How to Succeed as a UC Davis Premed
/Everything you need to know about being a premed at UC Davis, including UC Davis premed requirements, extracurriculars, the best premed majors, and the UC Davis premed acceptance rate.
Learn everything it takes to succeed as a UC Davis premed
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Part 1: Introduction
As one of the top 100 institutions globally, UC Davis is recognized the world over as a school that provides top-quality education to students from a variety of backgrounds. Its impeccable reputation for research ranks it #46 internationally, and more importantly for premeds, it ranks #38 in the world for Biology and Biochemistry.
These impressive laurels are wrapped within a campus atmosphere that’s inviting and welcoming with the city of Davis, California described as the ultimate college town. It boasts 60 miles of bike trails through parks, a well-known farmer’s market, and with its location just a short trip away from all that northern California has to offer, national parks, the San Francisco Bay Area, and California wine country make it an ideal place to explore as well as study.
As a UC Davis premed, you’ll be in good company. The school had 481 applicants to medical school programs in the 2022-2023 admissions cycle, making it among the top colleges for premeds nationally. Add to that more than $1 billion in research funding received in fiscal year 2021-2022 and its attached UC Davis Medical Center and you’ll be swimming in opportunities to stand out on your journey to medical school.
However, while opportunity may be available, you’ll still need to take advantage of it when it comes knocking. UC Davis premeds need to know where to look and what to do in order to make the most of their time as undergraduates.
In this guide, we’ll take a thorough look at all the particulars of premed life at UC Davis and outline ways in which you can succeed so that your application to medical school stands out among the rest. We’ll discuss course planning, extracurriculars, volunteering, gaining those all-important shadowing hours, and how to keep your GPA up while still carving out time to study for the MCAT.
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Part 2: UC Davis premed requirements
The road from your first day as a freshman to graduation and (hopefully) matriculation into medical school can be a long and winding one. With many options to consider, priorities to rank, and requirements to meet, it would serve you well to have a clearly defined plan outlining how to achieve your goals.
The Health Professions Advising Office at UC Davis provides an excellent starting point for creating a plan tailored to you. Here, you’ll find information on how to book an advising session, conferences and events, as well as the prerequisites you’ll need to take to get into medical school. They’ve even put together a handy chart detailing the prerequisites for many popular medical schools around the country.
To make things easier for you, we compiled the prerequisites you’ll need as they pertain to the majority of medical schools and which UC Davis courses satisfy those requirements in the table below. Keep in mind that UC Davis follows a quarter-term system rather than a semester system like many other colleges. This means that requirements that specify one year are equivalent to three quarters (fall, winter, and spring) at UC Davis.
| Biology: One year with lab |
3 quarter term courses = 1 year.
Lab included BIS 002A BIS 002B BIS 002C Note: Listed as BIS 2ABC in course recommendations. |
Note: See here for recommendations.
Cell Biology: BIS 104 OR NPB 110A Genetics: BIS 101 Immunology: MMI 188 OR NPB 134 Microbiology with Lab: MIC 102/103L Human Physiology with Lab: NPB 101/NPB 101L OR NPB 110C/NPB 101L Human Anatomy with Lab: EXB 106/106L OR CHA 101/101L |
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| General Chemistry: One year with lab |
3 quarter term courses = 1 year.
Lab included CHE 002A CHE 002B CHE 002C OR CHE 004A CHE 004B CHE 004C Listed as CHE 2ABC and CHE4ABC in recommendations. |
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| Organic Chemistry:
One year with lab |
3 quarter term courses = 1 year.
Lab included CHE 118A CHE 118B CHE 118C |
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| Biochemistry: One or two quarters |
BIS 102
BIS 103 |
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| Calculus: One or two quarters |
MAT 16 OR
MAT 17 OR MAT 21 |
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| Statistics: One or two quarters |
STA 13 OR
STA 100 |
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| Physics: One year with lab |
3 quarter term courses = 1 year.
Lab included PHY 7A PHY 7B PHY 7C OR PHY 9A PHY 9B PHY 9C Listed as PHY 7ABC and PHY 9ABC in recommendations. |
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| College-level English/writing: One year |
Note from UC Davis: Any combination of 3 quarters
of ENL and University Writing Program (UWP) courses
as long as they're writing intensive
Recommended: UWP 104F Health Students must create a personal statement draft as part of this writing course, making it an excellent option for premeds. |
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| Psychology: One or two quarters |
UC Davis recommends for the MCAT:
PSC 001 PSC 041 |
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| Sociology: One or two quarters |
UC Davis recommends for the MCAT:
SOC 003 |
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Upon reviewing the table above, it’s clear that there are a variety of options for completing your med school prerequisites at UC Davis. Some of this will come down to what works for you regarding scheduling and your own interests. For example, while almost any English course will count toward the writing requirement, UWP 104F will give you extra practice with writing for the health professions. However, comparative literature may be more your speed and is also an option that fulfills the requirement.
Furthermore, there are a host of biology options you may want to consider to strengthen your application. Perhaps you have an idea about what kind of doctor you want to be, or at least what you think you might want to specialize in. For example, maybe a career as a rheumatologist or immunologist is calling to you and is something you’d like to explore. Taking an immunology course at UC Davis can help you do just that while simultaneously enhancing your candidate profile.
With all of the possibilities for constructing your course plan, it’s tricky to nail down what to take and when so that you can apply to medical school on your schedule. The last thing you want is to realize in your junior or senior year that you’ve got a prerequisite still dangling at the edges of your plan that, due to when it is offered, could throw your entire schedule out of whack.
Taking this into account, we’ve constructed a two-year course plan for UC Davis premeds in the table below to give you an idea of how you can organize the task of completing the required courses for medical school. Keep in mind that this table is constructed assuming that you plan to enter med school directly after graduation (i.e., without taking a gap year).
| Freshman Fall |
CHE 002A
PHY 007A MAT 16 |
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| Freshman Winter |
CHE 002B
PHY 007B MAT 16 |
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| Freshman Spring |
CHE 002C
PHY 007C |
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| Freshman Summer | UWP 007 | |||||
| Sophomore Fall | BIS 002A
CHE 118A STA 13 |
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| Sophomore Winter |
BIS 002B
CHE 118B UWP 101 |
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| Sophomore Spring |
BIS 002C
CHE 118C |
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| Sophomore Summer | UWP 104F Health
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If you’d still like more options for designing a course plan, UC Davis provides a prerequisite course options chart that can be found here.
How to maintain a high GPA as a UC Davis premed
No matter where you complete your undergraduate degree, the journey through premed requirements to med school application is intense. You’ll be held to a higher standard than many of your classmates and will likely have to take more classes than a typical undergraduate to meet those requirements.
With extra classes, volunteering, and extracurriculars all taking a chunk out of your time, it becomes more difficult to keep your GPA up to the standard med school adcoms expect. Given that this is such a crucial part of your application, you’ll need to be diligent and persistent to stay ahead of the game.
Fortunately, as a UC Davis premed, you’ll have access to their Academic Assistance and Tutoring Centers (AATC) which offer comprehensive support in a range of subjects from STEM to writing. You can schedule one-on-one tutoring sessions, join a workshop or a drop-in session, or take advantage of asynchronous resources. If you’re looking for general study help the Office of Educational Opportunity and Enrichment Services provides Success Coaching and Learning Strategies designed to help you adjust to college life and keep your grades up. These include a self-assessment tool, resources, appointments, and workshops.
What GPA do I need as a UC Davis premed?
Having a solid idea of what you should aim for can help tremendously so that you can course correct before it’s too late. At UC Davis, the prehealth office has created a helpful chart listing the average GPAs of various health professions. Remember, these are just averages, but we can see that to be competitive for an MD or DO program, you will need a 3.6 or 3.5 GPA, respectively.
Actionable advice for keeping your GPA up
Sometimes, the struggle to maintain a high GPA and the pressure you put on yourself to succeed can feel overwhelming. We find that premed students often want things broken down into manageable bites with clear achievable goals.
We also find that the longer it takes to achieve those goals, the murkier the path to success. Once you’ve transitioned to college, you’ll quickly discover that the goal of medical school acceptance is a much longer-term project than you may have attempted in your life up to this point.
We’ve helped countless students in your position and typically offer the following bits of sound advice to help you on your way.
Don’t overload yourself. If you want to graduate with the highest GPA possible, you need to plan well. That includes knowing yourself and how much you can handle. When you’re looking ahead to the next quarter or two and selecting your courses, be sure to take all of your commitments into account—your major, your premed requirements, and any extracurriculars or familial obligations—that can impact your ability to focus and get your highest grade possible.
Look ahead and prepare. Perhaps you love biology but aren’t as skilled in statistics. Before you take that statistics course, it can help to prepare by pre-studying. Reach out to the professor that teaches that course to get an idea of what will be taught and familiarize yourself with the material before the start of the term. This can also reduce the effort required to solidify this new knowledge since you’ve been exposed to it already.
Take classes during the summer months. As a UC Davis premed, there’s no doubt that your schedule will be full. Managing your classes and being disciplined enough to get all of your work done on time will be a challenging lesson to learn, but one you should feel proud of when you pull it off. One way to help balance this challenge is to consider taking some courses during the summer session. This way, you’ll spread out your commitments and give yourself room to breathe which will leave you with more space to focus on a class you may struggle with. As a result, you’ll be sure to get a higher grade.
What is the best UC Davis premed major?
Selecting a major as a UC Davis premed can seem like a daunting task, one that is sure to have far-reaching repercussions beyond your undergraduate years and potentially impact your chances of getting into med school. It can feel as though with so much on the line, you might be paralyzed by indecision. What if you spend your time in college focused on a subject that won’t help you stand out as an applicant, but you don’t find this out until you’re already putting together applications and it’s too late to change?
The bad news is the stress you may feel is very real, but the good news is your fears are misplaced. Students who have completed the prerequisites for medical school and kept their grades up submit successful applications every year, regardless of major.
In fact, statistics from the AAMC show that while 31,540 biological science majors applied to med schools in 2022, only 12,865 matriculated, whereas out of 1,775 humanities majors applicants, 897 matriculated. Given these numbers, it appears 50.54% of humanities majors were successful compared to 40.79% of biology majors.
On the surface, this might seem to confirm something you may have read, namely, that you’re more likely to get into med school by choosing an “easier” major such as English. This is not quite true; you’ll still need to perform exceptionally well in your premed classes so that you display a substantial aptitude for science. Furthermore, as an English major, your required classes are less likely to overlap with your prerequisites for med school, which could mean more work for you during undergrad.
What does all this mean and how should you choose? The best answer is to simply choose something for which you have a passion. If you enjoy what you’re studying, you’re much more likely to keep your grades up and be able to submit a superstar GPA along with your med school applications. With more than 100 majors to choose from at UC Davis, you’re sure to find something that fascinates and excites you.
When should you take the MCAT?
Deciding exactly when to take the MCAT is a vital part of your premed path. Your primary considerations should be when you feel you will be most properly prepared to tackle the test and achieve your highest score. However, each premed has their own individual circumstances and goals to keep in mind when determining the optimal time to take the MCAT.
Perhaps you’re set on going straight to medical school upon graduation or you’re thinking of taking a gap year. Maybe you just don’t think you’ll be able to get all of your classes in during the school year to feel fully ready when you know your summers will be full of extracurriculars. Whatever your situation, it’s worth sorting through your options so that you have an adequate plan in place and a goal in mind.
That said, we usually recommend students take the MCAT sometime during their junior year if they’re not planning to take a gap year. This schedule has the benefit of leaving enough time for a retake if desired and should give you the chance to take courses that will cover material on the test.
UC Davis recommends you have a year in general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, biology, and a course in biochemistry before sitting the exam. English and writing courses can also help especially for the CARS (Critical Analysis and Reasoning Section) of the exam.
While other topics are covered on the exam, many students decide to self-study rather than take courses in sociology or psychology specifically for the MCAT. There is typically not as much material to learn for these sections as the other science-heavy sections. Remember, a good study plan is all about prioritization.
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Part 3: UC Davis premed extracurriculars
As any prehealth advisor will tell you, extracurriculars are a crucial part of a solid application. Adcoms are looking to get to know you as an individual as well as get a sense of your commitment to the field of medicine outside of your biology and science classes.
The daily grind of a practicing physician can be tough and it involves a plethora of skills in addition to the in-depth knowledge of the mechanics of biological systems. There are admin skills, people and communication skills, leadership skills, decision-making skills, and long hours where you’ll have to maintain a bright composure and your sense of humanity.
If that seems like a tall order, it’s all part of the job and adcoms want to see that you’re up to the task. In order to communicate this effectively on your application, you’ll need to have enough extracurriculars to showcase your many talents.
All of this begs the question, what are the best extracurriculars to help you stand out and get into med school? Broadly speaking, you’ll need a combination of volunteering, research, and shadowing hours to make adcoms take notice and as a premed at UC Davis, you’ll have plenty of chances to pad out your resume through engagement with student groups, volunteering, research, and shadowing.
As a first step, make sure you join the UC Davis Pre-Med American Medical Student Association. By remaining plugged in, you can hear of opportunities as they arise and take advantage of them quickly. We’ll look at other ways you can gain experience in more detail below.
Suggested Reading: (How to Choose the Right Extracurricular Activities for Medical School)
Volunteering at UC Davis
There are numerous types of volunteering experiences that would benefit premeds on their journey to med school. These experiences can include the immensely important clinical variety and expand into community volunteering efforts. Both types will help to bolster your application and while we consider clinical volunteering to be essential, volunteering in other capacities should not be discouraged.
During your time as a UC Davis premed, you’ll have access to opportunities that span the full spectrum of ways you can give of your time. One fantastic place to start is the Internship and Career Center (ICC) which manages health-related internships (HRI) around campus. The list of internships is updated each quarter and you must meet specific requirements for each opportunity, so be sure to check back often and check thoroughly. If you need a little extra reminder, you can subscribe to the ICC’s Health and Biological Sciences newsletter.
Keep in mind that your volunteering experiences aren’t solely meant to show that you can handle being a doctor; they should also display your interests and passions. Finding ways to give back to the community that are in line with your abilities and interests is a great way to demonstrate this to adcoms. The city of Davis, California lists opportunities where a helping hand is needed. You could help with gardening projects, planning city events, or working with children, teens, and/or seniors.
Furthermore, there are hundreds of student organizations at UC Davis where you can dive into an interest or develop your leadership abilities. Perhaps you’re interested in meeting other students of your identity or ethnicity, in which case you’ll find plenty of groups such as the Aggie Neurodiversity Community or the Cambodian Student Association. Specifically for premeds, you’ll want to be sure to join the Aggie Premed Mentorship group and the Student National Medical Association which can be found listed in the directory here. For a list of even more health-related student organizations see here.
Another interesting option for UC Davis premeds looking to gain clinical volunteer experience is by joining the UC Davis Health Hospice Volunteer Program. In this role, you’ll support doctors as they provide end-of-life care for patients as well as act as a companion for the ill.
Becoming an EMT could also check off a clinical experiences box on your application and the UC Davis Fire Department has a certification program that may suit you.
You could also reach out to the student-run human health clinics at UC Davis that provide care to underserved and minority populations and of course, there’s also a volunteer program at UC Davis Health Medical Center where you could assist in various capacities at patient care clinics.
Research at UC Davis
UC Davis’ reputation for research excellence extends far beyond its campus and lending your talents to that community as an undergrad will certainly increase your standing on a medical school application.
An excellent place to start in your search is the school’s page on undergraduate research. Here, opportunities abound to delve into a research project that interests you. From finding funding for an idea to working on a team with medical faculty at UC Davis Health, you’ll be able to explore the myriad possibilities here.
If you have an idea you’d like to bring to life, the Provost’s Undergraduate Fellowship offers up to $1500 to engage in research or a creative project under the guidance of UC Davis faculty. Additionally, if you engage in a research project and want further recognition, make sure you apply to have your findings published in Explorations, the UC Davis undergraduate research journal.
Shadowing at UC Davis
Finding shadowing opportunities as a premed is a challenge no matter where you’re enrolled. Most schools don’t offer programs that students can sign up for to gain shadowing experience, which necessitates researching and connecting with physicians on the student’s part.
Shadowing is arguably the most valuable experience an aspiring physician can obtain as it shows adcoms you’ve had direct experience with the difficulties of day-to-day life in the medical profession. But how do you find these opportunities? What’s the right way to reach out to a doctor? How do you ask someone to give freely of their time and knowledge when you’re sure their time is very limited?
As a first step, we advise students to make use of their school’s resources and connections as much as possible. Make sure you work together with the Health Professions Advising office as they will be able to assist you in finding opportunities. UC Davis also has connections to many hospitals in the region where you might find shadowing opportunities. A few of these hospitals are:
Also, don’t forget to check with the UC Davis Health School of Medicine for ways you might gain shadowing experience.
If all of that doesn’t result in at least some good leads, you might want to begin reaching out to doctors directly. Cold emailing is one way to do it, but a slightly better approach would be using a warm emailing strategy. By this, we mean finding some kind of connection or common ground with a physician. For example, it’s a good idea to start with family or organization connections. Are there any distant relatives who practice medicine or family members that are good friends with doctors? Are there any doctors that are members of your church or community organization?
Additionally, professional social networking sites such as LinkedIn are great resources for information. This will allow you to search for doctors who share UC Davis as an alma mater, something you can use as an icebreaker. Also, if you’re seeking to make connections with a doctor engaged in research that excites you, you may be able to learn about that from their profile. This can be especially useful if you’re considering an MD-PhD path.
Suggested Reading: (How to Ask to Shadow a Doctor)
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Part 4: Getting into medical school as a UC Davis premed
You’ve worked hard for almost four years, kept your grades up, and made sure you succeeded in completing all the necessary premed requirements while racking up those crucial hours spent on extracurricular activities. Now, comes the final part of your premed journey—actually getting into medical school.
Where you earn your bachelor’s degree is ultimately less important than what you’ve done during your time there, but as a UC Davis premed, you’ll have some support available on your journey. Be sure to meet with a health professions advisor as you’re preparing your applications as they can provide valuable feedback on what you’ve done well and what you can do better. They are happy to give advice on personal statements and even conduct mock interviews with you.
The UC Davis Health Professions Advising office also hosts many events throughout the year aimed at helping ambitious premeds put their best foot forward on their applications. Also, don’t forget to sign up for their newsletter to stay on top of announcements and activities.
UC Davis premed acceptance rate and admissions statistics
As mentioned earlier, we know that UC Davis produces a high number of med school applicants, however, there is no data on how many of those applicants were actually accepted or where they ended up matriculating.
Although, we do know that specifically for the UC Davis School of Medicine (SOM), out of 7,847 applications in the 2022 cycle, 133 of those students matriculated. While matriculation is not the same as an acceptance rate, we can at least infer that getting into med school even as a UC Davis premed will demand focused effort and attention.
However, there is hope. If your ultimate goal as a UC Davis premed is acceptance into UC Davis SOM, we do know that a whopping 67% of those matriculants graduated from University of California schools, so it’s safe to say there is a clear preference for these candidates. While there isn’t any hard data suggesting UC Davis premeds possess an advantage over other California residents, there’s no reason to assume that after spending years building relationships with doctors and faculty that a glowing letter of recommendation from someone at that school wouldn’t give your application a bit of a boost.
Final thoughts
The premed path at UC Davis into medical school is truly a marathon and not a sprint. Your organizational talents, long-range planning, and discipline will be tested along with your grit and determination to succeed. If you make sure to take advantage of the resources available to you and create a proper plan, your dream of medical school entry will become a reality.
About the Author
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on medical school admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into medical school using his exclusive approach.
