unweighted gpa: 3.8
weight: 4.03
SAT: 1250
What are some safety, match, and reach schools that are good for pre-med? I prefer to stay within the midwest and east side of the U.S.
Pre-Med is an intention so what major do you plan to pursue?
What is your college budget since safeties first and foremost need to be affordable?
Home State?
SAT subject tests?
AP/IB or DE courses?
Backup plan if Medical school does not happen?
Will you be retaking the SAT?
What state are you a resident of?
Look into Concordia Moorhead and Earlham for safeties = run the NPC to see if they’re affordable.
Gustavus Adolphus, Luther, Butler, Drake for matches.
St Olaf for a reach.
- I plan on majoring in public health or health management & policy
- I probably can't afford anything over $5,000 per year
- Michigan
- I plan on taking the biology, U.S history, and math or literature subject tests in October
- I've taken 4 and plan to take 4 next year ( probably will not pass the exams)
- I plan to go into health management & policy regardless if I end up going to medical school or not
I’ll be retaking the SAT in June and August and I live in Michigan. I don’t like rural locations so Earlham would not work for me. States I’d go to school in are Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C
I would retake the SAT and not do the subject tests. Increasing your SAT will be the single best thing you can do to put yourself in a better position for admission at selective schools that tend to offer better financial aid.
Complete the FAFSA4caster to see what your EFC might be and whether you will qualify for a Pell grant. https://fafsa.ed.gov/spa/fafsa4c/?locale=en_US&_ga=2.73889746.1392514387.1558306340-1154418975.1547220591#/landing
How much are your parents willing to pay for college? You say you can come up with $5k a year; is that money from you or your parents, or both?
Have you completed an estimated FAFSA EFC calculator? What is your family EFC?
Are your parents together or do you have a non custodial parent? Does your family own a business? If no, do a Net Price Calculator for s sample school you might have on your list.
What are some local schools in your area, both private and public?
The. $5000 would come from mainly my mom but I still think that would be a lot for her. I have a sister entering grad school this fall.
I haven’t completed the FAFSA yet
My parents aren’t together and my mom has custody of me. My family doesn’t own a business.
Public schools: University of Michigan, Wayne State, and Eastern Michigan University ( not interested). There aren’t any private schools close to me.
Here’s the thing: it does not matter to the FAFSA EFC calculator that $5000 is a lot for your family. All the calculator does is take in financial information like how much both you and your mother make, and how much in assets you both have. If your sister got financial aid for college, your mom has likely been through this before and she’ll know this jig. Not that the colleges will likely come up with the money over and beyond what your Expected Family Contribution turn out to be, but that number will determine how much, if any PELL Grant money you can get.
You have compiled a list of in state public schools that you do (and don’t) like. These schools will have the lowest sticker price for you. If you can commute any of them, it brings the cost down to close to affordable. Wayne state tuition alone is about $13k. You can borrow a maximum amount from Direct Loans of $5500. If your mother can pay $5k, with PELL and your working this summer and part time during the school school year, you just might be able to squeak by. Maybe, maybe you’ll get some PELL money, maybe Wayne State will give you some grants, maybe you’ll get other scholarship money. But right now those things are maybes. It looks like Wayne State will accept you the way things are right now, so you have a likely school. If you are lucky WS might give you enough aid or grants so that you can afford to live there.
UMich AnnArbor meets full need to instaters. Maybe even for room and board. But you will need a Non Custodial Parent Waiver for their financial Aid, or get your father’s financials. Also, even as an in stater, gettin into UM-AA is no sure thing.
A little bit better SAT might give you a boost in admissions and aid, maybe some merit money so that you can look at private schools. The problem with them is that none are close enough for you to commute, and the tuition is usually a lot more for the, and you have that $12-15k in living expenses that you’d have to meet as well if you board.
A lot of the more generous schools in terms of financial aid will ask for that NCP waiver or your father’s financial information. Some schools that may not and tend to meet need are Albright College and St Lawrence University. But don’t take my word for it; do look it up yourself. Things change very quickly in the world of College aid.
Good luck in this endeavor. Your sister likely can give you advice as it appears she has been through this.
Do the FAFSA4caster at the link above with your mom.
U Michigan will be a reach–SAT is 1380 is the 25%ile mark for 2022 class. You can certainly apply, but the higher you get your SAT the better. UMich meets full need for Mich residents.
Wayne State is an academic match, but does not meet full financial need. Do some research on their website—they have merit scholarships you may qualify for https://wayne.edu/scholarships/freshmen/ and run their NPC with your mom https://wayne.edu/financial-aid/resources/calculators/
Wayne State also has many resources for low income students https://wayne.edu/financial-aid/low-income-students/
Do you have a job this summer so you can start saving money for college? Between this summer and next, you should be able to make $5,000 and hopefully you are in a position where you could save much of that.
Prep for the SAT and retake that. Your best bet is to aim for UMichigan, since they meet full need including Room&Board.
You have to find a middle ground between wants and needs. You have to decide for yourself what those are.
Look at Kalamazoo College (it’s in a city), Dickinson (it’s in a town, about 2 hours from DC, and it has strong law/policy majors), St Lawrence (1h to Montreal)…
Run the NPC.
If you’ve been in contact with your noncustodial parent, universities that use the more in-depth CSS Profile rather than the FAFSA will require your noncustodial parent’s financial info.
Note that urban schools tend to be more expensive because many don’t feel the need to provide free/cheap activities to their students, assuming they can shell out money for expensive city activities. It’s a bummer when your friends don’t mind spending $80 for a club on Friday night and $100 tickets on Saturday and $30 again for dinner, when you can’t afford to go. It’s easier when all of you go to the free film, the subsidized $10 concert, and spend $8 at a local pub that caters to students. Cities are better for internships, because you don’t have homework and you have a stipend, so you can actually enjoy the city… In other words, rather than a college located in a city, look for colleges with strong networks in cities.
Wayne will most likely give you some money. Grand valley, Western Michigan might also. Michigan state should but they don’t cover full need like Michigan does.
Also the goal here is going to college. Sometimes we just can’t be picky. Back in the day I had to go to OCC then went to Wayne for 2 years while working and commuting there daily. That’s when Detroit was not as built up as it is now with Midtown etc. But it was great for pre med, psychology etc. It still is.
I went to community College first since when I spoke to professors at Wayne they told me to take the pre requirements at OCC since it was like the same information for a cheap price. That worked for me. I actually visited some friends at Michigan and Michigan State a few times here and there. Again it got me to my goal of med school. Sometimes you gotta take different paths to reach your end goal.
Pre-med
If you want to go pre-med then think about:
- The cheapest reasonable college so you/your parents can use the money for med school
- The college needs to prepare you for MCATs but still allow you to get a good GPA
- Access to volunteering opportunities (e.g., near a hospital)
- Success in graduates getting into med school
- Options if you don’t go to med school. You think you are going to med school, but less than 20% of pre-med freshman actually do.
So look at your State Us and colleges or colleges that will give you merit money (e.g., you are above 75%tile for SAT) or need based aid
@Knowsstuff , I love your post. I’d like to paste it into a dozen threads on this board. So many thinking there has to be one or limited ways to get where they want. Wanting specific narrowly defined majors, only name brand schools, nose up on Community college, have to go away to school, etc etc.
@cptofthehouse. Thx. I have learned at a young age is when you don’t have any money you just can’t be that picky.?. It’s all about reaching goals. No one was going to tell me I couldn’t do it just because my mom was on food stamps and public aid. We did get financial help from the state but I still had to work (in hospitals for great pay) to make it happen.
I currently live in the same neighborhood in Chicago and drive similar cars that my friends that went to Michigan, Harvard, Yale etc etc. No one has ever looked down at me since we all came from the same neighborhood. Just some families had a lot more money and access then I did. Nothing more or less. Now my sons an OOS kid at Michigan and appreciates being able to be there. We remind him of this like every time we see him… Lol ?.
^however for med school for instance community college courses are frowned upon and can block admission altogether.
Community college CAN be an option but for low income high achievers it should be the last option (research shows it has a negative impact on their odds and it decreases scholarship possibilities).
In Michigan, for any major, it’s only a good path if NOT aiming to transfer to UMich (which has dreadful articulation rules, severely hurting CC transfers whose credits aren’t recognized as pre-req equivalents and are thus forced to retake all their freshman/sophomore pre-reqs).
Generally speaking, if the student has good test scores, those can translate into scholarships at directionals (as you said, less-well-known colleges): Grand Valley State, CMU… but also smaller colleges (Alma, Albion…)
Students in the UP are in another fix altogether since they often can’t commute.