i've heard about the vicious premed competition, especially at berkeley and UCLA. any opinions, experiences?
The pre-med experience at UCLA is definitely . . . unique. Especially if you're going to be a phy-sci major. Obviously you're quite intelligent so I don't think that getting the grades is going to be hard for you - but given the atmosphere of the phy-sci major it's not going to be easy by any means. Heck, I was a MCDB major and even though maybe only 1/2 of the kids in my classes were pre-med, the competition for the grades was hardcore. Now, that said, it was definitely worse for the prereq classes; Orgo especially and the infamous biochemistry 153L (which I personally loved and which I don't think PS majors have to take, but which definitely requires a lot of work and a pretty high level of "other pre-med tolerance").
Another thing about pre-med at UCLA: cheating is f*ing
rampant. Every single test I had in a prereq class I witnessed someone cheating and it always made my blood boil. I've heard it's fairly similar at UCB but I don't know firsthand. If you go to either, bring a good set of blinders and your morals.
That isn't to say it's all bad. It's certainly not. There are a number of awesome research opportunities (Stroke Study is a classic one, or if you're more into the genetics side then there's a huge drosophila lab run by Dr. Banerjee that a ton of UGs work in, or you can even get a position at the Jules Stein Eye Center - it's advertised periodically but I don't know the details apart from it's a 2 year commitment). If you're EMS trained there's a student-run 3-ambulance 911-only EMS service which you can apply to (usually application cycles are spring/fall and out of 20-30 applicants they usually hire 2-3 people). There's absolutely no shortage of pre-med clubs (if you're into that sort of thing) and it's pretty easy to find current med students to talk to if you know where to look (Cafe Synapse, etc).
Coffee shops: Peets is key.
Test prep: Kaplan is just down the street on Westwood Blvd. Walkable, easily.
Housing: Expensive. Live off-campus if you can manage it - it's cheaper - but find a lot of roommates.
Sports: Come on. Do you have to ask?
Social Scene: depends. If you're a hipster and can find other hipsters it's clutch. If you're very bookish and studious, you'll be fine as well. However, if you're a crunchygranola outdoorsy type, while there
is a rock wall in Wooden, and an "outdoor adventure" program, it might be hard to find yourself some kindred spirits. If you love theatre people and film people and music people and dance people, well, you can't find anywhere better to be.
Other: great running circuit around campus. The short version is about a 5k, but it's hilly, so it's great training. Gym is phenomenal. Drunken racquetball = the best way to spend a Wed. night.
It's hard to access your professors unless you're one of those obnoxious kids who sits at the front and asks questions just to get face time. For letters of rec it's absolutely necessary that you a) do something to put yourself apart from the other annoying pesky flies that buzz around the professor's office during office hours or b) get LORs from profs in SEMINARS - take a lot of Fiat Lux classes; not only can they help you out with putting you up to 13 credits instead of 12 on a light quarter, but they're GREAT for getting face time with profs that usually teach 200+ person classes.
Uhm. Yeah. PM me if you need anything else.
🙂
