A tale of two daughters.
One D went to the state flagship U where she was on her own to find research, volunteering, leadership positions, etc. One D went to highly ranked private U known for its pre-med program.
Guess what? Both girls found terrific research opportunities, developed close mentoring relationships w/ professors (who then wrote those all important LORs needed or med or grad schools), Both were TAa/SIs at their respective schools and both ere hired by their university to be paid tutors in science/math topics. Both found off campus volunteering opportunities with organizations that resonated with them. Both received academic awards and other recognitions. Both applied to med school and both had multiple acceptances. Both are now physicians in their first choice specialty.
Moral: it’s the student not the university that gets an applicant into med school.
Pick the university that offers the best combination of
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FIT-- because happier students do better academically (and these research data to back that up)
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Cost-- because med school is horrendously expensive and financial aid comes in the form of loans, loans and more loans. Pre-meds are strongly advised to minimize any undergrad debt. (Also as CA applicant, realistically, your child will likely attend an OOS med school since more than 2/3rd of successful CA med applicants matriculate OOS. That means you’re looking at very expensive OOS rates or very expensive private med schools. Assume he will be paying around $120-$150K/year or more for med school. It’s already $100K/year at many schools.)
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Opportunities–including opportunities to explore interests that are NOT medicine-related (data says only ~16% of freshmen premeds even finish all their pre-reqs and apply. Of those that apply only 37% get an acceptance) Other opportunities include: the opportunity to develop mentoring relationships with professors (who will write their LORs for med/ grad school and job internships); the opportunity to expand their world view by meeting a wide range of diverse individuals from backgrounds very different from their own; the opportunity to grow as human beings and to develop people and leadership skills.
Medicine today requires excellent “soft” skills and med school look for way more than just academic success in applicants
See Core Competencies for Entering Medical Students
https://www.aamc.org/media/9636/download
UCLA is the single largest supplier of med school applicants in the country. USC is in the top 30 (and 6th largest private university supplier of med school applicants). So both schools will have support staff who are familiar with process and can competently advise your child on the details of applying.
One thing to consider-- UCLA does not use committee letters of recommendation for its med school applicants. USC does.
The health profession committee’s job is to pre-screen med school applicants and only allow those whom the committee feels have a very strong chance for an admission apply by either supplying or withholding their LOR. Applying without a committee letter from schools that offer one is a black mark against an applicant, and one that must have a very good explanation.