CSU Long Beach. How is the Pre-Med program?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

poshdoctor

Spicegirls of Healthcare
10+ Year Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2010
Messages
135
Reaction score
0
I currently go to UC Merced and I was just accepted into CSU Long Beach for next semester.

How is the pre-med program there? Does the advisor send a lot of students to Med School?
 
i don't think that advisors send students to med-school, its more about the individual.

csulb is not known for churning out med students.
 
If you don't like UC Merced, how about a different UC? Even the ones of lesser repute (like Irvine, Riverside or Santa Cruz) are still good schools and are MUCH more highly regarded than any CSU.
 
i don't think that advisors send students to med-school, its more about the individual.

csulb is not known for churning out med students.

and yet... i have at least one guy from there as a classmate :laugh:

not trying to start ***t, and i don't know anything about csulb, but i thought it was funny.
 
i don't think that advisors send students to med-school, its more about the individual.

csulb is not known for churning out med students.

I know advisors don't students to medical school, it's just that better advisors tend to see more applicants gain admssion
 
As a Cal State applicant myself, I think you would be at a serious disadvantage when you apply to med school. If I could do it all over, I would certainly try to stay in a UC. At my interview today, I was up against applicants from Duke, UCLA, NYU, Hopkins, Michigan, etc. I felt so inadequate when everyone naming their schools and I was from some little, old Cal State.
 
Thought I'd chime my 2 cents in here.

I grew up down the street from CSULB and a lot of my friends from high school ended up going there. A few of them started as pre-meds but eventually changed majors (but I think that was mainly because they changed there minds about medicine).I also worked in a doctors office for a number of years in long beach and we had several CSULB students. So although it may be second hand knowledge I've heard several things about it over and over again:

-Most people will not graduate from CSULB in 4 years. This is because it is impossible to get classes that you need. From what I hear, you basically need to accumulate enough credit hours (junior/senior) in order to get the classes that you need. This may mean that you end up taking your pre-reqs over the course of 3 years which makes the courses themselves more difficult as well as studying for the MCAT. I know UCs are probably similar but i had friends at UCI/UCSB and it was never on the same level that I heard from my friends from CSULB.

Considering I went to a private school in LA i had several classes with <12 people in them (my physics II had 4 , upper division chem had 3!!) . I even got an entire course moved on the schedule after taking with the dean.

-Also, although I haven't lived in california for over a year I still hear that it's going down the drain. The UCs and CSUs are strapped for cash which means less classes and higher tuition.

-Parking is also a nightmare.

That's all I got for you. Good luck with whatever you decide!
 
Thought I'd chime my 2 cents in here.

I grew up down the street from CSULB and a lot of my friends from high school ended up going there. A few of them started as pre-meds but eventually changed majors (but I think that was mainly because they changed there minds about medicine).I also worked in a doctors office for a number of years in long beach and we had several CSULB students. So although it may be second hand knowledge I've heard several things about it over and over again:

-Most people will not graduate from CSULB in 4 years. This is because it is impossible to get classes that you need. From what I hear, you basically need to accumulate enough credit hours (junior/senior) in order to get the classes that you need. This may mean that you end up taking your pre-reqs over the course of 3 years which makes the courses themselves more difficult as well as studying for the MCAT. I know UCs are probably similar but i had friends at UCI/UCSB and it was never on the same level that I heard from my friends from CSULB.

Considering I went to a private school in LA i had several classes with <12 people in them (my physics II had 4 , upper division chem had 3!!) . I even got an entire course moved on the schedule after taking with the dean.

-Also, although I haven't lived in california for over a year I still hear that it's going down the drain. The UCs and CSUs are strapped for cash which means less classes and higher tuition.

-Parking is also a nightmare.

That's all I got for you. Good luck with whatever you decide!

So true. It's really hard to get all of your classes @ CSU's because they have way too many students. There are problems at the UC's too, but not to the extent of the CSU's.

UC Merced is pretty new, so I don't know about their science department. But what I do know is that CSULB is a lot more fun than UC Merced!
 
Top