Chances and pls review safeties etc

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Going into Senior year (in the year of the crazy admissions cycle): he will be applying both to traditional undergrad and to multiple BSMD

Colleges broken into these categories:

Safeties
USF
GWU

Match
Boston U
Case Reserve
UF

Reach
Swarthmore
Tufts
JHU
UNC- CH (OOS)
Duke
Dartmouth

Biographical data:
Hook: Native American (tribal enrollment)
GPA: 3.89 UW/ 4.4 W
SAT: not taken yet (Covid, sigh)
ACT: 33 super score (36E/35E/31S/30M)- (he will take math again as that’s his strong suit but he struggled with timing and getting completed, will take just math when it starts offering just one subject option, has been doing tutoring)

Classes: Last year/upcoming year all classes taken on college campus to include Bio I and Chem I with labs, college Alg, college trig, comp 1 and 2 (thru honors college), and will have physics, college calc, etc. will have AA when graduates. College gpa is 4.0. Other classes taken at high school typically honors level

Clubs: include 3 honors societies (leadership roles in all 3 upcoming school year) and 2 clubs (will be President of 1). Volunteered 200+ hours at hospital, belongs to Medical Explorers at hospital, research internship at local college, and tutors in patients on pediatric wing 2x week.

Honors include
-Prudential Spirit of Community- Local Honoree
-President Volunteer Service Award- Gold
-Rensselaer Medal for Math and Science
-Bausch and Lomb Award
-Congressional Award- Bronze Medal
-HS Honor Roll
-President’s List for Academic Excellence
-Honor’s College Achievement Award
-President’s Award for Educational Excellence

Here’s the big colony of flies in the ointment: has an F. He made it up and passed, but his Dad was injured by an IED summer after 8th grade; kiddo struggled so much in classes that fall . Military moved us dec of 9th grade year due to Dad’a medical and He was required to finish the last month of the semester in a 7 day period. All but His English teacher were accommodating or understanding; English still required the finished 12 page research paper they had just started to develop. He bombed it and got an F. Any ways, that’s the ugly blemish and he freaking out about it derailing everything else.

So should he retool his list to aim much lower with his Match and reaches? Financially speaking we will prob be full pay. And I apologize for length of post!

2

Which schools are BSMD?

3

If he gets an A in college Bio I, it will override an F freshman year. I would also ask the school guidance counselor to write about the experience in their LOR for your son.

FWIW, I think the list is off balance. I would add more match schools and have fewer reaches.

Case can be very unpredictable with admission. I wouldn’t necessarily consider that a match for a pre-med. Maybe a high match/low reach.

RPI would be a match.

Also, he doesn’t need both the ACT and SAT. Just focus on brining up the math, and maybe even science, sub scores on the ACT.

Dartmouth is a good one to have on your list as a Native American.

4

@twogirls
That’s a whole ‘nother long list. It is about 15 schools. Since the likelihood of getting a BSMD acceptance is 2%, he is applying widely and hoping to snare the 1 lucky ticket.

5

@momofsenior1

RPI is on his BSMD list

(though so is Case but he is seriously interested in Case for the reg undergrad. He loved the access to the hospitals and volunteering. Their admissions stats are all over the place, which is frustrating, but hoping he has demonstrated enough interest for them. We did a tour in January, he has checked in with his adcom a few times, and he has done 3 of their virtual sessions on different topics. Short of a face tattoo, I don’t think he could demonstrate more )

He finished this semester with a 4.0 so he got an A in both Chem and Bio plus their labs. And learned he doesn’t want two lab classes ever again during a pandemic lol.

6

Native american is the most under-represented of the URM categories. So the F will barely register a blip. He has shown the ability to handle college coursework, so I doubt the F will hinder anything.

Is he applying to the premier BS/MD programs? Brown PLME, Northwestern, Rice? He would have a good shot.

7

I would remove a reach or 2 and add to the matches. You indicated that there are about 15 BSMD schools…those are reaches.

Will he be able to complete all of these applications? Quality essays are very time consuming.

8

So for BSMD Applications, he has the following list:
Univ Illinois
Penn State
RPI
Temple
Drexel
UPITT
Hofstra
VCU
BU
SBU/GW
Case
U Cincinnati
GW* (also for undergrad)
Brown
Wash U SL

He is working on his common app essay now and getting his why medicine essay done too. Sadly he had been accepted to 4 summer programs that all got canceled so his fee time now is to set himself up as best he can for application season.

9

You should add 3-4 match colleges at least.

I’d add Bates/Wesleyan/Davidson for high matches, Lafayette/F&M/Denison for matches,
St Olaf/Dickinson/Lawrence/Rhodes for quasi safeties - all with strong science offerings and overall academics.
Why not FSU (in addition to USF)?
Not sure GWU would be a safety.
BU has grade deflation and is generally not recommended for premeds. It’s also quite different from the other colleges (no campus).

10

@MYOS1634
He didn’t like FSU and has no interest in attending. His older brother loved it and didn’t make the cut so it’s sad younger bro has a chance and no inter

Part of the problem is he prefers more urban/highly suburban areas to rural parts. So many of the LACS are in pretty remote/less urban areas.

We have toured or visited most of the areas for the colleges on his list. One of the side effects of being a military kid is he has no home base so he is willing to go as long as he “likes the vibe.”

11

St Olaf is in a nice college town about 45mn away from the Twin Cities, so not remote. Rhodes is in Memphis (in a very nice area) so not remote at all.
Bates is a 5mn walk into the town of Lewiston.
Denison is 30mn from Columbus and Davidson 20mn from Charlotte.
So I think these would work in terms of environment. :slight_smile:
If you can afford it, Pitt (non BSMD) would be a good safety.

12

Thank you!

13

I’d reclassify GWU to a match rather than a safety. Perhaps look to add another safety.

Have you run the net price calculators to determine that all of these options appear affordable?

14

@happy1

Yes, we have done the NPC on all the schools (he made it a column on his colleges/application spreadsheet). My husband has given our son the gi bill and their tribe will cover 30k a year for as long as he is in school and maintains his grades. If we pay out of pocket, it would be maybe $3-4K a year which is definitely doable.

It would be economically more advantageous for him to stay in Florida (as disabled vets kids get tuition waivers for undergrad) but he doesn’t love Florida and I wouldn’t want him to settle if we can avoid it.