UC Berkeley vs. UC San Diego for PRE MED?

[miniatureroute505]

Hello,

I was recently accepted into the prestigious UC Berkeley and I am immensely unsure whether to attend UC Berkeley or UC San Diego. I absolutely want to become a doctor in the future so that obviously means that I have to get accepted into medical school. Also, I am majoring in Psychology at Berkeley and Biology at San Diego.

My gut tells me to go with UCB but many people say that it will kill my GPA and lead me to difficulties getting accepted into medical school. People are also saying that there are not many opportunities as there is not a medical school close by. These same people are also saying that UCSD is extremely better for pre med students because there is not so much grade deflation and there are many more opportunities since there is a medical school on campus.

So what do you guys think I should do? Where is pre med bettter at?

[Harley Drive]

berkeley USED to be prestigious 30 years ago now the number of low quality students and its over-riding drugs problem means it's a shell of what it was and way way down from the 60s

[Alan]

I would accept UCSD if I were in your position. You have to take into account that it will be much harder to maintain a competitive GPA at Cal and that your social life will be destroyed there. You will have to study for countless hours and struggle to get competitive grades, when you can go to another school and most likely do better, and above all, have a good amount of spare time to work, socialize, etc. I don't know man, I feel as Berkeley is slowly losing it's prestige due to their previous admitted classes. This is just my opinion on this and this decision should be made entirely by you, you shouldn't be asking for others to pick for you.

[Mimi]

I wouldn't go to UCSD or UC Berkeley for pre-med because of the competitive atmosphere. UCSD is almost as competitive as UC Berkeley. Keep in mind that the grading curve could hurt your GPA. You are competing with people with the highest GPA's, the most AP courses, and the best standardized test scores.

[Maira]

I too was just admitted into cal, and I strongly believe that you should not listen to what any of these people are saying, for me making a decision from other people's opinion is only valid if they actually went to the school.. so at this point do whatever feels right. I know many people who go to ucb and they love it, they feel the total opposite of what these ppl are saying, that ucb students offer competitiveness but also support. Theres a fb page for ucb admitted students go check is out, its full of proffessors students and incoming freshies, they can answer all your doubts, the group is called uc berkeley class of 2018 official. Personally I wouldnt worry I had the gpa of 4.11 and sat score of 1550, so not too good, but I dont worry because I strongly believe that no matter where you end up at you shoild shine through, and if you dont go to berkeley it might just be too intimidating, you up for the challenge?