hi,
My son just got accepted to UCSC for Biology. His plan is to do pre-med track. I totally agree with what you said about it is easier to stand out in UCSC compare to UCLA or UCB. Therefor he is really leaning to accept UCSC. Another school we are considering is Pepperdine and SLO. Pepperdine is so expensive but easier to maintain GPA. SLO could have the same issue with maintain GPA with all their weed out classes. Do you know if UCSC has many those so call weed out class? if yes, what class? Is there any place we can find pre-med track acceptance rate? Any information will be appreciated.
I imagine any college will have weed out pre-med courses. I would recommend he attend an affordable college where he feels he will thrive.
And even if med school admission rates are published you would need to understand the way the rate is calculated. As a few examples:
–What percent of students starting out with pre-med intentions actually apply to med school?
– Is there is a committee that recommends students for med school?If so, does the acceptance rate only include recommended students?
– Does the rate include acceptances to DO, podiatry, chiropractic, etc. schools?
Do you know if UCSC has many those so call weed out class? if yes, what class?
I personally do not have experience with UCSC’s Biology curriculum however, in general at most schools, Organic Chemistry is considered a difficult and “weed out class” for most Pre-Health students. It really depends upon the student’s academic strengths so Chemistry may not be an issue but a Physics course could for that student.
Is there any place we can find pre-med track acceptance rate?
There is no acceptance rate for the pre-med track since UCSC does not have pre-med or pre-health majors. Students from any major can be admitted to medical and health-related professional schools. The UCSC Career Success team provides students with resources to explore various health profession careers, including medicine. Students will learn how to get the most out of their time at UCSC to prepare for their desired careers in health professions. They will get tips on obtaining clinical and leadership experience and preparing strong applications, and they can also connect directly with admissions representatives from various programs during the graduate school and health profession fairs.
I would say the one disadvantage is the UCSC location since the Medical school shadowing/volunteering and health-related job hours would be limited in the Santa Cruz area.
https://careers.ucsc.edu/student/graduate-prof-school/health/index.html
Regarding Medical school admission rates as @happy1 stated understanding how the rate is calculated is important.
Here is a link to a list of schools that had 50 more applicants for Medical school: https://www.aamc.org/media/9636/download
Here is a link to a list of Medical school Matriculants by School and State of residency: https://www.aamc.org/media/5976/download?attachment
Your son can take the required courses for those applying to medical school at just about any four year college, arts conservatories excluded.
I would suggest a few things:
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Where does your son want to attend college? He is the one going, and should pick a school where he thinks he will be happy for four years. Happy students do better in college than unhappy ones.
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I would suggest you take premed out of the decision making process (as noted, that shouldn’t be a course issue anywhere). Most students entering college with a premed intention actually never apply to medical school. And of those who apply about 40% get accepted.
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Review your finances. If you will need to take parent loans for any of these colleges, please don’t. If medical school or grad school is expected, you really don’t want debt for undergrad school as well. Medical schools will easily cost $100,000 a year by the time your student attends, if accepted.
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There will be very smart and driven students in all the premed required courses your son will be taking…at any college.
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I hope the question isn’t if you kid should choose UCSC over UCLA (assume he got into both) for pre-med.
There is a reason UCLA is the number one applied to school in U.S several years running. As an institution, more UCLA students apply to med school than probably anyone else. The education is great, but the research and EC opportunity is also amazing. Any med school in the US will have enough data points to know and be confident any UCLA student they admit will do well.
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As both Software Engineer parents, we actually try to talk him out to do pre-med. CS seems to be a much a better career path (to us at least). But he has decided that he want to get into sports medicine and specialize in orthopedic surgeon. He already got EMR and in the process to get EMT. I think he is pretty determined that is what he want to do…Oh well…At this point, I just want to help him as much as I can to fill his dream. How about going to community college then transfer to 4 years to save money? Do you think community college will hurt him when apply Med school?
I know the feeling. I openly talk people out of medicine all the time. Many many unhappy physicians.
But off-topic, with the current wave of layoffs for software engineers, I’m glad S24 is more hardware driven than software.
As an EMT, I think LA is better place to be with more opportunities. UCLA Med Ctr is on campus and if he has time to work as an EMT, he will be bring in patients all over, including UCLA.
Community College is definitely a viable option. BUT because it is like an extension of HS, many kids lose motivation and end up doing less than their potential. GPA calculation, despite what people say, is a straight number on a piece of paper and really makes no difference IMO.
Believe it or not, most Sports Medicine guys are actually Family Practice and not Orthopods.
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Certainly if cost is a factor, community college is ok. But really, if he can attend a four year university, that would be the better option.
@WayOutWestMom can explain how medical schools view community college courses…some more positively than others.
He is jumping the gun here a bit. He won’t be doing rotations in medical school until his third year there. And some places don’t have a regular rotation with orthopedic surgeons. One should not apply to medical school with the intention of doing only one specialty.
Also, you don’t have to be an orthopedic surgeon to do sports medicine. We have a relative who does sports medicine…and he is not an orthopedic surgeon. He DID do a fellowship in sports medicine following his residency.
Again…maybe @WayOutWestMom can elaborate.
I agree. When he told us he want to be in sports medicine and specialize in orthopedic surgeon, we all really surprised how specific he was. The reason is he is also an athlete and wants to work with athlete in the future. His goal is to work at a professional sports team and operate on athletes. Not sure how real is that…LOL.
Someone else can verify this…but I believe the doctors who are seen on the field with the athletes are not the doctors who perform surgery on them.
ETA…according to our relative, most team doctors are not surgeons. They are internal medicine who have done a fellowship in sports medicine. Many of the injuries sustained by sports team members do not require surgery.
Another question, some schools he was accepted in kinesiology major. Will that be a better option than biology?
He can be whatever major he wants for med school, as long as he takes the prerequisites.
I am not sure what he will do with as a kinesiology major if med school does not work out. Grad school?
UCLA had a Kinesiology Major up until 1992/93. Then it became physiological sciences because Kinesiology seemed too restrictive.
Having said that, most premed at UCLA will major shop once they are there since some may find one or two classes they rather not have to take and change majors.
All the biological science majors take very similar classes and electives… As I recall the difference between a Bio, Microbio, Biochem came down to about less than 6 unique courses and everything else overlapped.
Would he be interested in physical therapy? He might want to look into that as his plan if medical school doesn’t work out. Lots of PTs work with sports related injuries.
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Community college classes are viewed with some suspicion because the quality of the courses varies so much. California has a very robust community college system that is well respected in-state, but that’s not necessarily true of the rest of the country. Medical schools outside of CA will not be familiar with the strength of the CA community colleges and so will expect that all CC pre-req classes will be supplemented with additional upper level coursework taken at a 4 year college in the same department as the CC classes.
BTW, your child should expect that he will going OOS for medical school. CA is the single largest producer of medical school applicants in the US and there aren’t nearly enough in-state med school seats to accommodate them all. Two-thirds of successful CA med school applicants end up attending OOS medical schools.
Another question, some schools he was accepted in kinesiology major. Will that be a better option than biology?
Kinesiology is fine major for pre-meds because it covers most, if not all, of the required med school pre-reqs. However, kinesiology is more closely associated with being a pre-professional major for physical or occupational therapy school or for those who hope become athletic trainers.
As others have mentioned, sport medicine is NOT the same thing as orthopedic surgery. They are 2 different specialties. A sport medicine doctor is not an orthopedic surgeon and and orthopedic surgeon is not a sports medicine physician.
Orthopedics is a 5 year surgical residency program, often followed by one or more 2-year long additional fellowships where the surgeon will sub-specialize in particular body area/joint. Like adult upper extremity (shoulder and elbow) , adult lower body (hip and knee), hand, spine, or foot & ankle.
Sports medicine is 1-2 year long fellowship that is done after finishing a residency in family medicine, emergency medicine or internal medicine.
Edited to add: the doctor sitting on the sidelines with team is almost never an orthopedic surgeon. It’s commonly an emergency medicine physician. (One of the residencies my D interviewed at required all their residents to cover football, basketball, lacrosse and soccer games for a year as part of their training where they sat on the bench during the matches.)
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RE: Physical therapy
My SIL is a former professional athlete (road cycling) who is now attending PT school.
Physical therapy offers a fellowship in sport medicine also. It’s 2 years long and they specialize in rehabbing athletes returning from soft tissue injuries (sprains, strains, torn ligaments, etc) as well as rehabbing post surgical repairs. In many of the fellowship programs, the PT fellows actually work directly with high level sports teams–like D1 college and professional sport teams.
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I’m also wondering, as cy7878 asked, whether you’re talking about choosing UCSC over UCLA/UCB, or whether he hasn’t been accepted at UCLA and expects the same from UCB. I wouldn’t make a sweeping statement that there’s never a reason to choose UCSC over UCLA/UCB/etc… but I don’t think the premise that you should “level down” in order to be assured of a higher GPA is a good reason. It isn’t as if grading in premed “weed-out” classes at Santa Cruz is lenient. If you’re looking for grade inflation, a private U like Pepperdine might be a better choice. I don’t have specific knowledge of PU’s grading curves, but they make a point, here Pre-Health Professions: FAQ | Pepperdine University | Seaver College , of stating, “Our science professors normally do not grade on the curve which creates a non-competitive atmosphere and promotes cooperation among students and faculty.” This would be in contrast to all UC’s, including Santa Cruz.
Kinesiology is a fine major for premed, pre-PT, and so on. It’s worth noting that it’s also a very popular major with recruited athletes. So my guess is that the cohort could be a bit different at a school with Division 1 athletics than at a D3 school like UCSC. (Of course, neither is objectively better or worse - just another lens through which to compare schools.)
When I was in PT school (in a previous era), the vast majority of my peers were athletes who hoped to work with athletes. Yet, the majority of PT jobs involve working with people who are ill, who are elderly, who have acquired or congential disabilities, or who are generically non-athletic. It was a bit disheartening to hear the distaste with which many of them approached our clinical experiences. (“Eww, sick people!”) Certainly, a lot of the sports-loving people did end up breaking into sports-med type careers, but only a very few managed to land gigs with professional teams and such. The same sort of math is at work in medicine. It’s best to be open to a wider range of experiences vs. imagining yourself as the Exalted Team Doc to your favorite franchise.
Congrats to your son on having great options, and good luck to him in thinking those options through!
And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention STILL another medical specialty that deals with athletic injuries-- physiatry (also called Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation/PM&R).
Physiatrists treat conditions of the bones, muscles, joints, brain and nervous system, which can affect other systems of the body and limit a person’s ability to function. Sports injuries are one of the conditions they treat.
The PM&R physician is very skilled in performing musculoskeletal and neurologic examinations. Aside from the history and physical that are the foundation of any patient evaluation, physiatrists are also trained to utilize laboratory testing, x-rays, MRI scans, electromyography (EMG), nerve conduction studies (NCS) and psychological testing. Once a patient’s conditioned is assessed, here are common treatment approaches:
- Prosthetics and Orthotics
- Electrical Stimulation
- Active Physical Therapy
- Manual Therapy
- Joint & Trigger Point Injections
- Medication
- Heat/ Cold and Water Therapy
- Alternative Medicine
- Assistive Devices
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Yes. You could do a residency in this…and then a fellowship in sports medicine.
But still…you are way jumping the gun. All of this won’t happen unless you complete medical school.
Right now…choose an undergrad where you will be successful, and happy for four years.
Thanks you all so much. I will give those information to my son. He will be the one to make the final decision. Really appreciated.