USC had an acceptance rate below 10 percent last year, it’s in reach for everyone territory.
1 Like
Did you take the PSAT? Is there a chance that you are a National Merit Semi Finalist?
I would also move USC out of the target category. They are holistic and reject plenty of kids with perfect GPAs and top test scores. If you want to be considered for one of USC’s merit scholarships, you must apply by the Nov 1 EA deadline.
Have you considered biomedical engineering as a major?
From the USC Viterbi website
If you’re admitted to one of our engineering programs, you are admitted to all of them. No major is easier or more difficult to get into than any other, and none of the programs are impacted. Also, Viterbi has essentially the same admission rate as USC, so applying as an engineer gives you no disadvantage.
Cal Poly SLO’s Biology major has an estimated 13% admit rate so would be in the Reach category. Admissions is stat based and also test blind but your GPA looks well within the admitted Freshman range. As noted they use 9-11th grades with an 8 semester Honors point cap for qualified classes taken 10-11th grade.
That’s what I was thinking. Not a guarantee, but OP seems to have high stats, leadership and work related to major.
Edit to add: Plus, SLO would be more cost effective.
2 Likes
@tsbna44 Sorry for the delay. My UW GPA for 9-11 is 3.92 and Weight GPA is 4.42. Is the college list you suggested the same? I didn’t think about Meric scholarship. Will definitely take that into consideration. Thank you!
Yes. 3.9 is the cutoff. So you’re still good at U of A. 3.89 = $10k less.
U of A is cheaper than ASU but both are good schools. I prefer U of A - collet, less crowded, one campus but everyone is different. I am an asu mba alum tho.
There’s many more. Those are some ‘big’ ones. There are other type schools if they interest you.
Of course go where you want but since you noted med school costs were forgotten it never hurts to
Most parents don’t pay for their kids to go to medical school. But it is in your best interest to graduate from undergrad with as close to no loans as possible. If your parents save costs on undergrad, will they be able to help with costs for grad or professional school? Note…I’m not saying fully fund…but help.
We paid for four years of undergrad all in…but we didn’t pay for grad or professional schools for our kids. The tuition for that was on them (one had an assistantship and some scholarships, and the other took out loans). We helped with living expenses…because we were able to. So…ask your parents what they will do for you for studies beyond your bachelors degree.
Families take a variety of approaches to how they approach paying for higher education. The four most common that I’ve seen are:
-
Families will pay a set amount for undergrad only (which could be $1,000 or up to full-pay, depending on their family) and then everything else above and/or after that is on the student.
-
Families indicate that they will pay a set amount for the student’s education. If a student spends less than the allotted amount for undergrad, then the remainder can be spent on graduate education.
-
Families indicate a start-up fund amount for their kid. Whatever doesn’t get spent on a degree can go towards approved costs like a house down payment, business start-up costs, car, etc.
-
Families set a budget for college. If a student spends less than the budgeted amount, then the family splits the difference with the student. So if they budgeted $400k but a student only used $200k, then they would gift the student $100k and keep the other $100k.
Talk to your family and see what your own situation is like.
2 Likes
Is a UC your first choice? If Duke, Northwestern, or WashU are first choice I would definitely recommend applying ED as all 3 have stated they give preference to ED applicants and their RD acceptance rates are very very low. If going to a UC is your first choice then don’t apply ED and just see what happens. Your stats are very good and make you a competitive UC applicant. I would recommend spending a lot of time on your PIQ’s and have someone look over them to help you edit (parent or teacher, etc.) You may also want to add an “guaranteed” safety that you can apply to EA and hear back from quickly. It feels good to have something already as a yes by December.
UC is more affordable. I am debating between WashU, Duke and top UCs like UCB, UCLA, if admitted in both. Which one do you recommend for EA? Thank you!
WUSTL is a great university. I had the good fortune to get to participate in a seminar there once and very much enjoyed the experience and was impressed by the quality of the students. I have heard equally good things about Duke. However, both can be expensive.
Top universities such as Duke and WUSTL do get a higher percentage of their graduates into medical school compared to lower ranked universities. However, a lot of this, possibly all of this (?), is due to the quality of the students who start off at Duke and WUSTL (and Harvard and Stanford and other top schools) in the first place. It is not clear that for any one student their chances of getting accepted to a good medical school is any different regardless of whether they start at Duke or WUSTL in the middle or lower third of the incoming class, or start at UC Riverside or UC Davis in the top third or middle third of their class. I doubt that your chances of getting into medical school are going to vary much based on which of these very good universities you attend.
However, your chances of minimizing debt is likely to be better if you attend one of the UCs.
One issue that you might want to discuss with your parents: If you save money by attending a very good but less expensive university (I would personally describe any of the UC’s as “very good”), can the money saved go towards medical school? Also, if you end up as a full pay student at WUSTL or Duke, will you need to take on any debt at all in order to graduate?
Of course if you apply to schools EA and/or RD and specifically do not do ED anywhere, then you have quite a bit of time to decide where you want to attend, and you will have the opportunity to look at multiple offers before picking one. I am personally a big fan of EA partly because it does take away a lot of stress to get an affordable offer early from a good university. I am not a big fan of ED.
You mean ED.
If you’d choose a UC over either, then neither as they’re binding.
1 Like
Wash U and Duke have early decision (ED) not EA. The UCs don’t have early anything.
1 Like
However, the UC regular frosh application deadline is fairly early (November 30).
https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/how-to-apply/applying-as-a-freshman/
That’s the deadline for when applications need to be received, yes. But early notification? No!
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. If you’d like to reply, please flag the thread for moderator attention.