UCB vs UCSB Honors for Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB Pre-Med)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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Hi everyone,

I was wondering what kinds of experiences and thoughts people have of MCB with a pre-med track @ UC Berkeley. I’ve heard nasty things of the program there (cut-throat competition and sabotaging). Currently, my parents are pushing me to go to Berkeley and basically have told other people that I’m committing even though I haven’t said anything at all about where I want to go. I don’t think they care about how rigorous the academics will be and how they will affect me (my sister is an econ. major there and she’s doing just fine), but they care more about the name.

I got honors at UCSB and am actually considering SB because of its smaller enrollment and greater opportunities to interact with professors and class registration priority, however, I’m worried I won’t be able to handle academics and competition at Berkeley. From what I’ve seen online and heard from family friends, it’s either living hell or a breeze in the park – no in between.

So, those of you out there with knowledge and experience, could you please share your current/past experiences with MCB and/or pre-med @ Berkeley?

Thanks in advance.

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UCSB is more of a party school but premed will still be difficult if you decide to go there. UCB has good hospitals near by so you can count on getting better internships there than you will at UCSB also since pre- med is hard at both go to UCB where many med schools know how difficult UCB is and will understand if you get a little bit lower of a GPA Personally I would go to UCB as it tends to have more people in med school and will prepare you the most for med school.

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Thank you so much