<p>High school senior here.
I'm pretty sure I'll be doing pre-med in college with an engineering major (not set on which one). Anyway, I have a nice list of matches/reaches to apply to, and a safety (georgia tech), but I really want more safeties that aren't expensive to pay for. Basically i want the same thing as GaTech, but I don't want to go to GaTech since I live 10 minutes from it. Hope that makes sense</p>
<p>Here are same basic stats:</p>
<p>ACT:34
GPA (w) 97%, (uw) 92
rank: about top 10%
APs: Bio, Calc BC, Chem, Psych, Physics B and C, Stat, English lang, Comp Sci AB
Pretty strong ECs (jobs, internships/research, clubs, all that)</p>
<p>well, im not sure how far you want to travel from home. In the case that you dont want to travel far, I can't help much as I'm from the northeast. But there are some good schools in my area similar to GAtech such as university of rochester (known for premed) and olin school of engineering.</p>
<p>Yea I was really hoping to get away from home. Not necessarily across the country (though I don't care if I am), but I want to get out of the state for sure, which is why Im not too fond of GaTech. Ill be applying there anyway.
The schools you suggested are both good, but I wouldn't consider rochester a financial safety, and olin isn't really a safety :P
My parents are willing to pay about 20k/year, but they make far too much to qualify for need-based, so I want to make sure I have some safeties that I can afford.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech is probably your best option because the schools that are going to give you merit-based aid aren't going to be close to Georgia Tech academically.</p>
<p>What do you mean ''same'' as GTech? Engineering wise, its it VERY VERY high.</p>
<p>Overall rank wise, I don't know. Public rank wise, its among the top. Are you looking for a school that has premed and engineering with an engineering equivalent of GTech or just a school that is similar overall like Gtech?</p>
<p>Also, Does it have to be a public school for it to be a financial safety?</p>
<p>By "same as GTech", I really meant in terms of their engineering. Obviously GTech is very strong at engineering, and finding an equivelent is difficult, but I need more safeties, so I'll have to settle somewhere.
I don't really like GTech overall, the campus and location are not really what I'm looking for.</p>
<p>I dont know yet if im NMF; I'm not sure when those decisions are made, but I only scored 215 on my PSAT, so I kind of doubt it.</p>
<p>You put yourself in a tight spot because only a handful of schools can compete with Georgia Tech in engineering and they generally aren't "safeties" for anyone; in addition, many don't give merit-based aid. You might try Carnegie Mellon which gives some merit-based aid; maybe more of a match than a safety. Purdue is a pretty good engineering school (#9 for undergrad engineering in U.S. News), certainly a safety for you, and they do give some merit aid, but I don't know how much for OOS. Going down the list a little bit, RPI (#20) gives out a fair amount of merit aid. The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities also has a pretty good engineering school (tied with RPI and several others for #20) and just cut its OOS tuition to $2,000 above in-state, so about $12,500/year for OOS. Either one of these is probably a safety given your stats, though most people would say neither is quite as good as Georgia Tech for engineering.</p>
<p>bclintonk, your suggestions of Purdue and Minnesota Twin Cities are great for what I'm looking for, both look as if I may get some nice merit aid there to make the cost comparable to that of in-stat for GaTech. RPI seems very expensive though, around $50k....just how much merit aid do they give?
Also, for Purdue and Minnesota, how do their pre-med tracks stack up?</p>
<p>Any other ideas for schools with strong engineering/pre-med that are realtively cheap would be awesome!!</p>
<p>Well Purdue and Minnesota are known to be very difficult in their grading scales so I'm not so sure it's the best place for a premed student. In fact, few good engineering schools are great places for premed students. I think with a 215 you <em>should</em> be NMF in Georgia, it was 214 last year so it's gonna be close. If you National Merit, you'll get all the mailings in the world about close to free college programs. I'd also look into Vandy and Emory as they are known to give merit aid. However, Georgia Tech is sorta hard to beat considering you'll probably pay close to nothing to go there.</p>
<p>Ya you're right about paying next to nothing at GTech; with Hope scholarship, just a couple thousand for room/board assuming no other private scholarships, but we'll see.</p>
<p>This is unrelated, but a question based on your comment. Does everyone who makes the "cutoff" get NMF? I got a letter a few months ago about being in the top 50000 or something like that, but I thought NMF got another cutoff that was higher or something.</p>
<p>Ive heard the same thing about engineering and pre-med not mixing well, because of the whole GPA thing. But the problem is that I'm not 100% certain I want to do med school, and may instead just get my engineering degree...so idk what to do</p>
<p>As to your NMF question---50,000 make the cut-off, based on a set score which is the same across the country. Of that amount, 34,000 are commended, and the other 16,000 go on to semifinalist stage--this score is based on the state where you reside and varies across the country. Out of those 16,000, 15,000 will be named finalists after they complete certain requirements, including doing well on the SAT test, writing a short essay, filling out an application with high school grades, etc. I'm not sure offhand what the cut-off score is in Georgia to become a semi-finalist, but 215 may be close--you would have to check last years cut-off as a guide to what it may be this year.</p>
<p>I'm not in either engineering or medicine so I don't have first-hand knowledge, but as I compare the OP's stats to the overall profile at Purdue and Minnesota, I think he'll be easily in the top quartile and probably the top decile of incoming students at either school---though the engineering programs at both schools are probably more selective than the general undergrad admissions. That kind of talent amidst that competition, combined with a little elbow grease, ought to translate into a decent GPA. I also think it's a mistake to choose your undergraduate institution or course of study with GPA protection as your guiding principle. Don't sell yourself short: follow your heart, work hard at a challenging program that genuinely interests you, get out of it all you can. Your goals and dreams may change along the way, but the point of an education is to become educated, and you'll do that best by taking on the challenges that most interest you.</p>
<p>
[quote-rickportega]
RPI seems very expensive though, around $50k....just how much merit aid do they give?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>According to US News, 24% of RPI students receive merit aid, at an average award of $15,000. But that's the average; likely some awards are higher. Probably Minnesota OOS is still cheaper, a real bargain for engineering students, I think.</p>
<p>First of all why the hell are you going to study engineering if you plan to go to medical school?? Secondly as an Alumni of Georgia Tech, let me tell you that engineering majors at this school are no walk in the park. If you want to go to medical school go to emory, its that simple, plus it will be cheap since your instate. If you really want to put yourself through torture by taking thermodynamics and fluids when you will never need that knowledge in medical school then go right ahead, but In my opinion your just a masochist if you think that way. Engineering is not for the faint of hard, think twice about your career goals.</p>
<p>Well the problem is, I'm not 100% set on med school. Right now, I think thats what I want, but as everyone knows, college students change their minds quite often.
In the event I do change my mind and don't go to med school, I'd like to be an engineer. I'll probably go to grad school either way, if not for med school, then for a PhD in whatever field I end up picking.</p>
<p>Is this the right approach to take since I'm unsure about what I want to do? Any suggestions on this would be great</p>
<p>And I have another question, andresgt. I thought Emory was private? Theres no difference for instate v. OOS is there?
And HOPE will only cover a few thousand b/c it's private, right?</p>
<p>Well first off I would highly recommend you find out if med school is something you would want to do or not before your first semester if you decide to go to Tech. The classes here are tough especially the freshman classes which have the highest attrition rate since there made to weed out people and make people leave ( Sad but true). The freshman engineering curriculum however doesn't vary much if you major in a science like biology or chemistry which most pre med kids do. Personally though it's good to know what path you might want to take to shorten the time. Also if you go to UGA for example and major in biology you will probably come out with a 4.0 gpa since that school is so easy, but at Tech it might be more like a 2.9 which is the average engineering gpa( I think it might be 2.7) The point is that most pre med students worry more about their gpa's than learning, and GT overall is not a gpa helper. I was in the top 2 % in my class in high school, I got a 1550 in my sat back in the day we only had verbal and math, and I struggled to graduate with a 3.0 from tech. All I'm saying is be careful what path you want to take. As far as the emory thing, yeah their private but a hell of a good school for pre-med and the girls are hot as hell! nice parties ;) Not sure about tuition help, but if you got the grades schools always help you out, just get the best education you can.</p>