UCLA vs UC Berkeley vs UC Merced

[USCTrojanzzzz]

Hi everybody,
I'm a transfer student from a Community College, and I was accepted to all of the UCs. I am having an incredibly hard time choosing between them, so I was hoping that I could get some advice. I didn't apply to private colleges, because I can't afford them.

My favorite campus was, by far Merced. I loved the isolated campus, and the small(ish) class sizes. I've spoken to professors who told me they would get me research if I were to attend. Merced is closer to home, which means I would be able to visit my parents more often. I also liked the collaborative environment at UCM.

However, my end goal is (obviously) to get into Medical School, and I want to attend the undergrad institution that will best enable me to do so. Everybody I've spoken to said I would be an idiot not to choose either Cal or UCLA. I disliked Cal's campus immensely, but could bear UCLA's (I don't like urban places, and Cal is right in the city; UCLA, however, is somewhat less crowded.) I also don't want to deal with crazy curves and lots of stress, if I can avoid it. I know every UC is rigorous, but it seems like UCLA and Cal take it to a different level.

Grade-wise, I think I would do far better at Merced than Berkeley and UCLA. In no ways am I saying Merced is going to be easy (in fact, I'm sure it'll still be very rigorous), but again, UCLA and Cal are on a different level, difficulty-wise.

Financially, I would be paying about the same for every school (~$10k a year.)

My question is, would attending Merced hurt my chances of getting into Med School? I'm honestly just trying to get into any MD (or DO) program (within the US) that accepts me. I don't care where I end up, as long as I become a doctor.

People I've spoken to have varying opinions on this; some say I should go wherever I'm happiest, and others say I should just suck it up and go to Cal.

Should I look at a middle-of-the-pack UC? I quite liked Riverside, and it is better regarded than UCM.

Thanks in advance for any advice !

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[Tenk]

The food at Berkeley is reason enough to choose it over the other two.

 

[drducky.]

After attending a highly ranked university and going thru the premed process, I would say Merced 100% between those or a state university would be even better. Medical schools dont care about the prestige of your university, only your gpa. A 3.8 at an unknown state university is better than a 3.5 at Harvard. Dont be fooled by the prestige of universities if youre just trying to make it to med school.

 

[Rachapkis]

Your fate will be determined more by your GPA, MCAT, and extracurricular activities than by what school you attend. I would matriculate to the school where you fit in the best and will have the most opportunity (Merced).

 

[UnlimitedTraction]

After attending a highly ranked university and going thru the premed process, I would say Merced 100% between those or a state university would be even better. Medical schools dont care about the prestige of your university, only your gpa. A 3.8 at an unknown state university is better than a 3.5 at Harvard. Dont be fooled by the prestige of universities if youre just trying to make it to med school.

This is straight false. HYPSM apps get treated differently. That's why these schools have 80%+ accept rates. Plus, you aren't sure you'll get a 3.8 at a lower-ranked school - it's not out of the realm of possibility that you get the same GPA at a lower ranked school and higher ranked school. Assuming no difference in cost, I'd go with prestige. Plus, the more prestigious schools have more experience getting their pre-meds to medical school, so you'll have the resources necessary to be successful.

 

[wb100]

I went to UCD and was really happy with my choice (picked it over the SD, LA, Cal). It was still rigorous and had opportunities at the medical school/hospital, research, so many internships to cherry pick from, and at the same time, I also was able to ace my classes. Even though it was not as difficult as UCB/UCLA, I still had a hard time adjusting my first two quarters, so I'm really glad I didn't go to LA or Cal where I would have been obliterated lol. I have no regrets with my decision. I would definitely go to Merced, but I would also recommend looking into Davis, SB, and SC if you hold acceptances there. PM if you want to talk more, I was in your shoes a few years ago

 

[wb100]

This is straight false. HYPSM apps get treated differently. That's why these schools have 80%+ accept rates. Plus, you aren't sure you'll get a 3.8 at a lower-ranked school - it's not out of the realm of possibility that you get the same GPA at a lower ranked school and higher ranked school. Assuming no difference in cost, I'd go with prestige. Plus, the more prestigious schools have more experience getting their pre-meds to medical school, so you'll have the resources necessary to be successful.

Honestly, I'm not sure if the prestigious schools have that much edge in getting their pre-meds into med schools. You can figure out what you need by just a quick google search on SDN. Unless there's something else that I'm missing?

 

[UnlimitedTraction]

Honestly, I'm not sure if the prestigious schools have that much edge in getting their pre-meds into med schools. You can figure out what you need by just a quick google search on SDN. Unless there's something else that I'm missing?

I speak from my own experience (and the experience of my peers from the same school), with 12 II's this cycle, having come from a HYPSM school and a GPA of 3.5c/3.4s, and seeing the nametags of fellow interviewees who also came from top schools - Princeton, Yale, Northwestern, Berkeley, Stanford, UChicago, Rice, Amherst all pop into my mind as having a multitude of representatives, as evidence for prestigious school bias. I wouldn't say the lower prestige state school interviewees were rare, but I almost never saw two or more different students from the same small schools. If this happened, it was when students did their undergrad at these T20 types. And it's not impossible to get interviews from a less prestigious school, I'm just inclined to believe that it's more in the culture of the top schools to send their students to med schools or top med schools. For smaller schools, I'm under the impression this is the exception rather than the rule.

 

[wb100]

I speak from my own experience, with 12 II's this cycle, having come from a HYPSM school and a GPA of 3.5c/3.4s, and seeing the nametags of fellow interviewees who also came from top schools - Princeton, Yale, Northwestern, Berkeley, Stanford, UChicago, Rice, Amherst all pop into my mind as having a multitude of representatives, as evidence for prestigious school bias. I wouldn't say the lower prestige state school interviewees were rare, but I almost never saw two or more different students from the same small schools. If this happened, it was when students did their undergrad at these T20 types. And it's not impossible to get interviews from a less prestigious school, I'm just inclined to believe that it's more in the culture of the top schools to send their students to med schools or top med schools. For smaller schools, I'm under the impression this is the exception rather than the rule.

It could also be that these students are already ambitious and hardworking, so they continued onto the pre-med path. You are getting a different quality of students at these schools compared to a small liberal arts school so I can see why there would be a larger pool of students from prestigious schools. Still, if you go to a no-name school and get a high GPA, MCAT, all the EC's squared away, you're going to be a competitive applicant.

 

[efle]

To bring a little data to the table:

www.aamc.org/download/493728/data/factstablea2.pdf

Berkeley and UCLA have some of the highest rates of medical applicants, producing 660 and 1000 people per year respectively. It's going to be a lot easier to find premed resources, support from the school/premed office, and other premeds to commiserate with. If you've already knocked out your prereqs, I wouldn't worry too much about grade deflation because you'll be taking the much less intense upper level stuff.

Merced meanwhile, didn't even make the list. You'd be one of a very tiny group of premeds in the entire school.

 

[sophop]

My experience last cycle was very similar to @truewolvgocrim1 (in terms of "prestige" but not school size). Don't know why, but it was all the usual suspects at my interviews, too (all of the above colleges plus Brown, Carlton, Pomona, SWAT, and Williams) - although the only place I can remember running into a Cal or UCLA student was at my one and only CA interview (being a CA resident sucks, BTW). Only anecdotal, but something I think the high-range places have in common is really good pre-health advising from advisors who actually have a clue about the reality of med school admissions. I do know someone who was successful out of UCD, who was extremely complementary about their advising, which she said is run by someone whose last job was admissions director for a med school in NYC. I can't speak to the other UC's, but as @efle noted, Merced apparently had only a few dozen med school applicants last year, and another post noted (sorry I don't have time to look) that while CAL's and UCLA's success rates were good for publics, UCD, and UCSB were almost as good. As @wb100 others have said countless times here, what really counts is finding a place where you feel comfy enough to do your best, and to be able find a good "Plan B" if the premed thing doesn't work out.

 

[efle]

Honestly, I'm not sure if the prestigious schools have that much edge in getting their pre-meds into med schools. You can figure out what you need by just a quick google search on SDN. Unless there's something else that I'm missing?

I speak from my own experience, with 12 II's this cycle, having come from a HYPSM school and a GPA of 3.5c/3.4s, and seeing the nametags of fellow interviewees who also came from top schools - Princeton, Yale, Northwestern, Berkeley, Stanford, UChicago, Rice, Amherst all pop into my mind as having a multitude of representatives, as evidence for prestigious school bias. I wouldn't say the lower prestige state school interviewees were rare, but I almost never saw two or more different students from the same small schools. If this happened, it was when students did their undergrad at these T20 types. And it's not impossible to get interviews from a less prestigious school, I'm just inclined to believe that it's more in the culture of the top schools to send their students to med schools or top med schools. For smaller schools, I'm under the impression this is the exception rather than the rule.

This is an age old SDN debate with lots of interesting threads on the topic if you want to search. Consensus from everything I've seen over the years is that prestige matters especially to the elite private medical schools, but GPA matters even more. The standard interviewee at top programs has both. My experience also was like they described, at the top schools you were an outlier if you came from a random state campus.

You can check the link in my signature about What Adcoms Want for some objective confirmation. Upper left box shows that selectivity of undergrad is a "high importance factor" to private medical schools, but not as high as GPA/MCAT

 

[LukaDoncicLuk]

My experience last cycle was very similar to @truewolvgocrim1. Don't know why, but it was all the usual suspects at my interviews, too (all of the above colleges plus Brown, Carlton, Pomona, SWAT, and Williams) - although the only place I can remember running into a Cal or UCLA student was at my one and only CA interview (being a CA resident sucks, BTW). Only anecdotal, but something I think all these places have in common is really good pre-health advising from advisors who actually have a clue about the reality of med school admissions. I do know someone who was successful out of UCD, who was extremely complementary about their advising, which she said is run by someone whose last job was admissions director for a med school in NYC. I can't speak to the other UC's, but as @efle noted, Merced apparently had only a few dozen med school applicants last year, and another post noted (sorry I don't have time to look) that while CAL's and UCLA's success rates were good for publics, UCD, and UCSB were almost as good. As @wb100 others have said countless times here, what really counts is finding a place where you feel comfy enough to do your best, and to be able find a good "Plan B" if the premed thing doesn't work out.

There were 4 UCLA students in one of my interview cohorts for a top 10 school. UCLA is very well regarded (as is CAL).

Its hard to separate the caliber of student from the quality of school. For the one interview I attended at a top medical school, nearly everyone in my interview group were from top tier undergrads ( Yale, Northwestern, JHU, UCLA, etc). Do these schools have name recognition when it comes to med school applications? Quite possibly. Do these schools only matriculate students with >98th percentile SAT scores? Yes, absolutely. Do these students score higher on the MCAT? Definitely.

I will say that you are making a huge mistake if you choose Merced over UCLA and Berkeley. Merced is about 10 levels removed from how well regarded CAL and LA are not to mention the surrounding areas. There is more to the college experience than being a premed. I also believe attending a rigorous undergrad that has active research is a huge boon to you in terms of ECs and MCAT preparation.

 

[puahate]

I'd go UCLA

 

[AsepticTechnique]

@USCTrojanzzzz Why not go to USC?

 

[LukaDoncicLuk]

@USCTrojanzzzz Why not go to USC?

$C $UCK$

 

[USCTrojanzzzz]

Thanks for all of your responses so far, everybody! I'm getting the idea that maybe I shouldn't choose Merced, but a better-respected school. I'm still not completely convinced I want to attend Cal or UCLA, but I'm starting to think about other UCs, like UCD or UCSD. If anybody has any more opinions, please feel free to chime in.

@AsepticTechnique I can't go to USC for financial reasons. USC is still a dream school of mine, but if given the option, I'd prefer to save the money I'd spend on tuition for medical school (assuming I get in.) If not for the financial barrier, I'd definitely still be considering USC though

 

[Toutie]

The food at Berkeley is reason enough to choose it over the other two.

Are you serious? You do know that UCLA wins the award every year for the best dorm food in the country.

 

[Toutie]

Just based on your name alone, I would highly suggest you not go to UCLA...and probably not Cal either. Honestly you can get to med school from Merced just fine. You just have to put in the work and get the GPA and the MCAT and ECs...same as you would at UCLA or Cal. But if you are able to really shine at Merced, you will be good. Might be a bit easier being a big fish in a small pond at Merced than being a small fish in a big pond at UCLA and Cal.

 

[djsbaseball2014]

@USCTrojanzzzz Consider UCR, they give priority to their undegrads in med school admissions and have the EAP program that does not require an MCAT. \
Source: Admitted to UCR School of Med this cycle and UCR undergrad

PM me if you have any questions!

 

[jessicajonesharvard]

Please don't go to UCR. I interviewed at many places (Top 20-50 med schools)and I haven't seen a single UCR kid. Also, Riverside is the worst area to spend 4 years in.. lmao
Go to UCLA

 

[djsbaseball2014]

Please don't go to UCR. I interviewed at many places (Top 20-50 med schools)and I haven't seen a single UCR kid. Also, Riverside is the worst area to spend 4 years in.. lmao
Go to UCLA

LMAO considering I had a friend get into USC this cycle from UCR and interview at SD/SF/NW, etc. I also got 10 II (including Hofstra, UCI) this cycle as a UCR student,... granted they arent Top 20 but if you have the stats/numbers to go T20 UG name and prestige is irrelevant. OP UCR will not keep you out of top medical schools, YOU will keep yourself out of top medical schools. Just thinking logically

 

[differentiating]

I will say, in my experience, I see a lot more UC Berkeley/UCLA undergrads as interviewees to my school (UCSF) than UCD/UCSD (have some, but not as common), or UCR/UCM (not sure I've seen any). That being said - UC Berkeley & UCLA are both known as being very competitive for pre-med, so if you survive/are towards the top there, it makes sense that you'll do well in med school admissions.

At the end of the day, you should go where fits you best. But Merced wouldn't set you up better for med school relative to the others.

 

[djsbaseball2014]

I will say, in my experience, I see a lot more UC Berkeley/UCLA undergrads as interviewees to my school (UCSF) than UCD/UCSD (have some, but not as common), or UCR/UCM (not sure I've seen any). That being said - UC Berkeley & UCLA are both known as being very competitive for pre-med, so if you survive/are towards the top there, it makes sense that you'll do well in med school admissions.

At the end of the day, you should go where fits you best. But Merced wouldn't set you up better for med school relative to the others.

I also only advise UCR in that they have their Thomas Haider program which tbh is better odds of acceptance at UCRSOM than any other medical school in the country.

 

[differentiating]

I also only advise UCR in that they have their Thomas Haider program which tbh is better odds of acceptance at UCRSOM than any other medical school in the country.

I suppose OP can consider this in a semi-similar manner to a BS/MD program, then - if they wouldn't want to attend UCRSOM, it's not worth it, but if they do it may be worth it to consider attending UCR.

It's also worth noting that that program's website specifies that successful students are "mission-fit", so if OP isn't from the IE it's unclear what their likelihood of getting accepted to that program is.

 

[theKingLT]

I will put my $.02 into this thread like I try to with all of them. It really depends on the individual. If you want to go to a T20 and/or get a big med school scholarship, but are not URM nor have anything particularly unique about you, then high mcat, high gpa, good EC's, and some research may not be enough to even get T20 interviews if graduating from Merced. I graduated from a run of the mill state school and know multiple people who struggled with exactly that. However if you have something unique you could very well end up with 10 T20 interviews and multiple acceptances. At the end of the day there are plenty of high stats to go around but only so many unique athletes/novelists/peace corps volunteers. When top schools start picking from the pile of "strong but bland" (not to be disrespectful), they will take the UCLA grad over the Merced grad.

 

[Tenk]

Are you serious? You do know that UCLA wins the award every year for the best dorm food in the country.

Wasn’t talking about dorm food.

 

[Toutie]

Wasn’t talking about dorm food.

But what kid is going to be able to afford good off campus food?

 

[LukaDoncicLuk]

Wasn’t talking about dorm food.

The food in Westwood is pretty bad but the surrounding areas are excellent. Not much comparable to some of the best places in Norcal (TFL, Chez Panisse etc..) but still good nonetheless.

Decent amount of food in in Sawtelle and Ktown is just a 30- 45 min bus ride away (depending on traffic). Beverly Hills obviously has some excellent restaurants (not that I really had the chance to try any but I know they are out there).

 

[Tenk]

But what kid is going to be able to afford good off campus food?

 

[gyngyn]

Merced

 

[CalNY125]

I am a current senior at Berkeley and could talk a lot about my experience as a premed here. But in short, I think Berkeley specifically does not provide the support it should to students interested in medicine. Classes are very competitive and can be difficult to even get in to (because of class sizes and student size). Professors and TAs are often accomplished in their fields, but are not great teachers. Advisors that I have seen have essentially been no help to me whatsoever. I think Berkeley in general uses its name to cover up the fact that they don't actually help their students in a lot of ways.

 

[efle]

I am a current senior at Berkeley and could talk a lot about my experience as a premed here. But in short, I think Berkeley specifically does not provide the support it should to students interested in medicine. Classes are very competitive and can be difficult to even get in to (because of class sizes and student size). Professors and TAs are often accomplished in their fields, but are not great teachers. Advisors that I have seen have essentially been no help to me whatsoever. I think Berkeley in general uses its name to cover up the fact that they don't actually help their students in a lot of ways.

I think this is true of most of the UC system unfortunately. For example down at UCSD where one of my siblings was considering going, it's also so overcrowded people can barely get the classes they need and often have to take extra years. Grading is harsh and the professors are more interested in their research than teaching, which mostly gets turfed to the graduate student TAs.

And premed advising is terrible as a general rule at almost any college. It's very rare that a premed advisor can be as helpful as online communities like SDN.

But it seems even more risky to me to go to a UC with no real track record of graduating medical applicants at all, let alone helping them do it more easily. @gyngyn seems to disagree though?

 

[gyngyn]

But it seems even more risky to me to go to a UC with no real track record of graduating medical applicants at all, let alone helping them do it more easily. @gyngyn seems to disagree though?

For the right candidate, any of the UC's can be a perfect choice.
UCLA and Cal are amazing institutions whose graduate programs are deservedly renowned.
The attention they pay to pre-meds is renowned by its absence.
The fact that they have so many successful candidates is a testimonial to the quality of their matriculants, but a sound applicant from any of the UC's is going to have their pick of medical schools.

 

[djsbaseball2014]

Please don't go to UCR. I interviewed at many places (Top 20-50 med schools)and I haven't seen a single UCR kid. Also, Riverside is the worst area to spend 4 years in.. lmao
Go to UCLA

Also its posts like these that make incoming freshman insecure about their decision to go to UCR and its a shame. YOU make your app competitive, the institution does not! If this were the case then any Cal State student would be 100% screwed at all medical schools. Plz stop spreading misinformed information when you are N=1!

 

[Walter Raleigh]

Hmm. Goal is medical school, and you've spoken to not one but several professors that said they'd get you research at Merced? And you like it best? I'd go Merced if you're dead set on medicine; 3.8 from Merced beats 3.6 from UCLA easily. You could always do Americorps or something after you graduate if you wanted to stand out EC-wise. A 3.8/520 with 1,000 hours of volunteering and a second-author publication is easily competitive for top-20 schools, if that's where you're gunning.