I just recently got denied from Santa Cruz and have only been accepted into UC riverside so far for microbiology. UCR and Santa Cruz have almost the same rank for biological sciences. UCR got a rank of 68 and UCSC got a rank of 55 in biological sciences. Do you guys think $28k yearly is worth for a school like riverside or do you think I should just transfer and try to get into a better UC?
Visit UCR and then decide. It has lots of great professors to intern with and a med school if you’re interested in any health related careers. Employers value your major and your work experience more than your school’s name in biotech; a UCB grad with no internship experience isn’t going to land a lab tech job.
Basically, any UC will prepare you for a bio career. Riverside might actually be better than SC due to more internship opportunities. But if you hate the campus, or place pride in rankings, Organic Chemistry won’t be any different at community college.
@Autumnal Thanks for the input. I honestly don’t care about the environment or campus to be honest. I’m just there to get a good education and not waste 30 grand. And yeah I actually do want to pursue a career that’s along the medical field. The only reason I’m debating on this decision is because people just look down on UCs such as Riverside and Santa Cruz. I mean it’s not half bad and it is better than most top CSUs like San Diego state in science. Riverside is ranked #68, but I’m just worried about employers looking down on UCs like Riverside and Santa Cruz and not giving me a job because of it yknow.
Also, I’m assuming you attend Riverside right now, is it easy to maintain a 3.5+ gpa there? Considering my worth ethic is pretty good and already am used to countless hours of studying already?
@GrammyWinner This is going to sound ridiculously cliche but college really is what you make of it. My sister really screwed up in high school and she knew it. She went to UCR because it was the only school that accepted her. She worked hard to get good grades (read: they weren’t great), got her pharm technician license, worked at a few pharmacies in her summers, and she just got accepted to UCSF yesterday. I know Riverside isn’t a great school but it isn’t the end of the road for the med field (might I add they just opened a med school, with its first class graduating this year?)
@GrammyWinner I didn’t attend (I’m an alumnus of another UC), but I’m pretty familiar with all the UCs. I can guarantee you that biotech companies don’t care where your degree is from (unless it’s top 25); at the bachelor’s level, they just want to know that you have steady hands for lab work. They do care that you have internship experience - and preferably several years of it.
The thing that most pre health students don’t understand when going in to undergrad is that “quality of education” in science does not vary much between universities. It’s like deciding between two high schools that both offer AP Calculus; the subject matter is standardized, so it doesn’t really matter. Your teacher might be easier at one school, but in the end you’re taking the AP test (read: MCAT) so you’ll be required to know it all anyway.
Schools with better science departments offer more electives and niche subject matter, but that doesn’t apply to pre health students (or any student not gunning for a PhD).
The thing that matters most for pre health is volunteer opportunities, clinical exposure opportunities, and research opportunities. Riverside offers all of those in abundance. It’s actually pretty hard to get them at UCSC.