UCSB or UCI for pre-med DECISIONS?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - GENERAL
1

i’ve recently narrowed down my choices to either UCSB or UCI and I’ve been accepted under biological sciences. Tuition is around the same for both schools so that isn’t much of a factor. I’ve having quite a bit of trouble trying to decide between the two - i’m concerned of the intense competition at UCI, but I know they have plenty of great extracurricular opportunities and hospitals surrounding the area so it won’t be as difficult to find somewhere to either shadow or volunteer.
However, I’ve heard that UCSB is a tad more lax in their weeder courses? But there aren’t that many hospitals or medical centers nearby.
(Campus environment is not a big factor for me. I’ve visited both campuses and they’re both lovely.) The opinions I’ve been receiving have been very 50/50, so my decision isn’t very clear…

Where would I stand to have the “greater” chance at making it to med school? As in, the quality of education I will receive is the same, but where will I stand to benefit from more EC opportunities while still being able to juggle a nice high GPA? Do you know any undergraduates that went to med school from either school?

2

For pre-med I’d definitely go with UCI. My mom went there and she got into USC dental school, and my orthopedic surgeon uncle went there and got into UCLA med school. He also did his residency at Cedar-Sinai in LA, which is a really great hospital, and said that it was all set up by UCI.

3

I think the proper answer is that you can do well at either school. Irvine has a medical school, true, but the word is that plenty of people have found good opportunities to do research/EC work at UCSB. You might want to talk to the pre-health advisors at each campus:

http://www.duels.ucsb.edu/professional/health/med
https://www.bio.uci.edu/careers/

The UCSB site publishes admissions stats–