My friend got into these 2 colleges, with a small 5k scholarship at UCM. He said he wanted to be a surgeon and he wanted to go UCM because its a good location and its small classes and small competition is good for medical school. He already commited too. Other people at my school were like “WTF is wrong with u son” becuase he is asian and his parents wanted him to go to Harvard even though he got rejected. HE also thought UCLA was too crowded and hard for premed, so UCM is what he did. This is not a troll post- seriously was his decision justified?
For a student who has the qualifications to get accepted into UCLA, I find it a bit surprising that he would choose UC Merced, (which is considered the least prestigious in the whole UC system) If he really wants a smaller campus environment,why did he not apply to some of the good private liberal arts colleges?
Your friend is smart. If you truly want to become a doctor and aren’t some super genius or don’t want to go crazy over 4 years being a top student at a mediocre school is better than avg at a top one. Let me explain,
For a lot of normal entry lvl post grad jobs the prestige and netoworking of your school is a significant factor. Med schools do not take into account undergrad prestige or hardness. They only look at mcat GPA and ecs. It’s likely he will get better grades at Merced than la which is known for grade deflation. Moral of the story is if you want to be a doctor go to an easier school. If you want to grow and have opportunities others don’t have attend a prestigious school.
Did he have no other options in between Merced and UCLA? I get the strategy, but I kinda think you’re also robbing yourself of a good college experience. And what happens if he doesn’t get into med school? Then he’s got a degree from Merced that has virtually no alumni network compared to an older, more established school like UCLA.
He fucked up i go to merced and the chem professor that teaches all the chemistry classes required for medical school here is so bad that there are rumors that he’s going to be dismissed this semester. His final exams are always an uncurved acs exam and his average was a 27.1/65. The national average was a 37.8/65. There are talented students that do come here but that doesn’t matter if your friend doesnt get the training need to go to medical school.
Sounds like a good choice to me. I know someone who made a similar choice a few years back. He got into Cal and Riverside. Who can turn down Cal, right? Well, he did, figured he would be more likely to be at the top of the curve. He is a doctor today.