Hello! I am currently a junior who will be an incoming senior in the fall. Currently, I have a 29 ACT score (which I am sure I will retake) and about a 3.83GPA unweighted, and a 4.45 GPA weighted. I plan to go to medical school in the future, but I am not sure which colleges I will be accepted to with my grades and score. I have plans to apply to Emory and UCLA (being my top choices), Northwestern, Boston University, and WashU, as well as my state university as a safety school. I feel like Northwestern and WashU will be very unlikely to get into, but it never hurts to try, and maybe my essay will turn out very well. I am not sure what I want to major in yet. Do I have some chance of getting into any of these colleges I mentioned? Also, what other colleges would be a good recommendation for me to apply to?
Are you a CA resident for UCLA? It looks like no? UCLA does not give financial aid to OOS students, so expect to pay $65K/year to attend or $260K for 4 years. You want to find affordable schools for Undergrad and save money for Medical school.
UC’s only use 10-11th grades in their GPA calculation. OOS applicants only get their AP/IB classes weighted in the calculation. UC’s use 3 GPA’s: Capped weighted, Fully weighted and Unweighted.
OOS GPA fully weighted ranges 25th-75th percentile are 4.46 -4.86 and ACT ranges are 33-35 for admits.
UCLA will be a Reach school and you can find comparable colleges at lower prices. Your in-state school would be the best option due to affordability and if you are a top student, being a Big fish has it advantages.
Most Medical schools do not care where you attend Undergrad. You want to thrive at any school you attend along with obtaining a High GPA and access to Medically related EC’s.
Try searching “The 25 Best Colleges for Pre-meds.” With an improved ACT score, it would seem reasonable to reach for a few of the colleges from this list.
With a 29 ACT, none of the schools on your list are likely for your
admission. I agree fully with the above posters, go to a school that you will do well at. There is no special school that will get you into med school. That is up to you, your GPA, MCAT score and EC’s. For now, focus on getting your test scores up and formulating a list of realistic schools.
My home state currently is Kansas, and right now, so being able to afford it will be a concern for when I get in. My top priority is getting in, and If I cannot afford these schools, I have plans to go to my state school since I can earn a scholarship and it is much cheaper.
According to my relatives, your best bet to (eventually) get into medical school will be at the University of Kansas Medical Center. They give a very strong preference to instate applicants, accepting over 40% of them. So you should build your college choices around that opportunity.
State schools like KU are not necessarily trying to produce the next great researcher. They are interested in providing Doctors to treat the people of the state of Kansas. So proving that you want to live and work in Kansas as a Doctor will be an important part of getting in, (besides grades/mcat.) Growing up in Kansas, and going to school in Kansas, is a good way to do that. So I would advocate that you remain in state for undergrad so you can take advantage of KU’s strong instate preference and prove that if they accept you, you will help relieve the local physician shortage.
This is particularly true in rural areas, which typically have doctor shortages. KU will doubley like a local candidate that grew up and went to college in rural Kansas, as few people want to move to those places unless they are from there. Places like Fort Hayes State University should be considered if you don’t mind living there.
So my advice is try to find a school that you can make all A’s in that is in state, cheap, and demonstrates your connections to Kansas. That will give you the best odds at getting admitted to the medical school that has the best chance of admitting you.
Yes, that would be true if my future plan was to continue working in Kansas as a doctor, but unfortunately, that is not the case, and my goal is to get into a medical school out of state. I wanted to know the colleges I would have a chance of getting into for pre-med, other than KU, my state school, since I do not plan to continue living in Kansas after college.
That’s understandable, so long as you know you’re playing an already hard game on hard mode. The easiest path to success would be to go to KU and then do your residency someplace else. But good luck, either way.
Applying to schools and then figuring out the finances later is the wrong approach. What is your college budget and how much are your parents willing to pay? If the school is unaffordable such as UCLA at $65K/year, then why apply? Getting in without being able to afford to attend would be a lot worse and no magic money fairy will be there to fill in the gap.
Medical school is very expensive, so you want to save as much money as possible to make that dream happen. Every year, plenty of students post they got into the “dream schools” and now cannot figure out to pay.
Do yourself and your parents a favor and figure out what schools are affordable before applying since it will save you plenty of heartache in the end. My 2 cents worth.
California is also one of the most competitive states for Pre-Med’s since there a so many applicants and not enough spots. Research and be smart about your options. No one says you have to practice in Kansas even if you attend Medical school there.
Just some anecdotal information. My son’s gf is from Kansas, is attending Kansas State and has received 3 major awards for her cancer research that is getting notice from all over the country. She has spoken to several OOS medical schools that feel she will be an extremely strong candidate with her shadowing and research she has done. Several of her classmates have gotten in to med schools all over the country as have many of the students that were in my son’s immunology class this semester. So, you can go to college in Kansas and get into excellent med schools OOS, you can get great research experience and even if you go to college in Kansas (or Missouri) you don’t have to do residencies there, live there or practice there. (For information my son is entering Vet school in the fall and has had mainly pre-med classes).