UCSD (OOS) or UNLV (IS)

[FutureVegasDoc]

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I live in Las Vegas and I'm planning on going to med school. I was just accepted as a transfer to UCSD. My fallback plan has always been UNLV. Now that I've been accepted to UCSD I have to decide whether the superior credentials of UCSD are worth the much higher cost. I will not receive any assistance from family, and will have to figure out a way to pay for it completely on my own (i.e. private as well as federal loans). What I need to know is whether the huge additional cost is justified in order to receive my BA from UCSD instead of UNLV and how a degree from UNLV would affect my chances of getting into a decent med school.

 

[lpmarcus010]

I went to UCSD for undergrad as an OOS student, and I can say that I was super well prepared for medical school, more so than classmates that went to schools some might consider more prestigious. UCSD is all about biomedical science, and you get the feeling of constantly being around crazy smart kids and professors on the verge of some great discovery. I had opportunities to do research and clinical work that I would not have had elsewhere. I did cancer research with a famous cell biologist, and I had three interviewers say "Whoa you did research with Dr. X, that is very impressive". These are the upsides to UCSD if you take advantage of them. However, at UCSD, you will most likely be one amongst many incredibly capable pre-MD or pre-PhD students, and this can sometimes be overwhelming. Also, unless you take advantage of the lab/clinical research opportunities at UCSD, where you go to undergrad has absolutely no bearing on med school admission. In this case, the cheapest place where you can attain the highest grades is your best choice.

 

[FutureVegasDoc]

Thank you so much for your insight. Did you find it difficult to gain access to research and clinical work at UCSD? While I'm planning on med school, and would love to take advantage of research and clinical opportunities, I'm majoring in psych (while, of course, taking a multitude of science courses) and I'm afraid that being in a non-science program may limit my access to research opportunities.

 

[katarina90]

So I went to UNLV for biology and am now a med student. UNLV has a good pre-med advisor, pretty decent bio program, and a lot of opps for psych research. I did neuroscience research at UNLV where I gave EEGs through the psychology dept.

UCSD is a well-ranked, good research institution and has the advantage of its own medical school.

I think what it comes down to for you is debt: do you want to already be in debt before you go to med school? It is a serious question as medical school debt is in the 100-200k range for most of us. I did not have any debt from undergrad thanks to Millenium scholarship, my mom, and a part-time job.

 

[HH Holmes]

Undergrad has NO effect on where you go to medical school... Adcoms don't care where you went to college, but rather what you did while you were there. Go to the cheapest place you can, because when you're entering medical school and you're already in six figures worth of debt, it only gets worse.

 

[Barcu]

I live in Las Vegas and I'm planning on going to med school. I was just accepted as a transfer to UCSD. My fallback plan has always been UNLV. Now that I've been accepted to UCSD I have to decide whether the superior credentials of UCSD are worth the much higher cost. .

Nope. Save money.

 

[John Durian]

Beach 👍 > Desert 👎