Colleges that will suit my premed cravings...

College Search & Selection
1

<p>:) (creative title?)</p>

<p>Anyway, I'm only a junior but my parents have been pressuring me to look at college (especially financial aid).</p>

<p>I wanted to know different school possiblities (all safeties, good matches, you name it) and financial aid oppritunities based on my stats and desire to study in preperation for med school. Also, how strong these schools are in comparison to others would be very helpful.</p>

<p>(I looked into Case Western Reserve University- if you have feedback on that let me know, but I'd rather be given suggestions for other colleges)</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<p>White, male, suburban community. 4 Person Family. Family makes 85-95k but is equal (if nnot, less) to mandatory expenses (i.e. mortgage, taxes, bills, etc. [our town is expensive to live in]) </p>

<p>Preference of School: Not tiny, not gigantic, anywhere but back-of-the-woods rural (urban/suburban prefered). Midwest (as far West as Wisconsin), Atlantic (as far south as probably the Carolinas), New England</p>

<p>Expected GPA: 4.02-4.04(W), 3.89-3.91(UW)
Percentile: Not positive, but at least top 10%, good chance of top 5%
Class Size: 750
School is (I guess) a very good public school on Long Island (New York).</p>

<p>New SAT (projected, based on several practice SAT from College Board)
Critical Reading: Low 700's
Math: High 700's-800
Writing: 700-740</p>

<p>SAT II:
Biology M: 700
Math IC: 640 (not satisfied, probably will take IIC this year and do better)
Physics: will be taken this year</p>

<p>AP Exam Results From Soph. Yr:
Biology- 5</p>

<p>Transcript: (highest grade possible is an A)
(8)Math 8 Honors- B+
(8)German 1- A</p>

<p>(9)Reg. Earth Science- A
(9)Math 9 Honors- A
(9)Concert Band- A
(9)German 2- A
(9)Gym- A
(9)Reg. English- B
(9)Reg. World History- A
(9)Health-A
(9)Design/Drawing for Production-A</p>

<p>(10)AP Biology- A
(10)Math 10H- B+
(10)Reg. English- A
(10)German 3- A
(10)Concert Band- A
(10)Reg. World History- A
(10)Gym- A</p>

<p>(11)AP Physics- definate A (most likely a 5 on the exam)
(11)AP English Language- B+ or A (4 or 5 on the exam)
(11)Math 11H- B+ or A
(11)Reg. U.S. History- definate A
(11)Symphonic Band- most likely A
(11)German 4- definate A
(11)Gym- definate A</p>

<p>Class List for Senior Year (we scheduled already)
AP Calculus, AP Chemistry, AP English Literature, AP Economics, College German, Gym, Participation in Govrn't or Leadership (pending on the application) and Symphonic Band</p>

<p>7 AP classes in total plus 1 college course and the full "honors track" for math.
(our school offers 20 AP classes but taking 10+ is a rarity. my course selection would be either most workload in comparison to my class or just underneath that level)</p>

<p>Awards/Honors:
(9)Scored 4th place overall on the AATG (German) test for level 2 German in the entire Long Island region
(9)AATG Certificate of Merit
(9)Section principal for Tenor Saxophones in Concert Band
(9)NYSSMA- received an "excellent" on Tenor Saxophone (Lvl. 4 out of 6)
(10)NYSSMA- received an 91 on Alto Saxophone (Lvl. 5 out of 6)
(10)Section principal for Bari Saxophones in Concert Band
(11)Promoted to Symphonic Band (very prestigious music group, plus, our music program was rated best out of all public schools in NY last year[will be section principal next year(2 seniors ahead of me this year :()])
Hopefully more as time goes on.</p>

<p>EC:
Baseball (2 Varsity Letters btwn. 11th and 12th)
Concert Band/Symphonic Band (2 years apiece)
NY State Math Honor Society (10,11,12)
German Honor Society (10,11,12)
National Honor Society (11,12)
Driver's Ed (11) (if that matters, lol)</p>

<p>Volunteer Work:
Teaching elementary school kids German (8 hours)
Tutoring for Math (ongoing)
Summer Volunteer Work at Hospital (20-30 hours)
Plus another 15-20 hours for mandatory graduation requirements (I'd have it by now anyway but helping out more at school wouldn't hurt)</p>

<p>Jobs:
Umpiring for Little League (about 30 hours)
Another job being pursued for weekends/summer</p>

<p>Thanks for reading and I'd really appreciate your replies. :)</p>

2

<p>Oh and if you wanted my New York State Regents Grades, here they are thus far (although they might not play a big role in anything)</p>

<p>Math A- 98
Math B- 98
Biology- 93
World History- 95
Earth Science- 97</p>

<p>Taking Physics, US History and English Regents this year</p>

3

<p>Honestly you shouldnt pick a school because its good at pre-med, most top schools are good and pre med committees lump them all together. Choosing Columbia over Brown for example isnt worth it at all. What gets you into a med school is your GPA, MCAT, and research experience (make sure you do this, its pretty critical). </p>

<p>My only advice between schools might sound counter intuitive but its true. AVOID Cornell, Johns Hopkins, etc. These are weeder schools and since there are so many pre meds its actually harder to find research opportunities than at other schools, plus getting a good GPA is hard. My friends joke that going to Johns Hopkins for pre med unless you are at the top of the class is the worst decision anyone could make. </p>

<p>If you dont care what type of med school you go to (pretigious or not) go anywhere and get a good GPA. If you want a top med school it will be to your significant advantage to go to a better school.</p>

4

<p>Sounds like Smithtown High School to me......</p>

<p>in fact......</p>

<p>sounds like Andrew B.</p>

<p>small world? Haha I hope I am right, because otherwise I just look silly.</p>

<p>Sorry I can't give you any help right now, but I do think it is great to start getting on top of your college stuff now. I wish I did last year when I was in your exact shoes. </p>

<p>Literally ;P</p>

<p>P.S. nice stats</p>

5

<p>Top Liberal Art Colleges have Med school acceptance over 90 percent (Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, etc.)</p>

6

<p>I'll give a quick an easy answer--If you are looking at Case Western-- similar type and feel of schools may include--University of Rochester (speak to your guidance office soon- HS's can nominate students for the Bosch and Lomb Award and U of R Humanities/Social Sciences Award-as you are a NY state resident this would translate to $11,000/ per year off tuition. Nomination period is around Jan or Feb (at least it was 2 years ago when my d was in her jr. year) This award is only good if you are going to U of R it is not transferable to another school. Also look at Tulane as they are also pretty generous with aid. Tufts, Brandeis and Brown may also be schools of interest but I don't know how generous they are with financial aid. All these schools have "pre-med" tracks These are all small to medium size universities. I am not as familiar with LAC's as my kids were never interested in looking at schools they considered too small (under 5,000) . Boston University is also good with financial aid. Good luck.</p>

7

<p>Forgot the obvious--don't overlook SUNY Stony Brook (I know you're from LI and don't want to go to Stony Brook-I hear that from my own kids) Binghamton and Cornell-CALS and Human Ec. Tuition is less at those colleges for NY state residents. My d is in ILR and the tuition is about $16,000. But the atmosphere for pre-med at Cornell may be a bit intense. You can only judge if that environment is right for you. And I'll give a plug for your parents (we parents have to stick together). It's good to get serious about your college search now. You don't want to rush your college visits for the summer (when some campuses are empty) or the fall when you have to work on applications. And some advice-- If you pick a safety school that you are trully happy with, you will make the process a lot less stressful.</p>

8

<p>You may have to apply to a few more colleges rather a few less to shop financial aid packages. I would also counsel staying clear of the "famous" pre-med schools. Visit both larger and smaller schools, the pre-med at smaller schools may well be superior because you have closer relationships with faculty. Look at Davidson College in Charlotte, NC (may not have the best financial aid), and all those medium to small schools in Pennsylvania. Wake Forest and Furman (if you can stretch to SC) also warrant a look.</p>

9

<p>In addition in the South consider UVA, U Richmond and William and Mary</p>

10

<p>I agree with cangel. Davidson has an excellent pre-med program, and the professors love to involve students in their research. Their financial aid is pretty generous, and you might even have a shot at the Belk scholarship (about 10 a year), which pays for EVERYTHING. FYI, 66 New York residents were admitted to Davidson last year. Avoid Duke; like JHU (to a lesser extent), it weeds out pre-med students. Wake Forest has a good but lesser-known pre-med program. </p>

<p>Cangel- Davidson College is located in Davidson, not Charlotte. Trust me, there's a world of difference. :)</p>

11

<p>Well if everyone is against pre-med, then how about biology/biochemisrty?</p>

<p>(Note: I'm not super obsessed with research oppritunites, so if they're not amazing, it's not a big deal)</p>

12

<p>No doubt, warbler, I've been there, but OP is from Long Island, I'm just trying to get him in the right part of the state ;).</p>

<p>Drbite - Davidson is a very small town, a village really, a couple of streets of shops, churches, city hall, town "green" and the college. It is also an old town. Lake Norman, a large man-made lake, comes almost up into the town. The Lake Norman area is a very upscale, new development area of greater Charlotte - Davidson maintains a Lake Campus with boating facilities. One exit down the interstate from Davidson is a large, new shopping area (Williams-Sonoma, etc). Charlotte is about 20 miles away, major airport hub, easy to get back and forth to LI.</p>

13

<p>Who said we were against pre-med? If you are not super-obsessed with research opportunities, then you have even less reason to go to a JHU or Duke or Cornell. You can major in anything and go to med school (in my class, 100% of the music majors who applied were admitted - 1/1), you must do well in the science classes you do take and make a high score on the MCAT. People major in bio and chem because its easier to go ahead and major after taking all those pre-req classes, and sometimes because they just like science. What you don't major in is "pre-med".</p>

<p>The moderator Pedrish can answer this better than I, and so can Oldman, but here is my take - what makes a good pre-med program is good advising and out of college opportunities. Almost all colleges can do a fair (or lousy, for that matter) job of teaching frosh chemistry, what you should look for is a place where you can develop a relationship with faculty members (they have to write you recs); where there is an advisement office to help with course selection, with what to do if you don't do so hot in freshman chemistry?, shadowing/ volunteer opportunities (you gotta know something about what MDs do), etc. A place where the other pre-meds, especially seniors, have a repository of collective wisdom rather than cutthroat competition. Someone to help you work through where medicine is for you or not.
Questions to ask - how many people apply to med school?, what is their success rate? Who writes the committee/school rec?</p>

<p>Look at Amherst College's and Davidson' websites for pre-med students(search on pre-med), those 2 will give you a good idea of the kind of support, collective wisdom, volunteer opportunities, etc that you need to look for. Davidson is particularly strong in shadowing/volunteer opportunities, Amherst has a great breakdown of "students with X GPA and Y MCAT were admitted this %age".</p>

<p>All schools teach the pre-req courses, it is the intangibles that differentiate between a school with 28/30 applicants successfully applying to med school and a school with 15/30 successful, and a school that starts out with 300 pre-meds and ends up with 15 applying, but all are sucessful. You want to be at the first school.</p>

14

<p>eh that came out wrong before</p>

<p>i meant if everyone is against obsessing over choosing a school for its pre-med, then what schools offer a strong biology/biochemistry program</p>

<p>sry cangel</p>

15

<p>i know ursinus college has a big bio/premed division.</p>

16

<p>I've heard Juaniata College has a good pre-med program, and if I'm not wrong, the college is located in NY.</p>

17

<p>The other think you might consider is the cooperation or lack thereof of your fellow classmates. Some schools, particularly large state universities have an extremely competitive class structure, which leads to blatant cheating and experiment sabotage in some of the required pre-med courses. I don't know if having an honor code helps....the LACs appear to have a more collegial atmosphere.</p>

18

<p>Juniata College is in Pennsylvania if its the one im thinking of.</p>

19

<p>yes, with a 100% acceptance rate to med school. </p>

<p>where you go to med school truly doesn't matter, a hospital (can't remember where) had the person in charge say that they don't care if they went to harvard or kalamazoo state for med school, they just want good doctors</p>

20

<p>Michelec is right; my bad. Juniata College is located in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, according to their website (<a href="http://www.juniata.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.juniata.edu&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p>