which Uc school to transfer to for premed from Community College?

BU Medical Sciences
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Hopefulpremed123

Hopefulpremed123

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Hey everyone, so i was wondering as a premed out of these schools which one would be the best for me transfer to from a community college? I will have a junior sanding at the school, with theonly premed preq being bio chem and rest all are going to be upper divisions.

-UCLA
-UC Davis
-USC
I want to pick the school that is not cutthroat in terms of difficult getting A's along with the difficulty of classes.
- i hear uc davis is better than UCLA in this department, but not too sure!

Which school would you guys think is the best place for a premed student?
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Last edited:
Hopefulpremed123 said:
Hey everyone, so i was wondering as a premed out of these schools which one would be the best for me transfer to from a community college? I will have a junior sanding at the school, with theonly premed preq being bio chem and rest all are going to be upper divisions.

-UCLA
-UC Davis
-USC
I want to pick the school that is not cutthroat in terms of difficult getting A's along with the difficulty of classes.
- i hear uc davis is better than UCLA in this department, but not too sure!

Which school would you guys think is the best place for a premed student?
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all of these schools are pretty big on the premed aspect. would say usc and uc davis less so so you could go there but you may lose strong opportunities for research with high impact investigators in medicine who reside at ucla.
 
Any of the UCs would be good. Choose the one where you feel like you can do well.
 
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AlteredScale said:
all of these schools are pretty big on the premed aspect. would say usc and uc davis less so so you could go there but you may lose strong opportunities for research with high impact investigators in medicine who reside at ucla.
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Are you referring to University of California Santa Cruz or University of Southern California? I was under the assumption that USC is a very good school in terms of "premed" and especially research??
 
drsaurus said:
Are you referring to University of California Santa Cruz or University of Southern California? I was under the assumption that USC is a very good school in terms of "premed" and especially research??
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I've never heard USC not refer to Southern Cal haha
 
@Pastamahn yes, that's why I was asking pasta.. because I've never heard of USC not having strong research positions.
 
UCLA FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!! GO BRUINS!

But seriously, choose where you think you'll be happiest for the next 2+ years. Think big city vs small town. Nice area (ucla) vs not so nice area (usc). I do give USC a BIG plus for small class sizes, but you certainly pay for it... USC's hospital is a short drive from campus, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Davis's hospital is in Sacramento, so it would also include a drive to get to- you do not have to do this at ucla. Each school will have very smart and motivated students, but if you work hard, you'll succeed wherever you go.

Good luck!
 
drsaurus said:
Are you referring to University of California Santa Cruz or University of Southern California? I was under the assumption that USC is a very good school in terms of "premed" and especially research??
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They are all good for research opps for sure. UCLA is a step above however. It really wont do much either way. any of the schools will give you a good app for med school. Not much say in terms of how fierce competition is at UC Davis and USC. I only have n=1 experience in terms of how rigorous it is to be a premed at ucla.
 
AlteredScale said:
They are all good for research opps for sure. UCLA is a step above however. It really wont do much either way. any of the schools will give you a good app for med school. Not much say in terms of how fierce competition is at UC Davis and USC. I only have n=1 experience in terms of how rigorous it is to be a premed at ucla.
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I see. I'm also from a CC looking at universities to transfer to so that's why I'm interested. For UCLA, whether or not you were a transfer student, how easy do you think it would be for a transfer student to find research and (hopefully) have two years of research when applying. I'll be entering as a junior, and I know many other students would have been researching since freshman year, so would I be at a disadvantage coming in as a junior transfer looking for research and/or other opportunities?
 
drsaurus said:
I see. I'm also from a CC looking at universities to transfer to so that's why I'm interested. For UCLA, whether or not you were a transfer student, how easy do you think it would be for a transfer student to find research and (hopefully) have two years of research when applying. I'll be entering as a junior, and I know many other students would have been researching since freshman year, so would I be at a disadvantage coming in as a junior transfer looking for research and/or other opportunities?
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You'll find it. Whip up a nice resume and shotgun it to some PIs and you'll get a catch sooner or later. I was a transfer student from CC to UCSD and did an honors research thesis with the GI department.
 
AlteredScale said:
You'll find it. Whip up a nice resume and shotgun it to some PIs and you'll get a catch sooner or later. I was a transfer student from CC to UCSD and did an honors research thesis with the GI department.
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How rigorous is it at ucla? How are the upper division courses? Also, are the classes graded on a really hard curve?

Thanks 🙂
 
I went to UCLA and had a fantastic time there. The premed students there, however, are quite competitive. It took a tremendous amount of work to get As in the more difficult premed classes. I think the caliber of student that goes to USC or UCDavis is generally going to be weaker so it would be easier to get As there, but ultimately wherever you go you will have to put in a lot of hard work to get As.
 
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Hopefulpremed123 said:
So I ended up choosing UCLA over UCB, you guys think this was a right call?


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If that's the choice you made then why ask for approval now? Just do your best, and if you do well you'll be fine.

And...from one Bruin to another...Go Bruins!
 
(I was a transfer too) Graduated UCLA, and I would have 1000000000% rather have gone to UC Davis and or another small UC. Not only does our school pump out the largest amounts of pre-meds (you can check aamc for the stats), you're competing against the brainiest kids here. Pre-meds here are cut-throat AF, there's a reason why people know about the back-stabbery that goes around in our chemistry labs. Being a pre-med amongst the sea of pre-meds puts you at a disadvantage of getting a LOR from your professors, so..do your best with that. I couldn't secure one, had to go back to my professors at CC for that. Also, everyone and their mother does research here. Oh, and all your classes are huge, especially the basic science ones. I drowned in the sea of pre-meds here when I transferred. Definitely not fun. Start studying the first day of class, I'm telling you (and I had a 4.0 at CC).

If you wanted to pick a school that wasn't cutthroat and gave out easy A's, you definitely picked the wrong school.


Good luck!
 
CloverBale said:
(I was a transfer too) Graduated UCLA, and I would have 1000000000% rather have gone to UC Davis and or another small UC. Not only does our school pump out the largest amounts of pre-meds (you can check aamc for the stats), you're competing against the brainiest kids here. Pre-meds here are cut-throat AF, there's a reason why people know about the back-stabbery that goes around in our chemistry labs. Being a pre-med amongst the sea of pre-meds puts you at a disadvantage of getting a LOR from your professors, so..do your best with that. I couldn't secure one, had to go back to my professors at CC for that. Also, everyone and their mother does research here. Oh, and all your classes are huge, especially the basic science ones. I drowned in the sea of pre-meds here when I transferred. Definitely not fun. Start studying the first day of class, I'm telling you (and I had a 4.0 at CC).

If you wanted to pick a school that wasn't cutthroat and gave out easy A's, you definitely picked the wrong school.


Good luck!
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It's not all engative

You also want to go to a school where you'll be challenged, taught how to effectively problem solve, prepared sufficiently for the MCAT, and in general not have an inflated sense of your abilities or a sense of your self-worth as defined by your academics
 
CloverBale said:
(I was a transfer too) Graduated UCLA, and I would have 1000000000% rather have gone to UC Davis and or another small UC. Not only does our school pump out the largest amounts of pre-meds (you can check aamc for the stats), you're competing against the brainiest kids here. Pre-meds here are cut-throat AF, there's a reason why people know about the back-stabbery that goes around in our chemistry labs. Being a pre-med amongst the sea of pre-meds puts you at a disadvantage of getting a LOR from your professors, so..do your best with that. I couldn't secure one, had to go back to my professors at CC for that. Also, everyone and their mother does research here. Oh, and all your classes are huge, especially the basic science ones. I drowned in the sea of pre-meds here when I transferred. Definitely not fun. Start studying the first day of class, I'm telling you (and I had a 4.0 at CC).

If you wanted to pick a school that wasn't cutthroat and gave out easy A's, you definitely picked the wrong school.


Good luck!
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I finished all my lower div courses including ochem and physics if that helps. I am also coming in as a gen bio major but am debating wether to switch to psychobio or stay as gen bio. Any advice?


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Hopefulpremed123 said:
I finished all my lower div courses including ochem and physics if that helps. I am also coming in as a gen bio major but am debating wether to switch to psychobio or stay as gen bio. Any advice?


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UCLA allows transfers to switch from their major like 5% of the time. I have seen it happen, but it happens even less if the major is impacted.

I always tell students two things about their major. Major is something you're interested in, and also, just pick a major, earn your degree and get out!! Haha.
 
OchemOficionado said:
UCLA allows transfers to switch from their major like 5% of the time. I have seen it happen, but it happens even less if the major is impacted.

I always tell students two things about their major. Major is something you're interested in, and also, just pick a major, earn your degree and get out!! Haha.
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I'm a transfer man so for me it's different, I can switch within the life sciences. Did you go to ucla too btw?


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Hopefulpremed123 said:
I finished all my lower div courses including ochem and physics if that helps. I am also coming in as a gen bio major but am debating wether to switch to psychobio or stay as gen bio. Any advice?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Click to expand...
Oh good! I'm glad you got those out of the way, it'll help. Also, while you still can, get LORs from your CC professors and keep them in interfolio, just in case you can't get any at UCLA (it might happen).

Also, I'm pretty sure you can transfer to any major you want as long as you have the pre-reqs for it (check assist) and as long as it's not impacted. I was the only transfer student accepted as a Human Biology & Society major but realized quickly that the classes were unnecessarily difficult, so I switched to a humanities major. Best decision I ever made.

From what I hear psychobio is the lazy pre-med major, but maybe a better pick than general biology. However I'm not sure if psychobio is impacted, you might want to check in on that. Stay away from any of the chem majors.

Take easy classes your first quarter at UCLA. You need to learn how this school works before jumping into anything difficult.

LMK if you need any more advice, I'm happy to help. There were many things I didn't like about UCLA, but many more that I did.

You'll enjoy the school (eventually), but it's going to be a ton of work!
 
CloverBale said:
(I was a transfer too) Graduated UCLA, and I would have 1000000000% rather have gone to UC Davis and or another small UC. Not only does our school pump out the largest amounts of pre-meds (you can check aamc for the stats), you're competing against the brainiest kids here. Pre-meds here are cut-throat AF, there's a reason why people know about the back-stabbery that goes around in our chemistry labs. Being a pre-med amongst the sea of pre-meds puts you at a disadvantage of getting a LOR from your professors, so..do your best with that. I couldn't secure one, had to go back to my professors at CC for that. Also, everyone and their mother does research here. Oh, and all your classes are huge, especially the basic science ones. I drowned in the sea of pre-meds here when I transferred. Definitely not fun. Start studying the first day of class, I'm telling you (and I had a 4.0 at CC).

If you wanted to pick a school that wasn't cutthroat and gave out easy A's, you definitely picked the wrong school.


Good luck!
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As a counter, do you have first hand experience with other schools like UC Davis and "small UC"s? Do you know for certain these schools are easier academically speaking?

In my opinion, a lot of the difficulty of classes here are exaggerated. Granted I do speak as someone from an academically challenging background, but I sincerely believe that you cannot know how difficult something will be until you try it yourself. And even if you are someone who does end up finding UCLA difficult, the increased rigor will prepare you for coursework in Medical School and beyond. If you can't handle undergrad, how will you keep up later? And finally, there are a lot of unique opportunities here through UCLA Health and in terms of research that you would not be able to find at other schools.
 
Skarl said:
As a counter, do you have first hand experience with other schools like UC Davis and "small UC"s? Do you know for certain these schools are easier academically speaking?

In my opinion, a lot of the difficulty of classes here are exaggerated. Granted I do speak as someone from an academically challenging background, but I sincerely believe that you cannot know how difficult something will be until you try it yourself. And even if you are someone who does end up finding UCLA difficult, the increased rigor will prepare you for coursework in Medical School and beyond. If you can't handle undergrad, how will you keep up later? And finally, there are a lot of unique opportunities here through UCLA Health and in terms of research that you would not be able to find at other schools.
Click to expand...

I never said the smaller UCs are easier, I'm just pointing out that UCLA tends to be more difficult due to the sheer number of premeds who go there. (huge classroom sizes, too many students at office hours, competitive-ness of the pre-meds here,e.t.c.. I could go on) I would have rather have gone to a school that was equally as difficult without having to deal with such an insane amount of students pursuing medicine. I think it brought down the quality of the education I received. Sure, there's a reason why UCLA is the pre-med mecca, but I think there's definitely a point where it just brings on diminishing returns with so many students here..I'm sure pre-meds at U of Michigan have the same issues.

Don't get me wrong, UCLA is a great school, but it's a large school. I think my experience there would have been much more pleasant and rewarding if there weren't so many students here..so I'm just saying, if I had the opportunity, I would have rather gone to a smaller but equally as difficult school and not have to deal with standing in line behind 12 other students during office hours.


But hey you might like that there's tons of students here! I didn't.
 
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