UCR vs UW: Pre-med

California resident deciding between UW and UCR for premed.

UW
Pros:
Beautiful Campus and amazing school academically
Med School Ranked #1 for Primary Care and #12 for Research
Many opportunities for research, clinical experience, and internships
Prestige
Small merit-based scholarship

Cons:
Out of state tuition
Nearly impossible to get into UW Medical school

UCR???
Pros:
In-State tuition
Close to Home
Less competition, easier to excel/stand out

Cons:
Lower tier UC
Less funding for research
Not known for their medical program

I don’t know much UCR’s pre-med program, but if someone could help me with the pros and cons for their premed program. Maybe including the percentage of premeds at UCR who got into a Medical school?

There is nothing wrong with UCR, UCR has a program that you can skip MCAT and directly enter their med school for CA residents and UCR graduates, a super big advantage for the pre-med. It is the most med school friendly UC in the California.

@artloversplus Is that program to skip the MCAT highly selective? And do other med schools look at where you go for your undergrad? Will there be an advantage going to UCR vs UW?

Any graduate from UC is a strong contender for med school. Med school does not care where your UG was but they look at your hard stats and soft ECs, LORs and others.

Yes the program at UCR is competitive, but it is much better than other schools, candidates have to be CA residents and UCR graduates, please see the UCR web site. In U Chicago I know they take one or two students into their Med school out of about 300 pre-med students, that is more competitive.

There is no reason for a Calif premed to go to UWash…total waste of money.

UCR is totally fine for premed.

The % that get into med school means nothing. Calif has too many premeds so the % is just average at all the UCs.

Getting into med school has to do with YOUR stats, YOUR app list…it has NOTHING to do with UCR or any other name of a school.

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And do other med schools look at where you go for your undergrad


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Med schools do NOT care where you go to undergrad unless maybe you went to some unknown, podunk school. But UCR is not podunk. It’s a respected UC. It’s totally fine for all med schools.

For a non-WWAMI state resident, I’d say “nearly impossible” makes it sound more likely than it is