Thank you for letting me know! I have heard of the approach of attending a less competitive school and doing extremely well academically to get into medical school which sounds practical to me. Thanks!
Thank you fo the college suggestions and the new perspective on admissions at UVA!
Thank you for the college suggestions!
I am actually no longer applying to Umich since it is quite far from home. Penn State is a safety school and thank you for letting me know what admissions are like at Vtech! I hope the major I decide on is not as competitive as Engineering majors at the institution!
Thank you so much for the reassurance! I have been quite insecure about the whole admissions process, especially as the first person in my family to attend college. I agree that my list is quite heavy at the top and currently researching for more target schools. Thank you for the new resource too it has been really helpful in this process. (I do not have great A scores or a good SAT score so I will take advantage of the test-optional ability at most schools.)
UVA came to my school and informed us that with applying EA, if you are rejected you can not reapply. That kind of spooked me so I am taking advantage of all the time I have to refine my resume before regular decision. Schools I may apply EA/REA are the top schools on my list since I can reapply if deferred.
With 21 classes, 15 As and 6 Bs / B+s - can you explain how you got to a 3.9. I put my calc up b4 - which would be a best case 3.8 if the 6 Bs were all B+s.
You should use a 4 point scale.
Some schools, btw, will make any + or minus, a whole #. So 15 As and 6 B+ would be really 6 Bs - so a 3.7. But most schools will not use all classes. They’ll remove some - that aren’t core.
Still, you’re in excellent position. And you’ll be fine - but you need the safety.
If you love Penn State then you’ll love Va Tech - and it’ll be cheaper. At least I think they’re very similar although I prefer Va Tech - but for you, the in state will be a huge blessing $ wise.
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You are from Virginia. Penn State is very expensive for OOS (that means Out if State) students and their first mission is to fund their residents.
As a VA resident, I would urge you very strongly to consider the colleges in YOUR state which are plentiful and excellent.
The likelihood of Penn State giving you a full ride is low. So, it cannot be viewed as a safety.
A safety has to be affordable.
So…what colleges are you considering where you have a high chance of acceptance that will also be affordable…that you like and would like to attend? Those are your safety schools.
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This means you have been rejected for THIS admissions round. You can’t now apply regular decision…but I believe that is the case anywhere where you have been rejected in the EA or ED round. You can’t apply regular decision THIS YEAR. They have already made an admissions decision about you for this year.
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A school is only a safety if it is affordable- and Penn State is simply not affordable for an OOS (out-of-state) student who needs a full ride. It’s not even especially affordable in-state: Pennsylvanians envy Virginians for their good, strong, affordable in-state options.
The prestige / ego boost of getting the ‘yes, we want you’ letter is one thing; living it for four years is another. MIT is very much a ‘fit’ school. I think it very unlikely that you would get in- but even less likely that you would be happy there. Moreover, what they offer does not align with your academic goals (they don’t have a public health, polisci or IR major for example, and their bio major is very research oriented).
The things you pick out as being particularly interesting for Harvard, Yale & Brown are all available at many schools, and speak more to the prestige of the name than anything in particular. When combined with this:
and
and
there is a circle I think you need to square.
It seems as if you are a star student in your school- which is great, and a credit to you! however, one of the hidden challenges of being a star is the idea that you “should” be able to go to a famous name school, and often a lot of family/school/peer pushing in that direction.
But you have two additional things to factor in: your need for a full ride and your long term plans. The full ride part is challenging enough: you are looking for a school to give you hundreds of thousands of dollars of education- free.
Then you add in the pre-med part, and you are looking at a bunch of other elements. For example, you need top marks for med school, so a school where you can shine academically is important. In real life, OChem 101 isn’t actually any harder or better at Harvard than literally dozens of other universities. What you need is a school where you will shine- academically and personally. So think more about what kind of environment you shine best in- what brings out your best academically, socially, personally.
tl;dr- separate out the thrill of getting into a famous name with what your experience is likely to be over the four years you live there, and how likely a place is to help you achieve your med school ambitions.
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I don’t know how a 3.9 gpa could come from 6 B’s, my kids with a 3.9 only had one B (and some A-).
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And it’s not a UVA thing. Rejection from any round – early or regular – is a decision not to admit, as @thumper1 notes. Do not confuse this with a deferral, which is when a school is undecided about your candidacy but wants to keep you in the pool for consideration with the regular decision applicants. They might even defer you because they want to see more info, such as grades from the first half of senior year.
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Most colleges will recalculate a student’s GPA and not use the one supplied by the school. Using a 4 for the As and 3 for the Bs/B+s, I’m getting a 3.7 GPA for you. That does not take into account that some colleges may not include non-core classes in the GPA. If they recalculate it with B+ as a 3.3, then your overall UW GPA is somewhere between a 3.7 and 3.8 (per @tsbna’s calculations).
Has your high school sent any students to the colleges you’ve listed? What kind of colleges do the top students at your high school usually attend? Also, where do you rank in the class? Are you one of the top students? Top 5%? 10%? 25%? Ask your counselor if you don’t know. Even for schools that don’t “rank” your counselor should be able to let you know what decile you probably fall in.
A liberal arts college can have all of the things you mention. Agnes Scott is a women’s college in Atlanta. It is very racially diverse and in addition to all of its own offerings, it also is part of a consortium with other universities in Atlanta. This allows students to take classes at Emory, Georgia Tech, Spelman, Savannah College of Art & Design, etc. It also offers substantial merit aid. I would run the Net Price Calculator to see what the finances look like. Oglethorpe is another Atlanta college that has a flagship match program, and I think would be worth investigating to see what the NPC would look like for you there, and it is also very racially diverse and is part of that same consortium. Atlanta is where the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), the nation’s public health agency. For your interests, this would be an amazing location to be.
It’s important to run NPCs, because even schools that say they meet 100% of financial need can do so in very different ways. I looked at the Net Price by income to see which schools are actually the most generous for low income families.
100% Financial Need (appearing more generous by net price for low incomes)
- Washington & Lee (VA): thousands less than the others less in the category…net price shows less than $1k for families earning below $48k and they’re seeking to become more diverse
- UNC
- UVA
- Mount Holyoke (MA): women’s college
- Davidson: (NC)
100% Financial Need Met (as the college defines it)
- Lafayette: (PA )
- U. of Richmond (VA)
- Union (NY)
- Franklin & Marshall (PA )
- Smith (MA)
- Bryn Mawr (PA ): women’s college
Agnes Scott & Oglethorpe’s net price for low income families is very similar to what the 2nd (less generous) 100% need met schools offer, but both of these are far more likely to grant admission. I think you would receive a lot of support at these schools as well. These are the types of institutions that I think would be great additions to your list.
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Think about EA like you are applying for a job and there are 10 spots to fill.
You call to schedule for a job interview and the secretary asks if you would like a morning or afternoon interview and then tells you btw, the hiring manager always hires at least 5 people from the morning interviews and gives them the offer at lunch time.
Would you want a morning appointment or an afternoon one?
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Reapply? If you are deferred from an early round (EA, REA, SCEA, or ED) it means your application is moved into consideration with the regular decision round(s). There is no reapplying.
Getting a rejection in an early round is a different story – it means the school will not consider you for admission this year. Regardless of the application round, early or regular, no one gets to re-apply in the same year at any school after a rejection.
There is no disadvantage to applying early, unless you ED to a school you know you can’t afford (and that’s another whole topic). In fact, applying early often improves your chances for admission.
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You may be eager to leave home for a 4 year undergraduate experience, but it also may be worth exploring Virginia’s fabulous guaranteed transfer community college option.
There are many excellent VA schools who would be thrilled to have you but will not provide a full ride. With the community college option, you can live at home and work to make money while you take your first 2 years of classes. It does not equate to a full ride, but it is a big money saver. This is not a desired path for everyone, but it is available.
My nephew, who is incredibly future focused and incredibly money conscious, could have gone to VA Tech straight out of high school, but he has a better plan for himself. He acquired a flexible paid internship in the job he wants upon graduation. He’s working there during the week and at another job on weekends, taking classes at community college and living at home. He currently has a 4.0 in his classes and is saving every penny he makes. Upon transferring, that 4.0 will come with him, and he’ll end with a VA Tech degree. Once he graduates and is looking for jobs/grad school, no one will know that he started at community college.
This may not interest you at all, but here are all the details. I wish you the best of luck with your school search.
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Let me reiterate:
Besides, “you can’t eat prestige”.
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It might be valuable for the OP to rank her desires and requirements, and to view colleges through that lens. For example, if she needs a “full ride” it needs to rank above “prestige”, because if you can’t afford it, it doesn’t matter how prestigious the school is. “Good prep for med school” should be on this list.
They have PoliSci. Course 17. But not the other two, and I agree it does not sound like a good fit for the OPs hoals.
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oops- thanks for the correction @MITPhysicsAlum!
I’d suggest applying Early Action, test optional, to Ohio State and be sure to apply to their Morrill Scholarship Program and also consider applying to Eminence (must apply by EA to be considered for this one).
Affordability will require winning one of their full ride scholarships or piecing together enough of their smaller ones - the best chance for university merit aid is to apply EA.
Start by reading their admissions and scholarship information pages.
Fee Waiver Fee waivers - The Ohio State University
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