BIOLOGY/PREMED: Which schools should I look into with my stats? Chance me?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello everyone,</p>

<p>First of all I would like to thank you in advance for coming to my thread and taking time to read and provide advice. This is beyond helpful and I am very grateful for this community.</p>

<p>In short, I am a rising high school senior, beginning to look into colleges. I am interested in majoring in most definitely sciences. Most likely biology, chemistry, biomedical engineering, neuroscience, psychology, or the like. As of now, like many other young inexperienced people, I see medical school in my future, so I would like to keep that in mind during my college search. However, it is also very important for me to go to an university with a wide variety of colleges, just in case I discover my passion for another subject. However, I am focusing on sciences because I am almost 100% sure that I will NOT major in literature, history, agriculture, etc etc.</p>

<hr>

<p>My Stats:</p>

<p>GPA Weighted: 3.94 (around this, calculation method may be off)
GPA Unweighted: not sure, will update later</p>

<p>SAT I (Super Score)- 2020
780 Math
640 Reading
600 Writing
8 Essay</p>

<p>ACT- 33
32 Writing
33 Math
33 Reading
34 Science
7 Essay</p>

<p>SAT II-
740 Math 2
740 Biology E
750 Chinese</p>

<p>Course Schedule-</p>

<p>Middle School
Honors Algebra I
Honors Geometry
Honors Spanish I</p>

<p>Freshman
Honors Algebra II
Honors Biology
Honors Language Arts
Honors Spanish II
American Gov/Health
Band</p>

<p>Sophomore
Honors Pre-Calculus
Honors Chemistry
Honors Language Arts
Honors Spanish III
AP World History (5)
Band</p>

<p>Junior
AP Calculus AB (first semester had a 79 unweighted and 86 weighted, worried about this)
AP Biology
AP Lang
On-level Physics
On-level US History
Band</p>

<p>Senior
AP Stat
AP Chemistry
AP Lit
AP Micro/Macro
PE/Internship
Band</p>

<p>ECs-</p>

<p>Club (# of years in by graduation)</p>

<p>Student Council Representative (4)
Beta Club (4)
Marching Band (received varsity letter) (4)
Tutors in Action (2)
Winterguard (1)
Science Olympiad (1)
Pep Band (1)
Medical Society (1)</p>

<p>-regular volunteer at local library
-peer education at a local AIDs center
-part time job as of summer 2011</p>

<hr>

<ol>
<li>Which colleges would be matches for my stats?</li>
<li>Reaches?</li>
<li>What are my chances at these particular schools: Cornell, Duke, Emory, WashU, John Hopkins, UC Berkeley, Brown?</li>
<li>Would it be too much to aim for Ivy Leagues such as Cornell and Dartmouth as my reaches? My SATs are weak but I think my ACT is on par.</li>
<li>Advice on early decision if it increased my chances?</li>
</ol>

<p>The safety schools I have in mind are UGA and Georgia Tech because they are instate, or perhaps they are matches.</p>

<p>Thank you so so so much once again for your help and feel free to ask for clarification on anything!</p>

2

<p>Make sure that you realize that the sciences that you listed have worse job and career prospects than other sciences like math, physics, and computer science. You can major in anything and take pre-med courses around it.</p>

<p>Make sure that you know what you can afford also. Financial aid generosity varies considerably (out of state public universities in states with huge budget cuts are unlikely to be generous with financial aid).</p>

3

<p>I’m a rising junior, and also hoping to major in neuroscience :D. Some other colleges, possibly lower matches could include U of Miami (I’m sure you’d get good merit aid/scholarships and they have a pretty good neuroscience program! Also, I want to apply to the University of Southern California. They have a pretty good neuroscience program, and the weather is unbelievable. UCLA is also really good…but being OOS, you won’t receive any FA.</p>

4

<p>For chemistry and biology students who are pre-med, I would recommend checking out the top LACs. Most med schools don’t care where you did your undergraduate degree - they want to see GPA, MCAT, letters of rec (so you want profs to know you), research and social service. </p>

<p>For example, visit Amherst’s web site and look at the resources they’ve pulled together for pre-meds, including a page long list of places that offer research opportunities in addition to those at Amherst.</p>

5

<p>*UCLA is also really good…but being OOS, you won’t receive any FA. *</p>

<p>Very true…Have you asked your parents how much they’ll pay? If not, do so. Schools like UCLA will expect you to pay full freight…and it costs about $50k per year for an OOS student.</p>

<p>*
The safety schools I have in mind are UGA and Georgia Tech because they are instate, or perhaps they are matches.*</p>

<p>They probably are safeties for you since you have an ACT 33. You probably have HOPE to pay for the tuition. As long as you have the other costs covered (room, board, books), then you’re fine!</p>

6

<p>match colleges which would be good based on your interest in the sciences: Holy Cross(MA), G-tech, Clemson, Baylor (TX), University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt.
Reaches: all ivies, u-chicago, northwestern, georgetown, notre dame, NYU, pretty much a lot of the top private universites unless you are a URM. </p>

<p>Cornell, Duke, Emory, WashU, John Hopkins, UC Berkeley, Brown?</p>

<p>Cornell (reach), Duke (reach), Wash U (reach), Hopkins (reach), Berkeley (reach), Brown (reach). </p>

<p>Colleges are extremely comptetitive and many students have better or similar stats applying to the schools you listed…i don’t mean to be negative but all of those schools would be big reaches for you, unless you did some type of research or if your ECs are phenomenal.</p>

7

<p>I unfortunately was unable to find any summer internships/research opportunities due to my age, I skipped a grade and I am very young to the point that people don’t take me seriously in the professional world.</p>

8

<p>^^^</p>

<p>Well, make sure that you have a good list of matches and safeties too.</p>

9

<p>For safeties I was thinking UGA and Georgia Tech. And a match would be Emory. All in-state and close to home.</p>

10

<p>Take a look at Clemson! It is a great school for the sciences, engineering, business, education, agriculture, architecture and other professional/technical fields (not for arts & humanities). I know Clemson is not as great of a school than you can get into but you would be a top student here, probably will be accepted into the honors program and if you are in the top 10% of your HS class you can qualify to pay in-state tuition. In short, you’d have many opportunities here to put on your resume before medical school. (and it probably wouldn’t be hard for you to keep up a high GPA for medical school).</p>

<p>Let me know if you have any questions!</p>