<p>im a bio major, and i would like to transfer to either ucla or ucsd (uci being my back up). from what ive heard ucsd is super duper impacted with bio majors and ucla is just impacted in general xP. soooo, as a bio major, which campus would be more difficult to get into, ucsd or ucla?</p>
<p>Do TAG for UCSD and TAP for UCLA. TAG is a Gaurantee and TAP just gives you “priority consideration.”</p>
<p>Comparing these two programs, it seems that UCSD is easier to get into. My friend did TAG which meant he was 100% gauranteed to get into UCSD as long as he met a 2.8 or 3.0 GPA or whatever it was. If you go to a community college, ask a counselor about TAG and TAP. If they don’t know whats up, ask someone else!</p>
<p>^^UCSD TAG requirement is at 3.5 GPA now.
UCLA Admissions is a lot harder – wayyyyyyyyyyyy harder</p>
<p>lol you compare sky and hell.</p>
<p>Bio at UCSD is hard as hell to get into. I’d probably say it’s pretty equal in difficulty between the two.</p>
<p>I’d say they are equal, but depends on the major. Neuroscience and Eco/Devo at UCLA (under the bio department) is one of the ‘easier’ bio majors to be admitted to (I was told this by an admissions officer, lol, when I expressed my hesitation to apply as a bio major). Once you’re in the bio department at either school, you can switch majors between them, afaik. </p>
<p>I’d say the avg. GPA (admitted students) for UCLA Life Sciences ranges from 3.5-3.7, and it’s about the same for UCSD. They both desire completion of almost all of your pre-requisites. Based on this info, I think that UCSD is slightly harder, because they have an admission cap - 200 transfers admitted into the ENTIRE department. UCLA doesn’t have this. They admitted something like 350 or so last year, but I think it’s on a case-by-case basis. I’m not sure if they have a hard cap or not - if they do, it’s not publicized.</p>
<p>UCLA appears to be the only one to show incredibly detailed transfer-student[statistics](<a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/Adm_tr/Tr_Prof10_mjr.htm”>http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/Adm_tr/Tr_Prof10_mjr.htm</a>) wrt major.</p>
<p>As redundant as this is, here’s a re-duplicated table from the link:</p>
<p>Biochem </p>
<p>Applied 430, 3.45 gpa
Accepted 180, 3.78
Enrolled 104, 3.77</p>
<p>Biology</p>
<p>Applied 926, 3.27
Accepted 162, 3.74
Enrolled 84, 3.72</p>
<p>Biophysics</p>
<p>Applied 21, 3.29
Accepted 9, 3.64
Enrolled 4, 3.40</p>
<p>MIMG</p>
<p>Applied 139, 3.42
Accepted 60, 3.68
Enrolled 31, 3.62</p>
<p>MCDB</p>
<p>Applied 161, 3.43
Accepted 79, 3.68
Enrolled 45, 3.63</p>
<p>Neuroscience</p>
<p>Applied 103, 3.39
Accepted 34, 3.67
Enrolled 16, 3.72</p>
<p>Physiological Science</p>
<p>Applied 123, 3.36
Accepted 37, 3.69
Enrolled 26, 3.69</p>
<p>Psychobiology</p>
<p>Applied 149, 3.36
Accepted 38, 3.69
Enrolled 28, 3.68</p>
<p>Psychology, included more generally as a premed major</p>
<p>Applied 1,551, 3.38
Accepted 383, 3.78
Enrolled 287, 3.77</p>
<p>And under the engineering dept the fairly new offering of:</p>
<p>Bioengineering:</p>
<p>Applied 118, 3.43
Accepted 32, 3.87
Enrolled 5, 3.86</p>
<p>As asphyxiac stated, it does appear that Neuro is the easiest outside of Biophysics and a couple of the others that tend to be prohibitive in enrollment because of their tough-sounding names like MCDB and MIMG.</p>
<p>UCLA hasn’t updated the transfer tables for 2011 because I think they are now aware that students are using the tables to find alternate majors for which to be admitted with lesser stats, ie, in essence to game the system.</p>
<p>Also, the transfer stats and enrollments would undoubtedly differ from those who enter as frosh. Some depts undoubtedly under-enroll from the xfer set because the school admits more from the incoming frosh set.</p>
<p>Poor explanation of the following with amendment:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So in other words, if you’re up to the challenge and your stats (grades) are a tad lower, Biophysics, MIMG and MCDB would probably be a good vehicles to enter UCLA.</p>
<p>Well, see… no.</p>
<p>Biophysics is not in the Life Sciences department and shouldn’t be included on that list. It’s in the Physics department, and accordingly, requires that you take and complete the ‘hard’ physics series (for scientists/engineers) rather than the life sciences series, prior to transfer. In addition to O-chem, a year of bio, and Calc 1-3, Linear Algebra, and Differential Equations. That’s why the GPA is lower. You have twice as many, and more difficult, pre-reqs.</p>
<p>The same goes for Biochem. It should not be on that list. It’s under the Chem department, and has many more requirements than a Life Sciences major.</p>
<p>The majors that are in the Life Sciences department are as follows:</p>
<p>Biology
Ecology, Behavior and Evolution
Marine Biology
Microbiology, Immunology, & Molecular Genetics
Molecular, Cell Developmental Biology
Integrative Biology and Physiology
Psychology, B.A.
Cognitive Science
Psychobiology
Neuroscience
Human Biology and Society
Computational & Systems Biology</p>
<p>All of those, with the exception of Computational/Systems Biology, are the same in terms of pre-reqs. I think Human Bio/Society is probably the easiest, cause it’s new. Computational/Systems Biology has the most pre-requisites of any major at UCLA, afaik.</p>
<p>Requires 1 year gen chem, 1 year o-chem, 1.5 years physics (for scientists/engineers), 1 year bio with lab + an additional biotechnology lab class, Calc I-III, Diff Eq, Linear Algebra, and programming. The average GPA admitted to that major was, like, a 3.7 with 110 units completed, lol.</p>
<p>So, in order of admissions difficulty from most difficult to least, I’d say it’s like this:</p>
<p>Psychology, B.A.
Computational & Systems Biology</p>
<p>Microbiology, Immunology, & Molecular Genetics
Molecular, Cell Developmental Biology
Psychobiology
Integrative Biology and Physiology</p>
<p>Biology
Neuroscience
Ecology, Behavior and Evolution
Marine Biology</p>
<p>Cognitive Science
Human Biology and Society</p>
<p>Where does it say ucsd doesn’t accept by major also? They say 200 max but nothing about accepting by majors. </p>
<p>On your application it makes you choose which major you want to apply to for UCSD. I’m pretty sure human biology gets the more applicants then others.</p>
<p>Also ucla has a more strict on your prereqs and gpa. They also have require a more demanding minimum. If you don’t meet with any, then you won’t even be considered.</p>
<p>Oddly ucsd was a joke to get into 2 years ago. 3.0 with pre reqs and you were good. Now that they make it impacted and suddenly it is prestigious .</p>
<p>Thanks for the explanation, asphyxiac.</p>
<p>Understood that Biophysics and Biochem are under the Physical Sciences Dept and certainly are “interdisciplinary.”</p>
<p>I was just forwarding ideas for those who might have plans to major in something that would be “premed” in orientation, or perceived as such, not to show various majors under the life-sciences department. Thus, my exclusion of Marine Biology, EBE, etc, though these might also be good premeds. In fact, I’m sure of the EBE’s, the small amounts who major in this, might be using it as such. </p>
<p>I think both you and I expanded on OP’s list based on his/her mentioning the bio major – and if he/she is a fairly deep in cc study with this major, this wouldn’t impact/help the OP, at least on my part. I took this an extra step beyond yours, with obvious different prereqs needed to even be considered for admissions as an xfer to UCLA.</p>
<p>With this said, I still see room for growth of the three majors I listed, Biophysics, MCDB, MIMG, esp, with lower grades and ~ higher acceptance rates … if those who are so inclined are up for the challenges.</p>
<p>Is there a Psychology major at UCLA through the division of Social Sciences? And I always thought Psych was a BS offering. </p>
<p>Glad to see the U offer a Human Biology major, a lot of people have undoubtedly been clamoring for this for years.</p>
<p>Thanks, great info…</p>
<p>The Ecology, Behavior and Evolution major is, what, a Psychoecopaleobiology offering? Before looking … what is this?</p>
<p>@iTransfer</p>
<p>I’ve been told numerous times by SD admissions reps, my Cal TAP counselors, and UCLA admissions reps that SD doesn’t admit by major, but by university. I guess all the UC transfer admissions people are well versed in the xfer process at all campuses, lol.</p>
<p>Anyway, here’s links:</p>
<p>Ms. Sun’s Blog (scroll down to SD):
[Ms</a>. Sun’s UC Admissions Blog - UC Application Know-How #2: Picking Your Major](<a href=“Error”>Error)</p>
<p>UCSD:
[Impacted</a> Majors](<a href=“http://students.ucsd.edu/academics/advising/majors-minors/impacted-majors.html]Impacted”>Capped Majors)</p>
<p>@drax12</p>
<p>Oh, I was just trying to clarify what you wrote. You have to understand that most people don’t necessarily know that Biophysics is not in the life sciences department, and that you can’t switch majors into Life Sciences after transfer, from a non-life science major. </p>
<p>So, if you want to be a Life Sciences major, you should directly apply to one.</p>
<p>Also, for a pre-med, majoring in MIMG/MCDB/Neuroscience would be a bad idea. Majoring in something like Biophysics or Biochem is an even worse idea - unless you’re super duper driven, but then you probably already have a super high GPA, and this post is irrelevant, lol. </p>
<p>Those majors are GPA killers, which is the main factor that you’re judged on when applying to medical schools. Additionally, most of the top med school frown on science pre-reqs like organic chemistry being taken at community colleges, so it’s best to choose a major that doesn’t require ochem for transfer. That way, you can take your science pre-reqs after you transfer.</p>
<p>Some advice for people who are serious about going to med-school:</p>
<p>Great pre-med majors would be Human Biology and Society (basically created for pre-meds, along with Integrative Bio), Anthropology, and Cognitive Science. They all offer BA tracks that don’t require organic chemistry or many science courses prior to transfer. After transferring, one could switch to the BS track, and then do your science coursework.</p>
<p>The whole low GPA - high difficulty bit is kind of irrelevant for pre-meds anyway. If you’re a pre-med student at a community college, realistically, you better have a very high GPA - high enough to be admitted to UCLA without any concern. Competition to get into US med schools is absurd, and AMCAS considers your entire academic record, including your community college record. They also don’t accept repeats of a course, but will average the new grade with the sub-standard one. They don’t accept academic renewal, and a bunch of other nonsense. </p>
<p>If your graduating GPA is below a 3.5, it’s gonna be really, really, really tough or just somewhat tough, depending on your MCAT score. A lot of the top schools have GPA cutoffs, though - they receive so many applications that they don’t even consider GPAs below a certain point. That cutoff is usually dictated by the average GPA of the applicant pool.</p>
<p>Med school admission is freakin’ cray cray. If you’re dead set on becoming a doctor, admission to UCLA should be a breeze in comparison.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is flawed because UCLA requires 1 semester minimum of o-chem just to be considered. 2 semesters to be a competitive applicant. </p>
<p>If you want UCLA/UCB, you should finish your entire bio/chem series with a high GPA. That should guarantee you an acceptance at either of the universities. </p>
<p>Do well in your physics + UD classes and score a high MCAT score. That should prove your readiness for med school.</p>
<p>If you don’t want to take of any pre-reqs at CC, then don’t major in biology. Choose a non-science major and apply. </p>
<p>Note that you will be deferring med school for 2-3 years though. Also you have to find a way to cram in all those pre-reqs with your degree requirements.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend either of those majors. Anything specifically created for pre-meds, have pre-meds jumping all over it. It will be just as competitive as any other biology major.</p>
<p>@iTransfer</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What? </p>
<p>A. I’m not trying to argue with you, and</p>
<p>B. in response to your comment “This is flawed because UCLA requires 1 semester minimum of o-chem just to be considered. 2 semesters to be a competitive applicant.”, see bolded text above.</p>
<p>C. Your comment “If you don’t want to take of any pre-reqs at CC, then don’t major in biology. Choose a non-science major and apply.” simply reiterates the above bolded text. </p>
<p>D. It doesn’t have to take an extra 2 years. I have two family members who are currently in medical school, and one who is a spinal surgeon at Cedars-Sinai. My cousin xferred to LA from CC, finished her pre-reqs and major in 2 years (anthro major), and is now at Stanford.</p>
<p>I was honestly just trying to answer the OP’s question as to which school has harder admissions. </p>
<p>Sorry this kinda got hijacked, OP 
:(</p>
<p>Hope your question got answered!</p>
<p>I’m leaving this thread now. Have a great weekend, and best of luck to y’ all!</p>
<p>Good posts, iTransfer and asphyxiac…</p>
<p>We all have our opinions and none of us would necessarily be wrong.</p>
<p>Human Biology (I don’t know what Human Society has to do with anything…) is still in its nascent stages, will probably be easier at the moment to gain admission, but this won’t last but a couple more admit cycles. And as iTransfer stated, it will at least ultimately be ultra-competitive if down the road a bit more. </p>
<p>Specifically for asphyxiac: </p>
<p>I’m neither an MD nor am I currently a student, and you should refer to me in the past tense wrt attending college. 
I just happened to post originally because I wanted ultimately to prop the MCDB and MIMG majors, because I think these would be excellent for those who aspire to med school with an ultimate goal of say, academic/research medicine, but might have good careers in store if their first choices fall through, as compared to, say, straight biology.</p>
<p>With your proposition about gpa’s and MCAT’s counting the most … I don’t have any doubt that this is the case. But lest we tend to hammer people into catagories wrt quals, I just happened to read a CV of an MD who graduated with ~ 3.5 from El Camino College and graduated from UCLA with a 3.7+, attended a very good med school and is now a highly skilled and specialized doctor. I’m guessing the 3.5 was because of gen ed courses when he probably “killed” the science courses; either that or he had an upward trend towards grades and ‘found himself.’ I also read about another MD who majored in Physics as an undergrad, also at UCLA, if I remember correctly. Biophysics is an excellent premed major, and a lot of people at various c’s and u’s use this as a premed. Again, if things fall through, E school would be much more doable.</p>
<p>I agree with iTransfer that majoring in something like Cog Science or even the humanities might delay one’s entry into med school because of the lack of the premed curriculum.</p>
<p>And I don’t think taking specific courses at cc like O-Chem will hurt one’s chances towards med-school admissions.</p>
<p>iTransfer:</p>
<p>I think SD instituted the 3.5 min for a specific set of admits because the school has always had a yield problem. Of those who graduate from high school, the U has a yield in the 20%'s of those who are accepted. Even of those who xfer in, the yield is not all that high, unlike 60-70% as at Cal and UCLA.</p>
<p>I don’t know, though, what SD is going to do to make up an enrollment deficiency if not many people take SD’s offer to enroll.</p>