<p>Hi Guys! I am wondering if it is a good idea to study away for my spring semester jr. year (in a interdisciplinary marine science program. it’s academically demanding and builds character but it has nothing to do with hard sciences or medicine) with my current condition? I go to a competitive liberal arts college and I just finished off my sophomore year with a 3.7 overall and a 3.5 science gpa. However, this number was mainly contributed by my near-perfect first year. I earned straight B’s in orgo and B+'s in bio and math during my sophomore year. Those grades pulled down my science and overall gpa by alot. My main concern here is, I really want to attend med school right after college (Preferably the UC’s). However, my grades show a downward trend and a possible inadequacy in handling higher level course work. Honestly speaking, I didn’t give my best efforts in academics during my sophomore due to a few private reasons. However, I expect to perform much better in my junior year and my senior year, especially in the sciences. I will be taking challenging classes in the fall, including 2 sciences, 1 ind. research in chem, and 1 math. Now the question is, should I jeopardize a possible good semester by being off coast? Will it affect me negatively if I plan to attend a UC med school right after college? I already paid the program $4000 deposit and my withdrawal may result in the confiscation of my deposit. Your response will be very valuable! Thank you so much.</p>
<p>As long as you finish your prerequisites in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Organic Chemistry, English and, apparently now Calculus, medical schools do not really care what you study as an undergraduate as long as you do well in your courses. Before getting my MD at what is now Drexel University School of Medicine I obtained a BS in Astronomy, a hard science but unrelated to medicine, from the University of Maryland College Park. I can assure you that there is no hard science such as Quantum Physics used in Medicine, at least not by Physicians. When I applied to medical schools I do not think there were any that required Calculus or even College Algebra. In medical school, your rotations on the floors and in residency you will frequently use Math but it is never anything beyond high school Algebra.</p>
<p>Organic Chemistry is really hard, I got a C in it and was just fortunate that I had already been accepted by MCP Hahnemann, now Drexel, before I took it. I think a lot of people struggle with that course so I do not think a B in it is going to hurt you that badly. On the other hand, getting anything less than an A in Biology is something that will not help you. </p>
<p>Admission to UC medical schools is very competitive since there are not that many seats available each year for a state of this size. I am pretty sure that just in the city of Philadelphia (Drexel, UPenn, Thomas Jefferson and Temple) there are more allopathic medical students than in all of the UCs plus Stanford combined.</p>
<p>To have any chance of getting into a UC medical school you are going to have to maintain your overall GPA at no lower than 3.7 and get your science GPA up into that range to. You will also need to do very well on the MCAT. When I took the MCAT in 1995 and obtained a 31 (V10, BS10, PS11) that was considered pretty good but it is really about the minimum you can get now and still have a decent chance of being accepted at any medical school. For the UCs you will need a 33-34, with no individual subject score lower than 10, to be competitive and with the MCAT after you get to 30 points each additional point is extremely hard to get. There is a big difference between getting a 30 and a 33.</p>
<p>If you are a URM you can get into private medical schools in the East and Midwest with somewhat lower scores than other accepted applicants but URM status will not help you in post prop 209 California. If you are East Asian you will probably need to get somewhat higher scores than those I mentioned above.</p>