Hey guys! If you don’t mind, can you chance me on these few colleges?
GPA UW: 3.5
GPA W: 4.12
ACT: 30 (plan on getting 32)
Intended Major: Biology, Biochemistry, or neurosciences
High School Rank: somewhere in the top 25-30%
Residence: Illinois
HS: Public high school in Chicago suburbs
Ethnicity: South Asian (Indian)
Female
About 10 APs and took all the honors I could
Extacurriculars:
two years jv tennis and 1 year of varsity tennis
two years of speech
3 years of key club
NHS and French Honor’s Society
two years of DECA (went to state)
two years of Interact Club
two years of Madrigals
two years of BeYouty project Mentor
100 hours of volunteering local hospitals
10 two years of school choir and Bella Voché (cocurricular choir)
A lot of the clubs I could only do for two years because I moved and my previous high school did not offer them
Colleges Planning to Apply to:
Boston University
Boston College
Wake Forest University
Northeastern University
Brandeis University
SUNY-Stony Brook
Baylor University
UIUC
St. Louis University
NYU
university of Iowa
Well my high school grades increased throughout years 9-12 for the most part. i got 2Cs (both semesters of AP Euro) and 1D (precalc-honors but I got an A the semester after) will these grades count against me?
Also, I really would love to be a doctor when I am older, so it would be great of you guys could recommend other colleges with good pre-med tracks. Which colleges would most likely give me good scholaships and about how much monwy would I receive? Thank you so much, any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Based on your scores and credentials, I think it’s safe to say Boston University is a match, and Boston college and Northeastern high match/low reach. Also, NYU would be a reach but definitely not impossible. Try to get more involved with EC’s outside of school like maybe a job or an internship in the field of medicine. Not that your clubs etc. don’t look good, it’s just that colleges look for things to set you apart from other applicants. That is currently my biggest fault as well. If you do succeed in getting that 32 it will significantly increase your chances. Out of your list I believe St Louis and Stony Brook have the best pre med programs, and if you work really hard I would recommend Cornell’s medical program. If you decide to go for Cornell with a 32 on the act I would suggest maybe applying ED or EA. Overall, you have a good chance for many of the schools on your list! We actually seem quite comparable in our test scores and ECs. Message me with any other questions you have and I would love to try and help!
Thank you so much! Your feedback was very helpful. The problem I have with Stony Brook is that I feel as if no one even knows about it. I feel like if I attend Stony Brook, it will decrease my chances of acceptance into medical school do to its “lack of prestige”. Is this true?
I’d say that Stony Brook, St. Louis, and Iowa are your obvious safeties. Baylor is a low match. All the others are high matches to reaches. Overall, you have a very good list!
And no, med schools couldn’t care any less about your UG’s prestige (or lack thereof). They care most about your GPA.
Stony Brook may not be an extremely popular school, but as a student living on Long Island I can assure you it is very highly regarded as a great college with a reputable medical program. You could get in, I am confident of that, but try not to get too hung up on the name of the school! I believe what @LBad96 means by high matches to reaches is that the school, given your credentials, is likely to accept you but it is not 100% guaranteed. If you were to raise your test scores like you plan to and maybe take on a few more ECs, these high match/low reach schools will become more likely to accept you.
When planning to do Pre-Med, you do not need to major in science as long as you take the required classes to apply for Medical School. As a possible Pre-Med student, you want to find an undergraduate college that is affordable (since Medical School is very expensive), where you will get a high GPA (3.6+) and where you are able to find medically related EC’s/volunteering and internships.
But I want to major in something science related because that’s pretty much all that interests me and it would help me for the MCAT. The thing is, I want to have a good shot at top notch medical schools. So I feel like the top medical schools prefer their medical students to earn a good gpa and have an abundance of extracurriculars at a university that is tough, competitive, and also a well known undergraduate college. @Gumbymom
It really does not matter which college you go for undergrad as long as you do well. High GPA, High MCAT score and medically related EC’s. Take a look at the Pre-Med thread or PM a frequent poster @WayOutWestMom whom is very knowledgeable about Medical School. Going to a top notch undergrad university does not guarantee anything. All Medical schools are top notch.
Gumbymom has it right. The name of your undergrad has minimal impact on your ability to get accepted into med school. It’s more about GPA, MCAT and ECs, than where you earned your undergrad degree.
And I’ll tell a secret–all US med schools teach the exact same curriculum because all med students must take the same and pass the same national standardized exams (USMLEs) in order to advance to each next level and to graduate. All US med schools teach to a uniformly high level, have a very high pass rate (>95% on the first attempt) on the standardized exams and very high match rate into residencies (97%).
While where you attend med school may have some impact on your career trajectory if you want to be a high powered academic researcher, where you do your residency is about 100x more important than where you went to med school. If you look at the faculty lists at top academic medical centers, you’ll see lots of physicians who graduated from state med schools and low ranked med schools. Even my mid-ranked state med school send grads into highly competitive specialties and to residencies at the top academic centers every single year. Where you end up for residency is dependent on your achievements & test scores in med school–and not what med school you attend.
What you should look for in a pre-med program is a school that offers you the best combination of fit (you need to happy where you attend school since there’s empirical data showing happy students do better academically), opportunity (to do research, to get involved in campus activities/organization so you can demonstrate your leadership skills, to form relationships with your professors so you can get LORs for med school) and affordability (because med school is very expensive and you will be taking out huge loans to pay for it. Having significant undergrad loans will only make paying it all back harder.)
You also need to consider whether you’d still attend the school if you weren’t a pre-med because it’s fact that 75% of freshmen pre-meds will never apply to med school. IOW, when choosing a school, make sure it’s one that offers you a Plan B opportunity.
I had one child who went to the state flagship (ranked below 200 by USNews) and one who went to a top 30 private research U. Guess what? They both got into med school! The one who went to our state flagship also attended our state med school; she’s now doing her residency at a top “brand name” New England Ivy academic center.
BTW, I am quite familiar with all the colleges shannon14 listed except Colgate. PM me if you have questions
Wow that helps a lot! I thought going to a very top medical school would give you an edge on residency programs. I just thought all the stuff people say about where and what you major in was not rally true! I guess you’re right. thank you so much! @WayOutWestMom
The cost is important to me. I need the total cost of attendance to be around 25-35k after scholarships and financial aid. My family EFC is around 19-20k if that helps. Any new suggestions?
Hi, most of those schools seem very doable for you. Brandeis might be a hint of a reach, but with a 32 you should be solid. If anyone could chance me, that would be greatly appreciated.
If money is a concern then I would probably not consider schools like University of Michigan and the College of William & Mary because those are out of state schools that are quite expensive. NYU is also a really expensive school that is not known for giving a huge amount of financial aid
Boston University seems like it’s a good match you are about average with all of the other students and standards that they have which is good.
Boston College Is a bit of a reach but doable. Your average with them.
WFU is a bit of a reach your GPA is low compared to what they look for but can be done with a good essay.
Northeastern University can be done again GPA is low you’re gonna need a killer essay.
Brandeis University, ACT is good for it GPA is okay for this school.
SUNY-Stony Brook University is most likely.
Baylor good ACT, good GPA so I’d say high chance.
UIUC good ACT GPA is an eh so I’d say possibly
NYU possibly all good stats selective school so I’d say most likely to maybe
University of Iowa very likely, I’d be Suprised if you didn’t get in.
Overall I’d say you have good chances. One way to have more chances is get your ACT up to 32 or 33 also take the SAT and see what you get. Also be prepared to have a mind blowing essay because essays are very important at a lot of these schools. The only thing weighing you down is your GPA. Overall I think you’ll do just fine. Message me if you have any more questions.
Well I also feel like the classes I took will make up for my slightly lower GPA. I feel like colleges don’t just accept or reject you blindly based off of GPA. But, we’ll see! @prettygreat
Oh yes! Wow I’m so sorry I never factored in your very high amount of AP classes! I’m so sorry. Going through it again with the AP classes it seems like you’d be a very good candidate for most of these schools I’d change most of th averages to most likely. My apologies looking back I feel like you will have a very good chance at most of these schools. Again though a great essay could get you immediate admission into quite a few of these schools.
but I got an A the semester after) will these grades count against me?