I’ve been struggling with this question for awhile now and one semester later, I still have no idea which of the two schools I’m looking at I want to go to. I’m sure this is normal, but gah it’s frustrating! It’s either CSU Fullerton in southern California or CSU Chico which is about an hour drive south of where I live. Fullerton claims to have an 84% acceptance rate into medical schools by premeds who used their health professions advisors, they have a good cirriculum, and they have side projects for the premeds such as volunteering at participating hospices to get volunteer experience. CSU Chico just says “while acceptance rates into medical schools vary from year to year, CSU, Chico has a high rate of acceptance”, so I don’t have an exact stat on their acceptance rates, but then on the other hand their answer seems more realistically accurate. They have a better cirriculum in my opinion, but I have no idea how much side stuff they have for premeds such as volunteer work. What would you guys recommend? Go for the school that coordinates volunteer work and claims to have a pretty damn good acceptance rate, or go for the one that has a better cirriculum but still claims to have a high acceptance rate?
The main reason I think the cirriculum at Chico is better btw in case you’re wondering is Fullerton’s biology degree would only allow me to have microbiology, medical genetics, human anatomy, immunology and biochemistry included in the degree because of the way it’s structured.
Chico on the other hand would allow me to fit zoology, vertebrate physiology, vertebrate anatomy, genetics, embryology, immunology, biochemistry, biology of cancer and biomedical ethics into my degree.
My answer . . . go to whichever one will make you happiest. If you feel you need the extra help of having a strong pre-med advising program and the volunteer experience that they help coordinate more than you want the extra courses, go to Fullerton. If the opportunity for different courses is more important, go to Chico.
It is certainly helpful to have a great pre-med advising program and opportunities, but you can succeed without them. Investigate both programs a little bit more - maybe see if you can make time to go visit the campuses and while there, make appointments with the people you will need to help you succeed (pre-med advisors, financial aid counselors, etc). Try and get a feel for where you feel more comfortable at.
Good luck!
Amy
Hi there,
Go where you are most comfortable and where you think you can do your best. Statistics are meaningless unless you are in the group that gets accepted. Go where you will be happiest and you will do well. There is little arguement agains a student with a strong GPA.
Natalie 
I say, stand in the place where you are. But, Fullerton may allow you access to other nearby schools that have the courses you seek, and you might have to travel far from Chico if you want to make a schedule change and can’t take what’s there. You might also check with other students at both schools to make sure that all students who want to apply to med school get the chance. If schools want to up their percentage, they can just discourage those who they don’t think will get in, or their committee may refuse to do a recommendation letter. That being said, OC has a burgeoning med/biomed community so it will be a snap for you to find interesting projects for school and for volunteering. Does anybody know if admissions people really look at the percentage of people from a given school who have gotten into med school? Research says it doesn’t predict future med school success. I may have a problem with that if they do, since as far as I know, my school has only one student so far who has gone to med school. Maybe I’ll be the second.
Yeah that’s the only thing, if a class is cancelled or whatever I’ll be out of luck at Chico, but I’m not sure that’ll be that much of a problem since I register literally the minute I’m able to, so far even in classes that have their slots filled up fast I’ve gotten in well before the class was full because I registered so early.
You have a good point about discouraging people they don’t think that will make it, I’m going to make a point of asking along those lines at both schools and finding out which school has a more user friendly pre-med organization…I guess that would matter a lot more then figures. I think I would be more comfortable at Chico, but ultimately I want to go where I’ll have the best chance of getting into med school. Thanks for the input guys.