Berkeley students... applying to UCLA?

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cserrah

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Okay.. is anyone else annoyed by this? All along during CAL we're told to take a "special chemistry series" chem1A/3A/3B/ and MCB 102 if we're interested in going to health schools/for biological science majors, and told that these will fulfill requirements. I'm a recent switch into pre-dental and I am planning to apply to California schools... I just found out that UCLA now wants berkeley students to take an additional general chemistry class. The community colleges courses for chem1b seem pretty redundant to the material covered in Chem1A.. and I wouldn't even mind taking it but the problem is I've already made plans lined up for my gap year including traveling and a job. I've talked to students from the last cycle that have been accepted into UCLA without needing to take an extra chemistry class... does anyone have any experience on this? Anyone know how willing schools are to grant requirement exceptions? Sorry if it seems like I'm griping but its a bit frustrating especially since I feel that I've proven myself with good DAT chemistry scores (22gen26ochem). :(

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Okay.. is anyone else annoyed by this? All along during CAL we're told to take a "special chemistry series" chem1A/3A/3B/ and MCB 102 if we're interested in going to health schools/for biological science majors, and told that these will fulfill requirements. I'm a recent switch into pre-dental and I am planning to apply to California schools... I just found out that UCLA now wants berkeley students to take an additional general chemistry class. The community colleges courses for chem1b seem pretty redundant to the material covered in Chem1A.. and I wouldn't even mind taking it but the problem is I've already made plans lined up for my gap year including traveling and a job. I've talked to students from the last cycle that have been accepted into UCLA without needing to take an extra chemistry class... does anyone have any experience on this? Anyone know how willing schools are to grant requirement exceptions? Sorry if it seems like I'm griping but its a bit frustrating especially since I feel that I've proven myself with good DAT chemistry scores (22gen26ochem). :(

I found that one out too when it was too late for me to take the course. However, I have 2 friends that were accepted and are attending UCLA dental school next year and have not taken Chem 1B. We do have a special series and if you talk to the career center they can send a special letter to the schools explaining the series. I'm not sure how my friends were excused from the pre req (unless if the letter from the career center really worked) but I'd inquire with them to get more information. The letter explains that Chem 1A covers more than the usual chem series (so it goes about half into Chem 1B) and then Chem 3A (if you remember) starts off with gen chem as well (which finishes up the chem 1B series). Perhaps because this is a new requirement my friends were just excused from this new requirement, but hopefully you won't be forced to take chem 1b.
 
UCLA also has a chem series that does not satisfy some schools' requirements. I asked those schools if it was okay and they said they were aware of UCLA's chemistry series and that it's fine. They are likely aware of Berkeley's series as well.
 
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Yeah... UCLA is the only school I'm interested in applying to that requires me to take chem1b. It seems silly to have to take chemistry for this one school when I'm not even sure if I want to go or will go there, although it was one of my top schools. I did contact the career center and they did let me know of this new requirement.. but this was recent and this was in no way widespread information given to berkeley pre-dents.. and given my plans it makes things complicated to take the class now.

however I'm wondering about the potential for getting excused on this. Since I will be unlikeley able to take chem1b with my plans, would it be worth it to just apply to UCLA and see what happens? It seems like either that or reroute all my plans just to meet UCLA's chem demand.
 
Just call UCLA and find out. Don't blindly apply or not apply based on an unknown.
 
I did call them and like I said they require an additional chemistry class... I expected that they would answer like this because obviously dental schools won't say otherwise and will tell all students they need to take the prereqs.. thats why I'm consulting SDN for more input on this. :)
 
I didn't think you called because you said you "just found out" which made it seem like you heard from someone or you read it online. If UCLA wont make an exception over the phone, then they're not going to make an exception when they're scrutinizing your application. It sounds like you're out of luck.
 
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