So I recently got into UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UT (as a polymathic scholar). I am from Houston, TX and it has always been my dream to go to California for college, I know I will live there when I’m older. But I have absolutely no clue where I want to go to college now. UCLA and Cal are crazy expensive, and while I think my family could afford to send me there, it would be a struggle and I also have two younger sisters going to college after me. I would be a biochem major at all three colleges and I am planning on going to medical school after undergrad (I mean obviously I have to get in first lol, but I think that I can do it).
UCLA has been my dream school since freshman year, I absolutely love the campus and the feel and everything about it. I would have a couple friends in the area and at the campus so I would know a few people. UCLA has a great pre med program I know, especially with their hospital on campus. I would qualify for the honors program there, but I don’t think that their honors program does a whole lot for their students from what I’ve heard.
I visited UC Berkeley this year and fell in love with it too, I know westwood and the bay area have completely different feels, but I love both of them. Cal is obviously ridiculously prestigious and i would receive an amazing education there, so that’s obviously a huge plus. But I’m also nervous that I will just be one of the crowd if I go there, and I won’t stand out and I’m also scared my GPA will reflect that, and I obviously need a really high GPA to get into med school.
UT is approximately a third of the cost of the other two schools and I really like the Austin area, not as much as California, but i know that I would still love it if I lived there. The big pluses for UT are the fact that it’s cheap and I have been accepted into their honors program. They have a class size of like 150 people each year out of thousands of applicants so its pretty selective. They provide so many opportunities to their students (Freshman undergraduate research training, connections to internships, academic advising, priority enrollment, capstone honors thesis, 99% grad program acceptances, etc.). So I could be a shining star at UT and be provided with lots of resources handed to me.
So, are any students who are there now or have any insight into what you think would be best for me, from the stand point of having having a good college experience and getting into medical school which is my dream. Any and all opinions welcome. Thanks!