UCR or community college?

Autumnal
Tue, 15 Mar 2016 19:55:27 +0000

@GrammyWinner I didn’t attend (I’m an alumnus of another UC), but I’m pretty familiar with all the UCs. I can guarantee you that biotech companies don’t care where your degree is from (unless it’s top 25); at the bachelor’s level, they just want to know that you have steady hands for lab work. They do care that you have internship experience - and preferably several years of it.

The thing that most pre health students don’t understand when going in to undergrad is that “quality of education” in science does not vary much between universities. It’s like deciding between two high schools that both offer AP Calculus; the subject matter is standardized, so it doesn’t really matter. Your teacher might be easier at one school, but in the end you’re taking the AP test (read: MCAT) so you’ll be required to know it all anyway.

Schools with better science departments offer more electives and niche subject matter, but that doesn’t apply to pre health students (or any student not gunning for a PhD).

The thing that matters most for pre health is volunteer opportunities, clinical exposure opportunities, and research opportunities. Riverside offers all of those in abundance. It’s actually pretty hard to get them at UCSC.