GWU chances and where else to apply?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m looking to eventually reach med, but I still have a lot of years yet to decide so I may end up in research or wherever. Just to give you guys a background, here are my stats:

  • I am a junior in high school, living in Maryland
  • 3.90 unweighted GPA, 4.64 weighted GPA
  • 1330 SAT score (planning to retake this and aiming for 1400+), also taking ACT this February
  • Played for the volleyball team, ran for outdoor track & cross country teams
  • National Spanish Honors Society, Nat. English Hon. Society, Nat. Science Hon Society
  • Member of countless clubs varying in themes, but mainly science
  • Will have at least 400+ hours of volunteering at a hospital and tutoring children by the time I have to start applying to colleges.
  • Also wanted to add that I'm female, white, and come from a family income of around 80k per year (but this might go down, my dad has been unemployed for 2 years now and the struggle is getting more extreme) . My parents are both immigrants from a 3rd world country and we have a strong sense of our culture at home, if that makes me any more interesting than the average white kid.

This year I am taking AP Bio, AP Spanish Lang (non-native, so it’ll look good I guess), AP Eng. Lang, AP World His., and Honors Pre-calc as my non-electives.

Next year I am taking: AP Spanish Lit, AP Calc BC, AP Psych, AP Environmental Science, AP Eng. Lit, and AP Physics 1

My question is how far should I expect myself to go in terms of college apps. I’m trying to find a school within the D.C area (but I’m considering anywhere on the Northeastern coast) where I can excel in while still finding opportunities for med-related things. My mom keeps talking about smaller liberal arts schools but I feel like that I wouldn’t be doing justice to all the work I’ve done so far. I mean, I haven’t been working this hard to end up at some unknown school, right??? Or am I wrong?

I am considering so far:

  • Georgetown (a stretch with my stats so far, but we’ll see)
  • George Washington University (really like this option so far)
  • Johns Hopkins (I’m not sure if I’d go even if I was miraculously accepted, I heard it kills the hopes and dreams of all its premeds)
  • UMD (safety school)

I haven’t done too much search into colleges so these are just the ones I’m most familiar with. My mom also wants me to apply to:

  • Emory University
  • Boston University
  • Amherst College
  • Colgate University (undergrad admission stats look very competitive???)

Am I shooting in a realistic range? Would these schools prepare me well for when med app time comes around? Can you guys recommend any other reasonable schools?

Also wondering how much an internship at NIH would benefit me even if I was selected. It would take many weeks that I could have spent volunteering or having fun with friends during our last summer together and its mainly my mom pushing me to do it, but personally I’m okay with just volunteering. Would the internship really give me an edge in apps?

2

Hi, my DD has very similar stats to you so I will watch replies with interest. We are also in Maryland.

Have you checked out UMBC? Towson? GWU?

Also some of the smaller LACs give good scholarships. My daughter wants to have the option of engineering at a school, so she can’t go to a smaller school, but with an interest in medicine, you have more options. Look at Hood, McDaniel, Shepherd (WV) to name a few. Also close by PA schools.

I would consider putting at least one of the smaller state universities on your list (like Frostburg, Salisbury) as true safeties. Very affordable and you would most likely get into the Honors colleges :slight_smile:

3

Yes, at the moment GWU is looking like my top choice but I’m still in the early stages of composing an actual list of colleges so who knows where in the list it’ll end up.

I’ve heard about McDaniel, will make sure to check it out more in depth as well as Salisbury. Thanks!

4

At your family income, the top schools on your list, like Amherst and Johns Hopkins, are likely to be much less expensive than GWU or Boston University. GWU and BU do not cover full financial need. They may even be less expensive than UMaryland.

You said: “My mom keeps talking about smaller liberal arts schools but I feel like that I wouldn’t be doing justice to all the work I’ve done so far. I mean, I haven’t been working this hard to end up at some unknown school, right??? Or am I wrong?”

On this you are wrong. The top LACs are great schools. Who cares if your uncle or your barber never heard of it - the med schools know them well and they have excellent med school placement records. But be aware, the very best LACs like Amherst, Williams and Pomona are as hard or harder to get into than some of the Ivies. Since you have great grades but aren’t sure about your SATs, also consider the very good LACs that are test optional like Bowdoin and Middlebury.

Finally, yes - a competitive internship at NIH would look a lot better on a college application than simply volunteering. You should do it if you can.

5

@ThankYouforHelp

Good to know that I’m wrong on that, guess its just my naiveness talking here and I should really do some more search into some more LACs.

The NIH internship opportunity is open to high school students, undergrads, and grads, and I’m mainly worried that I’ll be way out of my league and will be asked to do things outside of my skill set, especially if I’m working with actual premed and med kids. But I guess the learning aspect is what I’m really achieving here so I better finish my app.

Thanks!

6

For the record, Middlebury isn’t test optional.

7

regarding LAC’s, read this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/l-jay-lemons/the-gold-standard-the-powerful-impact-of-residential_b_4633443.html