USC or UC Berkeley for Biochemistry/Pre-Med (AKA Ranking or Social Life?)

College Search & Lists
1

Like the title says, I’m really conflicted between USC and UC Berkeley

Intended Major: Biochemistry (Pre-Med)

Cost: USC-47K (Presidential Scholarship-half); Cal: 36K (in-state)

If I go to USC, I will get Honors housing, preferential course selection, etc for USC
But Cal is one of the highest ranking schools in the US for biochemistry.
I’m a bit worried about the competitive, cut-throat environment about Cal and some people have also said there’s no support for pre-meds. Apparently, it’s worse because of grade deflation, no pre-med support (ie: links for internships/shadowing/preparing for med school).

Opinions?

2

Pre-med is a cutthroat weeding process everywhere.

3

So would you recommend Berkeley?

4

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/2071932-grade-distributions-in-prerequisite-courses-for-gpa-based-goals.html may be helpful for prospective pre-meds considering Berkeley. In most of the common pre-med courses, only about a quarter of students earn A- or better grades.

However, grade distribution data for specific courses (as opposed to overall at http://gradeinflation.com ) at other universities may not be commonly available, so it may not be easy to compare with other universities.