Acceptance to premed or biology major?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, I ended junior year with the stats that follow;
UW Gpa: 3.2
Weighted: 4.1
Act- 30

Sports: Swimming 3 years

Clubs: 1 year Student Council

Volunteer: 50 hours at a near by facility
(Also had 200 overseas at a nursing home but idk if that counts)

Worked for near a year as a cashier
(200 hours approx)

I’m new to how to apply for colleges and wanting to know if I have any chances at premed majors in specifically in Illinois or other colleges that might offer me scholarships. Idk what major to choose but lets say biology for now and the schools I’m most interested are UIUC, northwestern, possibly Loyola

Thanks for reading and please give me advice on the best premed schools and tracks I have.

2

Congrats on your hard work and success! It sounds like you will need an in-state school and/or financial aid to make a school affordable. You might want to run the Net Price Calculators at schools where you have an interest. That will give an estimate of what your family might be expected to pay at that school. Here’s a link to Northwestern’s NPC.

https://npc.collegeboard.org/student/app/northwestern

Northwestern is very competitive and your stats will fall below the 25/75 range for the school, which makes admission difficult unless there are some other significant factors.

You might also google schools that meet full financial need. Unfortunately these include many of the most competitive schools. Some great schools that might be accessible to you include Beloit College, Clark University (MA), College of Wooster, Earlham College, Franklin and Marshall, Mount Holyoke or Smith (both MA) (if you are female), Saint Olaf College, Sewanee (beautiful campus), and Wheaton College (MA, not the one in IL). These are pretty much all small LACs. I’m not sure if that appeals to you. But they are places where you can work hard and get a great education. Good luck!

3

There is no premed major. While there are some required courses that you must take as a premed, you can major in anything. It doesn’t even have to be a science.

4

Ok thanks. So are the schools you searched for me ones that might give me full tuition? And with these grades do I not have a chance at getting into UIUC or Loyola biology?

5

I’m new to this so sorry for asking a stupid question. What do people mean by choosing a major then? Do medical scares not care what you take as long as you fulfill the courses? And so why would you take a biology major instead of lets say dance class?

6

Medical schools have course requirements you need to take in college prior to applying.

General Chemistry + Lab (1 year)
Organic Chemistry + Lab (1 year)
Biology + Lab (1 year)
Physics + Lab (1 year)
English (1 year)
Some schools may require you to take Biochemistry (1 semester), Statistics, Calculus, or some Social Sciences.

Majoring in a science like Biology will fulfill your degree and your Medical school course requirements simultaneously so many students will select a science based major.

Course requirements are only part of the Medical school application process. You also need to have Medically related EC’s such as shadowing/volunteering/research etc…

Selecting a non-science major such as dance would require that you would need to take specific classes for your Dance major degree along with fitting in the Medical school course requirements and any needed EC’s for your dance major plus Medical EC’s.

Again, you can major in any subject you would prefer, but you still need to take these Medical school pre-req courses to apply.

The best pre med major is the one that you’re interested in most.

7

I would think you’d be competitive at UIUC or Loyola, but I’m not that familiar with admissions at these schools. The schools I listed at least claim to meet full need if you are accepted, or close to it. So if your family can afford to pay $10k, the school will cover the rest. If it can pay $5k, then it will cover the rest. If your family can’t pay any, they will cover the whole thing. (It is important to note that some schools are “need blind,” meaning they claim not to consider ability to pay in the admission process and some are “need aware,” meaning they will consider your ability to pay in reviewing your application.)

Obviously the schools that can meet full need tend to be wealthy and competitive–Harvard, Yale, Williams, Amherst, U Penn, etc. They were competitive before, and it doesn’t hurt the number of applicants that they commit to covering all costs that a student cannot afford. Many will even pay travel costs.

I tried to include ones where you would seem to be competitive. Harvard, etc. are reaches for everyone, and pretty much impossible without extremely high test scores and GPA, or some special “hook.” The ones I listed are excellent schools where you’d at least be a very competitive applicant. You can accomplish what you want to accomplish at them. You’ll have to see, in the end, what costs they’d cover.

So apply to UIUC and Loyola, both great, and Northwestern if that is a dream for you. I think some of the others look like possibilities given your interests, etc.

You’re a rising senior and will be applying soon. Focus on getting off to a strong start this school year. Study hard and complete all your assignments. If you are waitlisted somewhere, they will want to see your first semester grades. Enjoy your friends and opportunities. Many of the schools I threw out are in the Midwest where you apparently live. Demonstrating interest in a school can be helpful also. Try to visit ones that look good, if you can, and interview if you can. If you can’t, sign up for info on the school’s admissions site. Sometimes the school will host events in your area. If you are on the list, you will get notified. An example: one of my son’s top choices was a school about a 4-hour drive away that we had visited a few months before. He signed up with the school’s admission office. We were planning to go back for an interview (he interviewed well) but got a card that it was conducting interviews at a hotel near our home. We signed up and had about a 15-minute drive to the hotel, not a 4-hour drive back to the campus.

If you have questions about the school, you can email the school’s admission rep for your region or city. They usually have this info available on the contact/staff portion of the admissions website. It’s best not to ask a question whose answer is available on the website. But if you are wondering something about the school or its culture, small schools like to hear from prospective students. It’s a way to start a dialogue. The next few months are a good time. They will get busy in October or November when early applications start rolling in. The same person who answers your email will also be the one whose reading those applications. This is less true at a large school like UIUC.

Good luck at UIUC, Loyola, Northwestern, or elsewhere. (If you are interested in Loyola, Creighton in Omaha might be another option. Excellent school in a pretty cool town; I’m not sure about financial aid.)

8

Perhaps its time go read a book on college admissions that goes thru the whole process of selecting a college and understanding what to look for.

9

“And so why would you take a biology major instead of lets say dance class?”

Anecdotally, my D is a Dance major and intends to apply to DPT programs (Doctor of Physical Therapy). The prerequisite requirements are very similar as those for med school (DPT does not require organic chemistry). It takes discipline as the dance courses while not necessarily as academically demanding do require a lot of time in rehearsals, in costuming, sets, etc… The prerequisite courses require more studying and of course time in the lab and scheduling courses can be challenging. In my D’s case the dance is what inspired her interest in Physical Therapy and she really enjoys Biology and Anatomy. There seems to be a symbiotic relationship between the paths.

Regardless of the path chosen you will need to be disciplined and focused. It is important that you do very well in all of your courses. You will need to spend time learning what will be expected as a medical school applicant. Summers and time off might be spent with doctors, volunteering in hospitals and preparing for MCATs. Good luck in your applications and your future.

10

In order to get a college degree (BA or BS), you will have to complete a number of courses/units that the school you attend requires. These reqs will vary from school to school. These required courses/units will generally be in three areas (GE (gen ed), major reqs, or “other”). GE courses are typically meant to give students a broad educational experience in a wide variety of areas (humanities, science, math, writing, fine arts, religion, etc). Major reqs are the main focus of your college education in an area that you pick (eg STEM (ie science, tech, engineering, math), or art, or history, or music, or foreign lang, or whatever, etc). Your college diploma will reflect your major as when you graduate you will be awarded a BA/BS in whatever major you picked (eg BS in Biology).“Other” courses are pretty much courses you pick for any number of reasons (eg because you may have an interest in, you can fit in your schedule, etc). If you take enough “other” courses in the same area (eg psych) you may also earn a minor. A minor typically requires completing half the number of reqs that a major requires.

Med schools require a college degree and completion of premed reqs. Med schools do not care what your major is (or if you minor). They will not care if you pick an arguably hard major (eg engineering) and do poorly. They will care a lot about how well you do in all your classes.

There’s nothing preventing you from being a bio major and taking a dance class if it satisfies a GE or “other’ school req, or just out of interest or fun.

As most premeds never get to point of applying or even getting into med school, you should have a Plan B in mind. You’ll need to look into what would you do with a bio degree if you change your mind about a career in medicine. PhD?? Good luck.