Choosing the Best Undergrad for Premed: Cal Poly SLO, CPP, UCSC, or UCR?

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Hello!

I’m an aspiring premed who has had weird admissions.

While I did not get the best grades in my early years of high school, I’ve greatly improved on that factor and am currently taking a lot of science courses at some CC’s so I can be better prepared for undergrad.

I am majorly considering UCR, but turning down SLO (anthropology) for UCR (sociology) looks kinda weird no?

Currently, I don’t think I necessarily need a medical school in my vicinity for clinical hours as I am a certified CNA. I plan to work throughout undergrad and use that to fund necessary expenses and gain clinical experience.

I fortunately qualify for the Cal grant, and my tuition to both CSU’s and UC’s is 100% free. I would appreciate any feedback on which school is better for premed prep given my background. I also do have ongoing remote research at UCD that started in junior year and will extend til I apply to medical school. The professor I work with has also offered to write me a LOR so I can do research with a professor at UCR.

Any feedback appreciated! Or any advice to ensure I have a great premed experience.

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Should you continue to lean this way, I believe you could choose UCR with confidence.

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You can complete the required courses for medical school applicants at any of the colleges on your list. If you like UCR, and can see yourself being happy and doing well there, and it’s affordable, it’s a fine choice for you.

Or any advice to ensure I have a great premed experience.

Pick a college where you can see yourself, being happy as happy students tend to do better than unhappy ones. You can have a great premed experience at any of these colleges.

@WayOutWestMom

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College courses and their grades, including those taken while in high school, must be included in your medical school application.

But also, medical schools often do not like to see science courses taken at community colleges, nor do they want to see repeated courses (or college courses repeating AP credit). Taking higher level courses in those subject areas may mitigate that problem.

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College selection isn’t one way. At most, what you might deem safeties, you will have kids who got into higher ranked schools. And given your majors and intention, the where will likely matter little anyway.

You will be far from the only at UCR at that got into much higher ranked or perceived better schools. Both my kids chose safeties over reaches etc.

You need to go where you feel comfort.

Good luck.

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If UCR is a good fit and you can afford it…then go.

No medical school will care which colleges you turned down in high school.

UCR has a special pre med program, Thomas Haider Program, which offers early admission to UCR’s medical school to 24 UCR students/year.

If you are from the Inland Empire area of California, it’s something you may want to consider.

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Is this really true? I don’t think my cc or AP courses have sufficiently prepared me for higher level courses. I was planning on taking adjacent credits for better understanding. So far, I have had 7 CC courses and 6 AP’s, which I plan to use for general education requirements and to help out my sGPA. I do plan on taking higher level courses ofc though!

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You can check what various UCs and CSUs consider your community college courses equivalent to on assist.org . AP score advanced placement can be found on campus web sites.

Transfer students commonly go directly to more advanced courses after their community college courses, so you should be able to do the same.