<p>I recently got accepted into USC and UCLA. I have never been so confused! I want to become a pediatric specialist; therefore, I plan on going to medical school. Which school holds more prestige for me to advance my career goals? I would be majoring in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at USC, and Molecular Genetics, Immunology, and Microbiology at UCLA. I have already done the research, but I want opinions. No other college offers the major I want at USC, but I like the surrounding area at UCLA. Please help!!</p>
<p>Prestige doesn’t matter to graduate school admissions and should not be a basis for your decision. You should select the university that is more likely to award you a higher GPA and offer you more internship/research opportunities.</p>
<p>USC and UCLA are similar in the first regard. (Though, USC students supposedly work less.) In the second, UCLA may have an advantage being near a major hospital, the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, and having a decently ranked medical school. USC may have an advantage from its smaller class sizes and more frequent contact with professors.</p>
<p>the above post was pretty good except for the one unnecessary line. i’m not sure where that sentiment(lol!) comes from, especially when comparing pre-meds with pre-meds. </p>
<p>USC also has a hospital with free USC tram service going to and from it many times a day. both schools probably have lots of internship/research opportunities. both have good med schools, although UCLA’s is better. </p>
<p>USC intro science courses are not small at all. i don’t think it matters if you’re in a lecture hall with 200 students vs 400. you’re not going to get any more personalized attention either way.</p>
<p>USC’s surrounding area is admittedly not as nice as westwood, however it is improving all the time (just take a look at the ambitious Master Plan). during my 4 years i was never the victim of any sort of crime, nor were any of my friends.</p>
<p>it really depends on your major. if you want to HPPD, USC is the place to go. it’s an awesome small program that is administered by the keck med school. if i could redo my USC experience i probably would have been an HPPD major instead of Bio.</p>
<p>good luck with your decision! you honestly can’t really go wrong with either school.</p>
<p>1) UCLA sends a lot more undergrads to med school than USC. For pure numbers UCLA is near the top of all schools and probably produces 2 to 3 x’s more MDs than USC. </p>
<p>UCLA > USC</p>
<p>2) With this said, the competition at USC in premed would be less, undoubtedly. Add that you’re choosing an incredibly hard major at UCLA. Add to this, you have your major at USC.</p>
<p>USC > UCLA</p>
<p>3) Pediatrics would generally take less residency, but since you said ‘pediatric specialist,’ that could seemingly encompass more.</p>
<p>USC, UCLA… draw</p>
<p>If I were you, I think 2 outweighs 1, so… USC. But this is based solely on the info you provided.</p>
<p>And lest anyone were to question wrt undergrad enrollments, the ratio of USC:UCLA is 1:1.5</p>
<p>I will say (being a USC student) that the area around USC is not as dangerous as everyone tells horror stories about. No, people don’t get stabbed every other day. Yes, we do have an excellent campus security department. I have never felt unsafe walking around campus or the surrounding few blocks at night.</p>
<p>Thank you so much! I really appreciate all of the help that you have provided me! I will take all of this into consideration!</p>
<p>"Prestige doesn’t matter to graduate school admissions and should not be a basis for your decision. "</p>
<p>I am sorry but this is simply untrue. The reputation does matter. In that case why not go to Cal State LA? Anyhow, UCLA would be the choice here unless USC offers a better financial aid package.</p>
<p>You should also factor in that the UC system in general is going to be under tremendous budget stress. USC will be somewhat insulated from this. That said, go where you can get the best financial deal.</p>
<p>Med schools care about:
- GPA
- MCAT
- Any research or interning that you did
- School prestige is a distant 4th</p>
<p>Also, once you get into medical school, where you went to college has zero bearing on where you will go for residency after med school. The half-life for a prestige pre-med degree is measured in months. If you know you want to be a doctor, do not go into deep debt on a “prestige” undergrad degree. Get good grades and focus on your MCAT and getting into a research lab for a thesis or some other kind of work.</p>
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Because of a) the complete dearth of research/internship opportunities and b) the lack of renown of whoever will be writing your recommendation letters.</p>
<p>The “prestige” difference between any of the top 50 universities will probably be negligent, however, especially between USC and UCLA.</p>