<p>Hey guys,
I'm debating whether I should settle for UCSD (which means less stress for me concerning admissions preparation), or work harder and get into UCB. </p>
<p>My educational goal is to enter college, earn a 3.8+ GPA, advance into Harvard medical, recieve my MD, and finally- become a liscensed dermatologist. </p>
<p>I prefer UCB because it's relatively close to my family and I love living in the Bay Area. However, a close friend who still attends Berkeley has a grade point average of 3.2 (she was a 4.0 uw student in HS). I hear many rumors along the line that Berkeley exerts a stressful ambiance and the courses are hard to get A's in, so a great majority of bright students have low GPAs. </p>
<p>I considered both (hell, I live TWO MILES from the UCSD campus), and I will not stress this enough: BERKELEY IS INFINITELY BETTER THAN UCSD! Berkeley is a cooker for some people, but it's a far superior university than UCSD IMO. I've been to both, the difference couldn't be clearer (unless you want pre-med, UCSD is slightly better than Cal in this aspect). For me anyway, Cal > UCSD, no-brainer for me. And don't worry about grad school, they know that Berkeley is GPA killer, so they consider Berkeley students despite the GPAs.</p>
<p>Also, have you considered if you don't get into any medical school? I would think future employers would prefer a Berkeley graduate over UCSD graduate.</p>
<p>Hm, that is plausible. But wouldn't a 3.8-4.0 student at UCSD with great testing scores fare a better chance to medical school than another student at Berkeley with the 3.2? </p>
<p>For Berkeley students- can you describe some of your studying schedules and perhaps your current GPAs? I have this belief -hopefully delusional- that no matter how much you exert yourself onto your studies, unless you are a genius you cannot earn the 3.7+</p>
<p>i've heard from a lot of people that pre med at berkeley isn't as good as premed at other UCs. why is this? is it just because of the difficulty of achieving a high gpa? Or do the classes not prepare students well for the MCAT? Or is what I heard not true?</p>
<p>I have no direct experience, but imgaine the classes prepare students for the MCAT as well as most other UCs do, who knows, maybe they do a better job. i think the Berkeley might be a bad place to do pre-med for some because there a lot of smart people competing for the higest grades, and a lot of smart people competing for the best medical related things (internships, research, etc). This is not to say that many don't do very well as pre-meds here.</p>
<p>I recall a link found on this website a long time ago where I read that 78% of graduating MCB majors were accepted into a medical school. This number is signficantly higher than average and on par with some of the most competitive colleges across the nation. Do keep in mind that students from other majors apply for medical schools as well, with lower success rates. </p>
<p>Entrance to medical school is strongly aided by demonstrated research or interest in field; there are a lot of internships and research positions to be had at Cal, and my friends who are interested in pursuing medical degrees have not had difficulty finding positions for this summer. In total, across all majors, Berkeley's ability to place students in medical schools is still higher than average. For some, "higher than average" is simply not good enough. There is an explanation. At Berkeley, many of the prospective students have the mental acumen to score relatively high on the MCATs, so more weight is given to GPA. Now, consider UCSD, based on students' historical success on standardized tests (taking into account their average SAT), most students naturally drop out from entertaining medical school based on their inability to score high on the MCAT (a critical component). Based on potential MCAT scores alone, a lot of students at Cal theoretically have a good chance at medical school, it's just a matter of who is able to combine good grades with great extracurricular activities and awesome recommendations. Berkeley's situation, then, is complicated by the large amount of students vying for limited spots in medical school. The battleground is, often the case, in the classroom. The "mean" curves and supposed grade deflation policies is not meant to punish, but it is a means of ensuring its top students of gaining entrance. It is impossible for Berkeley to get all of its students into medical student due to sheer volume, so Berkeley must implement a sort of self-imposed reward system that effectively delineates which students are best and which students who must settle for just being "good." This means that a large population of students will have their dreams dashed by Berkeley's grading policies, but it's the most acceptable method towards getting a relatively high percentage of students into graduate school. This high standard in grading illustrates another point: that the problem isn't the teaching or it's not because students don't have the resources to succeed. It's all out there- it's just a matter of who wants it most. </p>
<p>With that said, if you keep focused and pursue your dream, doing well at Berkeley will allow you to go much farther than doing well at UCSD. You're not guaranteed to get that 3.8-4.0 GPA at UCSD, but it also means you're not destined to a 3.2 GPA at Cal. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Do keep in mind that students from other majors apply for medical schools as well, with lower success rates.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Do you have any fairly accurate stats about majors? Do you mean to say that, on average, MCB majors are more likely to get into a medical school over people in other majors at Berkeley? I think you're right and would agree, but I'm not positive. In addition, I would venture to say that there are some majors (perhaps music, philosophy, who knows) with very self-selecting students who apply to medical school which have higher percentages of med school admissions, but that's just a guess on my part based on national and not Berkeley-specific data.</p>
<p>I only have the statistic on MCB, unfortunately. I would imagine if Berkeley students find that another science major is statistically better for them to gain admittance to medical school, there'd be a mass exodus to whatever major that might be. Again, it's speculation, but not a shot in the dark guess. Off the top of my mind, I was thinking directly about Integrative Biology versus Molecular & Cell Biology, simply because I naturally assume those two majors are most geared towards preparing students for medical school. I am aware of data that shows some Humanities majors with a suprisingly high success rate, but there's simply not enough students in the data set to conclusively determine whether, say, majoring in Philosophy is most advantageous for the normal, smart student at Berkeley to get into medical school.</p>
<p>if you want to increase your chance for a high UC gpa, go to Riverside or Santa Cruz. But, the competition won't be significantly less at SD than at Cal -- the top three UCs are all extremeley competitive in premed sciences. </p>
<p>But, for sheer fun and a better collegiate experience, the choice should be Cal easily. Good luck.</p>
<p>Hey, even UCR (don't know but would also suspect UCM) has competitive students in the pre-med sciences. I bet it's only a tad less than the top UCs.</p>
<p>competitive at the very top, yes, and, in fact, a few top kids from choose UCR thinking that they can game the system that way. But, as I counseled one father....if your son decides against medicine, would you rather him have a degree from a University known around the world, or one barely known outside of the Inland Empire....but I digress.</p>
<p>The real difference is that say, the top 15% receive an A per class per school. Which 15% would you rather compete with? The top 15% at Cal, all of which have stellar scores, or the top 15% at UCR, of which only the top ~5% may have stellar scores? IMO, its much, much easier to get to the 14% at UCR (and recieve an A), then the at the 14% at Cal or UCLA or UCSD.</p>