GPA for Transfer student (Weighted vs unweighted). Please help. Very upset son. :(

Want to re-emphasize Collegemom’s post. In the US, undergrad and med school are two different things. Undergrad first for 4 years, then med school. You don’t need to worry at all about which undergrad school has a med program. Take that off of things to consider.

Definitely look at instate options first. Not just the state public’s but some of the less competitive private schools as well.

If your son is able, really prepare for the SAT and retake. If he can get 1500+, that will open more scholarships.

What state do you live in? People can give you suggestions of where to start.

You may also want to search the forum for the premed sub forum and look at posts by wayoutwestmom. She’s the resident expert for premed and med school.

Look at some of the Liberal Arts Colleges like Elon, St Olaf, and Wooster. Your son may see good merit there.

Get the books Colleges that Change Lives and the Fiske Guide. That will help too!

For pre-med (and much else), the US and Canada are essentially in one academic system (kind of like how everything in Europe will eventually be standardized under Bologna).

I don’t think he has to worry about getting in to honor programs at many strong research unis (or LACs, nearly all of which will also offer all the support, resources, and opportunities he needs to get in to med school); including ND, BTW. Prestige almost doesn’t matter.

Med school and undergrad should be linked only if he applies to those combined BS/MD programs (lots of info on those on the internet).

So the key considerations are what you can afford, where he is in-state for, and stats for scholarshipss (it seems no NMS).

BTW, a few med schools are tuition-free now, though they are obviously extremely difficult to get in to (med school in the US in general is tough to get in to; kind of the opposite of France, where virtually anybody could try and then they weed out the vast majority).

Things you (not your son) need to do
1° figure out your official EFC. Be seated when you do it because it’s likely to be a shock, unless you make less than 75K a year (or at least less than 150k at some top private colleges). Compare that number with what you can afford. Most colleges will expect you to spend about 30% of your income on college costs.
If your EFC is zero or very low your son may be eligible for special programs such as Posse or Questbridge that offer excellent scholarships.
2° run the NPC on a variety of colleges: your instate* flagships and other public universities instate, private colleges in the state, but also colleges such as St Olaf, Macalester, Grinnell, Vassar, Connecticut College, Beloit, Dickinson, Muhlenberg, Whitman, Pomona, Brandeis, Marist, Drake, Providence, Northeastern, Creighton, and even Notre Dame, Brown, or UPenn. Look at the results. You’ll quickly notice differences.
Now run the NPC on the state universities you’ve listed so far. Figure out what costs are acceptable and what costs aren’t acceptable to you. Don’t let your son look into unaffordable colleges.
3° * Figure out what’s instate = where YOU pay taxes+have a permanent residence + have a driving licence/vote.
If you need to establish residency because you don’t have one, now’s the time since it’ll have to be registered as more than 12 months before he starts college.

I agree that 1400 is excellent for a top French student. French students do quite poorly on standardized tests because they’ve been trained in writing long essays, not answering many multiple choice questions quickly. However, many colleges will be going “test optional” in the Fall, including many excellent colleges. In that, he’s very lucky :slight_smile: because colleges will use rigor (IB = maximum rigor), GPA (unweighted), essays, activities, recommendations.
If they use class rank, usually they want to see top 10%. That’s it. (HS students may care about top 3% v. top 6% but it’s like chocolate medals invented for HS kids. It doesn’t matter to colleges and more than once you’ll find that the top ranked students don’t get into their college of choice whereas other students in the top 10% do.)

BTW it’d really help if you could tell us what state YOU are a resident of. (Students are residents of the state their parents reside… crucially, pay taxes, in).

Also, if you own a small business and/or if you’re divorced, the NPC may not be accurate.

Also, he should be doing IB Math, AP or IB or Honors chemistry, and IB/AP/Honors history. I see neither Math nor History on his list of classes this year and it’s a problem.

As a premed, his most important subject in college will be chemistry (5 courses of the premed core; in addition he’ll have to take 2 biology classes, 2 math classes, 2 English classes, 2 physics classes, 1 psychology class, 1 sociology class, 1 course indicating an understanding of the United States’ diversity, and, ideally, demonstrate fluency in a language spoken by groups living in the US beside English, neuroscience/cognitive science, and bioethics. I think I haven’t forgotten anything in terms of the basic classes he’ll have to take! This is in addition to a major, which can be science - preferably NOT biology- or any other field - he could double major in French and something else if he wished.) Anyway: he could take an online high school chemistry course, see if his district offers one over the summer, but it’s usually difficult to complete the labs.

All colleges will expect English, Foreign Language, Social Science, Science, Math every year so 5 of his 6 IB courses should fall under that umbrella.
Most STEM students use their 6th course to take a second science (I assume that’s why he’s taking Physics and Biology, but chemistry from Seconde will NOT cut it in college, especially since for premed it’s a weedout course.)
I would recommend he read the tumbler by AFrenchie36 BTW.

French is spoken in some places in the US (Louisiana and some places near Quebec), although Spanish is the most common non-English language spoken in the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_United_States

Pomona College is always a reach (<7% acceptance), but it’s a D3 school with top U.S. students on the pre-med track. Research facilities are state of the art, and plenty of fellowships as well as top university acceptances for med school. Look into it and see if you can get in contact with a coach, either on track and field or basketball. They’re always looking for recruits and are not top athletics, but top academics for sure. (#1 Liberal arts college according to Forbes, etc)

It sounds like the OP still lives in France and her son is in US with his grandmother, if I am interpreting correctly. Would he have in state residency if that is the case?

Definitely have your son try a practice ACT. I did far better on ACT than PSAT, and math is my weaker subject as well. ACT is 25% math vs. SAT being 50%.

The OP has not been active for 2 years, so a response is unlikely. If the return and want to answer, they can PM me to reopen. Closing.