Hi- this is my first post so bear with me!
I’m currently a high school junior. I’m super passionate about medicine and working with children. I’m interested in going to schools like UT Austin, NYU, University of Denver, UCLA, etc. Ideally, i prefer big urban schools. I want major in some sort of science, like biology.
Here are my stats:
GPA: 4.3 out of 5.0 (weighted)
SAT: 1440 out of 1600
ECs: - red cross officer (2 yrs)
- co founder of unicef
-co founder of adopt a grandparent club
- hosa member, participated in competitions
- orchestra since 6th grade
- national honor society
- math honor society
- science honor society
I also have lots of volunteer experience around my community (200+ hours) but not much hands on medical experience.
Please chance me for the colleges i mentioned above and if you have any other schools you think might be a good fit, pls let me know!! i really appreciate it.
@DadTwoGirls i live in texas. i’m not sure about my unweighted gpa, as my school doesn’t give us that unless we request it senior year but i take all AP classes (a total of 8 so far, will be 13 after senior year) and get all As in them with the exception of AP Bio and AP Chem (those are B+). Money is a consideration but i’m mainly interested in knowing where my stats will get me, assuming i can pay for it. i plan on getting a job and maybe working part time while i’m a student. i will take loans if necessary.
UT Austin is a great university. Being in-state it is going to be economical for you. I wouldn’t take loans to go anywhere that was more expensive. Your post sort of hints at medical school as at least a consideration. I would avoid debt for undergrad if you can if you want to keep open the option of possibly going to medical school down the road. There is no doubt that your in-state universities in Texas can prepare you very well for the MCAT, and that premed classes will be very challenging at several of the UT schools.
UCLA would be full pay since they don’t give financial aid to out of state students. As such it would be very expensive. I expect that it is probably a reach also.
Weighted GPA is calculated very differently at different high schools in the US. As such it might be more helpful for us to know how many A’s you got and how many B’s you got.
You can figure your unweighted gpa. It matters what rigor, what classes got less than an A grade (especially cores and those that relate to the major.) Get a Fiske Guide to Colleges, if you don’t have one.
@DadTwoGirls thanks for the advice! Here are my averages for the ap classes i have taken:
AP Human Geography: 92
AP World History: 96
AP Biology: 88
AP US History: 97
AP Chemistry: 87
AP Chinese: 95
AP Language and Composition: 95
At my school, orchestra counts as an AP credit if you sign up for advanced music, where they give you lots of extra work (extra tests, assignments, research projects, etc) which is why i mentioned 8 ap classes so far.
also, my school is really competitive and the curriculum is very challenging.
Why not just do the calculations? It’s simple math. The colleges don’t ask for only AP grades.
If 92 is an A at your school, call it an A. If it’s A-, call it that. The bio and chem are B grades at most high schools.
Any AP scores? You say “passionate” about working with kids, but what ECs are those? Have you taken a hard look yet at what those colleges want from you, the experiences, the attributes? I have a feeling you don’t quite know what matters to the more competitive colleges on your list. Best place to start is with their own websites, what they say and show.
@lookingforward I have a 4 or above in all of my ap exams. A lot of my clubs at school are about children. I co founded UNICEF, which is about helping children around the world. I volunteer at my local library, where I interact with children since I volunteer for children’s events/activities so I have first hand experience. I also volunteer at an afterschool daycare, where I tutor young children in a variety of subject areas. I’m also tutoring people at my school in subjects like biology and maths.
I think colleges want someone passionate about something and they want applicants to show that they are truly passionate about that thing by their ECs and essay.
Are you in the Top 8% of Texas HS students for UT-Austin admissions?
NYU will be expensive and gives little aid.
The goal of undergraduate pre-med is to get as high a BCPM GPA as possible and to incur little to no undergraduate debt.
Your advantage as a Texas resident is the quantity and quality of medical schools in-state at an affordable cost. UT med schools and Baylor Medical are highly rated and take a majority of their students from Texas.
@Hamurtle I am #90 out of 1650+ students in my class so i am roughly top 5%. I am planning to take subject tests for Math II and Chemistry at the end of this school year in June. I will take another SAT in march and hopefully it will be higher.
If you are interested in medical school consider going to a smaller liberal arts college instead of a big urban university. Apart from GPA and MCAT, one of the key things that medical schools look closely at is the Health Professions Committee Letter. This is a letter written by the health professions committee at your college. At the bigger state U type schools, these letters can be somewhat impersonal. But going to a smaller college will give you more opportunity to make a personal connection. Hence your letters of recc will often be better. Plus its easier to stand out in a smaller pool.