Hello friends!!! (lame ik) But I am going to be a senior this upcoming academic year!! I am having trouble in deciding which colleges to apply to. Obv I dont want to apply to like 200. I want to be a M.D in the future so my undergrad is going to have that pre med concentration. The majors I am looking for are: Molecular and Developmetal Bio, Microbio, Neuroscience, Bio, and English. I want a school that has great pre med resources, good research opportunities, and connections with good hospitals. My state options are not the best. If you have a college suggestion please feel free to put it down 
GPA: 3.5 UW/ 4.4 W (crap ik)
Rank: Top 10%
ACT: 30 (should i retake?)
AP: I have taken five so far, dont have scores for most.
Senior Year Courseload: AP Lit, AP Bio, AP Human Geo, AP Calc AB, Adv. Genetics and dont rmr the last one i chose. Gothic lit maybe.
Awards: 3rd in state TSA, 5th in state HOSA, some volunteer thing from the hospital
Extracurricular:
TUMS (medical club)
Red Cross
TSA
HOSA {reporter}
Interact
Volunteer/Work:
Hospital volunteering
Library volunteering
Hosted my own blood drive
Summer:
Hospital volunteering
Library volunteering
Research Internship at OSU med school
Income bracket: 23000
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
My safeties are: OU, OSU, and TU
Where I am thinking about maybe applying is:
Northeastern U (top)
Boston College
Case Western Reserve U
Baylor U
SMU
Also these colleges I am also looking at:
Boston U
Emory
USC
UTD
Honestly lost. I know my GPA is bad, but it isn’t impossible right?
bump, can someone please help?
I don’t think your stats are high enough for NEU or BC so you should consider them reaches. BU might be a high match and is in a fantastic area for internships, etc. Sorry, but I’m not familiar with the other schools on your list. Take a look at Emmanuel College which is also right in Boston, you are def a match for that, might be considered a safety depending on your financial status. If you are saying your family income is $23,000 I would start looking at schools that meet 100% need.
Go back & run the NPC for each of your colleges- that will remove most of them from your list. For the ones that are left, look at your stats relative to the top 25% of admitted students- if your scores are in that group you are looking at viable option.
If your household income is $23K (and your family has no other assets in the US or abroad), finances are going to be critical, and your stats are going to make it challenging, as they are not strong enough for many of the merit scholarships at the schools you have listed.
Are you guys saying just forget about most of those?
I think most of the posters are telling you to do your research first.
You have to think about costs. Each school has something called a Net Price Calculator on the website. You use it to estimate what your costs are going to be at your particular choice universities.
If your parents make $23K per year, most of your universities will be unaffordable (i.e. USC is ~$72K per year). Your grades and ACT scores are not high enough to get **merit **scholarships, so how will you pay? Need-based scholarships don’t really cover your need at most schools because they give you what they think you need, not what you really need. That’s why the NPC is so important.
Next, you have to find schools that you could easily gain admission with your stats; usually that would be your instate choices.
@aunt bea ok here’s the thing, i am not even sure if that it our actual income. it was from a some years ago and it was the only tax form i saw and thought it would be best to use it as a worst case scenario
Time to talk to your parent(s) about their income and use the NPC at a few of your schools to see where you stand. Each one will most likely look a bit different, some much different from others and it will give you a way to pare down your list or add to it as needed. No one can recommend schools to you without having some idea of your EFC and a budget based on that. I mentioned before that you should get a list of the 100% needs schools and run the NPC on a few of them that appear to be matches. Retake the ACT and see if you can get it up a notch or two, merit $$ is usually available at 31 or better. Look at schools that you are in their top profile margin, high safeties…
Retake the ACT for sure. And I recommend Emory for premed. It’s an excellent school and its campus is absolutely stunning. Atlanta is a city with many great opportunities and it’s only growing. I’m going into engineering so Emory wasn’t worth the money for pre engineering but I would have applied there if they had my major. I’m sure they’ll meet all your need. It’s competitive to get in but not impossible with your course rigor. That’s the only one of those schools that I know but USC is also an excellent and selective school