<p>Is UCSC biology and marine biology program pretty good or ok at UCSC?
I'm planning on majoring in biology or marine biology and go to medical school after 4 years or so.</p>
<p>Santa Cruz's concentration is mostly on arts, language, and astronomy. However biology is substantial at pretty much any UC. Most pre-med students should plan on going to UCB or UCLA. UCSD has the most pre med students with about 35% going to medical school after their undergraduate degree. My friend went to UCSC and tried to get into medical school and it was really hard because they are not a research school. Another friend went to Cal Poly SLO and could only get into to loma linda medical school even though she had a 3.75 and high MCATs. If you got into UCSD i would recommend that over UCSC</p>
<p>are you sure about the research thing. i thought UCSC is good for undergraduate research. Anyway, I didn't get into UCSD. I thought med school only look at your gpa, and mcat and your longterm volunteer.</p>
<p>BenjyBoy~ where did you get your info? </p>
<p>On the contrary, I've heard that SC is quite outstanding in anything bio/marine biology. And research.</p>
<p>i got into UCSD
but i sort of like UCSC's environment...</p>
<p>I'm in bio too
is UCSC's bio far from SD's? </p>
<p>dunno...
davis, SC, SD... cant decide</p>
<p>San Diego overall is significantly better than Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is better in some fields, and marine biology is one, though San Diego is excellent - it's just that Santa Cruz is arguably tops in California . San Diego is significantly better in biology, one of the reasons being that the San Diego area is a major center of biotechnological firms, and the crossover between industry and academia is a major plus.</p>
<p>I'd say choose UC San Diego. It is significantly superior to UC Santa Cruz in biology (excellent for San Deigo, good for Santa Cruz), while UC Santa Cruz is only marginally superior to UC San Diego in marine biology (both excellent).</p>
<p>OTOH, you can't beat UC Santa Cruz for environment and living conditions. I had a foster brother at San Diego State 35 years ago and, while visiting him, watched him boil a test tube of tap water down to the bottom. There was 3mm of green slime at the bottom of the tube when the last water boiled away and the green slime started carbonizing.</p>
<p>For medical school, choose San Diego over Santa Cruz, but Davis is better. Davis has a medical school, but I don't think San Diego does. Having a medical school on the same campus means there are many medical-related activities for pre-med majors to get involved in which will provide an advantage in applying to any medical school.</p>
<p>If there is a medical school at UC San Diego, then I'd rate San Diego as marginally superior overall to Davis for pre-med majors, and clearly superior for those interested in marine biology.</p>
<p>UCSD has a medical school, which opens up a lot of avenues for a pre med students. With a medical school the government endows the school with a lot of money for research. As a pre med student, it is a real plus if you get hands on research or even publish by the time you apply for medical school. Also with a hospital on campus you are able to get clinical experience, at uc santa cruz there is no on campus medical center but if you really want to get community service there is a hospital in town. Also if you are thinking about majoring in biology, make sure you're really good at it, because med schools look at GPA and want a well rounded class. So they usually take 60 percent from science majors and 40% from other majors. So pick a major that you think you can get high grades in, no matter what.</p>
<p>All UC’S are research schools. As long as you have a high science gpa and good mcat scores youll be fine!</p>