Chances for BU, UNC Chapel Hill, GWU, etc. (Junior looking to go into Pre-Med)

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Hi, I’m a junior in a very small school in northern New Hampshire. I’m looking to go into Pre-Med and become a neurological or orthopedic physician. My financial situation is not great. My parents will be paying for almost none of college as they will not be able to. Therefore, I will be relying on mostly loans, grants, scholarships, etc. I don’t know if it is important or not, but I am also a non-citizen, even though I have been living in the country for almost 15 years. I may be getting my Green Card by the time I go to college, but I’m not sure yet. I will not be a citizen until after I get into medical school, and maybe even later than that. Not to sound ungrateful for any responses, but I don’t need advice on the citizenship or financial aspects, I am only looking for estimates of the chances I have of getting into these schools. Sorry if this is a long thread, I just have a lot of info I need to give as my school does things very differently, and my citizenship status makes things even more difficult. Thank you for your time and consideration! :slight_smile: (I posted a chance thread before, but I didn’t include the information that I have in this one that could make a big difference in the application process.)

Colleges I’m Looking at:
Reach: UNC Chapel Hill, Georgetown
Match: Boston University, George Washington University
Safety: Rutgers, UMass Amherst

GPA: About 3.735 UW, I have taken honors classes, but they don’t count as extra weight to our GPA. This GPA is converted from a simple unweighted 5-point scale that my school uses. I’m not sure what my weighted GPA as my school doesn’t calculate it.

Class Rank: Around 3/4 out of 40 students. Our school in total is about 200 students, with about 50-60 per graduating class, so my class is extremely small, and getting even smaller with dropouts, people moving, etc.

SAT Score: 1280/1600 on New SAT. I’ve taken it again, but I haven’t gotten those scores yet, and I’m expecting around a 1350 or so. I will be taking them at least once more. I will also be taking the ACTs at least once, and 3 SAT subject tests with 2 attempts on each of them. If it makes a difference, I will be taking the TOEFL due to my non-citizenship status, and the ASVABs because I am thinking about doing my residency and fellowship at a VA Hospital to join the military and have my medical school costs paid for.

Classes: Our school doesn’t offer many AP or honors courses. I have taken honors courses, which are basically only offered freshman and sophomore year, only for English and Math courses, and they don’t count as extra weight to your GPA or anything; it’s only for looks on your transcript, I guess. Also, I’ve only taken and will be taking only 1 AP course, as my school only offers them online. The only AP’s offered in-class at my school are AP Literature and Composition and Spanish IV AP. If you want to take an AP course online, you have to complete prerequisites for it in school. For example, I would have to take Biology as a regular in-class course before I take it online as an AP course. Therefore, taking AP course just halves the time I would have to take other required and necessary courses for graduation and my career path.

Freshman Year:
Physical Science
World History & Geography
Algebra I Honors
English 9 Honors (World Literature)
Health
Band
Computer Literature
French I

Sophomore Year:
Biology
Geometry Honors
English 10 Honors (American Literature)
U.S History and Geography
Band
Physical Education
Web Page Design
French II
French III
Government & Economics

Junior Year:
Chemistry
Algebra II
Band
Physical Education
Health Science Technologies I
Physics
AP Language and Composition (Taken the AP test, but haven’t gotten scores yet)
Statistics

Planned Senior Year:
Pre-Calculus
Ethics (Dual Enrollment)
College Composition (Dual Enrollment)
Health Science Technologies II
Calculus
Anatomy and Physiology
Sociology (Dual Enrollment)

Extra and Co-Curriculars:
National Honors Society Treasurer
Student Council Class of 2017 Representative
Varsity Basketball and Soccer Manager
About 175 Hours of Community Service

Again, sorry about the extensive length and thank you for any responses!

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I think you’ll be able to get into your matches and safeties, but paying for them could be a problem. Make sure you apply to in state public schools- you could cut out room and board if you live at home and get a pretty big grant for tuition. As a pre-med you’ll want to minimize your loans since med school is super expensive.
None of the schools on your list give good financial aid except UNC- maybe talk to your guidance counselors to find some more schools that will meet your need.

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Thanks for your reply! I recognize that a lot of these schools are expensive and I have to some extent accepted that. The problem with applying for in state schools is that my parents will probably move out of the country and back to India once I get into college and get Green Card, and so I don’t really have a choice as to living on campus or not. Also, in New Hampshire, there are not many choices for match schools. I could try to get into Dartmouth, or I could go to something like SNHU - it’s just that there’s not that many in between choices that I feel are a good school for me. Thanks for your input, and I will try to find out if there are cheaper schools that are still a good fit for me, but I would really love to go to a college like BU or GWU, no matter the cost. If you have any recommendations to strengthen my application for my reach schools, or any other match schools that I could look into and be a competitive applicant for, I’m open to suggestions!

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I forgot to add this to my original post, and I think it could be important: I’m a Indian male with a family income of under $10,000, Also, I am wondering about my chances for getting into a 6 or 7-year accelerated medical program, which I heard about from a orthopedic physician that I recently shadowed. I would appreciate any input or advice regarding this path, as I have done some research on it, but I haven’t found much information.

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To be honest, I wouldn’t recommend GWU to anyone (but ESPECIALLY STEN or Pre-Ned). They charge WAY too much for the education/prestige you get (which is not better than most in state schools), rely too much on their location (which won’t even help you because you’re pre-med- would be appealing for PoliSci/ International Relations majors), and tend to skimp out on financial aid or try to find ways to get money out of you. However, if you really love it, by all means apply.

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Thanks for your reply! I’ll consider what you said about GWU, but I’m really liking it as a match option, even if the cost is high. I realize that college is going to be expensive, and I’m going to have to take out loans no matter what, and I’ve accepted that, so cost isn’t really a barrier to me right now. I think I’m pretty good at handling money, and I’ll find a way to pay it off in the future. Right now, I’m trying to find a college that’s a good fit for me and also one that I have a good chance of getting into, so if you have any recommendations to replace GWU without considering cost, that’d be really helpful!

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@abhinayb1998
First of all, I meant *pre-med and *STEM, sorry about the error.

When I was a junior, I didn’t really consider finances either. But now that I am a graduated senior, it really hit me. The financial aspect will seem insignificant until you get the bill or before it (so spring of Senior year- fall if one is really concerned). Therefore, you have to think of college as an investment.

As for alternates to GWU, I would suggest Penn State- University Park, which actually is high ranked than GWU (47 on US News compared to 57), has a better Pre-med program, and is probably cheaper (I know you said no advice on financials, but GWU is SOOOOO bad with this I have to bring it up. At any school you’ll get more bank and prestige for your buck.) In addition, you fall right in the middle of their middle 50%. I think it would be a pretty good at level school.

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Thank you again! I think the financial aspect does seem insignificant right now, but you are probably right that when I get my first bill, I’m not going to like the sight of it. I will try to listen to your advice on finances, and I will also try to look into Penn State. Do you have any advice on the accelerate med program at a college like BU? OR any advice for going on the military path that I mentioned in my original post? I think either one might be a little difficult to answer, seeing as I’m not a citizen, and I won’t be until the beginning or about half way through med school, but if anyone has any experience with this path, I’d really appreciate any input.

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U should be good !!

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UNH Durham is great for premed, why dont you give it a shot? You would save a lotta money