How overblown is the UCLA name???

beyphy
Sun, 19 Jun 2011 20:05:36 +0000

don’t premeds also have to take the MCAT? Did you friend get a low mcat score or a high one? if a low one, then maybe it’s more GPA. but if it’s a high one then that probably explains why he was able to get into harvard.

the problem with your friends situation, is it’s impossible to tell that he wouldn’t have gotten the same GPA at Berkeley than at UCI. Or even if one was able to do so (e.g. doing a semester abroad at another UC) that they would be able to attribute it to a more difficult workload (e.g. someone who does a semester at berkeley from UCI might simply miss UCI, which affects their performance, and hence do worse at berkeley even though they’re equal in difficulty)

my advice is just work hard, and lose your negative attitude. Going into an institution like that with such an attitude will only have an impact on your grades, and hence serve against your desire to attend med school. Just work hard, and you’ll get wherever you want :)