Have you done practice tests where you are able to get a 1310 SAT or 28 ACT score? If you think you can do that consider applying to Wayne State’s BS MD program.
https://provost.wayne.edu/wayne-med-direct/prospective/fall-2023
I was reading through and thought Virginia Commonwealth (for the in-state tuition, and connection with MCV) or Agnes Scott (generous women’s LAC) as probable safeties that will be less expensive, maybe closer to full need. Both have been mentioned. Davidson is not a safety but worth a shot for the very strong financial aid.
If there is a need for a full ride, it’s time to level with your HS counselor and look at other state schools as well. He/she may know of a full ride program off the bat at someplace like Mary Washington or Radford or Longwood or Old Dominion. For closer to home privates (Richmond, Lynchburg, Mary Baldwin, Marymount, Roanoke, Emory and Henry, maybe even Sweet Briar), you can call admissions and ask flat out whether they have any first gen scholarship programs.
For what it’s worth, I went to Mary Washington years ago even though I had other options–I just loved the campus and the liberal arts feel. It was fantastic. I went to get my PhD from Vanderbilt from there. I wouldn’t stress on T50, although it’s nice if it happens. Get into a school you can afford that you think you’ll enjoy, and it will work out.
Edit: just recalled Christopher Newport has a substantial support in their Honors program. I believe they require EA for that and are test optional. Worth a try, and they have a cool connection with Riverside hospital systems they promote as a premed track.
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In fact, I’ve been down a rabbit hole here–Longwood offers really significant scholarships, incl a couple true full rides, in their Honors program (which looks pretty interesting, cohort style, smaller classes, etc.). That would be a super safety for you, with likely big financial help to get through. If you applied there, it would take the stress off this next year. Apply where you want after that.
Two other schools that you may want to look into are Caldwell and Drew, both in New Jersey. I only know a little about Drew and very little about Caldwell, but the net price for students from lower-income families is much lower than at many of the meets 100% of need schools. They both have a good number of students majoring in your fields of interest, likely indicating some strength in those areas. Caldwell seems more racially diverse than Drew, though I don’t think that Drew is non-diverse. I also think you would be very likely to be admitted to either one.
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For October of your senior year, your your decision process is a bit “all over the place” and hampered by a number of misconceptions. There’s a lot of brainstorming we could do here, and you’ve gotten a lot of good suggestions, but most importantly, you need to rein in the divergent thinking that all of us on CC are so good at, and organize your decision process to narrow down your choices intelligently.
Your two best friends at this point:
- The Net Price Calculator, and
- Spreadsheets (Google Sheets is great, because it’s easy to share with collaborators)
Make a spreadsheet of all your schools, with multiple tabs. The first tab should be financial. Run the NPC on every school on your list, and note the projected net cost and the projected debt. Note whether the school has large merit scholarships that could meaningfully affect your net cost. This is your first filter, and it will eliminate some schools, like Penn State, that won’t be affordable. (The reality is that PSU is often unaffordable even for PA residents who are low-income, much less an OOS low-income student like you.)
Next tab is assessing how your stats stack up, relative to each school’s competitiveness. One very rough tool you can use is the admissions calculator on the Prepscholar site for each college. Based on GPA and test score, it will give you an estimate of your likelihood of admission. This needs to be taken with a HUGE grain of salt, because it fails to take many factors into account, including your URM “hook,” in-state vs. OOS at public U’s, competitiveness of major if it’s a school where you apply by major, and so on. But still, it will give you a rough idea where you stand relative to the applicant pool. Since you plan to apply TO, look at the average test score for each school and calculate your odds based on a score a little below that average.
For example, MIT’s average SAT score is 1535. So let’s say that applying TO is comparable to applying with a 1400. According to Prepscholar’s calculator, the odds of admission with a 1400 and a 4.0 weighted GPA are… 0.3%
Contrast that with BU. Their average SAT is 1420… so let’s plug in a 1350 and a 4.0. The calculator says 25.75% odds here. That is much, much more worth your time in terms of working on the application! (And again, the absolute percentage means nothing - your odds could well be better than this, given your other attributes - but it still has some value in terms of comparing competitiveness across schools.)
You’ll see, though, that all of the “T50” schools you’re looking at are quite competitive. Many of the applications have time-consuming supplements. Be judicious in weighing which ones are worth the necessary time and effort.
Back to the spreadsheet: your third tab should be for majors, minors, extracurriculars, premed advising - all of the specific things you’re interested in. Make a column for each of your priorities, and then note for each school what they have to offer in that area. You can refer to this when writing your “Why College X” essay, as well as using it to compare schools and assess fit.
As I mentioned, there are several misconceptions in your post and comments. First of all, applying EA is almost never a disadvantage, unless you a) don’t have time to write a good application before the deadline, or b) had a grade dip in your junior year and need colleges to see your fall grades from senior year. In many cases, your chances of both admission and merit aid can be much better in the early cycle.
Secondly, your ambition to pursue multiple majors/minors plus premed prep is admirable, and I know today’s high school students are conditioned to rack up credentials in this way… but it’s really not necessary or even helpful. The important thing is to pursue colleges that have good opportunities in all of your areas of interest, so that you can keep your options open. You’ll figure out once you get there, which direction(s) you will ultimately go in. There’s no need to overcommit up front, and colleges won’t be more impressed by a laundry list of lofty intentions; they just want to see your range of interests as you currently understand it, and a willingness to explore and discover new interests as well.
Thirdly, you could miss some top-notch academic and financial opportunities by ruling out LAC’s. It’s just not true that a well-chosen LAC would limit your opportunities. Take, for example, a school like Rhodes College in Memphis, where many pre-health students get involved in research and shadowing at St. Jude’s and other hospitals in the city Fellowships, Internships, and Research | Rhodes College Just one example. And a school like Rhodes is likely to give you a generous combination of merit and need-based aid. (I’m not plugging this one school above all others - it’s just proof of concept.) Agnes Scott College has already been mentioned and is a great suggestion; their Public Health major is offered in cooperation with Emory’s School of Public Health (which in turn has close ties to the CDC in Atlanta). Great academic and internship opportunities here. Agnes Scott College - Public Health Program
Back to the brainstorming side of the equation. As others have suggested, look at schools that offer large diversity scholarships. The Morrill at Ohio State is a great one, with a built-in community of Morrill Scholars. U of Miami (which is private and meets need) has several big scholarships that are earmarked for URM students and/or students who have faced adversity. First-Year Merit Scholarships | Undergraduate Admissions | University of Miami (Note that you must apply EA to qualify for these scholarships.) There are more, of course, but those are a couple of good examples.
Try running the NPC for Lehigh University. Not only do they meet need, but they’ve moved to no-loan aid for low-income students. Plus, they are highly motivated to increase their diversity, so the “URM bump” will be significant. They have several majors that may interest you (Community & Global Health, Population Health, Health, Medicine & Society) Tsbna44 mentioned Denison University (it has one n, not two) - this is another school that meets need and is strongly committed to diversity - worth considering if the NPC looks good. You might like their Global Health major. Allegheny and Juniata are both worth a look - they have cooperative programs with streamlined admissions to several DO and PA schools, and you’d get significant merit aid.
You have great in-state options as well. In addition to the four-year schools and the commuter community colleges, there are several residential two-year schools with guaranteed transfer agreements with the top public U’s. Look into the financial picture at Richard Bland College https://www.rbc.edu/ as well as UVA Wise.
Sorry for the very long info-dump; I hope some of it is helpful!
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Great note - we should copy and paste for so many - with just the school names changed to fit the situation. Very well organized.
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Thank you for the suggestion with Xavier! I have definitely been looking into more Virginia schools to add to my list too. Overall, what I am looking for in an institution is a medium-big school in the Northeast f the United States in an urban environment with a mix of an intellectually curious student body who love having fun too. I would also love a study-abroad program.
Thank you for your advice! I’m in the process of finishing up m essay to apply yo most of these schools, especially Howard, and completed my FAFSA the first day it was open.
Thank you for your comments! The only GPA my school provides is the weighted GPA. I also agree that my list needs some work. In regards to EA, if you are rejected can you apply for Regular Decision at most schools I think I should do as you said and check the policy for how it works at each school. REA/SCEA at Harvard and Yale works in between the Ivy League. So if I apply EA at let’s say Yale I can not apply EA at any other Ivy League school. I definitely will apply EA to most schools cause getting all of this out of the way would be nice. The only school I would consider for ED is Johns Hopkins.
I am also looking into this option as well! Many of my closest friends are set on this path and I am still considering it. Thank You!
Thank you for the school suggestion and the resources! I will definitely be looking into Ohio State.
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My original SAT was actually around that number. Thank you for this resource as well!
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EA has three possible outcomes: acceptance, denial, or deferral. If you’re deferred, you are automatically considered in the RD cycle. If you’re denied, that’s it for that application cycle - but the premise is that anyone denied in EA would’ve been denied in RD anyway. There is no “reapplying” in the same year - either your application remains active, or it doesn’t.
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If you are rejected in the early action round, you have been rejected for this admissions year. You cannot apply again regular decision. If the school wanted you bumped to regular decision, they would defer their decision to the RD round…but you would not be applying again.
Once you have been rejected from a college, you have been rejected for that admissions year.
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You need to read the REA or SCEA guidelines for Harvard and Yale. These are “restricted” or “single choice” early action.
Some REA or SCEA schools allow you to apply to public universities, or other EA schools (not other REA or SCEA ones, I believe), but you can’t apply Early Decision anywhere. And some don’t allow any other EA applications.
For Harvard and Yale, it appears you are correct. You can’t apply to any other EA schools.
Here is what Harvard says:
- If you are applying to Harvard under Restrictive Early Action, you may not apply to any other private institution under an Early Decision, Early Action, or Restrictive Early Action plan, or to a binding early program at a public university.
- You are welcome to apply early to any public university, military academy, or university outside of the United States under a non-binding program.
- Additionally, you are able to apply to other universities under their Regular Decision or Early Decision II programs.
- If your application is deferred in the early action round, you may apply to a binding early decision program at another college (i.e. Early Decision II).
- You may apply for scholarships or special academic programs with an early deadline at another institution, public or private, if the timing is proven to be a necessary aspect for consideration, and the outcome is non-binding.
- Harvard will meet the full financial need of admitted students regardless of whether they apply Restrictive Early Action or Regular Decision.
AND here is Yale:
If you are a Single-Choice Early Action applicant to Yale, you may apply to another institution’s early admission program as follows:
- You may apply to any college’s non-binding rolling admission program.
- You may apply to any public institution at any time provided that admission is non-binding.
- You may apply to another college’s Early Decision II program, but only if the notification of admission occurs after January 1. If you are admitted through another college’s Early Decision II binding program, you must withdraw your application from Yale.
- You may apply to any institution outside of the United States at any time.
Let’s break it down, because there are some misconceptions here.
Harvard REA and Yale SCEA are similar. You agree not to apply ED anywhere pending the disposition of the REA/SCEA rounds, and you are only allowed to apply to the non-binding EA programs at public universities. The restrictions are not limited to other Ivies.
Johns Hopkins has two rounds of ED, so, based on timing, applying to either Harvard or Yale under their REA-SCEA policies would prohibit your from applying ED1 there.
If Yale or Harvard defer your application for consideration under regular decision or reject you, the REA-SCEA restrictions expire and you may apply to Johns Hopkins for its ED2 round. But if you are accepted ED2 by Hopkins (or anywhere ED2 for that matter) you would have to withdraw all other active applications, even those that might still be under RD consideration at Harvard or Yale. ED is binding that way.
So the REA-SCEA tracks at Harvard and Yale (and a handful of other elite schools) really restrict your EA options in a way that, say, ED at Brown wouldn’t. That’s because ED schools typically allow you to have as many EA and RD applications to other schools as you want, as long as you agree to withdraw them all if you are accepted and agree to enroll ED.
Again, you need to research the admissions policy at every school. As suggested elsewhere, spreadsheets help!
Are your parents divorced with the other parent still alive? If so, be aware that many of the colleges known for good financial aid require and use both parents’ financial information to determine financial aid.
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