Here is my list… Schools I like more are towards the top
-Haverford OR Washington and Lee OR Middlebury
-Hamilton OR Bates
-Brandeis OR URichmond OR Union
-URochester OR UConn
-Clark University
-UVermont
-UPittsburgh OR UMaryland OR UDelaware
-Temple University (guaranteed full tuition)
I live in CT. My most important factors in college are Price and Prestige. Might do Biomed. studies instead of PreMed if it seems too expensive. Only applying to 8. Can you help me decide beween my choices?
My stats: 2200 SAT, 33 ACT, 3.8 UWGPA 4.5 WGPA, Spanish/Math/National Honor Societies, 4 years track 4 years band 2 years cross country, 100+ hours of volunteer at local hospital labratory, job at movie theater. Parents make 80k but are contributing roughly 8k a year (aid is REALLY important), 2 brothers in college. Thanks
@mom2collegekids Biomed engineering wouldn’t require me to go to medical school for 4 years, or do multiple years of interning, so it would be much cheaper. I ran NPCs on all schools, and the EFC remains at about 10k for all of them. Haverford had the cheapest net price (~12k) but many of the other schools offer merit aid and Haverford/Hamilton/etc. do not. All 3 will be undergrad at 4yr college, yes. The schools don’t really need to be “prestigious” other than to have a PreMed program that will help me get into a good graduate program.
You can browse online: “The Experts’ Choice: Colleges With Great Pre-med Programs.” I recommend this as a source for affirming some of your existing choices. I agree with Erin’s Dad that colleges do not have “Pre-Med programs,” but some will better prepare you for medical school than others; a purpose of education in general is to prepare you.
Haverford has some attributes that distinguish it from Washington & Lee and Middlebury.
I wrote about Hamilton on the “Colgate or Hamilton?” thread in this forum. Hamilton has 47 biology courses from which you could choose. If you like biology, than you should like Hamilton academically. You are nicely within their middle 50th percentile ACT range.
Rochester is a fine, comprehensive, reasonably sized university.
Union is also a fine school and will give you some capitol district options. You should know whether this would appeal to you.
<<< @mom2collegekids Biomed engineering wouldn’t require me to go to medical school for 4 years, or do multiple years of interning, so it would be much cheaper. I ran NPCs on all schools, and the EFC remains at about 10k for all of them. Haverford had the cheapest net price (~12k) but many of the other schools offer merit aid and Haverford/Hamilton/etc. do not. All 3 will be undergrad at 4yr college, yes. The schools don’t really need to be “prestigious” other than to have a PreMed program that will help me get into a good graduate program.
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There is no “premed major” or “premed program”. Schools don’t “help you” get into grad school or med school.
You can be biomedE and be premed. You can be an English major and be premed.
My son was ChemE when he was premed. Actually being biomedE isn’t that great of an idea since it is the one E discipline that pretty much requires a person to get a grad degree to get a job. You should consider MechE or ChemE as a premed if you want a Plan B.
@chris3499
–Do you think you’re good enough at track/cross-country to compete at a D3 level?
–Have you checked out Davidson and run its NPC?
–How about Dickinson?
@mom2collegekids I don’t think they (Temple) got rid of it. I have the 3.8 GPA and a specific SAT/ACT score. Thanks for clarifying what “PreMed” really is, and I’m glad I can take ChemE or a similar major and courses for PreMed and then choose to go on to med school or not. @Dunboyne
-yes, good enough at 4 out of 5 D3 schools I think. Enough to be top 7 freshman year at some not-so-good D3 schools, wondering if they, even though NCAA prevents athletic scholarships for D3, might give me any benefits to run for them? Davidson’s NPC gave me a huge wad of grants ($52k!), it is a little far though. Dickinson gave me 40k. Eliminated many on my list because they were too far. I can go all around the East Coast really, but my parents won’t drive me more than 4 hours away, so I will need to take a train or bus past that.
It might be too far away for your criteria, but you might also take a look at Case Western, which gives good merit aid (and the application is free). They have lots of general ed seminars geared toward pre-meds regardless of their majors, a pre-professional scholars program that offers direct admission to the medical school for top applicants, as well as a highly ranked BME program. From the BME website FAQ they list the following statistics:
"What are the job opportunities after completing the degree? Do students need to have a graduate degree to land a reliable job?
Response: Upon graduation 40% of our students attend medical school, 30% attend graduate school and 30% enter industry directly. Over the last 6 years we have a 96% placement rate, so students are able to find jobs and other opportunities post-graduation"
Think about Clark or Dickinson, depending on the better fin aid and fit.
Hamilton vs Bates: Hamilton is need-blind.
I like Richmond for their endowment, in your financial case.
If you find a school that looks like it might be generous with fin aid (e.g. Davidson), consider relaxing your distance restriction. Factor in travel costs. I understand if you would rather be closer to home for personal reasons, but if it’s about travel inconvenience/cost, you might want to make an exception if the fin aid looks particularly sweet, especially if the school is need-blind. Pending fit, of course.
Consider adding a higher reach, especially if you’d be content with your less selective options (Temple, Clark, U Conn). Run the NPC on Amherst College, for example, to see how generous they’re likely to be. It would be a longshot, but when you’re high need, the payoff with the ultra-elite schools can be huge.
There are no athletic scholarships for D3, but if the coach really wanted you, it’s not impossible to have your admission chances improve somewhat. And in your case, it could make a big difference to be wanted at a school generous with aid. If you want, send me an inmail with your best events/times and I can give you my opinion on whether you have any shot at getting a coach’s attention.
<< @mom2collegekids I don’t think they (Temple) got rid of it. I have the 3.8 GPA and a specific SAT/ACT score. Thanks for clarifying what “PreMed” really is, and I’m glad I can take ChemE or a similar major and courses for PreMed and then choose to go on to med school or not.
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You may have misunderstood.
I was asking if Temple still requires a student to have a 3.5 while IN COLLEGE to keep the award. You’d be surprised how many top high school students will have dips in their GPA while in college. A rough frosh year could mean losing the award. I know a top student who ended up with a 3.2 GPA frosh year because of a C in Gen Chem 5 credits…which ruined her GPA. If she had needed a 3.5 to keep her merit at her school, she would have been in trouble.
I would have strongly discouraged my kids from choosing a school that requires a 3.5 GPA while in college since both my kids chose very hard majors (ChemE and Math). Texas A&M is another school that requires a high GPA in college to keep their merit. I think doing that is just bad.
M2CK beat me to it, I was about to post just that.
Engineering makes premed very difficult because Engineering has lower GPAs overall.
Premed = taking a set of core classes, ie., 2 semesters each of English, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, plus one semester each of calculus, statistics, organic chemistry, biochemistry, sociology, psychology, and a diversity-focused class. All these classes fit well with any major and most count for a college’s gen ed requirements anyway.
To get into med school, you’ll need a top college GPA and good MCAT scores, with as little debt as possible.
You need to be at the top of your class for each of these and have excellent grades in your major. That major can be anything - philosophy, economics, or Portuguese would serve you as well as Biology. Choose what you enjoy and what you can get A’s in.
However, be aware that most freshmen who want to get into med school give up along the way, so you need to think of alternatives and which colleges would serve you best for those, since you can do premed anywhere.
@mom2collegekids thanks for telling me, I was not aware of that. A 3.5 is a hard GPA to keep in college. @MYOS1634 appreciate the info, I am looking at some other options (ChemEng, Forensic Science, Psych, PA, etc.)
Physics is a useful substitution for BiomedE or any engineering major. It allows you to take a right turn into business/finance too, if necessary. Physics majors also do very well on the MCAT. The downside is that it might not be much easier on the GPA than engineering, but YMMV.
