@NEPatsGirl, based on the experience in our area, the considered designation is a misnomer; also I would never consider a 16% acceptance rate a high match as once you take out URM, First-Gen, Legacy and Recruited athletes, acceptance rate is likely sub-10%.
Alabama is kind of two schools in one. There is the state university with fairly low ACT’s, etc. Then there is the honors college which I believe has ~6000 students, mostly out of state, all no merit scholarships to varying degrees, and with higher stats. As of this year, the sweet spot for merit is ACT 32+ which gives full tuition for 4 years. That draws a lot of interest. So in terms of peers, there should be no shortage of them and I would think that STEM fields would be competitive especially. The 6000 or so honors college is 4 times the size of Haverford for example. So not for everybody, not a northeastern LAC, but it is a nice campus, great sports, great weather, great merit aid. Our daughter thought it might be “too southern” or “too Greek” so she decided not to attend but I would have been happy enough for her to go there.
@claire250 - You could give Vanderbilt a look, they’ll love your SAT (Vanderbilt obsessed with high SAT scores). They are also very good with FA and have merit scholarships.
You listed Stanford, and if you are looking at California, you could also consider USC. Strong chemistry at USC (believe they have a recent Nobel Laureate in chemistry). Your test scores would put you in the running for merit awards there as well. Stanford is a reach for everyone unless you are in the prep school pipeline.
Make sure you visit John’s Hopkins. My daughter visited (her first college visit) and came away excited because she had nothing to compare to the school. After she visited other schools, she didn’t even apply. Her favorites, in order (all visited, all applied, except John’s Hopkins);
University of Southern California
University of Richmond
Davidson
Vanderbilt
Haverford
VA Tech
Wake Forest
William & Mary
James Madison
UVA
Johns Hopkins
@jcwjnw99
Will do some research on Vanderbilt and USC, thanks!
The Johns Hopkins thing kind of scares me… it was also the first college I ever visited and I was super wowed by it… I’ve now visited about 10-15 others (including some Ivies and other top private/public schools) and each school I went to seemed to be a little less impressive, just because they all seemed so similar. I am actually going back to visit Johns Hopkins again this Monday!!! Hopefully I still like it! If I get accepted, I will probably go back and visit it again when students are there.
@claire250 - My daughter also visited Hopkins twice. Did you visit when school in session? Gives you a better feel for the school. My daughter actually was insisting on applying ED to Hopkins after her first visit. After her second visit she just thought everyone looked really stressed and worn out. After she researched more and read reviews from former students, she got the impression Hopkins was very cutthroat and too overly competitive for what she wanted.
She was set to go to Richmond as she started to settle on a smaller school. Once she was accepted to USC, we visited, and she fell in love with the place. She didn’t even mind that it’s a pretty big school (feels smaller when you’re there).
USC is opening the Village this fall and it’s an amazing addition. They’re also partnering with Cal Tech for a BioTech park in L.A. They’ve been raising a lot of money and they’re actually spending on infrastructure, faculty, etc.
Perhaps take a look at University of Maryland. I hear great things about their honors program.
I’m sure you would have a decent chance at Tufts and Cornell, but at 15% for Tufts and about the same for Cornell, they are reaches for every applicant.
I’m sure you’d do great though!
@WISdad23, U of Alabama Honors has some distinct course and yes does offer separate housing if desired, but it’s still the same campus - doesn’t mean that its not the right fit for many, especially given the scholarship, but it’s still the same university.
http://www.utoledo.edu/engineering/bioengineering/
U of Toledo might be worth a look.
@claire250 Wrt pre-med
https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/infographics/top-feeders-medical-school
Additionally:
“These schools have particularly strong offerings in pre-med fields and have a high acceptance rates into medical school”:
Consider Northwestern and U Chicago, based on financial aid/cost, if you want an alternative to JHU for pre-med, though UC doesn’t offer engineering I don’t think. RPI would be a match, if you’re thinking of going out to Syracuse and are ok with NY.
@Chembiodad I was not implying that Alabama had two physically distinct campuses - I just meant that demographically there is some separation that I think is produced by the large number of merit scholarships. The campus is majority OOS now which is unusual for a state school and I think it is because of all of those merit scholarships.
@WISdad23, understand. My question is how impactful is the distinction?