Help a confused student

[voldemorthe123]

Hello all!

I just got my college acceptances back for my undergraduate schools! Right now, I'm stuck between two different universities and was wondering if any of you guys could help me with that. I know that the UCs aren't typically good pre-med programs, but I was wondering which of these you guys would take. I've made a pros-cons list down below. Thank you so much!


UC Berkeley (Regents!!!)
Intended Major: Molecular and Cellular Biology
Pros:

• Regents!!! (priority enrollment, priority/guaranteed housing, huge resume boost for research/volunteering, mentorship with faculty, research stipend, 2.5k scholarship, etc) → it’s the MAIN REASON I’m considering Berkeley
• Academic powerhouse
• Really powerful research- professors here are really well-known, and with Regents, I could have them more
• UCSF opportunities maybe?
• Further from my house - it’s not in a bubble, and I finally get to escape my hometown
• Liberal and diverse
• Good food
• Good amount of people coming from my school
• Transferring credits here is better? (i took a lot of classes at a semester based community college, and it seems like the classes i took might align better at berkeley than UCLA)
• UC Berkeley has been famously more prestigious and internationally known (not big-deal for pre-med)

Cons:

• EXTREMELY RIGOROUS (ESPECIALLY FOR PRE-MED)- huge grade deflation, competitive nature, really hard to maintain good GPA (one of the BIGGEST reasons I’m scared of going)
• Environment- pretty dangerous sometimes
• Too liberal? (protests happen frequently?)
• UCSF is 45 minutes-1 hour away
• Too many people from my school- I kind of want to start new
• Big campus (difficult to get connections with professors or other people)
• Not as many things to do over the weekend?
• Weather is not so great

UCLA:
Intended Major: Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics (MIMG)
Pros:

• Really amazing campus, really gorgeous campus, weather is beautiful
• LA/Westwood is an amazing place to be- and I can do things over the weekend maybe
• Great food! #1 in the nation?
• Decent academics, decent research
• UCLA geffen hospital is right on campus
• UCLA has been gaining more prestige than Berkeley and is likely to continue (not a big deal for pre-med)

Cons:

• No regents
• Pre-med advising is bad?
• Might be harder to get research opportunities/academic opportunities, just being another bio/premed major out of 2000 at UCLA
• Still decently competitive for a pre-med, (but maybe not grade deflation?)
• Speculation: UCLA has been gaining prestige/attention, and is attracting more academically rigorous people (making competition harder?)
• Big campus (difficult to get connections with professors or other people)

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[Wolvvs]

I'm not familiar with the Regents scholarship, so I don't know how much of an advantage that will give you with early access to research. I don't think you'll have trouble finding research opportunities at either school though, and volunteering (especially the sort of volunteering that few people want to do) is better for your application anyway.

The most important thing IMO is to go where you can be academically successful. A 3.5 from Berkeley is going to be viewed less favorably than a 3.8 from UCLA, as medical school admissions do not care that much about grade deflation. I'm from the east coast and not familiar with the UC system so others probably can give you more information, but if your goal is to apply to medical school, you should avoid schools/majors known for grade deflation.

Also don't worry too much about pre-med advising, as you should be getting advice here (and support from Reddit). As long as they can get your committee letter together, that's really all you need them for.

 

[voldemorthe123]

I'm not familiar with the Regents scholarship, so I don't know how much of an advantage that will give you with early access to research. I don't think you'll have trouble finding research opportunities at either school though, and volunteering (especially the sort of volunteering that few people want to do) is better for your application anyway.

The most important thing IMO is to go where you can be academically successful. A 3.5 from Berkeley is going to be viewed less favorably than a 3.8 from UCLA, as medical school admissions do not care that much about grade deflation. I'm from the east coast and not familiar with the UC system so others probably can give you more information, but if your goal is to apply to medical school, you should avoid schools/majors known for grade deflation.

Also don't worry too much about pre-med advising, as you should be getting advice here (and support from Reddit). As long as they can get your committee letter together, that's really all you need them for.

Thanks for your reply! The regents thing is the main reason why I'm even considering berkeley. After that, I understand that Berkeley is known for having a competitive atmosphere, and can be really difficult for pre-med. I do understand that prestige/name doesn't matter (and that GPA/MCAT is the main thing that really matters), but I was just hoping to get some more info on if the benefits of regents would outweigh the costs at Cal.

Regents is a pretty big thing at UC schools, imho- only 200 ppl in Berkeley get it, and they have access to faculty mentors, priority enrollment, etc. But, berkeley is known to have huge competition so I'm really confused :/... Also from what I've heard, research opportunities, especially at a big campus like Cal or UCLA are apparently really hard/competitive to get, so I was wondering about whether regents could help with that...

Also, I'm actually not even sure that berkeley OR ucla have committee letters of recs? My other option i'm considering is USC, which I believe has one. However, it is about 15k more per year, which, from my understanding I should save for the long road ahead. Are committee letters really important?