Worried about UC Berkeley

[Apocrypha]

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I plan on majoring in bioengineering for pre-med at UC Berkeley next year. From what I have heard, bioengineering and other engineering majors at UC Berkeley are extremely hard, due to their severe grade deflation.

Can anyone, especially those whom have faced a similar situation as me, give me any insight as to what to expect? Though I finished high school with a 3.98UW, I am currently having severe doubts about how I will perform at UC Berkeley, which obviously affects the outcomes of medical school admissions.

 

[Iapyx]

I would steer away from engineering, especially at Berkeley, unless you are truly gifted in math and physics. I know many brilliant engineering majors at top 10 engineering schools who could never get into med school with their GPA. If you are having doubts now, it might be wise to stongly consider another major. That being said, there are many great things about the field of engineering and if it is your passion, you should follow it.

 

[bucks2010]

Find another major that you are interested in, if possible. Don't risk it, especially with grade deflation. It will be much easier to sell a 3.8 to adcoms than a 3.2. Especially if you want to get into one of the very competitive CA schools.

 

[Apocrypha]

Does UCLA sound like a better place to pursue pre-med, assuming I major in bioengineering? Though UCLA's bioengineering is not as good as UC Berkeley's, the grade deflation does not seem as ridiculous there.

Also, can anyone tell me how accessible research opportunities are at both campuses? Given their crowdedness, would conducting research as a freshman be practical?

 

[Howister]

As far as my experience at Berkeley, they are very receptive to undergraduate researchers. I wouldn't advise doing research your first semester, as you should settle in first. They have a great program, URAP (Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program), that has a lot of different types of opportunities. It is competitive, but there are many different routes of going into research. You can always contact different labs on your own too. Also, I know that Med Schools love it when undergrads show an interest in research and know that some people who get Med School interviews have has the schools chose them because of their undergraduate research. And...bioengineering at Berkeley is AWESOME. There is grade deflation at Berkeley 🙁, but I assume that with any engineering program that there will be, so be careful about making it the deciding factor.

Does UCLA sound like a better place to pursue pre-med, assuming I major in bioengineering? Though UCLA's bioengineering is not as good as UC Berkeley's, the grade deflation does not seem as ridiculous there.

Also, can anyone tell me how accessible research opportunities are at both campuses? Given their crowdedness, would conducting research as a freshman be practical?

 

[Dillan]

I was both excited and nervous starting my freshman year at UC Berkeley. As a Christian, I wasn't particularly worried about my faith or my relationship with God — I was more http://www.mspy.com worried about my calculus class.

 

[Morsetlis]

Engineering is 4 years of pain.

At Cal, it's 4 years of pain competing with supergenius Asians.

 

[TriagePreMed]

Also, can anyone tell me how accessible research opportunities are at both campuses? Given their crowdedness, would conducting research as a freshman be practical?

Research as a freshman is not going to happen. There is no lab that will want a freshman. If you want to research in bio, they'll at minimum want the freshman sequence. The same is said for the other majors (chem, physics, math, etc.). If you find research during your 2nd year is doable. 3rd+4th year research is definitely very open.

I would recommend summer REU's at other colleges.

 

[zamzee]

Yes, research as a freshman will not happen at Berkeley. You need to have some classes/knowledge under your belt for that to happen. However, try doing what I did - I worked a campus job (which are relatively easy to get - $10/hr) during my freshman year for 10 hrs/week, then applied to SURP during my first summer at Berkeley (SURP is the Summer Undergraduate Research Program, analogous to URAP but for the Summer). Since fewer students stay over the summer, SURP is much easier and most of the appointments aren't just for summer but are permanent positions. Even if you don't like your summer appointment, you can quit and have a leg up over your unexperienced sophomore colleagues.

With regard to bioengineering at UC Berkeley, if you are truly a hard worker, it is doable. I know a BioE major from Cal that is attending UCSF. I know an EECS major that graduated with a 4.0 a semester early and is now working in the Valley. These people were smart, but most importantly they worked VERY hard. If you are a pre-med in general, you will be working VERY hard so there's no free lunch whatever you decide. There are definitely some large weeder courses in the Engineering department, but once you're in I don't think it's as hard.

If you have your heart set on BioE at Berkeley, I recommend hanging out by the BioE building (Stanley Hall) when you visit (assuming you are a Cali resident, this shouldn't be too difficult). Ask the students around you what they think about it, there are many BioE pre-meds. I can tell you one thing though - Berkeley is a completely different experience than any other college you'll encounter. I absolutely loved it, and I can definitely say that 98% of the people I met also absolutely loved it. The other 2% were from SoCal and thought it was too cold or were appalled at the way people dressed 😛

 

[Morsetlis]

Pre-meds don't all work VERY hard. The work is spread between classes and EC's.

Engineering majors do work VERY hard just for the classes.

 

[zamzee]

Pre-meds don't all work VERY hard. The work is spread between classes and EC's.

Engineering majors do work VERY hard just for the classes.

Maybe I should re-phrase that. If you are striving for excellence in college like I think the OP is trying to do, you will definitely be working very hard as a Berkeley pre-med, no questions about it. Just because the work consists not only of classwork but extracurricular work also doesn't mean it's any less work. I'm not making a distinction between those two categories. And yes, not all pre-meds work very hard, but then again most pre-meds don't go to Berkeley and don't strive for top 20 schools (which I am assuming the OP is trying to do). Obviously, not all engineering majors work very hard either - that's a personal choice.

 

[WRL]

While the OP has probably chosen on schools and majors by now, I would like to highlight the difficulty and competitiveness found in the bio classes at Berkeley. While I was an bioengineer at Berkeley, I found the bio classes, more populated by pre-meds than engineers, to be as tough as my engineering classes. I suspect a major such as MCB is par with bioengineering difficulty-wise.
Then again, as a personal note, I did better on the physical sciences section on the MCAT than the Bio section, so my experience may not be typical.

 

[S0CaLGuY]

Yeah engineering is hell for your GPA. My dad was a mechanical engineering major at West Virginia and got a 3.5 GPA. He could not have studied any more, it wouldn't have been possible. That's at West Virgina, imagine the workload at Cal. He was pure engineering, no pre-med.

 

[Strudel19]

Don't risk it. Medical schools aren't going to care about your school/major.

 

[californicati0n]

Yeahhh if bioengineering is really what you're interested in AND you want to go to med school...consider another school. Berkeley's full of really smart Asians. You could go there, but you'd be studying your ass off the entire time, which doesn't seem like a very good way to spend the next 4 years of your life...