UCLA or UMich (MCDBio major)?

sushiritto
Wed, 01 Apr 2020 17:02:17 +0000

My D attends UMich. One of her best friends attends UCLA. Both are STEM majors. I think you’re going to find each school with similar academic climates, similar grading, similar stress and workloads. You can likely expect a similar GPA drop (from HS) at both schools. Both have a large amount of students submitting med school applications.

The difference, IMO, is that you can switch majors and schools reasonably easy at UMich, except for an inter-school transfer into Ross. Ross only accepts 100-150 inter-school transfers per year. And as you noted, the quarter system at UCLA makes catching up difficult to do, once you fall behind. Don’t fall behind and you’ll be fine.

The other difference between the two schools is that at UMich, you can earn a CS degree in LSA or you could transfer into the CoE and earn a CS degree. They’re very similar programs.

And then there’s the weather.

One other thing. We live in Silicon Valley. I was on the road this morning in my neighborhood and saw a jogger wearing a Michigan sweatshirt. A couple days ago, at the track for a workout, a college aged female was wearing a Michigan sweatshirt. Picking up food, I was wearing a UMich hat and someone yelled “Go Blue.” Don’t underestimate the job prospects for Michigan alums here in CA.

https://qz.com/967985/silicon-valley-companies-like-apple-aapl-hires-the-most-alumni-of-these-10-universities-and-none-of-them-are-in-the-ivy-league/

According to this 2017 article, UCLA and Michigan are about equal in terms of tech hiring in Silicon Valley.