UCI BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES VS. UCSD PUBLIC HEALTH FOR UNDERGRAD

[seemoore]

Hi, I'm new to this website, but I've been reading a lot of forums since undergraduate college decisions have been released. The title says it all. I'm not sure how different UCI and UCSD is, and I know that the ranking matters very little since what is important is your GPA, MCAT, and extra stuff when you apply to med school. I'm not sure which campus is better, which is more social, which has more opportunities, and which I would thrive well in. I know UCSD is a pretty prestigious school for its STEM majors. I also know that I could go into med school with a public health degree as long as I take the classes that med school requires. Which one do you think is best for an undergrad who plans on pursing med school later on, or possibly PA school? I know biological sciences at UCI can be pretty cutthroat (I hope I'm wrong), so I'm assuming I would get a higher GPA at UCSD. But not sure if UCSD is as socially dead as everyone says it is (many people say its what you make of it, so does that mean people at UCSD just don't do anything about it??). I visited UCSD and the campus was very nice, but I didn't really like the vibe. The students seemed like they didn't love their school on triton day and there wasn't much pride. But then again a lot of people tease UCI for not being diverse, competitive, and a commuter school (socially dead also, but not as much as UCSD). helppppppp...

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[AlteredScale]

Hi, I'm new to this website, but I've been reading a lot of forums since undergraduate college decisions have been released. The title says it all. I'm not sure how different UCI and UCSD is, and I know that the ranking matters very little since what is important is your GPA, MCAT, and extra stuff when you apply to med school. I'm not sure which campus is better, which is more social, which has more opportunities, and which I would thrive well in. I know UCSD is a pretty prestigious school for its STEM majors. I also know that I could go into med school with a public health degree as long as I take the classes that med school requires. Which one do you think is best for an undergrad who plans on pursing med school later on, or possibly PA school? I know biological sciences at UCI can be pretty cutthroat (I hope I'm wrong), so I'm assuming I would get a higher GPA at UCSD. But not sure if UCSD is as socially dead as everyone says it is (many people say its what you make of it, so does that mean people at UCSD just don't do anything about it??). I visited UCSD and the campus was very nice, but I didn't really like the vibe. The students seemed like they didn't love their school on triton day and there wasn't much pride. But then again a lot of people tease UCI for not being diverse, competitive, and a commuter school (socially dead also, but not as much as UCSD). helppppppp...

I took a few of the Public Health classes at UCSD and really liked it. It's mainly taught by faculty from the UCSD School of Medicine who have made a career in public health so I think you get a really strong training and background. Also, I just think it's neat to learn on the SOM campus, you're surrounded by some great faculty and finding research opps is essentially next door (new research building is a few meters from one of the classrooms the public health course was taught).

Another reason why I vouche for it is because it really does allow you to keep your options open through the 4 years. I have a friend who transferred into that program set on applying to medical school, turns out he really loved epidemiology and went on to get a masters in public health (joint UCSD/SDSU) and won a few awards to conduct some research internationally.