Should I transfer?

[premedinca]

I just finished my sophomore year at USC and my BCPM GPA is ~3.5. I am considering transferring to Claremont McKenna College (a small liberal arts college which has a strong prelaw program and is one of the Claremont Colleges in California) because doing so will save me about $11,000 😀 in the long run. I am not sure what to do because at Claremont McKenna most students are prelaw or business. I would have to take some classes that I find uninteresting, but my main concern is that my GPA might suffer. I have no idea of the difficulty of science classes at Claremont McKenna (which shares a science department with two other Claremont Colleges, Scripps and Pitzer). I consider USC science courses pretty difficult, but I have gotten accustomed to the school. I still have to take one semester of physics and after I apply next June, I am planning to take molecular biology and biochemistry. Any ideas what I should do? I've already thought about pros and cons and they seem to balance out.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Bradstein]

So you want to transfer to save some cash?

What uninteresting classes would you have to take?

I'm not sure you should transfer unless it will put you in an environment more conducive to your success and personal growth. Gives you an opportunity to do research or volunteer or whatever gets you going.

 

[ellie42]

USC has a better support system for premeds. It sounds like very few people go to Claremont McKenna to do premed coursework and premed extracurriculars. Unless you have a more compelling reason to transfer, I say saving $11k by itself is not a good enough reason. Also, USC has its own med school! That's always helpful.

 

[BluePhoenix]

CMC is not really a premed campus...it's basically jocks and business majors and you'd be better off at a school with a stronger science program, especially if you want any experience working in a lab. They're also probably not going to be very helpful in terms of applying to med school. Harvey Mudd is the 5C school that's very strong in the sciences, taking classes there will give you excellent prep for med school...however, doing that would probably cause your GPA to take a BIG hit. So, you'd probably be better off where you are as there's not really any benefit aside from a minor financial one to going to CMC.

 

[bcat85]

Just stay where you are... 11k in the face of 200+K for medical school is a drop in the bucket. If the only reason you are considering this is to save money, it's probably not worth it.

 

[Alexander99]

Just stay where you are... 11k in the face of 200+K for medical school is a drop in the bucket. If the only reason you are considering this is to save money, it's probably not worth it.

Agree 100%. If your goal is to go to med school, stay at USC. It always helps to go to an undergrad that has a medical school. Similarly, it always helps to go to a med school that has a strong residency program in a speciality you're interested in going into.

 

[premedinca]

Thanks for the responses! The extra classes I would be taking would be government and economics which are uninteresting to me. I would be saving about $15000 and also I wouldn't have to commute. I commute to USC from an hour away, so it's kinda tough. Also, I heard that USC's med school doesn't take USC students because they already have bac/md students and they want more diversity than just students who did undergrad at USC. I'm just wondering if I might have the opportunity to do better at CMC because of the smaller class sizes. I guess part of my hesitation in staying at USC is that I just studied harder than I ever have before for my physics final and my it ended up lowering my grade 🙁. I just really need to raise my BCPM GPA and it doesn't seem like it will happen, which is just stressing me out on top of trying to make the decision about transferring.

 

[juelz721]

I think that you should only transfer if you are going to a better school (if you care about how it will look on your application). You can always take easier classes at the school you transfer to if you think your gpa will suffer.

 

[premedinca]

That's the problem. I don't know if CMC is a better school.