hi! i need some help choosing between UCSB and UCI.
i’m currently doing a BA in psychology at UCR but i applied to transfer. i got admitted into UCSB as a pre-psychological and brain sciences major (BS) and into UCI as a psychological sciences major (BA)
the ultimate goal is med school, and i had a lot of trouble getting my pre-med classes at UCR (and in general felt very out of place and unhappy)
i’m not sure if doing a BA was what made it difficult so i was wondering if anyone has any general info about SB or UCI and/or which program you would recommend? thank you!!
UCI used to say that majors in the school of social sciences cannot be used as premed majors. I think it had to do with course availability. I’m not sure if things have changed so you might ask before you commit.
any UC can get you to med school. Since the premed requirements are nearly all lower division courses, they will be full and competitive at each campus. Med schools won’t care about the difference between BS or BA.
So the real issue comes down to social fit, which only you can decide. Why are you unhappy at UCR? What kinda environment are you seeking?
If you were a psych major at UCR, there would be difficulty in getting into some premed required classes, unless you had worked with an HPAC counselor. I am assuming that you didn’t seek out their help.
UCR is a good school for giving you an advantage into their med school if that REALLY is your goal. They have an early assurance program. The other UC’s, with med schools, tend to look everywhere for the best students. A lot of their admitted students are NOT from the local UC’s. There are no guarantees that transferring into UCI or UCSB will give you any type of advantage for admission to a med school. It will be even more competitive. I get that UCR is kind of a “sleepy” campus, but they are strong in medicine and they have a variety of patient cases. My daughter is at UCSF-SOM. Most of her classmates were not from UC’s. A number of them were from CSU’s and then everywhere else in the US.
You do realize that SB does not have an affiliated hospital? UCI will be very, very competitive and “looks” like a commuter campus at times.
hello! yes i did seek help from HPAC (the director of the program) and my own psych counselor and they were overall very discouraging and unable to help me get into classes. they said that i would have to wait until my sophomore year to start general chem, and i did that, but that puts me about a year behind. my psych counselor told me i would graduate a year early but HPAC told me i should do a post-bacc.
i didn’t look into the early assurance program because i looked at some of their restrictions they have and i didn’t think it was right for me.
yeah my main concern with SB was that there isn’t a medical school/hospital associated with it. but i’m not really looking for an advantage to get into med school, i’m just looking for a place where i can do psych + pre-med courses with an easier pathway, if that makes sense!! thank you 
hi! correct me if i’m wrong, but isn’t it easier to get into classes like o-chem and physics if i’m pursuing a BS?
overall at ucr i had really bad experiences. i didn’t enjoy my time there socially and academically. they didn’t have the program i was looking for, and everyone i met was very shallow and fake. obviously i’m not transferring because of the ppl but i would like to be in a school that’s more of a community!
Welcome to one of the largest bureaucracies in the world. The other campuses will be similar in “help”. Not sure of registration process at UCR, but Gen Chem is usually not impacted, if you have the prereqs. Regardless,
Professional schools love students with a year or two of work experience, so don’t be concerned about applying after graduation. Is there an academic reason reason why the counselor recommended a post-bac? Not saying its a bad idea, but the question is why does s/he recommend that pathway (and additional expense).
Compare the degree/major requirements between the two campuses. If I’m reading correctly the UCI program to which you are admitted focuses on social ecology, which means additional major class requirements. If that is your thing, great, but if not, fuhgheddiboutit. The other thing to ask is whether SB or UCI will accept all of your UCR courses for transfer credit.
Shouldn’t be. Organic is one of the most difficult courses offered in Arts & Sciences, so its not like thousands of students are begging to take it. 
Or, does UCR give registration preference to majors?
i’m so sorry this is gonna be long omg
yes i met the pre-req’s for chem, which was just a college math class (i took this last winter). so i should’ve been allowed to take gen chem in spring 2019, but registration was full. i was sophomore standing. UCR has these learning communities (all bio majors) who get priority for registration for all classes. i wasn’t placed in a LC because i am a psych major. i was told this wouldn’t make a difference, but i was continuously left behind, whether it was for registering for classes or finding study groups.
but the other problem was that this was happening w my psych classes too. half the psych classes at UCR weren’t offered, and the few that were available were full by the time i registered this past term. theoretically, i should’ve gotten priority because i was not only junior standing, but also a psych major. so this quarter i was unable to take any psych classes at all, and ended up taking some random linguistics class to fulfill a social science requirement. i think the other factor is that these pre-med classes are not required for me to complete, i’m taking them as electives. i think if it was necessary for me to take chem to graduate, they would give me more priority, but i’m not entirely sure.
honestly i was pretty open to a post-bacc but i’m worried i might end up spending 5 years in undergrad. and my advisor had told me that post-bacc is mostly for re-doing upperdiv science classes anyways, which i haven’t done yet. the main reason he recommended it (i went to him at the end of freshman year last year) was because i got a D in economics and a C in statistics. i did well (mostly A’s and few B’s) in my psych, philosophy, and other classes. he recommended post-bacc to raise my GPA. again, i’m pretty open to it, but i’m not sure how much it’ll help me and if it will really be worth it.
comparing UCSB to UCI, irvine definitely looks like it would end up being similar to UCR because of the BA thing. i’ve also heard the major i was accepted into is more social science based (career pathways would be therapists, social workers, etc.) rather than medicine/hard science based. on the other hand, SB has the hard science/pre-med req’s integrated into SB has more psych classes that fit my interest (like labs, memory, etc.) but of course, this is only helpful if i can actually get a spot.
Again, don’t be concerned with the difference of a BA/BS. Focus on the course requirements of the transfer Uni. Yes, the School of Social Ecology at UCI is gonna focus on ecology type topics. My guess is that those additional social science requirements will limit your chances to take the premed courses.
UCSB would be my recommendation, but only if you are a direct admit to the Psych major. What does a pre-major imply for a transfer? What requirements will you have to fulfill to be admitted to the major at SB? (It does not good to move to SB and find out your intended major is capped and not available.)
The other thing of note is that premed in CA is extremely competitive, so it always good to consider a major that will enable you to get a job upon graduation.
I disagree with the advisor. A post-bac is primarily for students who have completed almost no premed prereqs during undergrad; it is not for students who could not get classes at their Uni.
For example, see Scripps’ program (which is excellent btw).
https://www.scrippscollege.edu/postbac/
Upper division science classes have more generous curve, and repeating them is not considered favorably by med schools. You need A’s, and lots of them.
Good luck.
Thank you! I have SIR’ed to UCSB and am in contact with the transfer advisors to figure out my pathway. Thanks for all the info