Also, and if you haven’t done so, check out the Common Data Sets for schools that you are considering. Section C7 tells you how different academic and non-academic admissions factors are weighted by a school; Sections C9-C11 give objective information for recently matriculated students, which may in turn give you a crude estimate of how you compare with them for admissions purposes. I mention this because some schools, such as UNC-CH, give greater weight to standardized test scores than GPA; other schools might reverse that, and some give equal weight.
It’s a fine list if you’re ok with your four safeties.
Your three targets are possible but not likely.
If you’d be jazzed to go to any of the bottom four and you can afford them, then you are ok.
I won’t say your targets are too competitive - but that depends on how you answer the question on the safeties. And frankly - is there any difference between Rutgers and Pitt and Florida or Madison besides size and location - no.
So the targets might be slightly on the side of high target - but I don’t see a need to avoid them or add more as long as those bottom four are perfectly acceptable.
I categorized them as targets due to the scattergram on Naviance. I’m in the majority of greens(acceptances) on scattergram. Do you know of any other schools that are more of a target for me but are still known for pre-med.
Again, you have four safeties - and most would put Pitt ahead of others you have that are more selective.
You could very well get into your targets but I’d also love for you to go visit if you can - and find the right school - not just schools that hit a metric.
Instead of a Wisconsin and I’m not suggesting you remove it, but an easier admit - Minnesota or Ohio State or very easy Iowa.
U of Florida - a U of South Carolina and super safety Alabama or Auburn. Check out the McCullough Medical Scholars at Alabama which I’ve linked below. Not sure if others have similar. FSU might be another. Va Tech has shadowing on campus. One could think UGA - but UGA can be just as hard as UF to get into.
As for U Miami and if you express interest, I can see you getting in there - but a U Denver would be an easier in and like school. Tulsa would be another and maybe American, Syracuse, or SMU.
Again, I’m not saying you won’t get into a target or two or three - it’s just it’s how I’d rate them.
You can only go to one - and frankly, most might consider Pitt tops on your list.
I wouldn’t worry about best known for pre-med; you can take the classes anywhere - you need great grades and a great MCAT - and if you don’t have shadowing easily available. most have a way or you can do in summer. I would want a robust advising program.
But if you have a list you like, I wouldn’t over think it.
Are there financial concerns because you’re talking $700K+ in costs.
If so, then you need to budget for a full 8 years of university. You should if you can avoid debt for the first 4 years. It would be even better if you can save some money for medical school and avoid or at least minimize debt for all 8 years. You might want to run the NPCs on each of your options (you will need your parent’s help), and discuss the results with your parents. The discussion should include the issue of “how much will be left for medical school?”.
The good news is that there are a LOT of universities that are very good for premed. Your safeties are included in this set.
One person I know went into a health related field and was not thrilled with the physical location of the area around where Rutger’s medical students would be doing their medical volunteering. I am not familiar at all with the area and this was a very long time ago so things may have changed (and they were interested in nursing rather than being an MD).
Your reaches really are reaches. It is not clear to me whether or not attending one of them would improve your chances of getting accepted to a good medical school when compared to your targets and safeties.
I do wonder whether you should consider any of the SUNY’s, but I do not know them well and hopefully someone else can comment.
So naviance only gives you a clue and doesn’t mean you will be accepted. Talk to your counselor at school to see how likely your targets are. I agree with the above. Your targets are reaches due to the last 4 years school have been harder to get into. Love all the schools on your list or don’t list them.
Edit: Thank you to everyone who has commented so far! I am the first in my family to apply for college in the US, so the entire process has been confusing and worrisome. My parents try to help me, but the entire system is flawed and complicated. Plus, I’m a twin so finances are truly an issue. I really appreciate your helpful comments and will edit my list accordingly.
Yes! Sit down with your guidance counselor and discuss the likelihood of admission at the schools that you are looking at. The GCs can be very helpful, but you may need to be persistent in your efforts to get some face time with them.
Has your family given their budget and have you checked if the colleges meet that budget either outright, by qualifying for enough financial aid, or guesstimating chances of getting merit and it being enough.
Some of the schools on your list either don’t offer merit aid or only offer the big merit aimed at the top x percent of the applicant pool and have much smaller 10K merit from an 85K school for competitive but not the top top applicants, or are known as being expensive for OOS and offering small merit amounts. Also, there was a FAFSA change that goes into effect this upcoming 2024 school year where expected family contribution will no longer take into account having multiple kids in college at the same time and you said you have a twin. Some schools on the list could move up a category if financial safety/target/reach is part the calculation.
These scattergrams are helpful - to some degree. But they don’t tell the whole story about probability of being admitted, which is a common misunderstanding:
Let’s say there were two students with a GPA or 3.8 and ACT 35 who were accepted into a particular Ivy League college - and your “dot” is in the same region. What’s not represented in that chart is the overall selectivity (acceptance rate of that college).
Specifically, while those stats might indeed be typical for students admitted to that college, those same stats might also be typical of >90% of students NOT admitted - because the college has only 1 spot for every 10 equally qualified applicants.
So the scattergrams are not meaningful to classify “target” or “safety” colleges. In case of highly selective colleges, it just means that your stats are good enough to at least bother, but the overall likelihood is still only 1:10 for everyone, including yourself.