I’m trying to decide what colleges I want to apply to. I have approximately a 3.8 gpa and a 30 ACT score. I participate in many extracurriculars ranging from music to sports to various clubs. I want to be a pre-med major (I think) and possibly minor in vocal music/some kind of music studies. I’m looking for a bigger school in a large city. So far I have about 11 colleges on my list, is this an okay number for consideration? I also have some on my list that I don’t know if I will apply to (marked with a ?).
Here’s my list:
Baylor University
Boston University
Chapman University (? smaller school than what I want)
DePaul University
Drexel University (?)
New York University
University of California: Los Angeles (basically all the UC schools because they’re all one application I believe)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (? smaller city than what I want)
University of Southern California
University of Wisconsin-Madison
I am an Illinois resident, so some of the public schools are going to be harder to get into. Also, I know both California schools are probably a long shot. What do you think based on this list and do you have any other recommendations for schools that I might like? Thanks!
What can your family afford?
And there’s no premed major. You can major in anything and do premed required courses, although many will major in Chem or Bio since the requirements overlap significantly and they’re interested in those fields.
What is your parents budget? UCLA will offer no FA for OOS students so it will cost around $55K+/year to attend.
Is your 3.8 GPA weighted or unweighted? For USC, consider retaking the ACT and aiming for a 32+.
The problem with the Cal schools is not getting in as OOS- it is paying $50k/year. BU and DePaul sound like great choices for what you want. Fordham or Manhattan College are better choices than NYU. Seattle-area schools?
I am not very worried about the cost for right now. I am planning on getting at least some money in scholarships. Also, my parents want what I want, so I think they are willing to pay for wherever I want to go.
No OOS premed should go to a Calif public…it’s a recipe for disaster. If you’re serious about being premed, then go elsewhere.
Calif has toooooo many premeds, so the weeding is BRUTAL, and even after all the weeding, less than half ever make it to med school. It is the worst state to be premed, but even more worse if you’re OOS.
Go elsewhere.
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I am not very worried about the cost for right now. I am planning on getting at least some money in scholarships.
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Also, my parents want what I want, so I think they are willing to pay for wherever I want to go.
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You need to be concerned about cost unless your parents have $220,000 set aside just for your college costs.
Getting scholarship money from outside sources is extremely difficult and usually the awards are for freshman year only.
Your parents may 'want what you want," but they may not know the premed/med school app process and they may be very naive about it…and it sounds like you are as well. This could be blind leading the blind.
ASK your parents if they’ll pay $55k per year for a UC or some other school. Ask them…
And if they do by some miracle have 220k set aside, consider whether you want to use all of it for UG, or use, say, 120k for UG and still have money left over for the 120k-300k in med school tuition (and that doesn’t include living costs).
I am not blind on this subject, I have done research about what I want :). Like I said in the main post, I am considering premed, but I haven’t fully decided. Also, my parents DO have money set aside for college, like I said, it is not a major concern, if it was I’d be looking in state! Plus, the point of this discussion is which colleges I want to apply to, not just mainly about UCLA or cost.
Well then it is worth looking at private schools in California. In addition to USC, add University of San Diego and LMU. If size is a deciding factor, UWashington is huge and Seattle is great for musicians.