I’m looking for colleges right now so open to any suggestions you all have! I’m looking for the premed track but my major is not 100% decided. Thanks for the help!
My opinion…Boston University, UNC CH should be moved to the reach category.
You say you are likely going to be premed…but you have not shadowed physician which are very different than dentists…so you likely want to see if you can do that. Or at least have some conversations with some doctors about their careers, and what it takes to be a doctor.
Keep in mind that there’s no need based aid for out of state students at UCLA and very little merit…So you’d be looking around $70K per year…Make sure you’d able and willing to afford that before investing your time in the application (which is a totally separate application from the other universities on your list).
So $60k may or may not work. But it depends on if the colleges determine you have need. Your parents would run a college’s net price calculator to see what you could expect to pay. Some colleges are $90k+
You really need another semester under your belt and even year before doing this.
That says, your safeties likely will be except SMU.
Maybe Trinity and Baylor are targets but the rest, including UT are high reaches at this point but again it’s too early.
At $60k - whether you have need or not, UCLA has to come off. If it’s determined you are full pay, then Penn and Northwestern come off too. They have no merit aid.
Here’s the other thing - you can pre med anywhere but can’t do bio engineering at many so if that’s the major you decide, your list changes anyway.
It’s good you’re thinking about this but you need another year of grades and a test score - not a predicted one.
In the meantime, have your parents run the NPC for Rice, Northwestern and Penn to see if you’d qualify for need based aid.
Keep up the good work.
Ps - you’ve taken those 4 ap classes with those test scores and you’re about to become a junior ? Which math will you take Junior and senior year
The net price calculators at most colleges have not even been reset for the 2024-2025 academic year…and this kid will be starting college in the 2025-2026 academic year, right? The net price calculators should be viewed with very extreme caution if used now. Financial aid awarding policies DO change sometimes. Cost of attendance changes. The 2025-2026 financial aid year will use 2023 tax year info, and that year is not yet ended. Lots of moving parts that will render the NPC for a student starting college in two years probably not accurate.
You could look at some of the SUNY colleges. Even at OOS costs, they will be within your price point.
I would also suggest you look at University of Arizona, Arizona State and University of New Mexico as options that very likely will be affordable.
I would put UT-Austin, BU, and UNC as reaches, and SMU as a match. Baylor looks like a solid fit and would get to that budget, but keep in mind that med school will be even more expensive and Baylor doesn’t necessarily provide any advantage for med admissions over a cheaper public school.
But the private school policies are unlikely to change. If a private school family is full pay today, they will likely be full pay tomorrow short of a drastic change to the family’s income. If a school like Rice says they’ll get a lot of aid today, assuming a families income stays similar, they’d likely get a lot tomorrow.
The student is a year early but that said it can help the student by figuring out - at $60k if that’s truly the budget - who can get consideration.
In terms of the net price calculators…this student is two years early. Most are set for the 2023-2024 academic year. @Mwfan1921
Policies do change. Schools switch from loans to no loans. Thresholds for certain amounts of need based aid go up and down…based on income. There are just too many moving parts for the NPCs to be accurate for students enrolling in 2025-2026.
They can’t be used for a gross guestimate right now…but that’s it.
@Bindaas3 do you want a lot of suggestions of colleges that are likely to come in under $60,000 a year.
Another option would be Southwestern University in Georgetown if you’ve heard of it. It’s a relatively small college ~1,500 undergrads. It’s a CTCL and offers pretty decent merit aid for GPAs/Class ranks. From a recent piece of mail I got, Southwestern’s Scholarship Plan offers 23-29k for first-year students, with your current rank.
Southwestern does decently with its pre-med to med school admission percentage, and a current student I know there says their campus is very welcoming.
Another option you could consider if you’re truly devoted to Pre-med is Austin College up in Sherman. Austin College has an early admissions partnership with Texas Tech Medical School where you don’t have to take the MCAT if you’re admitted. They’ve also got some good connections with several medical centers in the DFW area for internships.
Seconding Southwestern and Austin College.
SMU is a target.
Since you’re currently outside top 6% and applying for competitive majors, UT is almost out of reach.
Just in case: Baylor is Baptist and religious.
BU is not recommended for premeds due to grade deflation.
If a religious (Catholic) university is fine with you, look into Boston College. BC is more liberal than Baylor though.
Unc Ch places limits on the % out of state students it can admit.
Perhaps TEXAS STATE before UTTYLER?
Run the net price calculator on Muhlenberg, Davidson, Hendrix, Kenyon.
You will likely get in to Trinity but I predict you’ll get much better merit aid from Austin College and Southwestern University. I love SLACs for pre-med students because of the incredible advising.
I know someone going to UT Tyler next year for pre-med. Am I remembering correctly that they are opening a medical school? Also with it being so small you might get more research opportunities and individualized advising.
Edited to say: it does look like UT Tyler has a new med school opening fall of this year.
Rhodes College in Memphis, TN should be looked at by the OP; it is a very good LAC, and it gets a good number of Texans who are shut out of the automatic in-state admissions.
Admission to UNC-CH is unlikely, based on the test scores of the OP: if you look at Carolina’s Common Date Set in Section C7, standardized test scores are a “very important” admissions factor whereas academic GPA and class rank are “important” admissions factors.