UC Berkeley or UC Davis For Pre-Med?

[Joemm426]

Hello,

I have a choice to make. I have been accepted as a transfer student to both UC Davis and UC Berkeley. I would enter either school as a junior majoring in cell biology.

I would like to hear your opinion about my pros and cons for each school. I also want to know what you would do in my position. And, have any of you attended either of these schools for pre-med, and if so, how was your experience?

UC Berkeley Pros:

• Prestige
• Many research opportunities
• Urban area with many choices for volunteering, internships, and more

UC Berkeley Cons:

• Although some people are afraid of grade deflation at UC Berkeley, a friend of mine goes there and is probably earning straight As while studying cell biology.
• There might not be as many pre-med resources at UCB as there are at UC Davis.
• It may be more costly than UC Davis

UC Davis Pros:

• While visiting there, I received much advice from pre-med advisers, cell bio major advisers, and more. Not to mention, I am not even a registered student yet... This shows me that the staff are generous and helpful at UC Davis.
• I already have a research opportunity set up. I would be able to start performing research if I attend in the fall.
• Student-clinics and hospital offer many opportunities for clinical experience. Also, they have a medical school...
• Many research opportunities
• Perhaps less GPA deflation than Berkeley?
• Cost may be more reasonable than Berkeley

UC Davis Cons:

• It seems like UC Davis does not pop up on medical schools' websites for admitted undergraduates' schools as frequently as UC Berkeley.
• Less prestigious than Berkeley

Some final notes: I have visited UC Davis. I had pleasant experiences there. I will be visiting UC Berkeley soon. I am anxious to see how helpful the departments are when I ask for advice. Although, I do not yet have an offer to do research at UC Berkeley upon starting there, I think it would be easy to set that up during the summer.Financial aid packages from both schools will arrive in a couple weeks. Those will probably influence my decision to some extent. Also, I am a pretty good student. I currently have a 3.81 GPA. See my previous posts if you want some more context about my experiences.

I am excited to know what you think about all this.
Sincerely,
Joseph

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[deleted838145]

If you value prestige and rigor more, go for Cal. If you value a more relaxed atmosphere, go Davis. If your ultimate goal is md then I would choose Davis, it is probably easier to get better grades there. Cal is a fantastic and world-renowned school but there are many horror stories about top high school students struggling there due to their stressful atmosphere (several alumni from my hs have gone to Cal and said this). Also, I would imagine that Cal would have a lot of general research opps but not much clinical stuff.

 

[wb100]

UCD student here. I picked UCD over UCLA and UCSD (didn't get into Berkeley but I have many friends who went there). I am very glad that I went to UCD for undergrad. The professors within the college of bio sci are for the most part some of the friendliest and enthusiastic professors I've met. I always get an email reply within the hour and never have problems setting up additional office hours in case I can't make it to the scheduled ones. The main thing that won me over was that they have a medical school and the friendly environment. I've been able to work on a lot of community outreach projects through the med school and state of CA (perk of living near the state capital) and therefore met multiple people who are well connected within the school (this is great for LOR's!!). The dean of the medical school and the dean of admissions are very friendly and you can meet them at small events/info sessions they have at the school.

Another unique thing is that the professors at UCDSOM enjoy teaching and therefore extend some classes to the undergrad institution. I would highly recommend taking these courses since some of these professors used to be interviewers, teach at the med school, and are again well connected. UCD is also known to take a little over 20% of UCD undergrads in their med schools which is great if you want to go to UCDSOM. The atmosphere is not at all competitive and there is plenty of research and EC's you can get involved in. The one thing is that the party scene isn't as great as Berkeley but if your focus is school you won't have much time to go out. If you do go out the bars are a lot of fun on Wed/Thurs if you're 21! Whichever school you pick has to fit your goals and what your expectations are. You will get a great education at either one but for me I wanted to be able to do research and get involved in unique projects which Davis was able to provide. Also def bring a car if you move to Davis if you can! The medical center and student run clinics are in Sac. PM if you want more info!

FWIW my friends who went to Berkeley had low GPA's and were not able to be pre-med anymore. They were not transfer students so it might be different for you since you're going in with some pre-reqs done and a high GPA.

 

[Geo16]

Cell bio for cal? CONGRATS!! Go for Cal

Im pretty sure you will do fine!

 

[altblue]

Go to Cal if you think you can hack it. People there are great students but most don't get the GPA they need to get into med school. The competition's a bit easier at ucd

 

[jcorpsmanMD]

Prestige doesn't matter for undergraduate. Go where you obviously feel more relaxed, where you already have pre-med advisors showing a vested interest in you with a research opportunity lined up. Plus it's CHEAPER. I went to a decent undergraduate institution and received plenty of II offers from great schools because I put in work everyday into my classes, did research and got plenty of clinical experience. Undergraduate institution means nothing (imo).

 

[efle]

Transferring from a community college or a different university? How does your SAT/ACT score compare to the Berkeley averages? Have you been finding your schooling extraordinarily easy so far?

 

[Joemm426]

Transferring from a community college or a different university? How does your SAT/ACT score compare to the Berkeley averages? Have you been finding your schooling extraordinarily easy so far?

I am transferring from a junior college that is known to prepare students well for the UC schools. Students form this college often transfer to UCD and do well there. Others go to Berkeley. Like I said, a close friend of mine transferred from my junior college to Berkeley and is probably earning straight As. One person from this junior college was accepted to transfer to Stanford. A few from here have transferred to Cornell. I did not take the ACT or SAT. Although my classes at this junior college have been challenging, I have earned good grades. I think I am prepared to do well at both UC Berkeley and UC Davis.

 

[efle]

a close friend of mine transferred from my junior college to Berkeley and is probably earning straight As

Bolded is an odd statement. Can you talk to them abt it? If they say "yeah, chem/bio/physics/ochem/biochem classes here isnt much harder than where we were before, I'm making straight A's" then def go for Berkeley!

 

[Geo16]

I wouldnt recommend you to go to cal if you are a freshman, but as a transfer, I would assume that you have a GPA close to 4.0 (that is how you got in in the first place). So all that left is doing well on UD. I mean, those arent weeder courses or meant to discourage you, I assume (am I right about this?)

 

[Shirafune]

Went to UCD. I really loved some of my professors. There are of course "bad" professors, but it's easy to tell who is actually invested in their students. Those have been some of the best mentors I've had in my life. The Cell Bio professors are particularly helpful, presumably because it's one of the smallest majors in the college.

Also, I will note that UCD has many student-run clinics which are competitive to get into. UCDSOM has a particular emphasis on serving the underserved in Sacramento and Northern Californian communities in general. There are also the HRIs (health-related internships) which are lottery-based volunteering positions at UCDMC or other hospitals in the area. I could get one every quarter I wanted one.

Go where you are happy.

 

[Joemm426]

Bolded is an odd statement. Can you talk to them abt it? If they say "yeah, chem/bio/physics/ochem/biochem classes here isnt much harder than where we were before, I'm making straight A's" then def go for Berkeley!

She says the classes at CAL are easier than some of the classes she has taken at the junior college.

 

[Joemm426]

I wouldnt recommend you to go to cal if you are a freshman, but as a transfer, I would assume that you have a GPA close to 4.0 (that is how you got in in the first place). So all that left is doing well on UD. I mean, those arent weeder courses or meant to discourage you, I assume (am I right about this?)

Correct

 

[efle]

She says the classes at CAL are easier than some of the classes she has taken at the junior college.

are y'all taking prereqs at Cal or already did all those and now she's just doing major-specific upper levels?

 

[Joemm426]

are y'all taking prereqs at Cal or already did all those and now she's just doing major-specific upper levels?

She did all pre-reqs at the junior college and is now taking the major-specific upper levels. She says it is possible to get an A in the course without superhuman powers as long as the student knows what the professor talks about. She also said that UC Berkeley just seems difficult because mostly everybody studies hard and is smart.

 

[Geo16]

@efle
MCB at Cal requires all premed req(which has to be done at CC). Also it is highly competitive to get in for that major. I think he is well prepared for cal definitely.

 

[efle]

She did all pre-reqs at the junior college and is now taking the major-specific upper levels. She says it is possible to get an A in the course without superhuman powers as long as the student knows what the professor talks about. She also said that UC Berkeley just seems difficult because mostly everybody studies hard and is smart.

Oh if you get to skip all the prereqs and just go into 300/400 level stuff, absolutely becomes a lot less scary. Upper levels are a lot less likely to be curved and based on time-pressured extremely difficult exams. It will be much more about writing papers or doing readings. This makes it much less of a worry, if you'd be happier at Cal then go to Cal