Berkeley Pre-meds

[limetree6]

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🙂 who's a berkeley premed like me?

 

[MiguelAC]

I am. 😀

 

[maddscientist]

Right Here! I threw pennies at you from the back of the Pimentel in Chem3B

 

[Haybrant]

ucb rocks; dont let anyone tell you otherwise 👍

 

[jeffsleepy]

yo

 

[evendry707]

If I could give you some advice - if you're an engineering major, drop the engineering and do something you really enjoy. unless of course you reaaaaaaaaaaally enjoy engineering. but physics 7 series SUCKS. E77 sucks. all EE sucks. a lot of engineering courses are GPA murder, and no matter what anybody tells you about how berkeley is known for having tough coursework, NOBODY ACTUALLY GIVES A ****. same thing w/ a lot of the upper division MCB courses. unless they really interest you, dont take them cuz u think they'll make your coursework look more impressive (it's only impressive if you can get an A).

the sad truth about getting into med school is this:
1. med schools are number ******. if you want to be competetive, have an impressive GPA

2. med schools want you to have a life. while formulaic volunteering/research are a must, you must stand out somehow. get really into something different. of course if you're reaaally into research/volunteering, then that's good too. but try to do something special w/ it. just imagine - even if you have a 3.8 GPA, 36 MCAT - MOST competetive students have that, and have done research, and have volunteered in a hospital.

3. fraternities/sororities.... not such a great idea. while you can argue that greek life teaches certain things and provides leadership opportunities, med schools will feel that your time would be better spent somewhere else.

well, that's just my 2 cents anyway. best of luck to you all!

 

[sunUCB]

I am🙂

 

[sdnstud]

unless they really interest you, dont take them cuz u think they'll make your coursework look more impressive (it's only impressive if you can get an A).

the sad truth about getting into med school is this:
1. med schools are number ******. if you want to be competetive, have an impressive GPA

This is very true and this is exactly what I hate about premeds at Berkeley. Some students (esp. those in CDB and IB) choose their courseloads by taking the easiest courses available. These students end up with 3.7-3.8 gpa and are going to top-tier medical schools.

When I was a student, I didn't care if a course was easy or not. I ended up taking the physics 7 series, OChem 112 series, MCB 100, MCB 140, MCB 110 and 110L. I ended up with several B's and though i study 10x more than my CDB friends, I got a gpa slightly lower than many of them. It took me 2 tries (over 80 secondaries) to get into a medical school.

Don't be stupid (like me). No one is going to award you with "you had the heaviest courseload" award. Like evendry707 said, the only thing medical schools care about is your gpa.

 

[bbtbay]

This is very true and this is exactly what I hate about premeds at Berkeley. Some students (esp. those in CDB and IB) choose their courseloads by taking the easiest courses available. These students end up with 3.7-3.8 gpa and are going to top-tier medical schools.

When I was a student, I didn't care if a course was easy or not. I ended up taking the physics 7 series, OChem 112 series, MCB 100, MCB 140, MCB 110 and 110L. I ended up with several B's and though i study 10x more than my CDB friends, I got a gpa slightly lower than many of them. It took me 2 tries (over 80 secondaries) to get into a medical school.

Don't be stupid (like me). No one is going to award you with "you had the heaviest courseload" award. Like evendry707 said, the only thing medical schools care about is your gpa.

I agree 110% with sdnstud and evendry707 --- do not try and be engineering and pre-med. Getting into medical school is all about numbers, hence Physics 7 series, E77, and all those other hard engineering classes are interesting but devastating to your GPA. Do like a lot of my friends and major in Business (you have to have a high GPA to get in, and maintain it) and take one pre-med science course each semester with the normal Haas business course load....

 

[faradayampere]

If I could give you some advice - if you're an engineering major, drop the engineering and do something you really enjoy. unless of course you reaaaaaaaaaaally enjoy engineering. but physics 7 series SUCKS. E77 sucks. all EE sucks. a lot of engineering courses are GPA murder, and no matter what anybody tells you about how berkeley is known for having tough coursework, NOBODY ACTUALLY GIVES A ****. same thing w/ a lot of the upper division MCB courses. unless they really interest you, dont take them cuz u think they'll make your coursework look more impressive (it's only impressive if you can get an A).

the sad truth about getting into med school is this:
1. med schools are number ******. if you want to be competetive, have an impressive GPA

2. med schools want you to have a life. while formulaic volunteering/research are a must, you must stand out somehow. get really into something different. of course if you're reaaally into research/volunteering, then that's good too. but try to do something special w/ it. just imagine - even if you have a 3.8 GPA, 36 MCAT - MOST competetive students have that, and have done research, and have volunteered in a hospital.

3. fraternities/sororities.... not such a great idea. while you can argue that greek life teaches certain things and provides leadership opportunities, med schools will feel that your time would be better spent somewhere else.

well, that's just my 2 cents anyway. best of luck to you all!

yeah, although those classes are hard, you will get the "satisfied feelings" at the end ... not to mention that you don't have to compete with a lot of premeds for getting LORs at the end (I've never gone to OHs, but I think I do get some good LORs from engineering professors). Furthermore, for some classes (like E77), they are grading on staright scale. You probably are going to miss oportunities to make friends with engineers if you don't take those classes. You are probably going to learn something that you'll never have an opportunity to do so in med school. I guess it's a trade-off. However, if you do not really like to take risk, go for the easy classes (but remember you have to spend much more time in OHs to get the good LORs or to beat the curve ... I did not say that you don't work hard in engineering classes, but in term of getting LORs, it's probably much easier).

I'm a Berkeley pre-med as well as a Cal engineer (yeah, so I have something to say here). If you're considering going to engineering, and have some questions about Cal program, feel free to PM me.

 

[jeffsleepy]

Some of the engineering majors are actually pretty good for pre-meds. EE for example only requires 20 upper division units, making it easy to fulfill the requirements. Just avoid the harder courses such as EECS 150.

 

[faradayampere]

Some of the engineering majors are actually pretty good for pre-meds. EE for example only requires 20 upper division units, making it easy to fulfill the requirements. Just avoid the harder courses such as EECS 150.

i think pre-meds should avoid classes with final projects. Go for classes with lecture only (ME has a lot of good classes .... try the series ME 104, 105, 106 and 109)

 

[Babooshka]

How about being a philosophy major at Cal?
and what about rhetoric?

 

[mfernando87]

i'm hoping to be... that is, if i can finally stop avioding the SIR and just fill the stupid thing out... 😀
just curious, are you an entering freshmen?

 

[limetree6]

yeah.
so I agree with you guys that engineering at berkeley is a killer.
actually i'm a bioE myself and having a hard time keeping up with all the work
(I took CS61 series instead of E77 which killed me)
It's just amazing how much work it takes to do bioE.
I was seriously considering switching to an easy L&S major when I was sophomore (i'm a junior now). But who knows I might not be a doctor?
I'm leaving bioe as my back up plan so that's cool for me.
Although I do agree that I'm missing out on some fun. (clubbing etc..)

Anyways, life in med school is actually laid back compared to a pre-med engineering student in berkeley!

Go Bears!

 

[CalGoldenBear]

How about being a philosophy major at Cal?
and what about rhetoric?

i was a psychology major at cal. it was great.

 

[yenuwine]

If I could give you some advice - if you're an engineering major, drop the engineering and do something you really enjoy. unless of course you reaaaaaaaaaaally enjoy engineering. but physics 7 series SUCKS. E77 sucks. all EE sucks. a lot of engineering courses are GPA murder, and no matter what anybody tells you about how berkeley is known for having tough coursework, NOBODY ACTUALLY GIVES A ****. same thing w/ a lot of the upper division MCB courses. unless they really interest you, dont take them cuz u think they'll make your coursework look more impressive (it's only impressive if you can get an A).

the sad truth about getting into med school is this:
1. med schools are number ******. if you want to be competetive, have an impressive GPA

2. med schools want you to have a life. while formulaic volunteering/research are a must, you must stand out somehow. get really into something different. of course if you're reaaally into research/volunteering, then that's good too. but try to do something special w/ it. just imagine - even if you have a 3.8 GPA, 36 MCAT - MOST competetive students have that, and have done research, and have volunteered in a hospital.

3. fraternities/sororities.... not such a great idea. while you can argue that greek life teaches certain things and provides leadership opportunities, med schools will feel that your time would be better spent somewhere else.

well, that's just my 2 cents anyway. best of luck to you all!

That really sucks for me. I'm EECS and i'm in a fraternity, although not a social one, so maybe it might be seen as slightly more productive!

 

[Babooshka]

i was a psychology major at cal. it was great.

Yes, yes, but was it easy?

 

[CalGoldenBear]

Yes, yes, but was it easy?

yes