Note: I went to Cal back in the dark ages and was accepted to an excellent medical school. I know several kids there now who are premed.
First off forget about this: “The fact that there is no medical school in Berkeley hurts a lot, even though there are plenty of positives.” Totally irrelevant. The schools with the highest medical school acceptance rates are elite LACs; none of which have affiliated hospitals. You can get clinical experience anywhere. UC Irvine has an affiliated hospital and is probably the worst last on the planet to do premed.
Cal is a tough place to do premed because of the reasons you mentioned: grade deflation and lack of contact with professors (huge class sizes). However, if you can run the premed gauntlet there and come out with a 3.8 and a good MCAT you will likely get in somewhere. And when your in medical school you will likely do well given your rigorous and non-hand-holding undergraduate experience. But, the grim reality is that Cal has a pretty low medical school acceptance rate given the caliber of students there (its a little over 50%). And remember the cohort that applies is a tiny, tiny fraction of those that start Cal as premeds. Most bail out after Chem 1A first semester.
https://career.berkeley.edu/MedStats/MedStats
All three of the schools you listed are grade deflators compared to the elite LACs, the Ivies, and Stanford. See:
http://www.gradeinflation.com
I have no idea if the advising or professor interactions are better at one or the other. Ya gotta visit and talk to real live students. You will likely do poorly at a school if you don’t like the area or the students. And remember that college is not a means to an end. Its four years of your life. And statistically speaking its likely that you will end up doing something other than medicine by the time you graduate. Cal’s international reputation is quite handy when looking for employment.
Below is a distillation of my thoughts on medical school admissions I posted over on the Cal Poly board. Note this was for a student that did NOT list Cal as an option, but the general advice is relevant.
"My oldest son just went through this process and will be attending his first choice medical school this August. Years ago I was also member of a medical school admissions committee. So I have some insight into medical school admissions. Hang on, this is a long post. But, it is the distillation of lots real world experience and you will not find it anywhere else. Certainly not from some overpaid and clueless admissions consultant.
@eyemgh is partially correct. Without good grades and good MCAT forget about even applying. You will be screened out before they even see how wonderful you are are. A good GPA/MCAT gets you looked at. But, thousands of kids get rejected every year with high GPAs and MCATs above the 90th percentile. To get an interview and ultimately an acceptance you need much, much more: stellar letters of recommendation, research experience, clinical experience, volunteer experience with underserved communities, and a compelling personal statement built on accomplishments that demonstrate why you will become a great physician.
So, to answer your question is a UC better than Cal Poly if the goal is to get to med school? Absolutely NOT! The UCs are actually some of the worst places to do premed because of: grade deflation (there goes that GPA), large class sizes (tough to get good letters of rec), and tons of other premeds (harder to get research and clinical experiences). This is borne out by the medical school admissions stats which are horrific at UCSD, UCD, and UCI. UCLA is a bit better, but given the caliber of student accepted there it is still surprising how low they are there… FYI UCLA has more premeds than any school in the country.
Getting up to date statistic is hard as some schools try hard to hide their abysmal admissions rate. UCSD is well aware of crappy admit rate and apparently has hired some folks to try to fix it. But, I see now they have hidden their actual admit rate. The rate they used to publish was about 35%:
http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/savvy-pre-med/2016/9/19/3-reasons-many-uc-pre-meds-regret-their-college-choice
UCI admit rate is 27%:
http://sites.bio.uci.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Student-Statistics-Summary-Analysis-Handout.pdf
UCLA is a around 50%:
http://career.ucla.edu/Portals/14/Documents/PDF/MedStats/2014_Medical_School_Admissions_Statistics.pdf_042516.pdf
UCD- last I heard it was around 35%, but I cannot find a link. Its nowhere to be found on their site. Very suspicious.
UCSB is 40%:
http://www.duels.ucsb.edu/professional/health/med
Cal Poly is 50%:
https://prehealth.calpoly.edu/frequently-asked-questions#1
https://content-calpoly-edu.s3.amazonaws.com/prehealth/1/images/Open House presentation 2017.pdf
Here are the national statistics put out by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC):
https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/157998/factstablea24.html
If your choices are as listed I personally would steer clear of UCSD, UCD, UCI and be wary of UCLA unless you really loved the place and are confident you could hang with a really competitive and giant premed class. If you were my kid I would advise you to go to Cal Poly or UCSB.
Points in favor of Cal Poly: small class size (taught by professors and not TAs), not that many premeds, lots of research opportunities, little competition for clinical experience in local hospitals, and a nice collegial atmosphere. Points not in favor of Cal Poly: grade deflation relative to private schools (but similar to UCs) and having to explain why you turned down to UCLA to relatives at cocktail parties.“But isn’t that the the place where they study cows”, “But UCLA is so much more prestigious…blah, blah, blah…”.
And with the Frost donation the opportunities for undergrad research experience at Cal Poly will rival any UC:
https://calpolynews.calpoly.edu/news_releases/2017/May/frost.html
Congrats! Take the scholarship money and run to Cal Poly!
Good luck!"
