I agree with you all. I was little short sighted and need to expand our search beyond a few schools. Partly my challenge is I didn’t go to college in the US it’s hard to find the colleges other than the popular ones.
Your child is a very good student student and if she applies wisely she will have some great options. You can do premed at almost any school (no art schools etc).
The schools my kids applied to fell into 4 groups:
- Instate schools
- Schools where merit was very likely to happen (and it did)
- Schools with competitive merit (if merit did not happen, they were off the list)
- Schools that were affordable based on the NPC (we had 2 kids in school which a few years ago worked in our favor)
We had a budget and some schools were off the table. There are many excellent schools out there. The goal here is getting into med school, not getting into a top 50 (why is #49 somehow better than #58?).
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We will definitely look at these options.
Actually, the goal is to get accepted to college and get a bachelors degree. Remember, less than 40% of med school applicants get even one acceptance. Also, of those starting off with a premed intention, the majority don’t actually apply to medical school.
This student does not need to make this decision now. They should go to college with an open mind…because you never know…something else might just pique their interest once they get there.
And yes, I understand that this student wants to be a doctor now…but that could very well change.
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Yes, some people have enough money to be full pay without hardship (about $320,000 just for undergrad).
Some people spend more than they can afford because they feel a strong need to send their kids to certain schools.
Some families do qualify for a lot of financial aid at top colleges. I wish their kids much success!
If you can afford to spend $40,000 on college, you are way ahead of many people and your child will have some great options.
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Yes, you are right!
So what is the student looking for - size, geography, etc. do you prefer bigger schools like UTA - which is urban, suburban and mid large like UNC or mid size like Tulane ,
Re run the Tulane NPC but include your home equity if you didn’t, stock and everything.
Which is more important - cost or something else like school name ?
Don’t forget - grad school - medical or otherwise will also be expensive.
the one issue with CAP which is often not discussed is that it is only for Liberal arts majors and not natural Sciences. This can be a little problematic if you are looking to do a science major as a pre-med. Not an issue if you are looking for a liberal arts/pre-med path.
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My S24 has similar stat and EC, NM, as your DD, and wants to go into Pre Med along with his Poli Sci major.
He is also in EMS and has tons of hours under his belt, plus Model UN at school, track anbd field, swim… etc. There are two paths he has looked at: BS/MD or go through regular 4 years and then take MCAT.
First, BS/MD is very competitive and hard to get in. He has talked to several admission officier and the best chance would be through Texas Tech. But it is still a 50/50 shot.
Second, take MCAT after getting his Poli Sci BS degree, and this is the route he is planning to take. It is best to find the most affordible school, since if he does get good MCAT score and really get into a Med school, that is where it gets expensive. We have toured Austin College (which has a PA program and good shadowing/internship), Southwestern, U of NT, Trinity U, Texas A&M, UT Dallas, UTSA and UT Austin.
We found some of the smaller LACs give the most merit aids and from NPC they are even more affordible than UT Austin or A&M.
In another parent thread, someone has posted information on Southwestern university. Last year, 100% of the PreMed students who applied to medical school got in. So you don’t have to look at big schools. Sometimes, smaller LACs will work out just well.
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Just want to mention that one needs to be wary of stats like 100% med school acceptances (or really any med school statistic).
–Some schools have more “weed out” classes than others reducing the number of students who continue on the pre-med path for four years.
–Certain colleges have committees which pre-screen and recommend med school applicants. These committees only recommend students who have the stats, experiences etc. to make them very strong candidates for med schools. Other colleges support all students who to apply to med school.
–It is also important to know what constitutes a med school acceptance for the med school acceptance rate. Some colleges just count US allopathic med school acceptances and other schools also include acceptances to DO, overseas med schools, podiatry etc.
Apologies for getting off topic but thought it was worthwhile to make the comment – out of fairness to the OP, we should not continue this discussion here (feel free to start a new thread if you like). Of course LACs can work out very well for pre-meds.
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Yes, I agree with happy1 there on 100% acceptance. Thanks for pointing that out!
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