I love UCLA and BU, but I want to make a smart choice and not let my ego take control. I feel like realistically, BU is the smarter choice because I often hear about many horror stories and the cutthroat competitive atmosphere at UCLA. But I know that in retrospect, they are both very competitive schools are far as the premed route goes. So my question is, which one should I go to for premed? Is UCLA truly that bad? or is it about the same as BU?
I don’t know who is telling you horror stories about how UCLA is cutthroat, but I think it’s being overblown. Maybe they mean students are coddled as much? That is true. It’s a big school and students tend to be more independent, trying to figure things out on their own or they form study groups to work with each other without expecting the school to provide people to hold their hand and pull them to succeed. And if one needs more help, they might have to be more proactive than at other schools where everyone is assigned an adviser and professors are sitting in offices with an open door waiting for someone to come ask for help. But cutthroat against each other? No. You have to be more self motivated at a school like UCLA (generally speaking), but I never had a problem with this. It was more like the real world and better preparation for it, in my view.
Some majors are more competitive than others, but there really is no “pre-med” at UCLA per se, kind of like there’s no pre-law. You’ll have to take some prerequisites and the MCATS for med school, but I dated a girl when at UCLA who was an art major (not very cutthroat or competitive) and went on to med school.
Here’s a link to a UCLA pre-med brochure that talks about majors and coursework if you want to go to med school. Even it says you can major in music.
https://www.admission.ucla.edu/prospect/PreMed.pdf
Hope that sheds some light. Don’t let the horror stories scare you off. They don’t let people in unless they are confident they’ll succeed.
I’m sorry…BU? Is that Brown? Baylor? Boston U? Please clarify…
@HisTyNess, I know college lingo can be confusing, but BU is always Boston University, on CC and everywhere else. In fact, it’s never called anything else. And I suspect Brown and Baylor are never called BU.
@MommaJ actually all three legally identify as BU. Just a heads for if you ever decide to step outside the realm of CC and into the REAL WORLD
And @wrkhardplayhard they BOTH are very cutthroat. In fact, from my days at Harvard I heard BU is worse than most on competitiveness as its full of people who didn’t get into HMS, JHU, Penn, NYU and UCLA (surprise surprise!). And if you think thats bad wait until you start practicing! haha
But anywho, the answer to your question is UCLA. Its a top 3 program. you’d be crazy to pass on it ;))
@HisTyNess what is a top 3 program at UCLA
if youre OOS for UCLA, then dont go there
@mom2collegekids Why not? and @HisTyNess what’s a top 4 program? and also, are you saying that UCLA would be less cutthroat than BU?