Pre-Med: UCLA or Notre Dame

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Xepa

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My niece is deciding where to go for college and I'm helping her research by going to the best site on the planet! Hahaha, I ran a search and read thorugh some information on both but never saw a direct comparison thread.

Both are full ride.

I know I know, it's all about your GPA/MCAT. I know Notre Dame has a tight alumni base but UCLA's hospital is right there on campus for research stuff. But I'm mainly concerned about overall GPA inflation + places where my niece won't get annihilated by an evil professor or several calc class pre-reqs (yes yes I know o-chem is a universal weedout course).

So, can we get some ND and UCLA alumni here to debate each other out on where my niece should go to maximize her chances at being a surgeon? Thanks!

EDIT: Don't care about weather, partying, whatever. My niece is laser focused on med school. The only thing I'm looking at is academics and best research opportunities / GPA averages / weedout courses / opportunities to succeed.

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UCLA will have more opportunities, but more competition and more people vying for those opportunities. Being a California resident will also be harder to get into medical school. Am I being helpful? No.

If it were me? I would go to UCLA for multiple reasons.
 
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Speaking only with regard to pre-med advisor and the letter of recommendation for medical school applicants, ND is head and shoulders above UCLA. Students at ND appear to have more personalized interactions with faculty than at UCLA and the letters of recommendation are very informative. Not so at UCLA.
 
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My niece is deciding where to go for college and I'm helping her research by going to the best site on the planet! Hahaha, I ran a search and read thorugh some information on both but never saw a direct comparison thread.

Both are full ride.

I know I know, it's all about your GPA/MCAT. I know Notre Dame has a tight alumni base but UCLA's hospital is right there on campus for research stuff. But I'm mainly concerned about overall GPA inflation + places where my niece won't get annihilated by an evil professor or several calc class pre-reqs (yes yes I know o-chem is a universal weedout course).

So, can we get some ND and UCLA alumni here to debate each other out on where my niece should go to maximize her chances at being a surgeon? Thanks!

EDIT: Don't care about weather, partying, whatever. My niece is laser focused on med school. The only thing I'm looking at is academics and best research opportunities / GPA averages / weedout courses / opportunities to succeed.

UCLA has excellent healthcare opportunities available. The problem is EVERYONE ELSE is also fighting for those opportunities. You're one among a sea of premeds.
 
I can't comment on Notre Dame, but I went to UCLA for undergrad and I think it was the best possible decision I could have made, premed-wise. There are tons of unique opportunities for clinical experience, all of which are readily accessible because Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, the #1 ranked hospital on the West coast, is right there on campus. As an undergrad, I already have 2-3 years of experience interviewing patients and taking medical histories in the ER. Research is also easy to get involved with, and is as simple as looking up some professors or PIs online, reading about their projects, and shooting them an email. LA also has a sizable underserved and homeless population, although there do not tend to be too many in Westwood. This provides many opportunities to give back to the community via community service, medical services, or whatever, and really understand the health disparities that exist within our current system. Getting this kind of longitudinal exposure to underserved communities shines when it comes to medical school admissions, and, more importantly, will help shape your niece's worldview.

I personally did not think that the courses were overly rigorous. I imagine that the "weeder courses" will be about the same difficulty anywhere you go, and at most UCLA is slightly more difficult than average but still totally manageable. Contrary to rumors that float around during high school, UCLA premeds are not cutthroat. Everyone I have met is very willing to study together and help each other out.

Most important, however, is for your niece to go wherever she will be happiest. Location, weather, atmosphere, things to do. I don't think anyone can truly succeed for four years if they are miserable day in and day out. Though she should not lose sight of her ultimate goal, it is best not to be "laser-focused" on medical school and instead enjoy the journey on the way there!
 
Choose the school your daughter will be happiest at. I advise against the mentality of "maximizing her chance" of being a surgeon. She is not at the stage of her life where she should be even remotely sure what specialty she would like to go into. Neither should she be completely sure until she is in her third and fourth year of medical school. Please don't push her one way or the other simply for the prestige or money.

I agree with Mr.Doctorman, send her somewhere where she will enjoy the journey the most. I would also advise at picking the cheaper option. ND and UCLA are both great schools.
 
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Choose the school your daughter will be happiest at. I advise against the mentality of "maximizing her chance" of being a surgeon. She is not at the stage of her life where she should be even remotely sure what specialty she would like to go into.
Exactly. The only thing she can really do to "maximize her chances" at present is to go somewhere she'll be happy and engaged. I wish more people realized this.
 
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If she was able to receive a full ride at UCLA then I think she won't have that much of a hard time at UCLA.
 
Agree with many of the comments above. Both schools will provide more than ample opportunities...so the decision here should be to go to the school with the best chances of her being happy and able to maximally take advantage of those opportunities. They are very different schools in a number of regards. She should not be making the decision based on "which one can get me into med school" because if she does well, either will more than do the job.

ND is a much much smaller school, with a very centralized campus, and on-campus residency life is the major focus during your four years there. The majority of students stay on campus all four years. Some people find that a big plus, others do not.

UCLA...on the other hand...has a wee bit of a weather advantage.
 
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Speaking only with regard to pre-med advisor and the letter of recommendation for medical school applicants, ND is head and shoulders above UCLA. Students at ND appear to have more personalized interactions with faculty than at ND and the letters of recommendation are very informative. Not so at UCLA.
I chose not to go to UCLA for undergrad for this exact reason and went with a smaller private school instead. Some may disagree, but I feel like the price tag was worth it. However, I also chose not to go to Notre Dame for football reasons.
 
The Fighting Irish. The Bruins.

You can't go wrong.
 
I attended UCLA and got my BS in neuroscience. First hand, I will tell you that getting a solid GPA at UCLA is extremely tough. All my neuro classes were 95% premed students and the rest students pursuing their PhD. That being said, EVERYONE is gunning for an A+, but only 5% of the students get an A in a lot of classes at UCLA. In one course, I received a 93% on an exam, and because of the curve I got a B. Even the GE courses at UCLA are tough. Another thing to keep in mind (I don't know about ND) is that UCLA is on the quarter schedule. If you are trying to participate in research, volunteer, and get good grades, it is nearly impossible. This is the academic truth.

As far as opportunities for research and volunteering, those are vast. UCLA Ronald Reagan is on campus and you can get a volunteer position there pretty easily. Also, most of the professors at UCLA have research labs and students can do research with them. I emailed about 20 professors and got about 5 that said I could participate.

UCLA is fun. They have great sports teams and are in LA (which I don't like because I am from San Diego and love San Diego compared to LA), but at least you're in LA. Living at UCLA is expensive. I was paying $1000/month to share a room the size of a kitchen.

All in all, UCLA is a solid school. If I could do it all again, I would honestly probably just go to my state school (San Diego State) because my GPA would have been WAY higher, but thats just me.
 
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