What several posters are pointing out is that this isn’t about UG prestige. It’s about the right college where you can thrive. For med school, part of that is the grades, part research opps, healthcare experience (volunteering in the right places,) and etc. That can mean different things for different kids. It helps to be informed about competitive vs cooperative programs.
Little anecdote. Friend’s brilliant D was set since childhood on being a pediatrician. She went to a prestigious LAC, struggled through the first premed track courses and then failed organic chem. Of course, she put the work in. But weeding isn’t a natural process where all the smart rise to the top.
For financial reasons, she transferred to a strong women’s college that gave her generous athletic scholarship, re-took Orgo. First day of class, that prof announced something like, “Work with me, follow my lead, and you’ll pass well.” She did. Yale Med School. If she had stayed at the first college, probably no med degree.
You can’t just rely on a school’s stats that, 80-90+ percent of their applicants to med school were admitted to one of their top 3 choices. That’s after they weeded out so many.
I’d say you need more info about what it takes, which colleges work with their med aspirants, which are harder to succeed at. It isn’t just confidence.
Apply to whichever school you’ll be happy at. Personally, I believe it would be a smart decision to attend a big name school for undergrad, given it is affordable (perhaps a generous financial aid package is offered). Schools, like the Ivies and Hopkins will give you the connections and support you to succeed. It will not be easy, but if you’re willing to try you can do great things.
As far as going to a public school like Rutgers, I would only consider it for financial purposes, i.e. a big scholarship is given or the big name schools didn’t pull through. However, it would be much easier for you to do well so med schools might like to see that.
Nevertheless, since you are going to apply to med school, apply somewhere you can be happy at and you know you can succeed at. Best of luck with your college endeavors.
I agree with Chief134. It doesn’t hurt to go to a big-name school for premed provided that you get
sufficient need-based aid, since such an institution would give you unparalleled connections in the field. Grade deflation is always accounted for in accordance to the university you attended, so that shouldn’t be an issue.
@Frostaria, from your own thread, you share the OP’s dream, and of course you are entitled to agree (or disagree!) with other posters. But when giving advice it’s helpful to separate out what you think/feel/believe from what is objectively true / direct knowledge (and even then it’s hard, b/c there is a lot of variation / grey).
…the grades that you need to survive the pre-med culling.
@Chief134, you underestimate both the academics and the pre-med students at Rutgers: the standard is very high.
One more time: NO. That is NOT true for Med School in the US (also not true for Law school, btw).
There are of course a lot of great things about going to a school like Princeton or JHU. But if the OP’s main goal is med school, that is not the only path, and for many students it’s not the best path.
OP, you want to know your chances for Princeton, because that’s your dream. But there is nothing that anybody here can say that will tell you more than you know already. You will know if that particular dream is coming true soon- perhaps by the end of this week- but there is nothing to do in the meantime, except find a constructive use for all that nervous energy. Best tips for that are doing physical things (run / workout / etc) or things for other people.
May I ask why you want to go to these schools? Have you visited them?
As you know, the Ivies are very different from each other, which is very different from NYU, and Hopkins . . . sigh, let’s just say I’d be terrified to leave campus.
With your numbers, you can get into virtually any school in the country. Congratulations! You’ve clearly worked very hard and are very intelligent.
College represents four years of your life. With so many great options undoubtedly available, focus on where you think you would be happiest. The happier you are, the more you will thrive, the more likely you will be to form life-long friendships, etc. It’s unclear to me that you’ve done that. Do you want to go to a school in the city, or the suburbs? A large school, or a smaller school with smaller classes? Can you see yourself fitting better at a school like Cornell, or like Brown? Or do you want to go to a school in the middle of the slums? (my apologies to any JHU students).
Sounds to me like you have a decent shot at a top-20 or top-30 school, other than the ones that are everyone’s reaches, in which case you’d be in the same boat with 10,000 other kids. Going to an Ivy just because it is an Ivy isn’t the right approach, IMO.
thanks for all the advice, and maybe I’m just a little nervous. I plan to go to SUNY Buffalo on a scholarship (with my best friend) if I cannot make it to one of my reaches.
@RayManta I actually quite love the Princeton area, so that’s my #1. However, I’m a very social person so I would also love to go to colleges in NY as well such as Cornell, Buffalo, or NYU. Right now I am in the process of filling out the rest of my applications to see if I can get scholarships at any other universities (looking at the GW International Scholarship)
@iiRoMii I think you could have done better on the SAT math and SATII math (I mean your scores are still great but it’s just that you’re applying to MIT) but everything else sounds fine I guess.
I’m also a non-US citizen Asian, I feel like we have a pretty similar profile except your extracurricular seems slightly better (I don’t have lots of cool stuff, tbh idk if any of the things I did are actually cool lol) and my scores are slightly better than yours. I’m also applying to several other selective schools lol.
@geekgurl I know i really hope this doesn’t kill my chances it was such a bad day for me. What are some examples of your extracurricular if you don’t mind sharing?
Tbh it’s just based on chance for both of us. I just want to see how i stack up against prospective applicants. MIT would be a dream come true for me
@iiRoMii So for the extracurricular section I put music production, a community service I founded for teaching web programming (but this is really small lol, nothing worldwide or even citywide), Taekwondo and robotics (I have one regional competition champion award for robotics which probably isn’t a big deal for MIT but was a big deal for me because my team was the first in the school to get that far lol). I hope the music production will do me some favour bc I really like it and spend a lot of time doing it, I even wrote like 2 essays related to that xD
And for the job section I put tutoring, house sitting and giving private piano lessons.
Bit of a bump as I got deferred from Princeton, so I plan to apply to Columbia, Cornell, Brown (LOR from a top grad student who is a very good friend of mine and can produce a deep letter), NYU, UPenn, MIT and Stanford (Aunt used to work there so it could help).
Does anyone have any idea about my realistic chances at these schools?
@reeeeee1 would it be ok if I did not submit the math but just chem? Also, UPenn is a top choice for me, so does my application realistically stand out to AOs? I have worked to pursue my passions throughout high school.
@iiRoMii don;t think it should be too big of a deal to not submit math. also looks like its pretty good theres some good EC’s just have good essays and a good “why penn?” to stand out. I think a big reason why I got in for penn ed was becasue of my penn statement i researched the heckout of penn and really showed my passion for it
@reeeeee1 Ok thank you so much! I really believe my essay stands out, I’ve been told by my counselor as well. I am so excited to apply to Penn and congrats on being accepted! hope to join you there.
@geekgurl interesting. you seem to be a very passionate person, those are great accomplishments! I hope MIT is able to see how invested I am in making differences for those in need and for social causes. this is something that really matters to me. oh well, good luck!
@iiRoMii Thanks, good luck to you too! As long as you write your essays from the bottom of your heart they’ll get the feeling of how much you genuinely care about those causes. That’s the best thing anyone can do in college apps tbh. Hopefully we’ll see each other next fall, I hope I’ll get in tomorrow (applied EA) so I won’t have to compete against you
i really hope this doesn’t kill my chances it was such a bad day for me. What are some examples of your extracurricular if you don’t mind sharing?