Match me & am I on the right track

I am a sophomore, and I want to know if I am on the right track to get into colleges such as: Georgetown, University of Florida, UCSB, and maybe even Cornell. What can I do to improve? Also, what colleges would you recommend for me?

Demographics
US citizen in Hawaii
Female, white.

Intended Major(s)
Zoology or Biochemistry

Currently, my unweighted gpa is 4.0

Coursework
Taking 2 APs this year. Freshman couldn’t take any last year. Next year, 3-4. Hoping to take 7-10 in total if all goes well.

Extracurriculars
(in no specific order)

  1. Beekeeping. I have been doing it for a few years, own a few hives, sell honey, and I have a job managing someone else’s hive.
  2. Ballet. Have been doing it for many years.
  3. Writing. A writer for an online magazine. Pretty popular, and is written by teens. Will apply to become an editor this year or next year.
  4. Volunteer at a monkey sanctuary, I have 100 hrs. When I turn 17, I will become an animal caregiver and will be able to call it an internship.
  5. Ballet summer intensive - had to audition and be accepted.
  6. Just starting to participate in this research project with a whale organization.

Cost Constraints / Budget
below $50,000 is ideal

You sound like you’re doing very well as far as academics and EC’s. Keep doing what you’re doing!

Now would probably be a good time to gain a better understanding of your financial constraints. You know that you want to keep your yearly costs under 50K, so that’s a good starting point. (And I’m sorry to say, it rules out UCSB and the whole UC system. There are Florida publics that give good merit to top OOS students, but I’m not sure if there are any such opportunities at UF.)

Cornell and Georgetown meet full need, as their financial aid formulae define it. So, run the Net Price Calculators (or ask your parents to do so, if they don’t want to share income/asset numbers with you just yet) for some representative schools in this category, and see whether you’ll get enough financial aid to make full-need-met schools workable. Cornell: Net Price Calculator Georgetown: Net Price Calculator

One affordable option for a Hawaii student is the network of schools with WUE reciprocity. https://wuesavingsfinder.wiche.edu/ U of Utah is particularly good for ballet, and has a great honors college and excellent sciences. Keep Humboldt State on your radar. It’s poised to become the third Cal Poly campus, and it’s particularly strong in all things wildlife-oriented… and with the WUE discount it is very affordable.

If you keep up the way you’re going, there are many schools that will give you enough merit $ to get below $50K… but they will not be in the competitiveness tier of Georgetown/Cornell - most of those schools give need-based aid only.

Are you hoping to go to veterinary school? Go into research?

You have lots of time to figure things out, but getting oriented as far as cost categories will save you pain later on.

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Thank you! Yes, I am hoping to go to vet school, and I know that it is expensive, so less-expensive university for undergrad is better. Still figuring out budget though.

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To add on here, @aquapt is telling you there are no merit scholarships at Gtown and Cornell. Many of the top schools only have need aid.

So when you say $50K, if that’s what you can afford, you’ll possibly qualify for need aid - hence the Net Price Calculators. But if you can afford more but simply only want to spend $50K, then there’s an entire list of colleges you should eliminate up front.

This is some, not all, that offer no merit. Good luck.

Colleges That Don’t Offer Merit Scholarships | Capstone Wealth Partners

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Do you mean $50,000 per year or $50,000 for all four years? I love your beekeeping extracurricular!

per year

What colleges we’d recommend depend on your and your interests. Do you want a large school, small school…nice weather or not, etc. Sports, Greek, etc.

In Hawaii, I believe you can use the WUE.

A school like Arizona / Arizona State will be very inexpensive for you. The UC schools won’t be - so $50K won’t work. Denver, Florida and Florida State (you need an SAT/ACT for Florida schools), Alabama, Miami Ohio, Purdue, Pitt, Oregon…any of those type schools will work. You can do the Honors Colleges etoo.

Cornell - you need to run the net price calculator as they don’t have need. If it shows your expected expense is more than $50K you have to remove it (and Georgetown) as they do not give merit aid, just need based aid.

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Thank you! I do want to go to somewhat of a larger school. I don’t want to go somewhere it is overcast and rainy all of the time. I do want to try and see how a sorority would work out, but I do not want to go to a school where my social life would depend on it. (I know Georgetown doesn’t have greek life) School spirit is important, but I am not a sports player myself. It would be nice if they had a ballet program or classes. I also want to go to a school where the professors teach, not the teacher assistant. Also, I like schools with pretty architecture.

You need a LAC or a school like Miami of Ohio.

Somewhere like Occidental, Macalester, St. Olaf, Oberlin, Vassar

Aesthetics of campus - what some see as beautiful, others don’t.

The further you go down the list the more opportunity for $$ - unless you have demonstrated need. You can find out by doing the net price calc for each school.

The top 30 or so - won’t offer merit aid - with some exceptions of course.

The largest LACs are only 3000 or so - I think Wesleyan is one to look at.

On the flipside. you could do a Public Honors college like an Arizona…and you’ll get profs and small classes but in a large school setting. It’s very affordable. Utah as well, Florida, Florida State, etc. Your non-Honors classes, which most will be, will be huge though and you’ll be taught by TAs in your first few years most likely.

Good luck.

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Strike Cornell from your list. Not only is it overcast/rainy/snow most of the time, unless you qualify for need based aid, it won’t come in under budget.

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What about Butler? SMU?

Based on this, I do not think LAC’s will suit you. You may want to look at University of Miami - they offer merit and lots of sunshine. First-Year Merit Scholarships | Undergraduate Admissions | University of Miami

You are on a the right track. Keep doing what you are doing - Good Luck!!

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Probably not because of WUE, but they do offer large scholarships for high stat applicants (Arizona) or National Merit Finalists (Arizona State). Check their scholarship web sites.

WUE means 1.5 times in-state tuition. Colleges that participate (and some participate only for specific majors) can be found at https://www.wiche.edu/tuition-savings/wue/wue-savings-finder/ . Participating colleges (or majors) are generally not difficult to get into admission-wise (i.e. they have space that they can sell at prices lower than normal out-of-state price).

Our oldest daughter just started in a DVM program, so we have some experience with this.

Veterinary school is expensive. The process to get into a DVM program plus the cost is similar to medical school. The prevet requirements overlap with premed requirements (our daughter took a number of tough premed classes and has quite a few friends who were premed, some are now in medical school). However, veterinarians do not make as much money as doctors. Therefore one of the very important things to keep in mind is that the economics of your education is very important. You need to avoid or minimize debt as much as you can, and try to save $$ in a college fund for your DVM if possible.

Of course if you do not end up in veterinary school you still would be best off to avoid debt. Graduating university with very little or if possible no debt makes it a lot easier to do any one of a wide range of other things after graduation.

You are from a WUE/WICHE state. There are a few DVM programs that give WICHE discounts (WUE is the undergraduate arm of WICHE, for a DVM the graduate / professional part of WICHE could also be valuable). The three public ones are Washington State, Oregon State, and Colorado State. They are all very good.

One thing you might notice if you look at these schools more closely: The overall ranking of the university has almost nothing at all to do with the quality of the animal science program and the DVM program. The most blatant example of this might be Colorado State, which US News has ranked #153 overall, but #3 for veterinary medicine. It deserves the #3 ranking, its DVM program and facilities are superb.

If you look at the incoming students in the very good DVM programs, they come from a very, very wide range of undergraduate schools. You do not need to attend a “big name” university to get a very good undergraduate education and have a shot at getting admitted to a top DVM program (or a different very good graduate program).

Experience dealing with animals is important, and is probably one of the things that got my daughter accepted to multiple DVM programs. Some of this experience included things like cleaning up after cows, reaching inside cows four different ways (it might not be obvious what the forth way is), helping out with surgeries on animals, and helping out in situations with dying animals. Dealing with people is also important since animals generally come with a human. Quite a few universities have programs where you can get some experience over the summer. You can also get some experience working a job over the summer or after graduating from university.

I like your ECs. Both the beekeeping and the monkey sanctuary seem a bit unique and interesting to me. I think that with your high GPA and interesting ECs you are solidly on track to get accepted to an affordable university that will have a very good animal science and pre-veterinary program.

Most people who start off as premed end up doing something different. I am assuming that the same thing is probably true for prevet students also. You definitely should keep other options in mind.

I might add that much like becoming a doctor, becoming a veterinarian is a long path that involves a lot of hard work. You need a certain amount of dedication and determination to stick with it through the point where they hand you a DVM and call you “Doctor”.

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You took two independent statements - one is you can use the WUE.

The next paragraph was saying she’ll do well because of her 4.0 and listed other schools with those two.

So the response is a bit misleading. I was not saying that U of A or ASU would come as part of the consortium which is typically not the name schools.

Thank you

Thank you for this helpful information!

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With the 4.0 U of Arizona is $35k In merit making tuition a steal.

They have a vet science program.

Good luck

https://www.arizona.edu/degree-search/majors/veterinary-science

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I agree with DadTwoGirls who gives great advice, Colorado State was the first thing that came to mind for you. Excellent vet school with excellent pre vet advisors and course work. We also have a son in a DVM program (second year) now so are very familiar with the process. Keep debt down!! Prestige of undergrad program doesn’t matter. GPA and experience are key as are other ECs. Good luck!

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