UCSD VS UCR for premed?

DoctorP
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:47:36 +0000

@Mak1999 I don’t think “easier” is a good reason to choose one school over another. Yes, UCR is easier than UCSD, and Ohlone Community College is easier than both of them. But med school isn’t easy, and the schools they offer different levels of opportunities to prepare you for medical school. I think UCSD is a superior choice for way more than just its bio ranking.

For example, the town of Riverside has one major hospital about four miles from campus where UCR students can volunteer, shadow, or research. UCSD is the opposite: there are four major hospitals within one mile of campus. There will be more opportunities for you to participate in something that aligns with your interests. The same goes for research labs: UCR gets about $110 million in research funding, while UCSD gets over $1 billion. There are more bio/biotech companies in the La Jolla and Sorrento Valley area near UCSD than there are in the Inland Empire: in fact, in the US the region is only beat by Boston. I’m not saying these opportunities will walk up to you–they’re all very competitive for undergrads to apply to. But if the opportunities exist, and your friends in your premed classes are all taking advantage of them and working extraordinarily hard, it might drive you to do the same. I’m with pretty much every poster from twelve years ago that it’s still not much of a contest.