Financial Aid and Parents Income.

Paying for College
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<p>If a good, nurturing experience is something of importance, also consider the LACs and other smaller privates. With good stats, he could find some nice merit money at a number of such schools as well as financial aid. Many of them are very good to their pre med students, working to get them up there in terms of preparing them for the MCAT by making sure their courses are well structured so that these kids learn that necessary material and having info available Some even have a Pre med major designated, or Natural Sciences area, to make it easier, or some such grouping for any and all premeds regardless of major. </p>

<p>In the Midwest you have schools like Coe, Cornell, Gustav Adolphson, St Olafs, any number of Catholic schools that fit that category. John Carroll in Cleveland used to have some direct admit to Med school program, if I remember correctly. </p>

<p>When you are talking about the very top schools in terms of selectivity, it does become a lotto game, You apply to them, and that’s it. THey don’t particularly care about you showing them the love. Everyone does. Visiting them and sending missives and focusing on them is not useful. Ironically, I know kids who got accepted without interviewing and doing very little. Not so with some of the smaller schools that do take demonstrated interest into account.</p>

42

<p>After reading some of the PreMed Schools looks like one need to choose a school which is not a “Cut Throat” and easy to get good GPA and have enough time to study for MCAT.</p>

<p>This is very true. Since virtually all schools use the premed prereqs as “weeder classes” (for both premed and STEM majors), many schools limit the number of A’s that are awarded in those classes. </p>

<p>The med school applicant has to have both a high cumulative GPA and a high BCMP GPA (bio, chem, math, physics). </p>

<p>Having time to study for the MCAT is important. My son did well on the MCAT, but he didn’t study for it (against mom’s wishes lol). As a ChemE major who also worked part-time and had a girl-friend, he said that he just didn’t have time to study for it. He did take one practice MCAT the night before the exam. His MCAT date was not well chosen. It was taken the Saturday before final exams (just like today!), and his eng’g projects were due the day before his MCAT. Son now wishes that he had studied for the exam because he’s confident that his score would have been 3-4 pts higher. But, in the end it doesn’t matter. He got into his first choice med school. He had a 4.0 BCMP GPA and a 3.9X cum GPA (an A- in a Spanish class). AMCAS recalculates all med school applicants’ GPAs, and an A- is worth around 3.7 pts, so one A- will prevent a 4.0. That said, med schools consider all GPAs above a 3.8 to be excellent.</p>

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<p>Today we got his ACT scores, this is with writing portion and he took it first time.
He scores 33 composite, not great but not a bad score either since that’s his first shot at ACT.
He took another one 10 days later 4/23 (only happened in IL) and that score is not out yet, he said he did better in 2nd ACT as compare to the one he took on 4/13.</p>

<p>He planning to take ACT one more time in June 8, and thats it for ACT. If he able to pull 35-36 between these 3 tries after super scoring then I think he be in great shape.
My personal feeling is he may be between 34-35, 36 looks to me out of reach.</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>Dad,</p>

<p>keep in mind that while many schools will super score the SAT, most will not super score the ACT</p>

45

<p>@sybbie719</p>

<p>I agree that all don’t super score and some want scores from Writing too.
Thats why i said to me 34-35 is looking more realistic with or without superscore.
I think he will pull 34-35 in the second one he already gave since he felt much comfortable on the second one as compare to the first one he took.
We will know by May 13 .</p>

46

<p>dAD2014,
What is NPC
How did you get the Harvard = 12k.
Ok so I did some Math and find these numbers. The best so far is Harvard.
My EFC = 17k</p>

<p>and then I did some NPC for few schools. loans not included.</p>

<p>Harvard = 12k, not include Work study.
Stanford = 16K, not include Work Study
WUS = 22k
UCI = 23K
ND = 24K
DUKE=23K
Umiami = 18K
UA = 21K</p>

47

<p>I am a little late to the party, IMHO, kids have to be flexible about major. My brother was UG math/science and went on to grad school in engineering. Many times the “classic” UG majors will work fine and imho, be better. You don’t need a communications major, English can work. 4 years at an affordable school, followed by a specialized masters can work better. Remember, majors change too.</p>

48

<p>@xukui811
NPC is Net Price Calculator.
Go to Harvard Web site and you can find that Calculator, just put in your info and it will give you the COA and what the Parents need to come up with. I found out Harvard calculator was the simplest to use. my share was 12k after Harvard grants.</p>

49

<p>since this thread is a year old, wondering how this situation actually worked out?</p>

50

<p>The thread was started on 4/24/13. That’s 10 days ago.</p>

51

<p>yikes - am bleary from reading these posts - sorry!</p>

52

<p>If this student absolutely knows he wants pre-med, what about applying for one of the 8yr deals, like Brown’s PLME - you lock in acceptance for all 8 yrs (4 yrs UG, 4 yrs med, plus no MCAS, no sep app fee), and perhaps set up any avail FA package as well?</p>

53

<p>We are looking at those programs too, but Brown was never on our List.
WUSTL, NW and UM are on that list. Its not easy to get into those programs since the acceptance rates in those programs is very low.</p>

54

<p>Remember any FA award applies only to the undergrad portion of the 8 year programs, not to the professional school portion. </p>

<p>WUSTL’s 8 year program requires a 3.8 GPA and 38 MCAT for admission to the medical school portion of the program.</p>

55

<p>dadfor2014,
Thank you!!!. everyyear, each school might get different result? Is it depend on student pool? How did you consider medical and personal care expense for parent?</p>

56

<p>I think some Schools do consider any planned Medical related Expenses.<br>
This may come up when you really start negotiating the Financial pkg.</p>

57

<p>just an update his ACT is coming out as 33 Composite and 34 if super score. He took it 3 times since April and now he is done. He will try SAT in Fall. </p>

<p>We already visit UOC, NW, DUKE, UMiami, and be visiting WUSTL and Notre Dame in next 2 weeks.
So far he is in love with DUKE Campus, he saying he will give up UOC for DUKE in a heart beat… </p>

<p>We be start applying with common application in first week of august and have 12-14 Schools on our list with few being a potential Full Ride schools… Finance will play a big role in Final decision what to choose.</p>

58

<p>I see that your wife is a homemaker. Have you two considered having her look for a job? Even at a minimum wage, that would provide enough that it would allow your child to attend college.</p>

59

<p>Seems to me you need a safety school on the list. A safety means you know the student will get admitted and can afford it.</p>

<p>One could be Temple University. They have automatic merit scholarships if the student meets the criteria. After implementing these, the entering classes’ credentials have improved. They have an honors college and honors dorm.</p>

<p>A 3.75 GPA and 32 ACT/1400 SAT CR+Math = full tuition plus three $4000 stipends for research and study abroad. <a href=“http://admissions.temple.edu/sites/admissions/files/uploads/188_1213_scholarship_info_sheet_FINAL.pdf[/url]”>http://admissions.temple.edu/sites/admissions/files/uploads/188_1213_scholarship_info_sheet_FINAL.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Dad…</p>

<p>Since you’re a Bama grad yourself…</p>

<p>Alabama’s app in LIVE and online already, so he should put his app in there now…the app is easy. Bama is not on the Common App.</p>

<p>Your son would get FREE tuition for his stats.</p>

<p>IF he majors in any Eng’g discipline (including Comp Sci) then he’d also get 2500 per year stacked on top of the free tuition. *</p>

<p>BTW…ChemE, CompSci, and some other disciplines have specific Pre-med tracks.*</p>

<p>*My son, who begins med school in 3 weeks, was Chem Engineeering, and there’s a bunch of ChemE Premeds at Bama. *</p>

<p>I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but Alabama does write Committee Letters, so that’s a plus for med school admissions.</p>

<p>With this scholarship money, your resultiing cost would be quite low. *</p>

<p>The below PDF shows more renderings of the new 900,000+ sq feet Science and Eng’g Complex. The Complex finished Phase IV a couple of months ago. Also, the other pics of new other new buildings and renovations of existing ones have either been completed by now or are near completion. The Russell Hall renovation and addition, which is mentioned in the PDF is complete and is fabulous-looking.</p>

<p>Pics of the new Science & Engineering Complex begin on page 6, Student housing pics begin on page 12.</p>

<p><a href=“Titanium Chef | Home”>Titanium Chef | Home;

<p>Alabama forum on College Confidential is VERY active.*
<a href=“http://talk.college-confidential.com/university-alabama/[/url]”>http://talk.college-confidential.com/university-alabama/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>school scholarships
[Out-of-State</a> Scholarships - Undergraduate Scholarships - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html]Out-of-State”>http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html)</p>

<p>eng’g scholarships
[Scholarships</a> - Undergraduate Students - The College of Engineering - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/scholarships/]Scholarships”>Scholarships – College of Engineering | The University of Alabama)</p>

<p>As a financial safety school, he should apply now and submit the scholarship app. The apps are fast and easy…no essays, no teacher recs. They each take like 5 minutes to do. Within a few weeks, he’d have an acceptance and a large scholarship offer in hand. That makes for a less stressful application season.</p>