<p>I'm having such a hard time deciding between UCLA and UCD for premed and i only have one week left until May 1st. I currently live in Elk Grove so i like that UCD is closer to home. But since UCLA is so much more competitive, I'm worried I wont get into their med school. Can i get some opinions/suggestions?</p>
<p>Go with the easier place, because the story goes that medical schools do not care where you come from.</p>
<p>^thats true. ive heard at some point, they wont give a f**k. unless you are the equivalent of a Berkeley biomedical engineering major. lol. now thats a different story. but for the most part theres no “boost”, especially between UCD and UCLA, which are both very good public schools</p>
<p>Oh, i see. Thanks! Does this go for pre-pharm also? I’m so unsure about where i should go. My mom wants me to go to UCLA because of its prestige and she says it will be easier to find a job later. But if i plan on going to graduate school, hospitals will only look at where i went to graduate school right?</p>
<p>
To be fair, they wouldn’t even care if you were a Berkeley biomedical engineering major. Grad schools are quite indifferent.</p>
<p>
You’re right. It won’t matter where you go for your undergrad if you go to grad school. Even if you didn’t go to grad school, I question the difference a more “prestigious” school makes most of the time.</p>
<p>I quite tired of this Berkeley vs UCLA nonsense. </p>
<p>Davis is a good school. So is UCLA. </p>
<p>OP, flip a coin.</p>
<p>its common sense to med schools when it comes to berkeley bioE, that they have to work 100x as hard as everyone else, but thats like how many pre meds? unless you are in that major at that school, it doesnt matter. there is no difference between UCLA and UCD as far as admissions boards giving someone an advantage. Cal is a different story. that place is another effing WORLD. lol my mcat instructor was telling me how the most anal/competitive premeds in the UC system by far somehow go there. They would literally sit, RIGHT AFTER the lecture, and study for 12 hour stretches during non midterm weeks…</p>
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They honestly don’t care about how much work you put in. You’re making up exceptions for schools to ■■■■■.</p>
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Rankings are infrequently determined by student body but rather the quality (or renown) of the instructors. Even if Grad schools were concerned with rankings (which they aren’t), this does not give Berkeley students an upper edge versus everybody else.</p>
<p>nobody besides you said anything about rankings buddy…</p>
<p>So it’d be smarter to go to UCD instead? What are the advantages of going to UCLA over UCD though?</p>
<p>^just the fact that u have better weather, better lookin ppl, and dont have to walk as far as davis…those are the only advantages…so translation there are no advantages of UCLA</p>
<p>mnop444, may i ask if you are a current UCLA student?</p>
<p>star, take these posts with a grain of salt. You should by no means let any one post influence your decision for the school you will attend for the next 4 YEARS OF YOUR LIFE. </p>
<p>If you are stuck comparing the two schools then it would be best for you to take tours of both and see which one you get a better vibe from. It will be at that school where you will perform significantly better and have higher chances for graduate options based on your grades.</p>
<p>Do yourself a favor and don’t ask for help on this UCLA forum please.</p>
<p>Other than 2-3 good posters, you get advice from undergrads who think they have a master plan set out 4 years in advance, but have not yet realized that their minds weren’t as definite as they started out. Don’t choose your college based on something such as difficulty because you fear med school applications because:</p>
<ol>
<li> Stats show that you probably won’t even want to go to med school</li>
<li> If you work hard and plan well, I guarantee you can pull a solid GPA at UCLA or any other “competitive” college.</li>
<li> You’ll be happier if you truly do want to go to UCLA (or UCD for that matter).<br></li>
</ol>
<p>Choose based on factors which are much more relevant and do your research on these factors.</p>
<p>yes I do to go to UCLA</p>
<p>And in response to incognito:</p>
<p>no, working hard does not gurantee a solid GPA</p>
<p>if i were u figure out whats important to u…and when u visit do not do a stupid tour…u should talk to students and ask questions …attend classes…tours are dumb they just tell u what type of architecture a certain building has…as if thats sooo important lol</p>
<p>Personally, one college class isn’t indicative of a university. Agree with mnop that tours are just superficial - asking questions to the tour guide directly may be better, asking a currently attending student is even better since there is no positive bias. </p>
<p>yes, working hard will get you a solid GPA. </p>
<p>check out the career center websites for premed counseling at each of the UCs. see which site offers more help. also try to see what opportunities are available at each UC - UCLA has some great preceptorships in internal medicine, volunteer opportunities in surrounding communities (SGV, chinatown, thaitown, koreatown, south central…). The area around UCLA offers great opportunities.</p>
<p>lol these so called ‘great’ opportunities are basically secretarial positions or work where someone is just using you…beware when ppl say there are ‘great’ opportunities</p>
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Well what would you personally consider a “great” opportunity than?</p>
<p>^^jaded much? </p>
<p>Welcome to the real world - where you can’t get everything you want, but you work damn hard to get what’s possible. the experiences i just mentioned were far from secretarial positions - heck, they’re all volunteer opportunities. Someone may be “using” you, but you’re hopefully getting some pertinent experience out of it. If not, either ask to see what else you can do or move onto something you’re more interested in. </p>
<p>Maybe you’re thinking of something like Care Extenders - will you be placed into a office work position on your first shift? Yes. Will you have the chance to rotate through some great departments, where you can talk to residents/attending/nurses and gain your own experiences and thoughts from what you do? Yes - if you take initiative and ask. I was in a secretarial position at anesthesiology, but I asked around - and got to work/shadow/research/assist in cardiac operations. What I saw and did may not have mattered to you much, but that doesn’t matter - these are my experiences, and it helped me better understand why I want to pursue medicine. </p>
<p>“Great” is relative. You can be assisting a respected physician and such - but if you didn’t get anything from that experience and can’t articulate it, then it will suck. Understand that undergraduates are low on the medicine totem pole - you can’t DO much without training, but you take advantage of what you can. If you’re looking for hands-on stuff, there are a variety of student organizations (LSHP, APHC, BHP, PCH) that train volunteers to perform blood pressure and body fat percentage screenings on patients in underserved communities. We used to be able to perform glucose and cholesterol blood levels on patients, but UCLA administration got leery and stopped that practice.</p>
<p>Long post, but please don’t dismiss what UCLA has to offer. There are many, many opportunities here - but they might not just fall into your lap. Search, listen, and ask. </p>
<p>OP: attend whichever university you feel most comfortable at - the surrounding city, research, community service, support from academic counseling, whether you’ll be happier close to home in Davis.</p>