UC or UT?

[mfernando87]

hey everybody! so i've got to decide where i'm going to college by may 1st (i'm a high school student right now...). so far i've narrowed it down to two universities: UCSD and UT Austin...i've seen both the schools and looked at the courses requirements, etc. and i like them both equally so now i think i'm gonna make my pick based on the statistics... i've checked out books and read up on this stuff but every source gives me slightly different info...so far it seems like Austin would be the best place for me to go (it looks like i've got a 6% shot of getting into med-school from there whereas in california i've got like a 2% shot...this is assuming i keep up decent grades and MCATs) i dunno...i'm really stressed out... this decision is gonna change my life and colleges give me only two months to decide!!! ugh, i can't believe i'm gonna have to go through this again if i get accepted to med school...
oh well, any help or advice (anything... ) anyone could give me on the whole thing would be greatly appreciated...
p.s. happy easter to those of you who celebrate it!!!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[UT_mikie]

2% and 6%? Where did you get those statistics? I think your chances are much higher than that. Something like 40% of applicants get accepted into at least one allopatchic medical school somewhere.

That being said if you go to UTA and can get Texas residency than your chances of getting into a Texas med school are much much greater than getting into a Cali one. There is a thread on this site about which state is the best one to be a resident of (for med school app purposes) and Texas is consistently mentioned as one of the best.

Good luck and congrats on your two great choices.

 

[relema]

hey everybody! so i've got to decide where i'm going to college by may 1st (i'm a high school student right now...). so far i've narrowed it down to two universities: UCSD and UT Austin...i've seen both the schools and looked at the courses requirements, etc. and i like them both equally so now i think i'm gonna make my pick based on the statistics... i've checked out books and read up on this stuff but every source gives me slightly different info...so far it seems like Austin would be the best place for me to go (it looks like i've got a 6% shot of getting into med-school from there whereas in california i've got like a 2% shot...this is assuming i keep up decent grades and MCATs) i dunno...i'm really stressed out... this decision is gonna change my life and colleges give me only two months to decide!!! ugh, i can't believe i'm gonna have to go through this again if i get accepted to med school...
oh well, any help or advice (anything... ) anyone could give me on the whole thing would be greatly appreciated...
p.s. happy easter to those of you who celebrate it!!!

I think it depends on what program you want to go into. For example UT has an awesome business school, but UCSD I have heard is awesome at engineering. Are you going to get instate residence in texas if you go to UT? . If you don't then going to UT won't neccessarily help you more than UCSD to get into med school. Texas schools take somewhere around 80% texas residence at their medical schools. I loved going to UT and austin was great but there was a bit of a culture shock since I moved from Cali. I was guaranteed Texas residency when i moved due to a deal with the state, so for me the cost of the tuition and residency sealed my deal to go to UT. I think both schools have different atmospheres and you can get a great education at either one. As long as you work hard and get good greats you can go to med school from either. Good luck.

 

[SitraAchra]

Come to UT, Austin is a great place. I think it is a good idea to compare the different colleges at each university. Either way you're set so no worries.

But seriously. Come here.

 

[Valtry]

I think it depends on what program you want to go into. For example UT has an awesome business school, but UCSD I have heard is awesome at engineering. Are you going to get instate residence in texas if you go to UT? . If you don't then going to UT won't neccessarily help you more than UCSD to get into med school. Texas schools take somewhere around 80% texas residence at their medical schools. I loved going to UT and austin was great but there was a bit of a culture shock since I moved from Cali. I was guaranteed Texas residency when i moved due to a deal with the state, so for me the cost of the tuition and residency sealed my deal to go to UT. I think both schools have different atmospheres and you can get a great education at either one. As long as you work hard and get good greats you can go to med school from either. Good luck.

It's actually 90% are accepted from Texas.

 

[shinji]

I went to UCSD for undergraduate. The competition among premed students is very extreme since the bio department only allows the top 10-12% of the class to get an A. In addition, UCSD is a research-based school so most profs are too busy with their research and don't have much time for you.

On the other hand, UCSD provides ample of research opportunities, especially in the area of washing glassware. Francis Crick was our faculty until he passed away last year. 6 nobel prizer winners are actively at the school. Ranked 2nd in biomedical engineering program on US News and World Reports.

UCSD may not be a good choice for you if you like to build a strong relationship with your profs and peers. But if you are into self-study and lead your own research project, ucsd definitely is a good match for you.

 

[sunnyjohn]

UT- Austin has great football.... HOOKEM' HORNS!!!

Austin is a fun town....


If you can become a Texas resident, when it comes time to apply to med school you have 8 options. Texas instate med schol tuition is under $7k.....

Califronia has great med schools, but admissions is BRUTAL....


Seriously, go where you'll be happpy....

Boy I wish I could be a freshman again.....

agape...

 

[Haybrant]

both are good schools; depends what you want to do tho. As for getting in to med schools, think where you want to end up: a UC med school or a UT med school (im guessing the former). Basically, for undergrad Id say go with your state school b.c it is cheaper and will make little difference in the end. The best move I made was going to a UC undergrad over a private b.c I didnt graduate with any debt from my state school; would suck to be digging the debt hole for 8 yrs!

 

[scrappysurfer]

I did my undergrad in bioengineering at UCSD. It is a very good school and I had a blast there, but the postings about the premed world are true. I have heard things are slightly different now, but as far as I know only one person in my class had a GPA above my paltry 3.5 (there were only 3 of us in Tau Beta Pi). Pre-med classes are enormous (>100 always). It is extremely competitive, but due to the research orientation I was able to get substantial research experience. If you are capable of self-directed study you should be fine, but many of my friends really struggled to get into med schools. Also, be aware that there is a bottomless pit of fun stuff to do year round in San Diego so you have to be capable of putting on blinders now and then.

I have heard that Austin is a fantastic town to be a young person in.

 

[SitraAchra]

if i were in san diego...i'd go to the zoo.

 

[mfernando87]

2% and 6%? Where did you get those statistics? I think your chances are much higher than that. Something like 40% of applicants get accepted into at least one allopatchic medical school somewhere.

That being said if you go to UTA and can get Texas residency than your chances of getting into a Texas med school are much much greater than getting into a Cali one. There is a thread on this site about which state is the best one to be a resident of (for med school app purposes) and Texas is consistently mentioned as one of the best.

Good luck and congrats on your two great choices.

Thanks for the info, especially the much nicer looking statistics...i don't feel so hopeless anymore! 🙂

 

[mfernando87]

I think it depends on what program you want to go into. For example UT has an awesome business school, but UCSD I have heard is awesome at engineering. Are you going to get instate residence in texas if you go to UT? . If you don't then going to UT won't neccessarily help you more than UCSD to get into med school. Texas schools take somewhere around 80% texas residence at their medical schools. I loved going to UT and austin was great but there was a bit of a culture shock since I moved from Cali. I was guaranteed Texas residency when i moved due to a deal with the state, so for me the cost of the tuition and residency sealed my deal to go to UT. I think both schools have different atmospheres and you can get a great education at either one. As long as you work hard and get good greats you can go to med school from either. Good luck.

thanks for the comments...texas seems to be winning so far, but i recently got into berkeley so now i'm back where i started...why does berkeley have to be so frustrating?! i got rejected to LA so i'm all "oh, well now i've got no hope for berkeley...", and then they pull this on me! it's a very nice surprise, but it really throws things off...any ideas on this new situation? 😕

 

[mfernando87]

😛

UT- Austin has great football.... HOOKEM' HORNS!!!

Austin is a fun town....


If you can become a Texas resident, when it comes time to apply to med school you have 8 options. Texas instate med schol tuition is under $7k.....

Califronia has great med schools, but admissions is BRUTAL....


Seriously, go where you'll be happpy....

Boy I wish I could be a freshman again.....

agape...

UT Austin is also gonna have a movie out about cheerleaders and tommy lee jones ( 😕 ) (probably not going to be one the school's proudest achievements 😛 ...)
yeah, Austin seems like a really fun place...i think i'd need to take some time to get adjusted to the weather but aside from that it seems pretty cool...
thanks for the info!

p.s. you should consider yourself very lucky to have made it past the whole pre-freshman year thing...why you would want to to back is completely beyond me 😀 ... i wish i never had to deal with this again, but if my wish came true then that'd mean i'm not going to med-school and that's a bit of a bummer for someone aspiring to be a doctor 😛

 

[mfernando87]

I did my undergrad in bioengineering at UCSD. It is a very good school and I had a blast there, but the postings about the premed world are true. I have heard things are slightly different now, but as far as I know only one person in my class had a GPA above my paltry 3.5 (there were only 3 of us in Tau Beta Pi). Pre-med classes are enormous (>100 always). It is extremely competitive, but due to the research orientation I was able to get substantial research experience. If you are capable of self-directed study you should be fine, but many of my friends really struggled to get into med schools. Also, be aware that there is a bottomless pit of fun stuff to do year round in San Diego so you have to be capable of putting on blinders now and then.

I have heard that Austin is a fantastic town to be a young person in.

i see nothing paltry about a 3.5 GPA in a cut-throat enviroment 🙂 ...but thanks for the info! just curious, but what are your thoughts on berkeley? i got accepted a few days ago, so now i'm kinda back where i started on this whole decision...

 

[eulogia228]

I would totally go with UCSD on this one. They're both fantastic schools and you can't go wrong with either, but I'd choose UCSD for quality-of-life reasons. La Jolla, CA is a GREAT place to be for college because of the weather, academic departments at your disposal at UCSD, and quality of faculty as well as research at UCSD. Honestly, I doubt you can go wrong with this campus. UCSD's programs in the biological sciences are absolutely amazing and are all very highly-ranked by the National Research Council. As for CA being ridiculously competitive, you're right on that point. Getting into state medical schools in CA is close to impossible, even for those with ridiculously competitive stats.

 

[uproarhz]

i see nothing paltry about a 3.5 GPA in a cut-throat enviroment 🙂 ...but thanks for the info! just curious, but what are your thoughts on berkeley? i got accepted a few days ago, so now i'm kinda back where i started on this whole decision...

Perhaps you should tell us what major you are potentially considering. And I agree with the idea of figuring out which state you would want to go to med school at, unless you decide to apply for MD/PhD in which case you won't have to worry about state residency requirements.
I attended Berkeley and loved it. Based on the previous posts I don't think it is as cut throat as say UCSD in pre-med classes, cause I know quite a few people (more than 3) who had higher than 3.5 GPA.

One thing that I came to like about Berkeley after having applied was the fact that we don't have any coherent pre-med committee. That was good for me because I didn't have to wait for a pre-med committee to write my recommendation letters and evaluate me and all that good stuff. I basically went to profs that knew me well and asked them for letters and that was that. I have heard horror stories about how pre-med committees can slack and screw up things because they send your letters late or whatnot. But this is just word of mouth so confirm it with other people.
Of course, on the flips side of this argument, you can say that because of the lack of a committee you have to dig information for yourself a bit but because we have such a HUGE premed student body there is a ton of ways you can get that information. So I really don't think it's a disadvantage!
The rest of the things said about research orientedness and very large class sizes at UCSD is also true about Berkeley.

One last thing is that if tuition is an issue for you, beware that tuitions may go even higher for UC schools during your college years. I'm sure you know this, but just thought I'd bring it to your attention if that is at issue an all.
best of luck

 

[mfernando87]

I would totally go with UCSD on this one. They're both fantastic schools and you can't go wrong with either, but I'd choose UCSD for quality-of-life reasons. La Jolla, CA is a GREAT place to be for college because of the weather, academic departments at your disposal at UCSD, and quality of faculty as well as research at UCSD. Honestly, I doubt you can go wrong with this campus. UCSD's programs in the biological sciences are absolutely amazing and are all very highly-ranked by the National Research Council. As for CA being ridiculously competitive, you're right on that point. Getting into state medical schools in CA is close to impossible, even for those with ridiculously competitive stats.

thanks for the info!!! 🙂 ...just curious, but i saw your location, and i was wondering what were your thoughts on berkeley? i just got in a couple of days ago so i wasn't even thinking about it until lately (i got rejected from UCLA so i didn't think my chances were too good...didn't want to set myelf up for sorrow 😛 ). but now that i'm in, i'm seriously considering going there. good idea or bad?

 

[uproarhz]

Getting into state medical schools in CA is close to impossible, even for those with ridiculously competitive stats.

I don't quite agree with this. Yes, I agree that it is very competetive, but "close to impossible?" No! All of my friends who have applied to med school have done great (and that's not cause I only befriend people who have ridiculously competetive stats) and most of them have ended up in Cali med schools. So I would say it takes hard work, but it is certainly not close to impossible. Don't scare the kid right off the bat.

 

[txguy]

UT- Austin has great football.... HOOKEM' HORNS!!!

Austin is a fun town....


If you can become a Texas resident, when it comes time to apply to med school you have 8 options. Texas instate med schol tuition is under $7k.....

Califronia has great med schools, but admissions is BRUTAL....


Seriously, go where you'll be happpy....

Boy I wish I could be a freshman again.....

agape...

Within the next couple of years there will be 9 medical schools in Texas 🙂

My unbiased opinion is that you attend UT Austin! 🙄 I attended their business school and it is outstanding 👍 I have a cousin who went to UCSD and she loved it--research was a big issue for her.

You really can't miss with UCSD, UT Austin, or Berkeley.......just goto the school that fits you the best. By the way, what major are you considering?

-tx

 

[mfernando87]

Within the next couple of years there will be 9 medical schools in Texas 🙂

My unbiased opinion is that you attend UT Austin! 🙄 I attended their business school and it is outstanding 👍 I have a cousin who went to UCSD and she loved it--research was a big issue for her.

You really can't miss with UCSD, UT Austin, or Berkeley.......just goto the school that fits you the best. By the way, what major are you considering?

-tx

biology or possibly biochemistry if biology isn't offered on its own...i'm not so sure if that's gonna help or hurt my chances of med-school, but i enjoy bio... chem's pretty cool, too, but right now i haven't really found myself drawn to it, but i think i could be in the future... and physics...well, let's not talk about physics 😛

 

[SitraAchra]

considering the other highschoolers who post on this forum, you are a breath of fresh air. biology is a great major for pre-med. you can do any major you want honestly, but you won't be looked down on for just picking what you like.

anyways best of luck

 

[EvoDevo]

Heck, if you want to study history and go to med school, you can do that too!

As a graduate of UT Austin, I'd totally recommend it. It has good to great programs in just about every discipline.

 

[UT_mikie]

Thanks for the info, especially the much nicer looking statistics...i don't feel so hopeless anymore! 🙂

Haha, but don't use that percentage as a reason to slack. Pre-med students are a completely different animal compared to students in any other field. They tend to work much harder and have overall higher GPA's than non premed students. But given that you got into UCSD and Berkeley and UTA (from out of state) sounds like that won't be a problem. Good luck!

 

[confettiflyer]

I was just at UCSD....haha, I would definitely pick UCSD, again for quality of life issues (weather, ability to go home, diverse student pop., etc...). And if you do pick UCSD, select ERC (or wait, too late?). Anyway...yes the competition is very tough, many of my pre-med friends are struggling and whatnot, but I think the statistics are that UCSD med school takes proportionately more students in-house? Something like that...You will be happy at UCSD, and you're in-state right? So tuition should be cheaper, though that's probably not an issue since you didn't mention it.

Anyway thoughts on Berkeley....as great a school it is, DO NOT GO. I'm serious. Everyone I know who went there has become cynical and jaded, and wish they went somewhere else. The city is pretty raw and bohemian, but if you're into that, be my guest! And chances are you'll be living in a ghetto ass apartment unless you're in Gaya or that other new one down Shattuck.

 

[mfernando87]

Heck, if you want to study history and go to med school, you can do that too!

As a graduate of UT Austin, I'd totally recommend it. It has good to great programs in just about every discipline.

no way would i study history...i completely suck at it. when my 10th grade history teacher asked me about the red scare i thought it was some sort of follow up to the black death plague in europe. yeah, pretty dumb, but you can see where my train of thought was going, right?! "red" scare, "black" death...it just seemed to make sense...

 

[mfernando87]

I was just at UCSD....haha, I would definitely pick UCSD, again for quality of life issues (weather, ability to go home, diverse student pop., etc...). And if you do pick UCSD, select ERC (or wait, too late?). Anyway...yes the competition is very tough, many of my pre-med friends are struggling and whatnot, but I think the statistics are that UCSD med school takes proportionately more students in-house? Something like that...You will be happy at UCSD, and you're in-state right? So tuition should be cheaper, though that's probably not an issue since you didn't mention it.

Anyway thoughts on Berkeley....as great a school it is, DO NOT GO. I'm serious. Everyone I know who went there has become cynical and jaded, and wish they went somewhere else. The city is pretty raw and bohemian, but if you're into that, be my guest! And chances are you'll be living in a ghetto ass apartment unless you're in Gaya or that other new one down Shattuck.

thanks for the info! yeah, i've pretty much heard the same thing about berkeley...if you're not living in a dorm with some guy who hasn't showered for days because his been glued to his desk studying for his chem midterm, you're hanging out with the cockroaches who take up 75% of your apartment space ...it sounds really bad, but i've been around there (though i haven't really spent some good quality time at the college) and it's not beverly hills, but i think i could get used to it if i chose to go...thanks for the heads up all the same! 🙂

 

[nothisispatrick]

Obviously late but in case anyone else was wondering now heres some pre med acceptance stats.
UT Austin
http://cns.utexas.edu/images/CNS/Health_Professions/PDFs/2013_Stats_JH_FINAL_SG.pdf

UCSD
http://career.ucsd.edu/_files/ucsd-admits-2008-10.pdf
http://career.ucsd.edu/undergraduates/thinking-about-grad-school/pre-medical-data.html

Im going through a similar decision but with U Miami in the mix. Personally, I think if you're not a resident of either state, It will be easier to get good grades in UT Austin and that's why UT has better med school placement rates. Here my thread (sorry for hijacking) - http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...y-of-miami-for-pre-med.1065516/#post-15124500