elsewhere for medical school, consider UR for all the reasons you listed.