<p>First, here are my tentative stats (abridged):
-* ACT:* 33 (will retake)
-* GPA:* 3.98UW, 4.07W
-* AP's:* Chem (3), Euro (4), Calc BC (5), Eng Lang (5)
-* SAT II's:* Math II (800), Chem (690 - will retake)</p>
<p>Second, here are my interests (please help):
-* Pre-Med:* I'm very set on pre-med. I know that many people are, but I have been for quite some time now. I want a place that has great pre-medical resources where I can do resources, have great advising, etc.<br>
-* Grading:* My sister went to prestigious undergrad (NU), got a 3.3 and got rejected to every Dental School. I will work my *** off... seriously, I will. But I don't want to go to some amazing school where there are tons of smart people that dominate me regardless of my studying. I want to go somewhere that I can excel at, but I also don't want to give up an education. After all, I need to be very prepared for the MCAT, and college is a time for learning. But I don't want to have my GPA take a hit because of it.
-* Athletics:* I love sports... especially basketball. And I like watching football a lot too. It'd be great to be in a place where people are really connected through sports. Or at the very least, where people have good interest in sports. I know that as a pre-med I won't have that much time for going to every home game, but I'd still love a good experience for when I do. Plus, I can talk about sports for hours.
-* College Town or Big City: * This is the lowest priority for me, but it's a nice asset. I wouldn't mind living in something else, but a college town where everyone is connected or a big city where I can experience tons of stuff sounds great.</p>
<p>If I think of more, I'll add it. PLEASE HELP! I'm applying in 4 months!</p>
<p>Btw, I currently have Duke, Iowa (my state school), Michigan, Northwestern, Rice, and Brown on my list. Any recommended schools to put on/take off this list?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Make sure you have safeties which you know that you will be admitted to and you know that you can afford.</p></li>
<li><p>Delete any schools that you would not choose over your safeties.</p></li>
<li><p>Consider streamlined bachelor’s to medical school programs, such as [Brown</a> PMLE](<a href=“The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University”>The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University). These do have minimum academic standards to maintain during your undergraduate study in order to retain automatic admission to medical school, but the standards might not be as high as those needed to gain admission to medical school the usual way.</p></li>
<li><p>Make sure that you have a backup plan in case you do not get into any medical school (the vast majority of pre-meds do not get into any medical school). The common biology major has poor job and career prospects at the bachelor’s level. Consider other academic and professional interests when selecting a major; pre-med can be done with any major.</p></li>
<li><p>Medical school is expensive. Try to minimize undergraduate debt so that you do not have to drag a lot of it along through medical school.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks. By the way, I was thinking about majoring in a science but minoring in something like econ or philosophy. Would you recommend that I major in one of these and then minor in a science?</p>
<p>You do not need to major or minor in a science to take the pre-med courses.</p>
<p>Major (and minor if desired) in whatever you like and which you can do well in. Consider your other academic and professional interests, as well as bachelor’s level job and career prospects. Math, physics, computer science, and economics generally have better job and career prospects than biology, chemistry, or philosophy.</p>
<p>If any of the OOS publics or privates are more than $10,000 over Iowa after all aid, then I would not do it. I would choose Iowa unless you truly don’t like it. I personally don’t see the ROI in it…this coming from an NU grad.</p>