A critical decision... Help me out!

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>There are many here like curmudgeon who have already gone through the process and are more than willing to help. Curmudgeon only hinted at his D’s stats to try to tell you that ANY school’s pre-med students will be at the top of the class and VERY competitive.</p>

<p>Don’t underestimate the level of competition at any school because just like you everyone has a back story and very different reasons for selecting a given school. Some may be purely financial, others may be due to family issues (sick parent) etc.</p>

<p>My son attended a small private all boys school graduating in a class of 82. Over 25% went to Ivies with 6 to Yale, 3 to Harvard, Penn and Dartmouth, 2 to Princeton and one each to Cornell and Brown. In addition that class sent 3 to Stanford and Duke and 2 to MIT.</p>

<p>My son’s stats were such that he was accepted to Yale (SCEA), Wash U, Stanford and Princeton among others. He withdrew apps to Amherst, Dartmouth, and Pomona after being accepted SCEA at Yale. He turned them all down to accept a Morehead Scholarship at UNC which was the only public he applied to and by far the only “larger” school of the group. To say that it was easy to excel would be pure hubris. There were plenty of very smart kids at UNC with him and among his core group of friends they had a very high level of post grad success. He is one of five (of his core group ) in Med schools that include UTSouthwestern, Baylor, Harvard, Hopkins and Cornell-Weill. His former roommate is at Duke Law. </p>

<p>If you are looking at Furman and are interested in BIG merit money, look at South Carolina. They are throwing HUGE amounts of money to top students (some awards are designed for OOS students) and it is a purely formulaic process. Have an SAT of “X” with a GPA of “Y” and you get “Z” amount of $$$. The higher the combination the more you get. Any award over $2000 annually also gets you in state tuition remission which is worth another approx $15 K annually. My D chose USC over other higher rated schools because they offered the top program in the US for her given major and when all the $$$ finally came in it cost me about $6K total (room and board) for her to attend her first year which was far far less than her private HS had cost. Their honors program is tough to get into but you would find yourself among some fairly smart people and a very caring and involved faculty and you won’t be in Greenville and lacking for things to do.</p>

<p>We’ve all seen plenty of kids with stats and ECs like yours get to college and for whatever reason at some point something goes wrong. Sometimes it’s lack of discipline, sometimes it’s mental and physical burn out and sometimes it’s just that they get there and decide (often too late) that what they thought they wanted a HS junior is no longer what they want as a college junior. For some it’s a complete crash and burn.</p>

<p>The worst end is getting to med school hating it. My son’s class lost almost 15 students by mid year and Baylor recently had at least one suicide in their MS-1 class.</p>

<p>We’d all like to help you and have already been where you are heading (in some cases more than one time) so it would serve you well to put aside the hubris and listen to what is being said.</p>

22

<p>OP the only full rides that I can promise you will come from being a national merit scholar. I am not aware of any LACs that give full nm scholarships, only big unis. I would listen to others about what they said about getting scholarships.</p>

<p>You have a rare opportunity to ask questions of some of the most experienced CC folk, I suggest that you turn the other cheek and start asking questions.</p>

23

<p>Hey, thank you guys. I was just offended by the… um… cute imagery from that one post… I’m not some kind of arrogant prick when it comes to college competition, but hey, I work hard, do well, and have confidence in myself to keep doing so. </p>

<p>But anyway, this is my college list so far: </p>

<p>Grinnell
Case Western Reserve
Furman
Davidson
Washington and Lee
Vanderbilt
Duke
Rice
UF
Tulane</p>

<p>…I do understand I most likely won’t receive a drop of merit aid at most of those schools except for Case Western, Tulane, and maybe Furman. But if worst comes to worst, I honestly have the option of UF Honors College with full scholarship paid through Bright Futures and Florida Pre-Paid, along with an additional 5500/year through NMF.</p>

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<p>Good, make sure that you lock in UF. You might find out that you love the school. I know that I was looking for a LAC feel when I applied to undergrad, and I ended up at one of the biggest unis in the country :D</p>

25

<p>My dad keeps telling me horror stories of classes of 500 at UF, where people with similar NAMES get grades switched up by professors, and eventually end up getting an F when they deserved an A… shudders.</p>

<p>Plus I don’t see how I’m going to have lively class interactions with a class of 100+… like most of my science classes will be.</p>

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<p>This (i.e., grades being switched up) almost happened to my child, even though he went to a much smaller school. He would have gotten a C or B- instead of A if not corrected. Luckily, the professor took action after he had dropped him an email. (I think the size of that particular class is about 200.)</p>

<p>I think you do know by now that almost any pre-med class at most colleges will have 150+ students – you are lucky if it is not 300+! Maybe some LACs or “honor programs” from some state universities are different – but I am not sure. The program like Morehead at UNC will likely be perfect if you could get into it. At some lower “food chain”, I personally know a 2280-2320 SAT scorer (and a rank-1 student from a not so competitive high school) who got into some special program at UT, Dallas with a full ride a few years ago. Many would think that it may be more like a community school and not much “school spirit” there though. (I bet either eadad or curmudgeon would know more about that school as they seem to live close to that school. curmudgeon may not have many good words to say about that school though as he seems to have unfavorable impression about even (most of) UT Austin with an exception of their Plan II. :-))</p>

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<p>I just like to know everyone in a class. Sort of like high school settings… and things go downhill fast when there are a hundred students to each professor (Although I don’t think it will happen to me, it’s always a precaution to take)</p>

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<p>I feel like your naivet</p>

29

<p>Of all the schools on your list, Duke is by far the stingiest with FA and or merit monies. Tulane, Vandy and CWRU have offered good merit awards to CC posters in the past as I recall. I can’t speak to the others but I would add South Carolina, UNC and UVA to your list. They are all significantly smaller than UF and while not currently held in the same regard as UNC and UVA, USC is really an up and comer in everyone’s opinion.</p>

<p>How did you pick Grinnel and CWRU? They are sort of outliers geographically and otherwise.</p>

30

<p>To Acceptd: OK then buddy, tell me… who DOES do well at a decent college? Are you implying that the only place I could be competitive in is a community college? I’m really starting to get annoyed at the attitude in this thread espoused by just demonstrating enough confidence in oneself to say that I could do well in a decent college. </p>

<p>OK, I’m sorry, let me rephrase this so everyone here doesn’t get butt-hurt. It’s quite obvious that when if I go to Furman, I will be absolutely destroyed by everyone in Biology 101, because it’s clear that I lack any academic talent or motivation… Happy?</p>

<p>To eadad:
^^^ Thanks, I’ll look into USC. Grinnell and Case Western apparently both offer good merit aid, so I thought I’d take my chances. Distance isn’t such a huge issue, unless it’s Alaska or something. I thought UNC and UVA were very stingy to OOS students?</p>

31

<p>Take a look at UDelaware. When I was applying to college, they were offering lots of [merit</a> money](<a href=“http://www.admissions.udel.edu/finance/#merit]merit”>http://www.admissions.udel.edu/finance/#merit) to OOS students with great stats. The school is small for a state uni, which might float your boat.</p>

32

<p>OP, your sense of entitlement comes through in this thread of yours also.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/735282-very-special-controversial-situation-me-help.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/735282-very-special-controversial-situation-me-help.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You were doing the same thing to the VERY knowledgeable posters there as you are doing here.</p>

<p>I’m not sure why you get so offended when people simply point out there will be students of YOUR caliber, and gasp, some higher, wherever you go.</p>

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<p>Well you also assumed you would get a 7 on your SL IB math, and you didn’t, even with all those extra classes you took at Embry-Riddle.</p>

<p>Geesh, if you ask for help, try to be gracious and accept it.</p>

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<p>How do you know you want to go into medicine? Just wondering…</p>

34

<p>GA2012MOM:
First of all, what does “not thinking my family deserves to pay $20,000” and “sense of entitlement” have in common? Oh that’s right, nothing. People aren’t pointing out there are students of exceptional caliber wherever I go… they are telling me I will get my (exact quote) “:o handed to me”.</p>

<p>Oh, and IAs are 26% (?) of the IB score. Let’s just say I accept my failures where they are due. </p>

<p>PhonyReal:
I’m committed to doing something with my life that is a little more meaningful than just make a bunch of money for myself… and die. I think a medical career falls under this category.</p>

35

<p>There are many kinds of sensing of entitlement, not just monetary.</p>

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<p>So do many other jobs. There are also a lot of jobs in the health care industry that don’t require an MD/DO degree. So why be a physician? Medical school adcoms will want to know your answer to that question.</p>

37

<p>Two hundred fifty miles of twisty roads at high speed and now…this? lol. </p>

<p>O.K. Now that I have your attention, OP. Let’s get cooking. </p>

<p>Great NMF 1/2 tuition scholarship at University of Southern California, get to compete for full. </p>

<p>Grinnell merit aid? Very limited. Not even half -tuition. Great school but…</p>

<p>Wash and Lee- a real keeper. Good choice. (But a kid who loves Grinnell might not feel the same about W+L, but they could.)</p>

<p>Case Western Reserve- Trustee’s - not quite full-tuition is the effective max (there are a couple of exceptional exceptions) but another good choice.
Furman- great merit aid program, 14 scholarships at full-tuition or higher, many below that. (Were you named a Furman Scholar as a junior? That puts you on their radar.)
Davidson- very limited merit aid, great school</p>

<p>Vanderbilt- tough but maybe. I’d apply.</p>

<p>Duke- lottery</p>

<p>Rice- substantial chance for something, a lot better chance than Duke</p>

<p>UF- your financial safety, great job if you can see yourself attending. If not then keep looking.</p>

<p>Tulane- really good choice . You stand a decent chance at a 1/2 tuition or better merit aid.</p>

<p>I’d check out UMiami, Rhodes, Centre, WashU, Chicago, Emory, Southwestern, Austin College, University of Tulsa, Lake Forest, Wofford, Oglethorpe, Millsaps, Clemson (National Scholars is a heckuva program), South Carolina for starters.( I’ve got loads more.;)) Look at all those and see what you like/dislike from what you can find on the web. Then we can start adding some/culling others. </p>

<p>BTW, ask your folks exactly what they are willing to pay. Get the bottom dollar $ so you know what you have to have in merit aid. That will be the driver in your search. </p>

<p>I’d suggest you look at being an Arkansas Razorback. They’ll throw money at you and they have $300,000,000 Walmart money burning a whole in their pockets. To me, the best bargain in education. Great college town. Livable size campus. Great honors travel stipends and project stipends and …did I mention it’s a great bargain? The financial safety for many, many well-statted Texas kids.</p>

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<p>Well, I had a talk with my dad. He says he wants to support $20,000 for me, but I don’t want that to happen. The maximum I want him to pitch in for me is $10,000, give or take a little. </p>

<p>So I think I’m going to kind of “shotgun” method my applications… Basically, a lot of these schools require no written supplements. So we’re just going to shoot out the applications and see what we get… and then consider the packages they offer us. I’m hoping to get around 15 colleges on the list in the end ($750 applications… pretty measly compared to college prices). </p>

<p>Starting from most selective to least: </p>

<p>5 “Reaches”:
Duke (My school sends SO many people to Duke, I thought I might give it a go anyway… Sent 8 last year)
Williams (Because my dad is insistent… I know I’m not going to get peanuts here. Just to make my dad happy)
Vanderbilt
Rice
Davidson</p>

<p>“Matches”: (Hoping for hefty merit in these):
Washington and Lee
Grinnell
Furman
Case Western
U.Miami (Bright Futures + In-State)</p>

<p>I want to add about 4+ more. </p>

<p>Safety:
UF (Locked)</p>

<p>Funny you mention Razorbacks, my dad was alumni at U. of Arkansas. I asked him about it, and he said it’s only worth it if I was going into business (Walton School of Business)… I talked about Tulane, but my dad said they “were” great about scholarships, but Hurricane Katrina really messed them up badly… </p>

<p>Oh, and THANKS so much! I really appreciate it.</p>

39

<p>OP, I think you overestimate the communityness of a LAC class. Bio is bio, some kids will ask questions others will not. The chances of the class lunching together afterwards are nil. You will have a group of friends, the rest of the kids will come and go. It is very common for students coming in to care about class size, but in all honesty the size of my class has never been a factor in class communal behavior or one on one professor attention (btw, all schools have labs that have 20 or so kids, which is where you will get community feel if anywhere). Some of my largest classes HAVE been the ones that were most conversational and open, where as many of my small 20-30 person classes have been dead silent and unfriendly. Same goes with professors. Except near exams, office hours are almost always barren of students. I have never had trouble getting a prof to know my name and something about me if I wanted to. Whether it was a big or small class, YOU are the one who determines your relationship with your prof.</p>

40

<p>OP, also use the search feature for posts by ST2, a poster whose D had exceptional “fortune” at some great mid-size research U’s. Grinnell is still a bad bet for you, sorry. Check out their max merit award. It won’t get it done.</p>

<p>Look again at Emory, WashU , and Chicago. They may be just the ticket.</p>