<p>I'm a senior in high school and I'm thinking about a career in medicine. Sadly, I was only accepted into UC Santa Barbara as a chemistry major and UC Davis as a biochemistry major, and I was wondering which school I should attend and what I should major in. </p>
<p>Honestly, I would rather go to Santa Barbara because of the location, but Davis will probably get me better prepared for Med School. My top choices were UCLA and UCSD but I was rejected :( Should I try transferring after a year or two or does undergrad really have as little an influence as I've been reading about?</p>
<p>haha. nice…I got into those to unis as well with practically the same majors. I’ll tell you now that UCLA should be discarded. Large student population = large classes.
While you may be tempted to take it due to reputation, I promise you that smaller class sizes with good quality teaching is more important. UCSD may have this and they have excellent science programmes, which adds a bit more value to transferring there. Although it is more competitive than UCSB and UCD. </p>
<p>My advice is to remain at UCSB or UCD because it is less competitive and there is a greater chance for more direct teaching and prof/TA-student interaction (a big thing for pre-meds). As for choosing between them, both are very good schools with good opportunities and good educational quality. UCD is more known for the biological sciences and so on, but both are practically equal in my opinion. You can choose UCSB for the college town experience (more so than Davis) or if the so called party scene of UCSB is too much of a distraction then pick Davis. Whichever one you feel that allows you to concentrate better on your studies and earn good grades is the one you should consider more. </p>
<p>That is my two cents…</p>