I went to Cal Poly too, and while I'm glad that I did go there because it was the right school for me, it was probably not the best choice for getting into med school. The CSUs are not well known outside of California and the UCs are snobby towards CSU students (for example, UCSF gives extra points just for going to a UC vs. a CSU).
hb2998
Double major with high GPA from state school is definitely favored over regular dude from superb school.
You can always stress why you went to state school and how your reason applies to your success in medical school (ie. you learn best with smaller class sizes).
Its more about you did/accomplished, but I can guarantee you that certain schools (Stanford) are just unlikely to interview students from supposedly subpar schools. Why? I don't know, but my theory is that these schools care for research and believe the research exposure you receive at state schools to be inferior (even though you might have done the same exact thing as another in a preferred institution).
MrTee
I've taken classes at both schools. I will have to say that the competition you will experience at UCLA is much stiffer than at SJSU. If you're concerned with your GPA, you should go to SJSU. I'm not sure about the breadth of the classes offered at SJSU though, and the research opportunities are more limited (I have no idea what kind of research you can do at SJSU, whereas at UCLA, there are many possibilities).
Also, if you're a super student, going to UCLA would be better, since a 4.0 from there is stronger than a 4.0 from SJS.
jlee9531
yes they do take your undergrad institution under consideration. tho i have heard of
lower gpa students from ucla get into medical institutions...i have yet to hear a low gpa student from a cal state getting in. and yes i do know a good deal of cal state kids.
kikkoman
but the people you meet and how they influence you in college will affect who you become to some degree. of course
there are talented and interesting people at lower rate schools, but there just arent as many of them.
exmike
I think it boils down to you, and how you perform. If you're going to bust a$$ and get a 4.0 at SJSU, I dont thikn it'll matter much at all. The reputation of the schools will come into play if you have low MCATs and your GPA is just average. Really think about how well you'll do your next to years and use that as your guide.
Goober
Well having been a former student member of an adcom, I can say that we certainly weighted gpas according to school. UCB and UCLA had weightings that were just below the premier schools like MIT/Ivy League ect. Cal State schools had very low ratings.
Having said that, we did interview some CSU students. They tended to be absolutely stellar applicants overall both in numbers(gpa 3.8-4.0, MCAT above 35) and ECs. The ones that didn't have these numbers were mostly URMs.
Ultimately you have decide where you will be happiest. The main thing is that you do well wherever you are at. It already sounds like your leaning towards SJSU.
EndSong
You should definitely transfer to a UC. I went to a CSU and it was a terrible experience that no doubt also hurt my application. I was able to get into medical school, but
during more than one interview, I was asked point-blank why I didn't transfer to a better school like "UCLA".
As someone that's been to a CSU, I have to agree. The education is not a rigorous as it should be and the extracurricular opportunities are extremely limited. While you do get to know your professors better, I have found that even at a CSU, not all professors seemed that interested in teaching or research, so I'm not sure that knowing them is entirely all that helpful.
dsh
UCR is a good choice if you'd be happy in the Thomas Haider program. There is significant competition, but odds are much more in your favor than with other California schools. For example, this year only about 70 applicants interviewed for 24 slots.
If your interest lies in other top 20 schools, it might be better for you to go to a more prestigious UC. A degree from Cal or LA will give you more of an edge than Riverside.
phishee
I think
one reason UC's have more matriculants into med school is because more people from UC's apply. When I was an undergrad I went to an info session about applying to med school and half of an auditorium was filled. At my CSU there were only 6 people.
I like that there are less people applying because I get more time from my advisor. I love the advisors at my CSU! At my UC I barely got the time of day. Also, the UC advisors told many of my fellow pre-meds that they couldn't make it and to give up. Not very supportive if you ask me. I asked an undergrad at my CSU about his experience and he really likes it. It seemed that at my CSU you actually have more research opportunities because less students are out gunning for one.
west nile
I had spoke with a doctor who was on the adcomm of a NY med school about 5 years ago who said I should only consider UC's, but I want to know if this is still valid. Are CSU's still looked at as less prestigous than UC's?
Pinkertinkle
4 years of tuition at UC undergrad is less than 1 yr of tuition at a private med school. How much money are you really saving by going to a CSU instead of a UC? Not enough to justify the different atmosphere that's for sure.
honker
Be sure to look at more than GPA and MCAT scores when assessing chances from a CSU campus. A significant percentage are URMs, since UC tries very hard to get a diversity of backgrounds into their professional schools, and the pool of URM applicants is limited.
hegross1
I've talked to doctors and what I have found out about csu vs uc is that it is not so much the school that counts but rather the reputation of the major program offered at the school.
BozoSparky
I went to
CSU, Fresno.
Not too many people were accepted to medical school. Even students with very good grades had trouble, unfortunately.
beffers8888
Since you want to go to the east coast I'd say that you should go to a UC because no one will have heard of the CSUs. Wherever you go, just make sure to get a 4.0!
kirexhana
i agree. it's going to be a little harder coming from a csu than a UC, BUT it's got it's ups as well. one of them being LOTS of facetime with professors, which i can't stress enough if you're looking for good letters of rec.
it's not impossible to get into medical school. it's not impossible to get into a good medical school. it's not impossible to get into a top 5 medical school. it all depends on the individual.
there was a girl from my school, csula, who got into UCSF..
.with a 25 on the mcat (i think her gpa and ec's were amazing). so i stress, DON'T think that going to a UC instead of a cal state will be your stepping stone into med school. a lot of it is based on how much work you're willing to put in.
- I really do feel like the lack of "prestige" at my school made it harder for me as an applicant. My Vanderbilt interviewer said that it was probably the only thing holding back my application (which made me cringe inward). I ended up getting waitlisted
redorkulated
I went to fullerton, I think it was a good fit for me. Find the school that best fits you, visit the schools you're considering and talk to people who actually go there. For fullerton I suggest making an appointment with the Health professions office to see what the school can offer you. I got to know each of my professors on a personal level and our Health professions office was extremely good.
I do agree with the others, if you want name recognition go with the UC's when I interviewed at out of state med schools they didn't know anything about CSUF. pm me if you have any other questions about CSUF.
Medikit
I think CSU vs. UC just depends on the student. I'm definitely glad I went to a CSU and I wouldn't take back all of the great experiences I had there. But not every CSU has a great program, I would get to know the professors and find out how successful their pre-meds are. Chico just happened to have a pretty good program and I'm really grateful for that.
doublepeak
If you go outside of California then the prestige of a UC vs a CSU is virtually non-existant. Sure people know Berkeley and UCLA are good, but they really don't know about Davis or Santa Barbara in comparison to Cal Poly or Fresno State. Even in California, at my UCSF interview there were people from CSUs as well as UCs, Caltech, and Harvard - so your not out of the field.
While you can have anecdotal information about a single personal experience, in the aggregate, looking at hundreds of applications per year for many years, and looking at how other adcom members "read", a sub-optimal gpa at a well-regarded school and good grades at a low-level school, I can tell you that getting an A in Organic Chem at a community college that takes all comers and opens O-Chem to anyone with a C or higher in community college chemistry, is not going to impress us very much when we compare it to the person who earned an A in O-Chem at a very tough school.
Medikit
If you really want to go to Johns Hopkins I think transfering to UCLA might be a good idea along with doing what PittBruin suggested. Just don't be surprised if you miss CSULB
Newbie1
I went to a state school (Chico) and was told the same thing as chapinisita's friend regarding gpa (CSU 4.0 = 3.7/8 bigger name).
beatla19
I go to a CSU, and I'd say a big problem for us is that we don't have med school affiliated with our schools.
UC med schools seem to take a lot of students from their respective undergrad, especially davis i hear. I've thought about that fact a couple of times since rejecting Davis' offer of admission.
Jalby
Cal State San Bernardino
3.98 (damn english class)
42 MCAT
Appled to 49 schools, got into 2 total. It seemed that my interviewers had a little problem with the difficulty of CSUSB.
energy_girl
People from my undergrad (
CSULA) do very well when applying. My year (I'm a second year med student),
one person ended up at UCSF, one at UCLA, another few people at Temple and Meharry, two of us at
Washington U (strange coincidence, but another student from CSU-Chico is also in my class), and a couple to very good osteopathic schools.
notdeadyet
You can't really make generalizations about the UC system any more than you can make them about the CSU system. You couldn't personally pay me to have attended Cal or LA, but some folks are very happy there. And
while there are some great CSU's, there are more than 1 or 2 that are in pretty dire trouble.
California still has some of the toughest entry requirements for a state school, but we have the advantage of a state that has strong commitment to diversity (which helps we nontrads) and multiple campuses. I got no love from UCLA or UCI but lotsa love from UCSF and UCD. If you have a less than admirable application, multiple campuses is a very nice thing.
The UC vs. CSU thing exists more in-state than nationally. A lot of folks nationally don't understand that they're two different college systems.
All things being equal, you're generally better off with UC. The CSU system is a fine one, but they're not as nationally known as the UCs. When adcoms see an app from Cal State Northridge, it reads like a regional college. When they see one from UCLA, they know where you went to school.
UCs will help hedge your bets, but CSU will not slam shut doors. Just make them a little harder to push open.
If you do want to actually TALK to your professors and have good interaction with them, but still want a UC degree, you can address this by attending UC Riverside or UC Santa Cruz. Both have very small graduate departments, leading to much more faculty involvement. At UCSC, only 10% of student body is graduate (compared with 50% for UCLA and Cal). I ended up going to UC Santa Cruz and it had a huge impact.
