<p>I have to choose from UCLA, Berkeley, UCSD, and Northwestern. I'm not sure which college to choose from and I want to go somewhere where I'll have the best chance of going to med school. I know that berkeley kills your gpa and I know that UCLA is reluctant to take its undergrads for its med graduate school. And compared to the UCs, Northwestern is incredibly expensive. I don't know if paying more than 50,000 a year for a private is worth it. But then again, @ Northwestern, I would have privileges not available to me @ UCs like smaller classes, etc. So, if you had to choose from these, which would you choose?</p>
<p>Berkeley if in CA.</p>
<p>Berkeley in-state >>> $50,000/year for Northwestern</p>
<p>Work hard and save your money for medical school. Even if you don't go to med school, the Berkeley science degree will carry you farther than the NU science degree and you won't have $200k debt weighing you down.</p>
<p>Medical school is expensive. UCLA, UCSD & Berkeley are outstanding schools--as is Northwestern University. The biggest difference, based on your posted info., is that the UCs are much more affordable for you. Financial pressure is not something that a dedicated pre-med student needs to worry about.</p>
<p>i would go to ucla. berkeley is known to be a very tough school and is considered to be a grade-deflated school, a unique rep to be attached to a state school. remember, your gpa is very important to your successes in gaining admission to med schools. And, NU isn't that good to be worth extra 50k a year, over ucla or ucb. If it was Harvard or Yale, it might have been worth the cost.</p>
<p>Save as much as you can now because Medical school is very expensive. If you can save $100k over four years by attending a UC, go for it.</p>
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I know that UCLA is reluctant to take its undergrads for its med graduate school.
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</p>
<p>Everyone always says this but I have yet to see any proof. </p>
<p>UCLA</a> Career Center</p>
<p>According to the link above, 22 UCLA undergrads went to UCLA Geffen for med school. The Geffen program is only around 120 students I think. There was certainly a crapload of UCLA undergrads when I interviewed there. Another 8 matriculated in the Drew/UCLA program. 1/6 representation is pretty significant in my opinion.</p>
<p>Furthermore Norcal, you have to wonder how many UCLA students got into the UCLA Medical program but opted to go elsewhere. </p>
<p>25 UCLA students decided to attend UCSF medical school alone. Another 25 decided to attend UCSD medical school. Another 6 decided to attend Michigan Medical, 5 went to Case Western Medical, 4 went to Johns Hopkins Medical, 3 went to WUSTL Medical and another 3 went to Pitt Medical. Two more went to Stanford Medical, another two opted for Chicago Medical and two others to Duke medical. One went to each of the following medical schools: Harvard, Cornell, Penn, Columbia, Baylor and Northwestern. </p>
<p>Of those 80 or so students who enrolled into other top 20 medical schools, I am sure many got into UCLA medical school but opted for a change in scenery.</p>
<p>I think if you plan to stay in CA for med school, residency, and beyond, it might be worth it to go to a UC. From my experience, the UC med schools seem very biased towards residents who went to UC/Cal-State undergrads. Even though I interviewed at many top med schools this year (Penn, WashU, Michigan, Northwestern, Columbia, etc.), I was only able to get an interview from UC Davis and a very very late interview from UCLA Geffen. Couldn't even get an interview at UC Irvine. At my interviews at those schools, almost everyone had attended a public CA school. Conversely, at my other interviews, almost no UC grads were visible. Cornell, the other Ivies, Stanford, JHU, WashU were very very heavily represented. </p>
<p>You can see that UCLA does great with the CA schools (UCLA, UCSD, UCSF) but rather pathetically outside of CA. Their top non-CA schools for matriculants were RFU and Drexel. I honestly cannot think of a US allopathic med school with a worse reputation than RFU/Drexel.</p>
<p>My conclusion is that UC med schools tend to overvalue UC undergrads while med schools outside of CA tend to undervalue UC's.</p>
<p>Career</a> Center - Medical School Statistics</p>
<p>Berkeley's track record to top out of state med schools is similarly atrocious.</p>
<p>The one exception is Michigan which seems very friendly to UCLA and Berkeley undergrads.</p>