HHHMMMM....do something more meaningful with my time? How about balancing my med school applications with performing on a division 1 CAL athelectic team? The sports thing, while likely not so important to you, is a full time job in itself and brings prestige and funding to the school. I have a feeling you spend all your time in the dungeons of Moffitt library memorizing the krebs cycle for your integrative bio courses. You probably have your own favorite little seat. Maybe you decide to "mix it up a bit" and venture to cafe Milano for a mocha infested, "hardcore" bio study session. Or maybe you are not even a bio major, but a "social science" major who has an "issue" with the premed contingency at the university. Whatever your deal is, don't jump to conclusions so quickly about other people. Get out of the library and make something of yourself young man!!!
I'm a berkeley graduate and I have to say that the issues on grade-inflation at Cal and the "unfairness" are overrated. Here are the reasons why:
1. When you go to Cal, you KNOW that the curve is going to suck. You have a few options: Go to USC and get a 4.0 and awesome LORs (not a lot of med schools know that USC undergrads are usually the ones that "paid" to get into a decent college), do the middle path and go to UCLA or UCSD, or get killed at Cal. I went to Cal knowing it was going to be hard but I accepted the challenge. So don't complain that ur college is hard, you already knew that 4 years ago.
2. None of the classes are so impossible that you can't get at least a B. I'm assuming you are an MCB major. Well, I'm a BioE major and I can tell you up front that people in my college have it 100000 times harder when they have to compete with EECS majors and what not. Not trying to be arrogant, but BioEs call MCBs wimps cuz they keep complaining about how hard their curriculum. ALL YOU DO IS MEMORIZE STUFF. JUST MAKE FLASHCARDS AND U GET AN A! You really dont' have to think all that much. And by the way, you can always drop an insanely hard class because the 1st midterm is usually b4 the drop deadline.
3. Compared to other elite private schools, Berkeley is almost up there but not quite. So if an adcom member had to choose between a Cal and a Hopkins applicant, he'd probably choose the latter and frankly, that applicant deserves it jsut for making it into Hopkins. It's not fair, but that's how EVERYTHING works. People take shortcuts and looking at the school is one way to do it.
I am a reapplicant after having applied last year w/ pretty good stats. My mistake was arrogance cuz I applied to only top schools thinking that's what really matters when one tries to get into a top residency program. However, I certainly wasn't as uptight as you are right now. I agree with the previous posters who say that Cal people are too paranoid and whiny about what school they can get into. Seriously, if you don't chill, you're not going to be a very good doctor. That goes for everybody else who says, "Don't be so mean! He didn't know!" or "You'll do fine! Don't worry!". Joking around and sarcasm has nothing to do with how bad of a doctor you will be. The opposite is probably more true. The doctors and nurses I've worked with are the most insensitive people I know (aka Gallows humor) and there's NOTHING WRONG WITH IT. If you disagree, you'll find out a few years from now.
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Lastly, Cal's football team might not be as good as UT's, but consider the fact that NO top high school recruit wants to go to Cal and that they'd rather go to USC, Notre Dame, UT, etc. Soooo, the fact that Cal is still top 25 and almost made the Rose Bowl in 2005 with a bunch of junior college QB rejects makes its football team and especially its coach, Ted-head, pretty damn good.
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Prediction: Cal beats Oregon 35-24
