Demographics: Asian (Chinese), Female, Singapore, Middle-Income
SATs: 1550
GPA: no GPA in my school, but i have International Cambridge A-Level results: 5As (biology, chemistry, math, project work, chinese), 2Cs (econs, general paper)
intended major: pre-med / pre-dental
extracurriculars:
joined publicity team at breast cancer foundation
volunteers at hospitals with elderly patients at the risk of dementia
organising team of a one-week bone marrow donation programme in school
volunteers with amputee support group
member of interact club - organising team of a fundraiser, visits nursing homes
orientation group leader for 2 years
class committee for 3 years
went for overseas service learning in 2014 to refurbish a classroom in vietnam
working experience / student attachments:
dental assistant
hospital attachments for different specialties - pediatrics, geriatrics, oncology
awards/achievements:
Do you intend to go back to Singapore to do medical/dental school? Or do you want to stay in the US? Note that very few US medical schools will accept foreign students.
If you want to stay in Singapore, most programs are MBBS. The only post-graduate medical program I know of is with Duke-NUS.
Hi, thanks so much for the input. I’m intending to apply to medical schools in Singapore as well. If I were to go to the US, I would stay in the US to do a postgraduate medical degree. I have US citizenship though, but considering I stayed in Singapore for most of my life, I think I will be considered as an international student.
Are you in need of financial aid? Because Berkeley will not give any to OOS/international students (even though you’re a US citizen).
Berkeley and Princeton are notorious grade deflators and not ideal for premed, where maintaining a high GPA is important. Hopkins also has the reputation of being a grade deflator as well.
All those schools will be reaches, even for domestic students, since we’re talking about sub 10% acceptance rates except for Cal.
Don’t know how the Cambridge A-levels work, but 2 Cs will not be good for your application.
Also note that there is no such thing as a premed/predental major. You have a major and take premed requirements. Also, did you take Physics? There is no mention of it in your A-levels.
@Hamurtle Thank you so much for your honest and detailed comment.
If you take Cambridge A-Levels, you can only take maximum 2 sciences because the Singapore curriculum for A-Levels is very rigorous. The only chance where you can take 3 sciences is GCE O-Levels. I got As for 8 subjects and one B (which is Physics) for my O-Levels.
May I ask, what schools would you suggest are better for pre-med? And what schools do you think will be matches considering my portfolio?
Some good schools for premed that could be targeted include Case Western, Emory, and Rochester. All 3 schools are associated with excellent medical schools. Of course you will be dealing with cold winters for 2 of the schools.
Rice, Vanderbilt, and WashU could be considered as well. Your test scores are within range and the O-levels will work.
Remember that any school that you attend for premed has to be affordable as US medical schools are prohibitively expensive. Also you will need to maintain around a 3.7 GPA throughout your undergraduate career. As I mentioned previously, Princeton, JHU, and Cal are grade deflators. Berkeley is notorious for being cutthroat and not as much of a collaborative environment.
You will need to find a school where the gunner mentality isn’t prevalent. Finally have a backup plan as very few premeds actually end up in medical school given the weeder classes (General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry come to mind).
@Hamurtle I forgot to include this, but yes, I’m applying for financial aid. Will that put me at a disadvantage?
Also, is applying for Cornell advisable?
In that case (no pun intended) focus on Case Western as they are relatively generous with merit aid. Possibly Rice as well.
The need for financial aid will reduce the list. Berkeley is off and Princeton will be tough as well.
You might want to look at LACs that are science focused that might give some aid and are good premed schools. St. Olaf in Minnesota comes to mind.
My wife’s friend’s daughter is an international student from Asia and got relatively good merit/financial aid from the school and was accepted to UPenn dental school, which was a pretty big shock as most US med/dental schools rarely accept internationals even with a US undergraduate degree.
Cornell is considered a grade deflator as well. The 2 Ivies that will favors for your GPA are Brown and Harvard and those are pretty much massive reaches for anyone.
Not sure about Rochester and financial aid unfortunately.
WashU is out if financial aid is required. I’m pretty familiar with the school since my son is a junior there. The school is pretty stingy with aid in general and it’s hard to get the merit scholarships.
Rice I believe has an app fee waiver so that might be an option.
I’d just add, if you are a US Citizen, then you will qualify for admission and aid as a domestic student. And that would hold for med school admission as well - if you attend undergrad in the US, then by the time you are applying for med school you will be seen as a domestic applicant – at that point no one will care where your parents live or where you went to high school. The only thing you probably don’t have by virtue of being raised in Singapore is domicile in any US state, so you don’t qualify for reduced in-state tuition at any state public school – although there are some state public schools that will waive out-of-state tuition based on merit.
@calmom@Hamurtle@sgopal2 Hi, if you guys don’t mind, can you tell me what’s lacking/what’s too typical in my ECs? I’m trying to boost them for admissions so I would really appreciate the help. Thank you!
It’s not how many EC’s or even what/how impressive sounding they are. It is about the quality of your participation – what did you accomplish and how that fits into the narrative of why you will be a valuable asset to the school. Frankly your EC list seems to be excessively long and smacks a little bit of resume padding. If you are doing all of those things at the same time, how can your participation be meaningful? The good thing is your EC’s are focused on healthcare, which is consistent with your intended profession. If you want to make your EC’s “stronger”, I’d focus on fewer of them and set tangible goals/accomplishments that you can point to in your apps.
On the issue of aid, if your family qualifies for financial aid, actually some of the most generous schools are also the most highly selective. Most of them however do not offer merit. You need to research each school. For example if you qualify for FA and are fortunate enough to get into Princeton, it is likely to offer you one of the most, if not the most, generous FA package. Princeton, however, does not give merit.
@BKSquared Thank you for your opinion! My reason for doing those things at the same time is because I’m currently taking a gap year and have free time. And I think more healthcare volunteering will expose me better to the job scope of a doctor?
Anyway, like what you said, I should set some goals for some of the things I’ve done - I think I may consider initiating a campaign to raise awareness about dementia, since that is something I’ve always wanted to do.
For a public school that is pretty generous with merit and has a medical school associated with it, consider applying to the University of Utah.
Other options could include the University of Alabama and the University of Arizona. The name/prestige of the school is not as important as the ability to afford/get a good enough GPA for medical school. And any US college will prepare you for premed.
