<p>If i am a premed student who is studying biology, would UCSD be a better school than UCSB. I feel that it is easier to get a high gpa at UCSB, but from what i have researched UCSB does not have alot of students who get accepted to med school. Does that mean UCSB does not have alot of pre med students, or something else.....</p>
<p>It means they don’t have a lot of premed students, are you thinking of TAG’ing?</p>
<p>Also consider TAP for UCLA it’s a great premed school much better than UCSB and UCSD and if you can get into UCSD it’s reasonable to assume you can get into UCLA most of the time.</p>
<p>First of all, it doesn’t matter which UC (in this case, Santa Barbara or San Diego) you go to for med school. Yes - one may be more rigorous in its core, but does that mean you’re guaranteed to a great med school? Of course not. </p>
<p>You need to focus on an excellent GPA, completing all necessary prereqs and having as much research experience as possible. It’s noteworthy that all UC’s have excellent research opportunities.</p>
<p>So don’t focus on what is the better undergrad school for med school - because that’s not the point. And you don’t know if it’s easier to get a higher GPA at Santa Barbara than say San Diego - it depends on your performance.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for how easy or difficult UCSB is compared to UCSD, but if you’re planning on doing research to bolster your med school application, UCSD likely has more research opportunities than UCSB and even UCLA. Currently, I work in a Neurosci / Spinal Cord Injury research lab in the UCSD school of medicine as an undergrad and I know a lot other of students here that do research on or off campus. The great thing about UCSD for research is that aside from all of the great labs we have on campus there are also a significant number of other research institutions and groups that work in conjunction with UCSD that our faculty have appointments in as well. For instance, in addition to UCSD there are opportunities at Scripps Research Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, the Sanford Consortium, the Veterans Affairs Hospital Research Department, etc. All of these are prominent research facilities less than two miles from campus and routinely accept students as volunteers or sometimes at hired positions.</p>
<p>Something else to consider is that UCSD has a medical school and UCSB doesn’t. And unlike some of the other medical school admission committees, at UCSD they don’t discourage admitting applicants that apply from UCSD as undergrads. I forget the statistic, but I known a decent proportion of those accepted to UCSD med school last year went to UCSD as undergrads. </p>
<p>Anyway, that’s just my two cents. I’m actually not a pre-med student, but as an undergrad biology major that works in the school of medicine I have a lot of familiarity with the process and some of the resources here. Lastly, I would encourage you NOT to select a school based on how easy or difficult you perceive it as. The truth is that how difficult you find your education at any UC is really going to come down to individual professors / TAs that lecture and grade the course among many other variables. For a lot of the bigger upper division classes, at least here at UCSD, the professors vary from quarter to quarter and from year to year, so it’d be hard to compare difficulty because the professors are often changing. Anyway, good luck be confident knowing that if you do well at either UCSD or UCSB you should have a great chance at medical school. Finally, you should continue look into that opportunities and resources there are at UCSD/UCSB and finally prioritize where you’re going to be most comfortable. Ultimately, if you’re unhappy with the undergrad institution you’re at, you’re likely going to perform worse and that’s never good. Sometimes, it’s more important to choose the school you’re comfortable at and not necessarily the one that has the best brand name.</p>