<p>Being a strong student in high school is in no way predictive of success at Caltech. Every student that is admitted was an extremely strong student in high school. </p>
<p>Again, I don’t think that there is a “program” to drop out of, I’m just guessing it would mean admission to UCSD is not guaranteed. I don’t think there’s really a PR issue here at all–the medical scholars program is tiny. That being said, I don’t know the full details of the situation.</p>
<p>I will say that getting into med school from a school as rigorous as Caltech is very difficult. As I mention in the letter stickied at the top of the forum, I think Caltech is not the right place for people dead set on going to medical school. There is a very real possibility that you as a pre-med are not good enough to maintain a 3.8+ GPA at Caltech (somewhere around 20% do). Is it worth it to you to receive an awesome and diverse education at the price of maybe not being admitted to med school? If not, don’t come here.</p>