ACT: 35 / SAT: 1540 (one sitting each)
Did not take SAT II’s
GPA: 4.0 UW/4.4 W (on a 4 point scale)
Rank: 5/340
10 AP’s (Mostly 5’s and some 4’s)
National Merit Semi-Finalist
Solid EC’s but nothing fantastic (board member of 3 NHS’, lots of volunteer work, varsity sports, summer job, etc.)
Michigan resident - parents can pay around $30k/year; will not likely qualify for much need-based aid (maybe 15k at most) so merit aid would be nice, but not at the cost of educational quality.
High school rarely sends students to ivy tier schools.
I want to study biology as a premed at a top caliber school (ranked top 40ish) that has a good reputation and will allow me to get into an ivy tier medical school. Weather and location are not much of an issue, but I need to be on a liberal campus so the South is mostly off limits (unless the campus is liberal, i.e. Duke). Also, I do not care about the school’s size but I would prefer not to be in class with 200+ people (not a make or break, though). I adore big cities like New York, but small is okay too!
Current List:
-Michigan State (safety)
-UPitt (applying to GAP program)
-Northeastern
-UMich - Ann Arbor
-Johns Hopkins
-Duke
-Columbia
Looking for around three more schools to add. Thanks so much in advance for any help!
@musiclover214 – Just wanted to point out that although Davidson College is in NC, it’s an incredible liberal arts college. North Carolina has taken a lot of heat for some of its recent policies (see HB2, for example), but there are campuses where any left-leaning student would feel comfortable, including Duke, UNC, UNCA, App State, etc.
As for other colleges to add to your list, we recently analyzed student-level data provided by LinkedIn to identify the colleges and universities sending the highest percentage of graduates to top-ranked medical schools. Here they are listed in alphabetical order:
Amherst College
Bowdoin College
Brown University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Harvard University
Haverford College
Johns Hopkins University
MIT
Pomona College
Princeton University
Rice University
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
University of Pennsylvania
Washington University
Williams College
Yale University
*The medical schools that we incorporated into our analysis includes Columbia, Duke, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, University of California, San Francisco, Chicago, Penn, Wash U, Yale.
If you want to add slightly less-selective institutions that have strong pre-med offerings and proven track records of placing students in top MD programs, you may want to consider any of the following:
Baylor University
Boston University
Case Western Reserve University
Clark University
College of the Holy Cross
University of California, San Diego
University of Pittsburgh
University of Washington
I think most of the schools listed in the first list in highereddata’s post above give financial aid based on need only, except maybe Rice which may have some very selective merit scholarships so you will want to run the NPCs before you add them to your list if your parents can only pay $30/ year. You want to make sure you would qualify for enough aid to make them feasible.
Case Western is a good suggestion, you may qualify for enough merit there to bring the cost into range and it is in a cool area of Cleveland. A little smaller than MSU or UM so class sizes might be smaller and very strong in the sciences.
How enthusiastic are you about UM? It is going to be hard for you to beat the quality of UM as an instate resident for the price. It is an elite institution with so much to offer and Ann Arbor is an amazing college town. Initial class sizes for introductory classes might be large but will be smaller when you get into your later years. If you get into the Honors college you could have the benefit of living in the honors dorm and having smaller class sizes for some of your classes. How does your school do with admission to UM? I would think you would get in based on your stats above.
What about Kalamazoo College? Strong in the sciences and you would probably qualify for enough merit to get it into your price range. Maybe Vanderbilt and Emory would be worth looking into.
@cellomom2 thanks for the suggestions. I do like UofM and my school does very well with admissions, but honestly I just don’t want to be so close to home. As far as Vanderbilt goes, do you know if the campus is considered to be liberal?
Vanderbilt is probably more on the conservative side as colleges go, though most colleges tend more liberal than conservative in general. I think Emory is considered more liberal. Maybe some other posters know more about the specific culture at Vandy than I do. I was going more on trying to suggest a school with strong academics that might offer some merit as I think based on your post finances might end up being a limiting factor for you.
That’s exactly why I asked you about UM. I’m from Michigan and my S went there but my D did not, she wanted a smaller school and also she was turned off by the proximity to home. I understand that desire I just would urge you to try to look at it objectively because you are so close to it and familiar with it. There are students from across the country who would trade places with you in a heartbeat to be able to go to UM at in state rates.
Take a look at CWRU. Great school especially for what you are looking for and definitely liberal leaning.
I don’t know as much about it personally but U Rochester is often mentioned as a school where students like you may get some good merit. Rochester is a decent size city and it is a very strong school with good academics.
Just from the info you gave in your post I’m thinking that at the most elite schools that award financial aid by need only you would not get enough aid to make it work. That’s if you really would only get about $15k and your parents can pay $30k, you would be gapped by quite a bit. Is the $15K you mentioned above based on having run some NPCs?
If you are at all interested in LACs, there are quite a few in the midwest that are academically excellent and award some merit, such as Grinnell, Oberlin, Mcalester.
“Top 40” schools commonly do not offer merit scholarships. However, one or two from this list nonetheless might, and all may be worth researching further for affordability:
Pomona
Amherst
Carleton
Hamilton
Grinnell
UChicago
Stanford
Northwestern
WUStL
UPenn
Johns Hopkins
Brown
(From, "The Experts Choice: Colleges with Great Pre-med Programs.)
Our student has similar background and interests as yours and is a sophomore at WUSTL – absolutely loves it. Echo CWU, CMU, Emory, Vandy and Tufts. Notre Dame is a great place but may be a bit more conservative then you are looking for.
Definitely check out Rochester. D has similar career goals and stats (though not NMSF) and received a very nice merit package that made Rochester surprisingly affordable.
While in the south, Rice is pretty liberal, and gives good aid.
You don't have any LACs on your list, and some offer good aid (especially for top students like you), and are good prep for med school. Are LACs too small? If not, consider Pomona (reach), Grinnell (gives scholarships) and Reed (meets need).