If you plan to go to med school you need to 1. protect your gpa (you will need a very high gpa to get in) 2. find undergraduate research opportunities 3. be able to excel at the mcat and 4. save as much money as possible
- Be aware very few people graduate from OSU with a 4.0
- Get into undergraduate research, biology is a great major for this because you can contribute from day one. Jan. 1 2018 you should be looking into programs that allow hs graduates to participate in research to make use of the summer before you start college
- 26 ACT is a very low standardized test score compared other students planning a medical career. If you are a weak standardized test taker a work around would be to find programs that teach to the MCAT and/or are affiliated with a medical school that offer automatic admission if certain requirements are met (Wright State University had one in 2014, so you may want to see if it still does and figure out other places that are similar) These programs require the student is an undergrad at the school, so that's why it's important to get this decision right for your circumstances.
- There is very little funding for medical school, accruing large debt for undergrad is going to make it even harder to finance med school.
You will probably make it into OSU main campus since you aren’t applying as a direct admit to business or engineering. OSU is holistic, and top 20% for a first generation college student with a challenging course load will probably get you in.
Your ACT score does not meet the threshold for Trustee’s merit aid ($1,500/yr), you need to improve to a 29 and remain in top 20% of class to be eligible. http://undergrad.osu.edu/cost-and-aid/merit-based-scholarships Tuition is $10,600/yr
You mentioned you are applying early, every student applying early should list an alternate (branch) campus as their second choice. I’m partial to Marion because I’m most familiar with it, it offers the Biology major, has a new science building, good undergraduate research opportunities, lots of merit aid, has smaller classes and every professor I’ve met seems very engaged with students. At the Marion branch you would be eligible for $2,250/yr based on class rank of 20% and that doesn’t include many of the privately funded scholarships just for Marion OSU that the Financial Aid office would direct you toward.
If you put Marion down as your first choice they would award an additional $500/yr, so $2,750/yr
http://osumarion.osu.edu/students/financial-aid/marion-scholarship-information.html
http://osumarion.osu.edu/students/financial-aid/tuition-and-fees.html Branch tuition is also less than main. $7,550 /yr minus merit aid of $2,750/yr is $5,300/yr and that doesn’t even count any need based aid or additional competitive merit aid. Student housing is aprox $475-$550/mo (though there will be a price increase at the Annex next year http://osumarion.osu.edu/future-students/housing/ ) which is much cheaper than a dorm. Same classes and half the price.
Look into other branches to find your best fit (the others have dorms) and be sure to include one as the alternate on your early application so you can be automatically considered for aid if you are denied admission to main campus.
Best of luck in all your studies and future pursuits.