Am I possible competition or just have no chance?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello to anyone who reads this.

I am currently a junior in high school who has just started summer. Ultimately, my goal is to enter either UPenn, Duke, Emory, or John’s Hopkins in pre-med and computer science.

Currently, as a junior I have a 3.7 gpa out of 4.0 unweighted. This is because I originally went to one school and had a 4.0 gpa. But, when I moved to another school in 10th grade, my grades fell severly (down to B’s from A’s) which caused my GPA to fall. But, by eleventh grade, I was able to get an a+ in all of my classes apart from BC Calculus, which I got a B in. I have taken 8 AP’s, being AP Human Geography, AP Biology, AP Government, AP Macroeconomics, AP BC Calculus, AP Lang, AP Physics, and AP Computer science. I got 4 or 5 on all exams except for Biology, which I got a 3( I took it in 10th grade, when I moved)

Originally my SAT score was 1380. Then it went down to 1370. I then took the ACT and got a 28. The second time I took it I got a 35.

In school, I have lead rolls in many clubs relating to computer science and engineering along with roles of my interest, such as being the studio manager of my middle and high school. I am also a member of some clubs such as FBLA and Model UN. However, I have only shadowed doctors in different states and a chemistry professor. I have done no volunteering in a hospital and I will be unavailable to in the summer. However, overall, I have roughly 300 hours total.

The reasoning behind why I don’t have anything for medical was because it wasn’t my plan. I decided in March that I wanted to after going to my aunt’s graduation and seeing the work that she does while I stayed with her.

Sorry this post is so long. Essentially my question is… Do I have a chance? I know that there is a lot of competition out there and my GPA is seriously lacking along with me choosing premed so late. Any feedback you can give me is seriously helpful and willake me less stressed. Thank you.

P.S. if I missed any policy of CollegeConfidential that I am supposed to include, I am terribly sorry. If you have any questions, I will answer as soon as possible

2

It seems to me that you are panicking way too much about your “late” choice to pursue med school. As long as you know that once you get to college, you want to take the prerequisites for med school and obtain the volunteer and research experience needed to get in, then that’s fine. You don’t need to “get into” a pre-med program per se. You just need to get into college, the same as if you did not yet have premed intentions.

That said, pursuing premed as a CS major is a fairly steep road, because CS is a tough major that tends to make it hard to get the super-high college GPA that you’ll need for med school admissions. So, if you decide to attempt the premed-CS path, you should choose a college carefully to set yourself up for success.

You have a very rigorous courseload, and that 35 ACT will help a lot! The colleges you are targeting are reaches for all applicants, though… and going to the absolute-most-competitive undergrad school does not increase your odds of getting into med school.

What do you ultimately hope to do with the CS-medicine combo? Having an idea of what you’re picturing might help to highlight what colleges would best help you to get there.

What is your home state?

Are you male or female?
Can your family pay your full Expected Family Contribution (either after financial aid, or without financial aid) for undergrad and still have enough left to fund med school?

Bottom line - don’t panic about the premed issue, but do factor your desire for that option into your planning, both academically and financially. With a little more information per the questions above, folks here should be able to help you bring things into better focus.

3

I am a male Indian from Pennsylvania. My family can pay with assistance from financial aid and be able to fund both.

Thank you for your response. I know that it is a reach for all the schools, but after much research, these are the top schools near me that I am really interested in. My main concern was that I had nothing in pre-med whereas a lot of others do and my low low gpa.

I also wanted to add that I got an 800 in Bio M, Physics, Chem, and Math 2. Please feel free to ask anything else.

My main stress is that I have sren many people struggle and push to do thingsfor college and i feel that I have not done enough.

In regards to computer science, I am the President of my schools Programming Club and Robotics club. I am a tutor for robotics at the middle school and have worked as an assistant general manager at an oracle based consulting company. I also know 4 languages and tutor them to kids. This is what I plan to tell to colleges. Hopefully this is enough.

My goal is to essentially get a major in Computer Science and also do pre-med with the intention of becoming a doctor (eventually specializing) but also having computer science in case I lose interest or I plan on combining the two. Feel free to ask me any questions and thank you for your time.

4

First of all, as a PA resident, you have the perfect safety in Pitt. Your standardized tests will automatically qualify you for Honors. It’s a terrific place to get the medicine-related volunteer/shadowing and research experience that you’ll need, and it’s strong in engineering-CS too. I know you have your heart set on a top-20 private U, but you need at least one safety school, and Pitt fits your needs and stats perfectly. Also consider their Bioinformatics major, which is a perfect crossover between CS and medicine - it would both strengthen your med school application and give you a direct path into an in-demand medical-and-CS related career without med school if you were to change your mind. https://cs.pitt.edu/degrees/bioinformatics/

Case Western Reserve is another school to consider in your region, with top-notch engineering-CS and a top med school with research/shadowing/volunteering opportunities. Also check out University of Rochester (also top STEM and med school). Since you like Duke and Emory, consider Vanderbilt (paging @srk2017 !) and Tulane as well. In the Chicago area, why do you prefer UChicago to Northwestern? Northwestern is more pre-professional, with an engineering school and a med school, and socially it’s much more like your other choices than UChicago is.

UPenn, Duke, Emory, and JHU all offer binding Early Decision. One thing you’ll need to decide is whether to pick one to appy ED to. UPenn in particular has a very wide gap between their ED and RD acceptance rates; they fill over half their entering class with ED applicants. On the one hand, applying ED gives you some advantage at the school you choose (it varies how big of an advantage), but on the other hand, locking in another semester of top grades before applying could help too, in your situation.

But to answer your question, there’s really nothing you absolutely must prove in terms of premed “cred” in the undergrad admissions process. If you wanted to, you could apply purely as a CS major and then decide to take premed classes once you were in. Nobody has to “accept” you, on the front end, to be premed - the filter is in your performance in the premed classes, not in being allowed to take them. (JHU, for example, boasts very high med school admissions statistics, but that’s because they only allow the top performers to apply to med school at all.) However, at many schools it can be harder to get in as a CS major than otherwise, so you’ll need to factor that in at the schools you choose to apply to. Also look at the CS curriculum and see how difficult it will be to complete the CS degree and the premed requirements in four years - schools will vary on how difficult this might be. (Another option would a school like Northeastern that offers CS+X combined degrees. You could major in CS+Biology, for example https://www.ccis.northeastern.edu/program/bs-combined-major-for-computer-science-and-biology/ and seek co-ops that would give you the clinical experiences you need.)

Anyway, good luck - it sounds like you’re on the right track with your preparation - just make sure you choose a range of schools to apply to, not only reaches. This is true for everybody.

5

Thank you very much for your response. I have given thought to other schools such as Pitt, but most of my stress went into whether I even had a chance at reach schools. I know I asked this a lot but I didn’t quite see your response. Is my GPA too low? Will me moving from one school to another get some sort of “sympathy” points and also show credibility in that I can handle moving to another school since I have been improving year by year? Or will they think that I couldn’t handle it the first time so I can’t handle it now?

6

I think the bottom line is that you cannot predict how it will go at any one school. Different admissions departments and individuals within those departments will react differently. You have a lot of strengths. I wouldn’t aim for “sympathy” per se (that could easily backfire), but if you can communicate a compelling and articulate story that includes how you have overcome and learned from particular setbacks in your life, then a few weaker grades may not be a deal-killer. Then again, in some instances you could get sorted into the “no” pile without that deeper look, because they are simply looking for any reason to thin the herd. Most of these schools accept under 10% of applicants, and have to turn down many more qualified applicants than they take, so it isn’t just a matter of convincing them that you’re qualified - it’s a matter of making it into the “qualified” pile and THEN getting chosen over half a dozen other qualified applicants.

I guess what I’m saying is that I would be shocked to see you get into all four of these schools, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see you get into one, maybe even two depending on the strength of your essays. It’s just that with those kind of odds, applying to only four schools would be a big gamble. It’s more than possible that you could shut out of all four - certainly you’ve got a chance, just not a chance you can count on without a Plan B. Nobody can give you any more certainty than that. Statistically speaking, you need to cast a wider net, and include at least one well-chosen safety, to avoid coming up empty-handed.

7

Thank you. I have considered a plethora of safeties. However I am fairly confident in getting into those schools. The schools I am less confident in are the reach schools that I listed. My plan is to apply to 12-15 schools. But yes I do agree that if I solely applied to those four schools, I would not have that strong of a chance. Thank you once again.

8

Vanderbilt is stats heavy school, so your GPA may be an issue, but your standardized scores are great. Vanderbilt values leadership. All other schools you are interested need something beyond stats like strong ECs, either medals in academic competitions or lot of service and as a male Indian, you know schools get lot of students with 4.0 GPAs and perfect scores.

Your chances improve with ED and you have better chance with Emory.

9

I don’t have a lot of awards. However, I would say that I have a lot of ecs with clubs I started and having lead roles in other clubs. I also have roughly over 300-400 hours. Senior Year, I am taking 7 AP courses, all of which are of my interests. Would colleges factor the fact that I have been improving over the years or like aquapt said, they would see the number and put my application away?

10

I didn’t say they would dismiss your application; I only said there were no guarantees. Your goal is to engage the interest of the people reading your application and get them to give you a close, holistic look. But the admissions process is a black box and you can’t know for sure whether you’ll make the first cut to get that closer look. There are aspects of this that you can control, but there’s also an element of randomness that you cannot control. Just what it is.

Re: Emory… make sure you apply to the Oxford College option as well as the Emory College of Arts & Sciences. My sense is that you might write off the Oxford College option as not being the Real Thing, but here’s why you should not write it off: If you want to get into med school, you want the absolute best possible GPA in your premed classes. If you spend your first two years at the Oxford College campus of Emory, you could get those core premed classes done in a setting with smaller classes and more individual attention, and a better shot at the coveted Perfect GPA to get you into med school. You could also get a start on the CS major; but your #1 goal in those first two years would be to get the premed core done with perfect grades. In your final two years at the main campus, you could move on to the advanced offerings in CS, as well as the shadowing, research, and volunteer experience you’ll need for your med school apps. It could really be best of both worlds for you; and an Emory degree is an Emory degree. Definitely apply to both A&S and Oxford, to keep that option open. Applying to both will boost your chances of getting into at least one; and attending Oxford could end up strengthening your med school application in the long run. If you get into both then you can ponder the choice between them; but for now keep your options open.

11

Wow. That thought did not even cross my mind. Thank you aquapt. You have seriously been a great help to me.