Grade Deflation - slight leeway?

[freak7]

OP, be happy you go to Berkeley. It's a large public school so there are a lot of subpar students there for you to easily ride the curve to a good GPA.

That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works

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[gobears19]

OP, be happy you go to Berkeley. It's a large public school so there are a lot of subpar students there for you to easily ride the curve to a good GPA.

That's PARTIALLY true, but the problem is that the top ~20% or so of premed at Cal are academically on-par with Ivy League kids (basically white/Asian suburban casualties of undergrad affirmative action)

Cal is definitely harder than most undergrads, but I'm pretty sure the grade-deflating privates are a lot worse

 

[sfkniner81]

Though for what it's worth, after seeing all that happens at the UC's and what-not, I would much rather trust my life in the hands of a Berkeley/UCLA/JHU 3.5 student than in the hands of a 3.9 student from UC Riverside.

i usually keep my thoughts to myself when people are ranting, but as a Berkeley grad who graduated with a 3.6 GPA and got a 513 on mcat (90th percentile) you really need to R-E-L-A-X. you are stressing about a 3.69 GPA from berkeley... you are not going to be rejected from ANY school for that reason alone. That is a great gpa, if med schools wanted all 4.0's they could get easily fill the class with those students.

and statements like the one you mentioned above are pretty short sighted IMO. you don't know why that person went to Riverside. Maybe they needed to stay close to home, it was cheaper, etc etc. Med school, residency, fellowship will prepare physicians extremely well. You don't have to keep knocking undergrads bc they are "easier".

I empathize with you about berkeley and how difficult it is, but you are in a great position right now. I am hoping my 3.6 gpa is looked at in terms of being a berkeley undergrad and I'm sure the prestige of berkeley will be taken into account, but there are far more things that go into acceptances. I am hoping a school will look at all my clinical hours, research hours, volunteering, and passion for being a physician more so than whether my 3.6 is good enough compared to someone else's 3.8.

 

[sfkniner81]

Pedersen's class is difficult - do all his Problem set problems over and over and over and over

and round out your app with other things please bc it is more than just mcat and gpa despite how significant those are

 

[gobears19]

Pedersen's class is difficult - do all his Problem set problems over and over and over and over

and round out your app with other things please bc it is more than just mcat and gpa despite how significant those are

Yeah I BADLY ****ed up my time management for the second midterm, but atm studying for 3A (chiseling those problem sets into my head) isn't going too bad

goddamn i really wish he just webcasted or put lecture notes online tho lol

 

[halmoni]

Though for what it's worth, after seeing all that happens at the UC's and what-not, I would much rather trust my life in the hands of a Berkeley/UCLA/JHU 3.5 student than in the hands of a 3.9 student from UC Riverside.

But the idea that they need a "list" to tell the difference between Cal and Fresno State is absolutely unacceptable, imo.

Majoring in Public Health here is a completely different beast from majoring Molecular & Cell Biology, and I think adcoms should really be making more distinctions between not only different schools, but also different majors.

UCLA is pretty hard too, but not "as bad" as Cal. CSU's are California State Universities, basically the second tier of public schools here. Think UC vs. CSU as UMich vs. Michigan State, for a similar situation.

I hope you fix up that attitude of yours before you decide to apply. I'd rather put my life in the hands of the 3.9 Riverside student if that means I won't be putting my life in the hands of someone as obnoxious and arrogant as you.