Hi! I am a first-year student at UC Riverside studying business and planning to do pre-med. UCR is pretty cheap for me, bc I only have to pay 50% of tuition. I don’t like it at Riverside at all, the city is super sketchy and the people are not as academically focused as I am. I just ended my first quarter and got a 4.0 GPA (calc, intro to bus, intro to cultural studies). My high school GPA was a 3.4 uw and 3.6 w (huge difference lol). I am also part of the USC trojan transfer plan and will be applying there but it all depends on financial aid. I want to do health care admin or public health and UCR does not have either of those, so that is my reason for transferring. Does anyone have any tips or advice for my applications?
Did you only take three classes or was that just a directional description.
What were your ACT/SAT test scores?
Are you serious about going to med school? If so, transferring is generally a bad idea.
Do you want to go to med school directly from undergrad? Or do you want to take a gap year or two after college?
What are your parents saying about paying more?
I’m in Riverside at least once a year for days at a time. I was just there for the first week of Dec. It’s not sketchy. LOLOLOL. You’re thinking of transferring to USC but you’re worried about Riverside being sketchy???
This will change soon as the weaker premeds get weeded out. And the weaker other students either flunk out or get with the program.
Hold on! You haven’t taken really any premed prereqs yet! And was that regular calculus or business calculus?
Your first quarter was rather light, so it’s way too early to know how you’d do in SERIOUS premed prereqs. When are you taking Bio and Chem???
This seems naive since you haven’t taken any premed prereqs yet. Who knows how you’ll do.
UCR Med school has some reserved spots for their best undergrads. WHY wouldn’t you be aiming for one of those spots if you’re a strong student???
You want to go to med school. Don’t transfer because your current school has some odd major that has NOTHING to do with becoming a doctor or getting into med school. That’s just silly.
What are your best and favorite subjects.
It’s generally a bad idea for premeds to change schools.
You are right where you should be. If you were to transfer to any of your desired transfer schools, you’d be eaten alive as a premed. I am almost certain you would get weeded out of UPenn, JHU, USC, and Columbia as a premed.
Don’t think that because you got A’s with a very light quarter this school year that you’re “tan and ready” for premed at top schools.
You have winter and spring quarters coming up. What will you be taking?
The Ivies will look at your high school stats and they will likely preclude you from transfer.
I also see that you’re from a single parent home. Those schools that you’re considering are CSS Profile schools and will require your other parent’s financial info (if alive). Will your other parent provide that info and help pay for college?
In this thread and some other threads, you were a high school senior last year.
Does the below mean that you’re a sophomore transfer because of AP or DE credits?
If so, what classes do you have college credits in? If any of them are DE, what grades did you get?
@private banker I took those 3 classes and one mandatory workshop class that all first years have to take so in total that is 15 units which is the avg amount to take
@mom2collegekids @privatebanker @TomSrOfBoston I got a 26 on my ACT. Yeah, I took 6 cc classes over the summer when I was still in high school so that’s why I already have enough credits to qualify as a sophomore. I was thinking about doing pre-med before the school year and was not entirely sure if I should. So I choose my classes based on the business requirements, and yes the class was calc for business. But now I am determined to do pre-med.
Can you please explain why transferring is a bad idea for pre-med/business students? Ok, I get that I took an easy course load and it was only one quarter, but so far the people I have met are not motivated to do anything and their attitude towards school is not the same as mine. And my friends and other really academically focused people are planning to transfer to those same schools if not other UC’s.
So my mom said that if any of the schools that I apply to give me a financial package that is less than 30K then she will let me go and pay for it. So that’s why I want to try, I am a completely different person than what I was in high school. In high school, I was super lazy, but now I regret that and want to push myself to work harder than what I did before.
My late father went to JHU for BME and I think it would be a disservice if I did not at least try to apply. I want to surround myself with people who a motivated to push themselves and always strive to become the best in whatever and I just am not getting that from Riverside. Also, I literally can not go outside my dorm building when it gets dark out because there have been numerous cases of people getting jumped and sexually assaulted.
@mom2collegekids winter quarter I am taking English A, Geology, Music and Mirco Econ. MUS and GEO are breath courses and satisfy my business requirements. Spring I am not sure yet but thinking about taking Chem, Ethnic Studies (final breath requirement), and English B. What do you recommend that I take in spring?