American University vs GWU for biological sciences?

College Search & Selection
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<p>So ya, I am currently a senior. For a while, I wanted to go into film, because I thought something akin to "It's an easy job that can make alot of money", and it did interest me, but I only "settled" for it, because I gave into my limitations of not being good at math. My true passions do lie in biological science/research, so a week or two ago, I started over most of my college list (good thing I was ahead of the game).</p>

<p>I'm not quite sure what I want my major to be, but biochem, biology, chemistry...something like that, that can help ease me into the biomedical field (not biological engineering/biomed engineering, as I could not take physics in my highschool career, and most engineering schools require physics).</p>

<p>Here are the other schools I'm applying to.
UW Seattle
WSU
Santa Clara
Northeastern
Villanova
University of San Diego (USD)
Loyola Marymount in maryland</p>

<p>Mind you I am not an amazing student. I have a 3.10ish UW, but I am in full IB. I am hispanic, neither of my parents went to college, and to be frank; they have made learning in such a rigorous program rather difficult for me (gone into detail in my essay). I live in Washington. The main thing I am looking for in my schools are 1) Being in a good area for biomedical/scientific research, and 2) Having good programs in biology, chemistry, biochemistry, etc. and 3) Offering research opportunities for undergraduates.</p>

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<p>And I’m asking which of these two, because I figure since both are in the DC area, I’ll have access to the same companies which offer research, internships, etc.</p>

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<p>bump bump bump. One thing I should note is that my parents together make something like $85,000? Not poverty line…but still not opulence. And my weighted GPA is much higher than my UW.</p>

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<p>What is your SAT score? You may want to consider Tulane.</p>

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<p>What are your test scores?</p>

<p>What is your weighted GPA?</p>

<p>How much will your parents pay? </p>

<p>Do you know what your likely EFC will be?</p>

<p>What school do you know for SURE that you can afford to go to? (which schools do you know that you’ll have all costs covered?)</p>

<p>Quick EFC
<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid; </p>

<p>Do your parents not want you to go to college???</p>

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<p>I 3rd the questions about weighted GPA and SAT or ACT scores.</p>

<p>Incidentally, I’ll bet intro Physics classes are actually easier than intro Engineering, but you’re right to steer clear of both if you are not strong (or want to be strong) in math.</p>

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<p>My sat is a 2000 first time, but I am paying to take it again. I don’t know my weighted GPA yet, I’ll see my counselor sometime soon about that. Have not taken the ACT. I don’t really want to go to Tulane, because 1) New Orleans has little to offer in the way of biological sciences, and 2) I’d reckon it’s more competitive than all the others on my list.</p>

<p>My parents are going to pay “state school expenses”, so basically if I go to WSU or UW, they will pay for that. I know I wouldn’t qualify for a pell grant, but the “quick” calculator says about $13,000 is our EFC, but I would assume in reality it is more.</p>

<p>Basically, my parents are the type who think school is just “readin, writin, rithmatic”. My dad makes most of our money, and I don’t think he’s stupid by any means, but he strongly has that mindset. He always tells me I should watch the husky game with him, instead of studying for bio/calc, reading…etc. He didn’t go to college, and he doesn’t think you need to go to college to have a good life, but he did decide he would give that option to me and my sister (who is at western washington university). My mom is, in all honesty…well, just low on the totem pole of intelligence. For example, up until a few days ago, she thought Japan and China were the same thing. My dad is a customer service manager for a small business, and my mom is a cafeteria employee at an intermediate school.</p>

<p>I have paid for all of my IB tests, both of my SATs, books for english since junior year, and will be paying the application fees to these schools. My dad is the type who thinks “what the hell do they/you need this crap for?”, so I’m doing all of that…and my dad is paying for my college education.</p>

<p>DunninLA: Pretty much. I struggled through precalc…and am struggling through calc…but I’m merely doing it in the effort to get better at it, and to transcend genetics, the nurture policy, my upbringing, etc.</p>

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<p>Anyway, point is, for undergrad between AU and GWU, which is better for biological sciences? I know that I am not a top tier candidate, but I figure I can try just as much as anyone else can.</p>

<p>Heads up: Turns out I have a 3.2 UW GPA, haha, slightly better.</p>

<p>And I don’t really know which I like better. DC is a pretty good area for scientific research. I can’t say I’ve visited either of them, DC, or even the east coast, but neither campus looks bad. I like that AU is smaller, but reading up, it seems GWU has more research opportunities associated with national-research organizations (although I cannot tell if this is focused more towards graduates.)</p>

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<p>bump bump bump</p>

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<p>My sat is a 2000 first time, but I am paying to take it again. I don’t know my weighted GPA yet, I’ll see my counselor sometime soon about that. Have not taken the ACT. I don’t really want to go to Tulane, because 1) New Orleans has little to offer in the way of biological sciences, and 2) I’d reckon it’s more competitive than all the others on my list.</p>

<p>What is your SAT breakdown?</p>

<p>My parents are going to pay “state school expenses”, so basically if I go to WSU or UW, they will pay for that. I know I wouldn’t qualify for a pell grant, but the “quick” calculator says about $13,000 is our EFC, but I would assume in reality it is more.</p>

<p>So, your parents have said that they will pay tuition, room, board and books for instate UW or Wash ST? Or do you live near one of these schools and they expect to pay tuition and have you commute?</p>

<p>Anyway…The COA of UWash is</p>

<p>Budget Items Lives with Parents/Relative Undergrad Traditional Undergrad </p>

<p>Tuition $8,701
Books $1,035</p>

<h2>Room/Board $9,399 </h2>

<p>Direct costs…about …$18,100</p>

<p>Personal $2,265</p>

<h2>Transportation $642 </h2>

<p>Resident Total Costs $22,042 </p>

<p>***
.and my dad is paying for my college education.***</p>

<p>Well, yes, if you go instate. </p>

<p>Is your dad aware of how much in-state schools cost? Is he prepared to pay at least $18k per year out of a $85k per year income? Ask to be sure. He may not realize how much it all costs.</p>

<p>A 3.2 GPA is not likely going to get you any/much merit scholarships. If your weighted GPA (on your transcript) gets you a much higher GPA and your SAT goes up to - say - 2100 (at least 1400 M+CR), then you have a better chance at some good merit scholarships.</p>

<p>I don’t see how American U or GWU will be affordable since neither school meets need and your current stats won’t get your big scholarships. </p>

<p>Frankly, I’m not sure why you’ve chosen those 2 schools. They may have fine bio programs, but what is special about those 2 schools for you?</p>

<p>Keep in mind that you’ll also have expensive transportation costs coming from Wash. You’ll have to estimate about $1200+ per year just in transportation costs.</p>

<p>If your weighted GPA ends up much higher (when can you find out) and your SAT improves (especially the M+CR), then other schools are possible.</p>

<p>Right now, your school list contains schools that will gap you.</p>

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<p>I will correct your mistaken notion about Tulane and biology opportunities, but it is a moot point. You would never get enough merit money to make up for what your parents won’t pay. But just so you and others reading this know, between Tulane itself, the med school, and the opportunities for research in the gulf, there are lots of research projects involving biology in the area.</p>

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<p>you guys keep talking about weighted GPAs, but what you guys aren’t aware of is that the state of washington actually banned weighted GPAs through their state legislature. i know this from personal experience because i went to high school in WA and graduated full IB but had some kids ranked ahead of me who were taking 2 periods of PE, 2 free periods, and pottery senior year.</p>

<p>unless you go to a private school, washington high schools only give you unweighted GPAs.</p>

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<p>I would decide between American & GW based upon the odds of getting more merit. Even with merit, either school may not be financially affordable considering travel costs, etc.</p>

<p>I’ve heard from a few students – 2 who applied for the 2009 entering class & 1 who is applying for the 2011 class – that American doles out a good deal of money for the sciences in an effort to attract students to the departments. I also think overall American is an easier school to gain admissions.</p>

<p>I recommend American for these reasons.</p>

<p>Many posters are focuses on the cost – but with UDub and WSU I think you are covering financial safeties.</p>

<p>I would suggest you reconsider Nova – they are notoriously not very genereous. Unless they make allowances for geo. diversity, I think you should expect a financial aid with “GAP” between your family’s EFC and the package offered.</p>

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<p>but what you guys aren’t aware of is that the state of washington actually banned weighted GPAs through their state legislature. i know this from personal experience because i went to high school in WA and graduated full IB but had some kids ranked ahead of me who were taking 2 periods of PE, 2 free periods, and pottery senior year.</p>

<p>If the state did that, it must be insane. Not only should they have better things to do, but this sounds like some kind of weird “leveling the playing field” between AP/IB students and those who aren’t really college prep students. Idiotic. Socialism for GPA. What’s next??</p>

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<p>It isn’t that, M2CK, it is that different high schools use different systems, even different weighting systems, so it becomes impossible to compare anyway. By reducing the GPA to a straight 4.0 scale and then taking into account how many honors, AP, IB, and/or college courses a student has taken, they still give the high achieving student their due recognition and assessment. Not doing that would be silly, as you say, it is just that even a weighted GPA number doesn’t always convey that information correctly. There are a number of private schools that do the same thing, if somewhat less formally that a “ban”.</p>

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<p>It’s not that hard to come up with a standardized system. If the state had time to legislate to ban it, then it had time to determine a standard. </p>

<p>AP/IB A = 5.0</p>

<p>Honors A = 4.5</p>

<p>Reg A = 4.0</p>

<p>or some standard variant.</p>

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<p>They could enforce that with public high schools in their state, but that is all. Doesn’t solve the problem.</p>

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<p>Well, they could never force the privates either way, so eliminating weighted grades did nothing in that respect as well …right?</p>

<p>Anyway…privates are MUCH more likely to follow the state’s lead with a standardized (and not ridiculous) weighting of grades then the other way around. There’s no way that privates are going to eliminate weighting of grades because part of their calling card is that they offer a more challenging curriculum. They’re not about to screw their students with an unweighted GPA just because their state is doing so. </p>

<p>And…the DoE of the state could get some input from some top privates in the state to get (an albeit unenforceable) agreement of what the system should be. With input from top private and religious schools in the state, surely something that many could agree to could be worked out.</p>

<p>I know that my kids’ Catholic schools look to the state for some guidance, follow what’s reasonable and good, and ignore the silly stuff.</p>

<p>Getting rid of weighting completely hurts kids for admissions and for scholarships.</p>

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<p>the explanation i got when i complained was that the weighted gpa system was forcing students to only take academic courses due to class rank instead of letting them explore classes that they actually want to take, such as video production, web design, band, art etc.</p>

<p>of course, the side effect is that students who take the most rigorous course load available barely scrape in at the top 10% even if they have a 3.8+! let’s just put it this way. my friend went to princeton and she wasn’t even top 5% at my high school due to 7 or 8 students ranked in the top 5% who took 0-2 IB courses their entire time in high school. my full IB friend had a 3.957 and was NOT in the top 5%.</p>

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<p>the explanation i got when i complained was that the weighted gpa system was forcing students to only take academic courses due to class rank instead of letting them explore classes that they actually want to take, such as video production, web design, band, art etc.</p>

<p>Oh please. Those kids don’t need high rankings when they go to college. It’s the AP/IB kids that need the high rankings. </p>

<p>This sounds like it was devised by educators who don’t have smart kids. LOL</p>