Here’s my college list. I have a 4.3 GPA weighted, 1500 SAT and 34 ACT. Have a lot of extracurriculars including varsity sports, officer of a club, a job etc. I’m looking at schools with a good pre-med program. Here’s my list. Please help me in eliminating some.
Stanford, UPenn, Duke, Vanderbilt, Cornell, Tufts, Georgetown, USC, Carnegie Mellon, Emory, UNC, UMich, Boston College, Notre Dame, Lehigh, Boston U, UT-Austin, UWisco-Madison, UWashington, Rutgers
This isn’t enough info to do that. What is your financial situation? Home state?
In general, I’d split your list into safeties, matches, and reaches. Then I’d pick 2 from the safeties, 4 from the matches, and 2-3 from the reaches. That gives you a list where you are sure to have choices in the spring, but has a few top colleges as well.
Thanks! For clarification, I’m from NJ and my financial situation shouldn’t be an issue as long as the school provides a decent financial aid package.
Also, would you recommend splitting up colleges by straight up gpa and sat/act?
For an opinion on some of your choices, you could search for “The Experts Choice: Colleges with Great Pre-med Programs.”
@kobeman2000 Have you run the NPCs for each college using complete and current financial data from your parents to determine your EFC (expected family contribution)? Have you discussed with your parents what they are willing and able to pay? Is there a gap between your EFC and their budget that could not be bridged by a federal student loan and/or work study?
Most public universities do not provide much financial aid, if any, for out of state students. That might be a place to trim your list.
If you want to go out of state, also look for schools that will provide merit aid for your stats. Are you in contention for National Merit?
automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
Rutgers is your safety – the other public flagships, from UT, Washington, Wisconsin, may not be affordable even if you do get in. Michigan and UNC, I understand, do offer financial aid to out of state students, but run the NPC.
A pre-med student is generally advised to save money – no loans in undergrad and take advantage of merit awards to keep as much college savings in the bank to put towards med school. Temple might be someplace to look at, and of course, Alabama gets a lot of love here because of its automatic merit and honors programs.
“Decent financial aid” is in the eye of the beholder – your family may think you should get generous no-loan package because you can’t pay $250,000 for 4 years of college, but the college may say you are not eligible for any aid. The first conversation is about finances, then you can build a list.
Do you think its unrealistic to expect a scholarship of some sort on top of financial aid for schools such as mich?
Michigan does have financial packages for needy out of state students that cover most costs.
http://finaid.umich.edu/new-undergraduates/non-resident-students-and-financial-aid/
I have no idea how many of these awards exist but I imagine they are quite competitive.
Assuming that OOS funding exists at all, public universities typically will fund you up to the level of your EFC as defined by their NPCs. So if a university determines that your EFC is 15K and you end up getting a merit award, it is likely that the amount of need-based aid will be reduced by the amount of the merit aid, still leaving you and your family to pick up that 15K in the form of payment, loans, work-study, etc.
@kobeman2000 I would guess you have a shot, depending on the rest of your app, at some merit money from USC. You must apply by Dec 1 to be considered for merit aid tho. And it’s very competitive.
Basically, as far as merit aid the deal is:
Ivies and many top ranked LACs and Research Unis are NEED ONLY. If you don’t think their “full need” will be enough, you will have to kick in money from some place, get loans or find outside scholarships.
The best bet for Merit Aid is being a top prospect at a school. So if merit aid becomes important being the best applicant at a “less prestigious” school that gives good merit aid is a good idea. There are lists out there of schools that have good merit aid packages. Don’t know if that is important to you.
Looking at your list, my questions would be:
Where do you want to live for the next 4 years?
Urban? Rural? What kind of experience to do you want. USC and Lehigh, for instance, could not be more different as far as vibe, location, student body etc.
I would spend some time on various schools’ websites, read some student reviews etc. You are likely to find some that feel right and some that don’t. I would especially look long and hard at the west coast and southern schools. You have a number of great choices relatively close to home. Kids going to school in Seattle or LA or Texas can have a tough time getting back to Jersey for Thanksgiving (which can be good or bad depending on your family situation!)
Drop UT, U Washington, and probably UWisconsin if you need financial aid. You won’t get much if any as an OOS student. As mentioned above, run the net price calculators on the websites of the schools remaining to see what kind of aid you can expect. UNC meets need for OOS students, but is very hard to get into because if that. Michigan has improved aid for OOS students, but still may not meet need. If you want a big university-big sports experience, Ohio State has some good merit scholarships that OOS students are eligible for.
The OOS merit scholarship at Washington would top out at $8,500 per year unless you received additional honors program or departmental scholarships:
https://admit.washington.edu/costs-and-financial-aid/scholarships/purple-and-gold
If I were to drop these schools from my list, could you suggest some safeties that offer merit based scholarships on top of financial aid?
uw gpa?
How much can your parents pay per year? Schools have to be affordable to be safeties.
If you’re counting on financial aid, drop some of the big OOS state schools (UT, Wash, Wisconsin) - and focus on some good privates that are more likely to meet your need and/or provide merit for students with top stats. For example, some good LACs that meet full need like Grinell, Pitzer, Reed, Macalester. That could also provide you with more matches/safeties, because as it is your list has a lot of reaches.
CMU doesn’t give much aid so I’d drop them if you’re trying to cut down your list. Boston College doesn’t meet full need either, nor USC. I’d replace those with either Rice, Northwestern or WashU, which all do.
See post #5 for where to find information about safeties that offer merit-based scholarships.
Is your family low income enough to qualify for Questbridge, fee waivers, etc? Are you a National Merit Semifinalist?
If your end goal is medical school then I would recommend Alabama. My son had roughly the same stats and EC’s as yourself just a little lower GPA last year. He was accepted into some of the schools on your list like USC Mich UNC but the problem was the aid that was offered was not great. Merit aid is often very competitive. From a post similar to @mamaedefamilia he received a full tuition from Alabama. That way you can save your money for med school. Do you want to spend all that tuition money at Duke or Notre Dame(even if you get some aid) and then spend even more on med school. Alabama will get you where you want to go or at least go look at the campus and I hear they have a decent football program!!
You need to limit the amount of OOS flagships you’re applying to. Most often, they don’t offer much, if any, aid to out of state students. I can confirm as a Washington resident that even though you’d probably get into UW, they (understandably) are not generous to out of state kids. Keep Rutgers and narrow it down to one or two other state schools you really, really like and can possibly afford.
http://www.guaranteed-■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/ Somebody showed this to me in terms of scholarships that you are guaranteed if you meet the qualifications. Unfortunately Temple no longer has theirs :(. I haven’t looked through all of them because I have my own strict geographical requirements but maybe you can pick a safety or two where you’re guaranteed a good bit of aid.