Starting to build my college list. Any suggestions?
Female, California
GPA 3.95 (W), 4.4 (W)
ACT (33) with 34 math, 33 science and 35 reading…trying to improve English in next ACT test. Act taken once.
5 AP’s by senior year
Extracurriculars: Competitive dancer (9 years), Theater actor with several lead roles (5 yrs), hip hop dance teacher (1 yr), public policy internship with a hospital (1 yr)
Favorite classes: Math, Chem, Stats and love public policy, history
Club founder: Asian affinity group
Interested in Premed, Major interest is Biomedical or Chemical Engineering and Public policy.
Any school recommendations?
Budget? Are you Merit hunting? Are you full pay? Will you qualify for need based aid? Have you run any net price calculators for any schools?
How far do you want to go from home? I love your interests in STEM and policy! A state capital or DC would be great for that combo. There are some colleges with interesting policy minors that fit well with STEM/premed majors.
Do you want to keep dancing informally? Formally on a team that travels?
Concerning location - yes, pre-med can be anywhere, but the OP mentioned policy interests. I do not want to suggest schools that are further than they want to go for college. 3,000 miles to DC is too far for some from Cali.
I would suggest UofSC over Clemson for policy because kids can walk a block and have an internship their first semester with a state agency, a legislator, or a ngo working on active state policy development. But if they do not want to go past Denver then that helps us with suggestions.
I plan to dance as a hobby only going forward and perhaps look for places I can teach dance. Trying to set up something at our hospitals children’s program now. I teach hip hop to young kids, as well as teens competitively.
I really think we need change at the top level in teen health via performing arts and building strong communities. I have really enjoyed advocating for teens at the government and hospital level representing the youth. so, much to learn. So, yes, looking for those programs that include both stems and public policy. I was thinking Brown, Georgetown…but need some safety schools.
You don’t need aid but you potentially have eight years of college - so does that then mean money matters? Have you spoken to your family about this?
You might look at South Carolina (with Honors) in the state capital and Florida State. If you like Gtown, you might like American. GW is close to Gtown but it’s very urban - very very urban.
If you like Brown, a Rochester might be good - you don’t have to be in a state capital to find strong public policy. U Denver would be a solid safety for you. CWRU a target - but more toward reach than safety) so target +. Emory is another.
Pitt would be a safety and strong in both areas you seek.
You might look at ASU / U of A - both fine with Honors, UW, and of course you can’t beat your UCs.
Still not sure size wise what you seek - but there’s some initial thoughts I hope are helpful.
I do prefer West coast, maybe Denver and Washington DC, Boston area. But, I am still educating myself on the regions as well. Thanks for this list…this helps a lot.
JHU could be of interest with proximity to DC and Annapolis for policy work and obviously, JHU for pre-med interests and research. Lots of options to teach dance in Baltimore and could be an interesting and unique internet for you to highlight.
University of Maryland at College Park could provide similar opportunities for a higher probability of acceptance in your range of applications.
Any of the colleges of interest in Boston give you a state capital, a great college town, and a city that appreciates the arts. There are a range of probabilities for acceptance in Boston for you.
Diversity and a place that has both premed and public policy are important on my list.
Also, while safety schools is a big concern to narrow down, so is my ED1 school. Currently, I am thinking Stanford or Brown as my ED. John Hopkins is another high reach school…program looks very good.
My mom wants me to visit a few safety schools, target schools and my ED1 school this year. Hence, list making activity is in swing.
This year (according to a student who attended admission day) the ACT range was 32-35 and GPA a 4.45. Poli Sci majors are impacted at UMD.
All the schools I’m hearing are reach heavy - which is OK if a DU is on your list (Denver) - but you need one you can get in before you go and apply only to top. Why I mentioned AU (American) and GW (George Washington) too although one has to want to go to a total urban campus and one with no dining halls. NYU and BU are similar although both have dining halls.
Pitt in addition to Denver would be a solid safety and strong in both your areas. For Boston, Brandeis as a target and BU/Tufts as reaches although full pay would help you at Tufts.
In regards to West Coast - UC Davis would be obvious to me (close to Sacto) but you have many solid privates - and you can study public policy and exert it in real life in any major city - so a USD, LMU, U of Pacific for non religious, etc. would work. Also, U of Portland and Seattle U.
My daughter is doing this (not pre-med) at College of Charleston - where she’s working to help resettle Afghan refugees - actually started a club and is interfacing (in theory) with a lot of policy measures - in fact, you might find a program in urban studies.
It’s ok to reach - but you do need to ensure you have targets and preferably at least two safeties - so far I hear reaches - and I’d put UMD in a low right, target + environment.
I like the public Honors Colleges - while ASU is ranked higher and in the capital, I think U of A is a better fit for your pursuits. U of SC would be phenomenal and FSU is really hard to get into Honors and it would be a strong fit.
But you want to stay West - so other than the Arizona schools wouldn’t work.
Grades: All A’s except for A- in 9th grade English, Spanish and World history class. My list of AP’s and honors are:
AP: AP Psych, AP Stat (Senior year: AP Cal BC, AP Chem, AP Government)
Honors: Physics honors, Chem honors, Bio honors, English honors, World history honors, Geometry honors, Algebra 2 honors, Precal honors.
Other notes:
2 Science poster awards in middle school. Math tutor on request by teacher. Taught drama for 4 summers at the local theater. Choreographed dances for 2 shows. Choreographing original dances for hip hop. Represented school at SDLC (Student diversity leadership conference) in 9th grade. Attended Neuroscience summer program at Stanford. Attended Premed summer program at UC Irvine.
Trying to focus more on the western U.S. (though not exclusively), below are some schools I would suggest you consider):
These two in-state schools that in or near Sacramento:
Cal State – Sacramento
UC Davis
These colleges are in (or near) state capitals and are similar in size to Brown:
U. Denver
Regis U. (CO), and has really strong health programs
College of Idaho
Butler (IN)
Providence (RI)…not in the west, but if you have Brown…
These colleges are in (or near) state capitals and are a bit smaller:
Carroll (MT): Even has a major in community health services
Willamette (OR)
These are significantly larger colleges in (or near) state capitals:
U. of Utah, Honors College
U. of Wisconsin
U. of Nebraska, Honors College
Make sure you’re focusing on where you think there’s a good fit for your interests, your personality, what you’d like to be doing outside of class, your budget (both for college and when thinking about grad school), etc. I suspect that a number of these colleges would be generous with merit aid.
