I’m having a lot of trouble deciding between a couple colleges. I’m a premed from California and plan to major in biochem. My top choices at the moment are UCSB with regents, UCSD with regents, University of Michigan with the Honors program, Oxford at Emory, and Case Western Reserve, although I think that I’ve funneled it down to between Umich and UCSD. If price is not a factor, what are the pros and cons of attending either of these schools? I’m primarily looking for a good education to prepare me for medical school, and good opportunities to get research. Feedback on the other schools is welcome as well!
What draws me to UCSD is the regents scholar research initiative, which helps me match with research mentors the first quarter at the school. Can someone comment on how good this program is? Additionally, UCSD has a really good biological sciences program.
What I like about Umich is their spirit and athletics program, as well as the community environment at Ann Arbor. I’m not sure how beneficial the Honors program is, it doesn’t seem to give as much as Regents at the UCs. The biological sciences here are really good too.
“What draws me to UCSD is the regents scholar research initiative, which helps me match with research mentors the first quarter at the school.”
At Michigan, every student has the option of joining UROP or its residential counterpart, the MRC. Virtually all students who request a UROP/MRC assignments get it.
I agree with ucbalumnus, what is the most affordable option?
Michigan is competitive. Straight A students in HS commonly have 3.0 GPAs at Michigan. That can impact getting into med school.
As for research opportunities, I would say the sky is the limit with Michigan. I know one Anthropology/ Computer Science student that got to work on a VR/AR project through EROP, then got to travel and work on an archeological dig site in Italy, then got to go to Japan for a class/ cultural study and just for accepted to go to both Costa Rica to research a sustainable farm and India to teach kids and research an NGO. She did not have trouble getting funding or support from Michigan for any of these projects.
This is a tough decision, both are great schools. I could replace most posters’ use of UMich with UCSD and it would still apply. And they both have top tier medical schools and medical centers on campus. I think Michigan has a more traditional athletics department and college experience; UCSD has significantly more sunshine. Regents Scholars get a lot of interaction with top-level admin and early preference for choosing research labs, so that’s nice. I’d visit both schools if possible before deciding.
I would be sure to check out the Health Sciences advising resources at any school you’re considering.
In addition to cost, that is probably the most important factor, the pre medical advising that a student will receive (for the UC’s in particular), plus statistics on graduating students actually admitted to med school, should be some of your main comparison factors.
Unless these are stratified by GPA and MCAT score, they may not be all that meaningful, especially if the college does pre-med committee recommendation letters. In the latter case, the percentage admitted to medical school may reflect how high a bar the pre-med committee sets before it endorses the pre-med with a committee recommendation letter.