The medical school in question here will determine whether this student lives in the area they give preference to.
But back to the OPs questions.
If this poster has financial constraints but wants a UC bachelors diploma, the easiest way to do that is via a community college. And in some of these posts, the OP is looking for easy. And as an aside, there is no such thing as easy in medical school.
I think the OP meant “easy” semesters in that they would take fewer units thanks to having some gen eds covered, not easy as in what’s the easiest class to take - knowing how to balance a schedule is an important skill too, so I don’t think it’s a problem.
Are there numbers showing its much better to attend a UC than a CSU if one wants to get into med school?
I would imagine attending a smaller college or being part of a specific cohort/program (Honors, under different names) would matter most.
Are the financial constraints linked to merit or need based aid?
The college name you attend has little impact on medical school admissions (except as noted above where residents of certain areas are given preference).
Fact is…this student can take the required courses for medical school applicants at just about any four year college in this country.
But medical school applications are 5 years premature for this student who needs to find an undergrad that is affordable, where they think they will be happy to be for all four years.
Yes, there are. UCs are more successful than CSUs in sending students to med school. This could be due to a number of factors, including less support for pre med students at CSUs, less research funding, students at CSUs tend to be more focused on job -preparation type majors than purely academic majors.
The UCs are all R-1 institutions; none of the CSUs are. This mean finding research opportunities will be easier at the UC campuses. The UCs have a widely known reputation for academic excellence; the CSUs are less well known outside of California.
For example, a recent survey of UCB premeds showed that 50% of those with a 3.6 GPA and 510 MCAT were accepted to med school in that last 3 years. This is higher than the national average of of 40%.
UCLA had about 53% of its premeds admitted to med school in 2022 (last year data is available)
UCSD has a ~40% acceptance rate in med school admissions, with 4% of its pre med undergrads being accepted into UCSD SOM.
UCD had 42.1% of premed applicants accepted in 2024 application cycle.
UC-Riverside, otoh, has a much higher proportion of pre meds than other UC campuses and only about 35% of UCR premeds are successful in gaining a med school acceptance.
UCSC does not track its pre meds so there’s no data for that campus.
SDSU has had a med school acceptance rate in the 31-40% range in recent years.
CSU-Fullerton had about 33% acceptance rate into med school in 2018 (last year data is available)
CSU-East Bay’s data is unclear since this campus hosts a GPA-enhancing post-bacc program and its pre-med advising does not separate out whether a med school applicant is a post bacc or direct from undergrad applicant. The premed office claims a 40% success rate (which is right at the average nationally)
So there is a slight advantage in attending a UC campus over a CSU, though it depends on the specific campus
This was interesting to me. My cousin’s kid graduated med school at Buffalo and got matched to UC Davis health this year. Buffalo publishes where its med school graduates match (do all med schools do this? I’ve never looked into this before), and you are right, there is a generous spread of matches into a variety of ivies as well as Mayo and well-known (if you have a sick parent in NYC anyway like I did) hospitals like NY Presbyterian. As an outsider I have no idea what tier Buffalo is in (although it’s not one that makes someone immediately think “top?) , but it clearly has some very good outcomes.
While I agree that first thing to do is finding OP an achievable, affordable undergrad school, I hope they will properly take into consideration the advice you have provided here on how to actually move forward.
Thank you.
For OP, I’ll add that those numbers aren’t the percentage of students who got into med schools from those who started college thinking they’d be premed - it’s the percentage of students who started as premed, took all the courses and didn’t get weeded out, joined a research lab, volunteered, took the MCAT, and completed the application (a fraction of the initial number of would-be premeds).
That’s true in every state and for every college.
That’s why finding the colleges that will be the ideal combination of affordable and supportive is a challenge. You can’t be among the rare 1% students but you should be in the top 25% for sure. You should choose a major that helps you pivot to a plan B but also let’s you complete your pre-reqs.
My guess would be that it’s easier to get into med school from Whitman than from UCR, for instance, simply because of their resources. (Exception: applicants from the Riverside region and Haider students).
I recall UCSD a few years ago having a curiously low rate of med school admission compared to how strong their students are so they took measures to correct the problem, no idea whether it’s become better but worth investigating.
UCD sounds ideal for premeds (more supportive and strengths in many areas of science) and it’s a bit easier to get into than some other UCs.
Most but not all med schools publish their Match List. If you’re interested, you can google " Match list" +“name of medical school” + “year”
I would caution, however, that reading a match list is bit like reading tea leaves. The location and specialty a student matches into is highly individual. Match lists will vary a lot from year-to-year.
Many med students want to match near family so that influences their application list. Some med schools have a reputation for keeping their own students for residency; others tell students from the beginning to plan on relocating for residency. Some students are prestige-driven and seek out “brand name” program; others aren’t and are content to be in a specialty or location they want.
Also residencies rankings vary widely by specialty. There are some really top residencies at hospitals/programs most people wouldn’t suspect–like neurosurgery at UArizona. OB/GYN at UAlabama-Birmingham. (Or was until Roe was overturned…)
The choice of specialty is another highly individual factor and the average med student changes their mind about their specialty 3 times during MS1-3. (You apply for residency near the beginning of MS4 so you need to have made a choice before September of your senior year of med school.) At many med schools, students don’t get much clinical exposure until MS3 when they must complete core rotations in IM, peds, Ob/Gyn, psychiatry and surgery. Students must complete core rotations before they can do elective rotations in other specialties. Students must have at least 1 preceptor LORs in the specialty they’re applying to.
Also USMLE Step 2 board scores help determine a student’s eligibility for a specialty. There are score cutoffs for some specialties where a lower Step 2 is disqualifying.
So lots of factors, including personality factors, go into the choice of specialty.
Know two young physicians who are graduates of UCD. There are plentiful opportunities at UCD, but there are also a LOT of pre meds (and pre vets ) there. One needs to be comfortable with self-advocacy if they want to access those opportunities.
(Also having Spanish language skills will help with pre-med volunteering opportunities.)
Hello,
Affordability is my number 1 concern, so I’ll definitely take this threads advice into consideration. I have thought it over, and I think I can graduate with under 20k~ in debt if I live at home for all 4 years and pick up a part time job (In california). I know I’m getting ahead of myself, but I was considering applying to some mid-low tier NY schools for a chance to get large scholarships or financial aid. I want to go to a medical school in NY, but idk right now. All depends on costs ofc
I don’t think you will get the SUNY schools down to $20,000 a year (you also need transportation and spending money). Some of them (Oneonta, for example) might come down to just under $30,000. Take a look at what they offer.
When the time comes, sure, apply to medical schools in NY. But also apply broadly. You will likely apply to 20 or so medical schools, and some of them will be MD and some DO. At the end of the day, you will go where you are accepted.
But that is 5 years from now.
Going to undergrad school in NY won’t guarantee you an acceptance to a NY medical school.
University of New Mexico with Amigo or WUE Plus merit scholarships will get you down to around $25K/year, not including transportation, books, and personal expenses.
UNM SOM also gives in-state admission preference to graduates of UNM. (Though not in-state tuition, although med students who meet residency qualifications can petition for in-state tuition status after MS1.)
UNM SOM is in the top 5 least expensive medical schools in the country.
I personally don’t want to waste any time in undergrad somewhere where I can’t get good premed opportunities.
Where is that? Find a school you can afford, that will accept you. Pre med opportunities are everywhere and even residents at the top med schools in the country come from “everywhere” schools.
Auburn
CWRU
Florida A&M
Florida State
Fordham
Lipscomb
Luther
Murray State
Northern Illinois
Pitt
Princeton
Tulane
Tuskegee
U North Carolina
U Puerto Rico
U Tennessee
Duke Medical - this was just the early letters of the last names of the alphabet
Arkansas
Michigan
UNC
Princeton
Rochester
South Florida
Southeastern Louisiana
Texas
Taking it further to Johns Hopkins - resident undergrads:
JHU
UMD
UMBC
U Miami
Morgan State
South Carolina
TCNJ
U of Puerto Rico
UT Dallas
Towson
Vandy
and more
OP, can you clarify that you may be able to graduate with 20k in debt for ALL 4 years combined, or 20k per year?
Hi all!!
I have great news. As long as I go to a UC or CSU, my tuition should be MOSTLY covered via Cal Grant A. With other small grants and by working a part time job in senior year (as well as living from home in college) I’ll be fine! I’m super happy with this news and plan to get a cat when I move nxt year. Honestly, now all I’m thinking about is where I’ll go. I was considering Astrobio or Astrophysics or adjacent, but applying as such would destroy my chances at schools such as UCSC. I plan to apply to something less competitive, and am currenlty taking a semester worth of cc courses in my highschool summer. All in all, the road ahead looks good!
Run the NPC on several private colleges listed upthread: if you qualify for Cal grants you’d likely qualify for financial aid at meet need colleges.
However OOS public universities wouldn’t be within budget - not a problem since you have excellent UC/CSU options.
Astro-anything will require excellent math and some CS.
Note that living on campus tends to result in higher grades and greater satisfaction - lots of students commute, especially at CSUs, so it’s not a deal breaker, but do consider universities in addition to those within commuting range.
Always look into possible honors or special programs that would offer more support and open more opportunities.
In addition, your job should be medical -related (for instance, if you have a CNA, it can turn into a job).
Hi again! More great (?) news 
I’m currently working with a professor at uc davis who teaches the major im applying with (a niche one), and were doing some long term research! I’ll be helping her with smaller things, like formatting and aiding with her research for a book shes writing right now, and shes made it very clear that we will work together for many years. She offered to write me LOR’s, but I don’t have any colleges that will take them. Does anyone think this will be the push I need to be competitive for Davis? For some reason, shes very confident I’ll get into Davis, and keeps saying things such as “when you get to Davis..” etc. I promise the major is niche! It has about 10 professors and 100 students currently.
You would probably have to dedicate one PIQ to that work.
Thar being said, the professor may have no idea about the Davis admission process or whether that major is very competitive or not.
Congratulations!
One thing that comes to mind is that it is not unusual at all for a student who at one point was thinking “premed” to end up going into research instead. Sometimes this is medical/biomedical related, and sometimes it is not. Research experience for high school students is rare. Research experience for high school students and university freshmen is generally relatively basic. You get to do the interesting stuff after doing a good job on the more basic stuff. However, starting this research early seems like quite a valuable experience to me, regardless of whether this helps you decide that you want to go into research or to do something very different.
What does this mean ? They don’t have a monopoly on research - there’s hundreds of schools in the country.
How much can you afford ? With your stats you can go out of state for $20k-ish all in - and even enroll in a pre med honors program.
You make it seem like the UCs are superior for pre med or research opportunities. They have them but are also large bureaucracies - I don’t see how they are necessarily better than others.
With a 3.5 UW GPA, top schools will be a long shot and expensive - hence you need to do the NPCs. But your stats will buy you into other schools.
The UCs do not have a monopoly on either research or pre med opportunities.
In reading the first 20 of the post it seems that your UC or bust mentality is a bit short sighted.