Hey guys! So I’m an incoming junior and I need help making my college list. I’m planning on majoring in biology and minoring in English, probably pre-med or pre-pharmacy. I do not want to go to any top 20s or any crazy ‘name brand’ schools. My parents can pay 50K total over the course of the 4 years, and they will cosign any other loans. That being said, any financial safeties for me would have to be less than 50K total and our FAFSA EFC is 30K per year.
Ethnicity and location: Asian girl in Virginia
GPA: 4.0 UW, 4.35 W
SAT: 1440
Non-academic Preferences: Northeast, high diversity, not too overbearing greek life or religious affiliation, suburban/urban, and a Lincoln-Douglass debate team (the first four are make-or-break preferences for me).
So far this is what I have based on location
Likelies:
GMU ( financial safety, can commute and graduate debt-free would genuinely like to go)
Match:
UVA
VCU (dream school as of now? Probably going to change though)
I wouldn’t pay attention to overall acceptance rates at UVA and W&M. They aren’t really applicable. You should look at in-state and particularly what you might see in Naviance. The overall acceptance rate at UVA for instance is in the teens OOS, but about 36% in state, arriving at 27% overall. The actual stats at the two schools are pretty similar.
As for finance, you should look at the financial aid details. Both UVA and W&M have programs that provide aid based on income for in-state students, lowering net cost. They do more of this than the other Virginia schools, which may have lower list prices but might not have lower net depending on your situation.
As for fit, not sure what you mean by high diversity. You can look at the SCHEV site and see a comparison of students by ethnicity. I’d say VCU is the most urban of the schools you list. It is the closest you get to NYU in Virginia. The others are varying types of suburban. GMU is large city suburban. UVA is in a mid-sized city. W&M is in a smaller city, but is now pretty much part of a continuously developed are on both sides (heading to Richmond and to Norfolk/Virginia Beach). VT might be viewed as most remote, but Blacksburg is not a bad place and Roanoke isn’t too far. I don’t know if there is too much difference on your other factors. I’d say Greek life is biggest at UVA, but I wouldn’t say overbearing. W&M may actually have a larger percentage of Greeks (it is close) but it is low key.
We are from a different part of the country (way north and east of you), but to me your list looks very good. Congratulations on your great stats so far! Try to keep your GPA up as much as possible.
Being in-state really should help you at UVA, and your SAT is already a bit over their average. I don’t think that it is a safety for you but I think that putting it as a match makes sense to me.
Given that you are not quite a junior yet, will you be doing some more SAT preparation and re-taking the test in very roughly a year from now?
@IzzoOne Thanks for the reply, that’s super helpful!! Are there any Northeast colleges that might end up with a low net cost by merit aid alone? Any need-based aid I get will be minimal to about 5K a year, so I’d need to look for low sticker price, instate, or high merit aid options.
“Being in-state really should help you at UVA, and your SAT is already a bit over their average.”
UVA has holistic admissions, so it usually takes more than just a good SAT and GPA to get in. Things like EC’s, community service, special talents, awards and a good essay play a substantive role in getting accepted.
A high number of acceptances at UVA go to legacies, athletes etcetera. Legacies alone counted for over 1000 of the acceptances for Fall 2019, more than 10% of the overall total.
Would UVA, VCU, VT, and W&M require more debt than the federal direct loans?
If so, then move them all into the reach category, since you will need a competitive merit scholarship to afford them.
As a pre-med, ideally you will finish college with no debt, because medical school is very expensive, and you do not want undergraduate debt added to medical school debt (probably around $300k for UVA in-state medical school, $400k for private medical school, probably higher four years from now). Even applying to medical school (typically 15-30 in hopes of getting one admission) costs several thousand dollars, including travel to interviews.
Also, biology does not have high paid bachelor’s level major-specific job prospects, so you want to avoid debt because paying off debt on a biology graduate’s pay if you do not get into medical school may be difficult.
would genuinely like to go)