<p>I'm a junior and I want to do premed, major in neuroscience or biology. I'm looking at schools that have good premed and offer either good aid or aren't too expensive. My parents probably make about $220,000 w/ 3 kids so I'd get a little need aid too. I have a 5.73 GPA (average GPA of accepted students to Harvard is 5.74) at a competitive public in CT. I have good ECs (4 year varsity crew, Model Un, Student Congress, Ski Club, Amnesty International, volunteering, Mu Alpha Theta, Spanish Honor Society, started my own non-profit). I'm hispanic, got a 219 on PSAT as a soph, retook it yesterday, taking the SAT in a few weeks...been getting about 2300 on practice tests.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about UVM, UIUC or UConn but the rest are some of the best schools in the country so they’ll all have good science teachers, pre-med advising, etc. If I were you I’d drop Dartmouth from your list; at 220K you’re likely to get very very little need-aid and since it’s an Ivy no merit-aid. I’d say pick which ever one you like the best because you’re going to be paying near full price where ever you go and none of those schools offer extraordinary merit aid that you can count on getting with any certainty (at least to my knowledge). I’d look through these threads to find schools giving </p>
<p>My parents probably make about $220,000 w/ 3 kids so I’d get a little need aid too.</p>
<p>If only you will be in college, then you will not likely qualify for any need based aid…not even at the ivies. Your “family contribution” will be too high…it will likely be well into the $60k range. </p>
<p>If you’re looking for inexpensive med schools then you need to include a few schools that you know FOR SURE that you’d get large merit scholarships for your stats.</p>
<p>If you make NMF, then there are schools that will give you large merit for that.</p>
<p>Otherwise, if you do get a 2300+ SAT, there are some schools that will give you large merit for that. UMich might…don’t know about UIUC.</p>
<p>JHU, Dartmouth, and Tufts will likely expect you to pay full freight.</p>
<p>annasdad, Michigan has several merit scholarships that pay full tuition for OOS students, and given the OP’s profile and credentials, I think she/he would be seriously considered for such a scholarship, particularly he she/he applies via the early action plan.</p>
<p>Ocelite - Chapman is a lower tier school for Bakere19! You sure do push Chapman on everyone. I went to a top UC med school, and about 30% of the school were UCLA/Berkeley/UCSD grads, another 30% Ivies - and the rest a mix of other UC’s, schools like USC, Tulane, Duke, Tufts, etc. There were no Chapman grads at my med school, and my med school was a leading neuroscience research center.</p>
<p>Bakere19: if you are Chicano or Central American, there are a number of great schools that heavily recruit Latinos: USC, Stanford, NYU, Northwestern, Cornell. All offer great financial aid to qualified minorities. Check out MALDEF.org for a comprehensive list of financial aid resources for Latinos. (Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund- it helps all Latinos.) And being bilingual is a huge plus, especially if you head west. I spent hours translating for monolingual residents when I was in med school. In fact, the UC med schools want their applicants to have studied at least medical Spanish. For Neuroscience UCLA and UCSd are leading research centers- however, as an out of state applicant tuition is steep. However, if you are serious about neuroscience, you could choose the MD-PhD pathway (“mud-phud”) and get a full paid federal scholarship to those UC medical schools. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>LottieM,
The OP is looking for a good premed program and schools that offer good aids. I’m simply sharing info with those who may be unaware of schools out there that can meet their needs. Chapman offers a great need-blind merit-aid, and has a great premed program. And in case you haven’t heard, Chapman is planning their own medical school. Keep in mind that Chapman has smaller class sizes because it’s a smaller school, so of course there will be fewer students compared to larger schools. Premed can be taken in any undergrad institution. You never know where they’ll end up. Chapman also has a law school, but you’re not going to find their students occupying every single law schools out there. They are spread out in various law schools, therefore they may not necessarily end up at your particular school. So chill out!</p>
<p>have to agree with ocelite…never hurts to let kids know about some lesser known schools. I feel like a broken record somedays, but no forum for UAB so the only way for people to hear about it is posting about it. dont think ocelite is pushing chapman on people, just as i am not pushing UAB, just getting the word out</p>
<p>Bakere…uab has full ride for national hispanic shcolars, great honors program that would suit you (sci/tech…do research from freshma year) Has a great med school and also has a funded md/phd program that LottieM mentioned. [url=<a href=“http://www.uab.edu%5DWelcome%5B/url”>http://www.uab.edu]Welcome[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Pitt should remain on the list because of the merit opportunities. I don’t think Tufts meets your criteria – little chance for $ and it has a hefty price tag. All the schools you listed are great schools. I just suggest tweeking for better merit options.</p>
<p>You need to open up the search to schools that offer merit and where you will be top of the heap. Many LACs will fit this catergory.</p>
<p>There is a parent poster here whose daughter gave up Yale for a full (or near full) ride to Rhodes in Memphis, TN. Rhodes is right next to St Jude Childrens Hospital. Pleanty of opportunities. The daughter is now in med school at Yale. </p>
<p>With 3 kids in the family and your income level I doubt you will get FA. Consider saving the $ in UG and asking for parental help with medical school.</p>
<p>Rhodes is a “Colleges That Change Lives” school. I recommend you review these schools. Ursinus and Alleghany in PA both come to mind for high merit and good pre-med (with research opportunities).</p>
<p>rhodes is incredible and gives fairly good merit…but the full rides are only offered to a few (think its 2-3)… cant hurt to try for it though. </p>
<p>also agree pitt is great school. S2 seriously considered it, (full tuition scholarship) but he met with honors people and chem people…although research is available he was told that they didnt encourage it in freshman year…also wanted a more cohesive honors college</p>
<p>I think the diversity of Hispanic from CT would really provide an edge at Rhodes.</p>
<p>I’m not pushing 1 school, though. I just agree with parent56. There are many good schools outside one’s region which ecscape the attention of high school students. These type of schools are exactly the kind OP should begin to research.</p>
<p>OP - You have wonderful stats and plenty of time to research. It is great you are beginning now and have a focus of major.</p>
<p>longhaul just noticed you had mentioned ursinus…they have full tuition scholarships…also a room in the dorm occupied by jd salinger who attended ursinus for a while…that caught my S2’s interest when he applied.</p>