your classmates in med school

[Schoolboy]

Do you have any classmates from UCLA undergrad and what is the general impression of those classmates? Do they usually do well, average, or below average based on your general impressions? I'm trying to get an idea of how adcoms view UCLA applicants around the country. Thanks.

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[ana]

I believe UCLA, UCB, and UCSD are well thought of. UCs are known to be very competitive with no to minimal grade inflation; thus an A from a UC is very well earned.

I interviewed at east coast schools and my interviewers made it a point to tell me that their schools accepted many UC applicant who were happy at their schools, did well academically, and often returned to Calif for residency.

You can call the premed counselling office for their stats (% applicants accepted to med school per year, which schools, etc.). I believe they still keep track of these things.

 

[Schoolboy]

thanks for the information. i would agree that ucsd is in the same league as ucla. they have been working very hard building up the biology department there. it's a relief to me that the grade inflation issue is known even in the east coast. i was worried that schools assummed that most schools inflated grades.

i think the ucla premed advising office has to be one of the unapproachable and least caring ones in the country. even if it's not, man i sure do have a lot of gripes with them. but i digress.

 

[coop]

I'm not in med school yet, but I'm from LA (hopkins undergrad now). And I've worked in a lab in MBI/Boyer Hall the past three summers, and seen two undergrads graduate from the lab and both are at harvard (one harvard med, the other biology masters/PhD program). Also in my lab down at Hopkins medschool there is one MD/PhD student there from UCLA undergrad. I know this isn't the greatest sample size in the world, so keep that in mind, but UCLA is well respected.

When I was deciding between UCLA and hopkins for undergrad I got a lot of advice from faculty members and others I know in the UCLA community. They said that UCLA will give you as good an education as anywhere else, it just will not be handed to you so easily. You have to work to find and get into the right classes, and you could very easily graduate without such a stellar degree. At a place as large and diverse as UCLA your class choice will be looked at closely beacuse that is what lets people know whether you used UCLA to get a degree which rivals any in the country or if you took 4 years of Turkish for basketball players.

Just cause I feel like I'm leaving my story incomplete, I was convinced I could get as good an education at ucla as I could at hopkins. I decided it was time to get away from home and experience another part of the country. I love it here, but still hope to come back and be a bruin for medschool.

 

[Azygous]

1/3 of my med school is from Cali. Several kids from UCLA. They are smart... but everyone in med school is smart. All I know is that it's hard to get into California med schools...so all you guys come over here and join us in this horrible weather =)

 

[gp]

Once you're in med school, you probably won't remember or care which classmate came from what undergrad - so, yours is a hard question to answer.