UCSB vs. UCD

I recently got accepted to UCD and UCSB. It’s so hard for me to choose one and it’s honeslty stressing me out. I live really close to Davis which is awesome and I love the campus, but if I go to Santa Barbara, I will be right on the beach which is awesome as well! I want to go pre-med and I know Davis has a great program, but I’m unsure about UCSB. Please help me… I need some advice!!

you have 2 great options so, don’t worry about choosing the wrong one. Think about them as academic equals and weigh the pros/cons of living on/near each in your own head - do you want to be close to the beach? can you handle all the distractions?

Both will provide you with the resources and opportunities you need to be a competitive med school applicant. Whether you become one such applicant will be more about your efforts, less about the school attended. Premed will be hard at both and you should expect intense competition from boat loads of strong premed students all seeking high GPAs. In general most who start as premed will change their career goals, and of those that actually apply 60% will not get accepted anywhere. You should have a Plan B. As a CA resident, if you get into a med school, most CA students will go to med school OOS as there are simply not enough slots for the tons of qualified CA premeds. As OOS med schools will be very costly, consideration should be given to graduating with as little debt as possible. Is one school offering more scholarship money. Also you probably know that both schools operate on a 10 week quarter system, but you should take to heart that if you do not stay on top of material from onset, the speed and demands of a quarter can wreak havoc on a GPA quickly. You may have to limit/eliminate your beach time at UCSB.

Having gone to UCSB, the beach isn’t going to be your biggest distraction. Look into the social scene at both schools and see if one feels like a better fit.