Help a Rising Junior Pre-med Latina who’s very confused [CA resident, 4.0, <$30k?, pre-med]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics (location, residency, HS type, legacy, US or Int’l, gender, etc):

SoCal, uncompetitive 98.9% Hispanic school, has not sent anyone to an Ivy League in 11 years (shoutout to brown :heart_eyes:) top 2-3 usually get into UCLA. Schools seen pretty poorly by neighboring high schools (we’re the school all the girlies with the nonprofits that aim to help disadvantaged low income students go to :skull::skull::skull:) First Generation Latina in stem :crazy_face::crazy_face: Middle Class, 110k household income so I’m pretty sure I don’t qualify for much aid.)

Intended Major(s): Neuroscience w/ a minor in Computer Science and or Chicano Studies (Biochem at schools without neuro) Want a solid Pre-med track

UW GPA, Rank, and Test Scores (also weighted GPA for systems like UC/CSU):
4.0 UW/ 4.23 W
9th Grade: AP HUG (4)

10th Grade: projecting a 4 for AP World and a 3 for AP Psych, I had a panic attack during my AP Physics 1 exam and the day I redid it my school went on lockdown cause some dude broke in so not really expecting a passing score for that one. Anyways 12 AP (15 offered) Classes, 4 Honors Classes and 16 DE classes total projected, might do thirteen AP’s and the Dual Enrollment classes might be +- 1-3.

PSAT 10 I got an 1190 (school average is 840……:sob:, my teachers were so proud of me Omg that was a glorious day didn’t realize how uncompetitive that was until later) have been studying via Khan and am at a 1400 rn; advice for reading SAT section would be greatly appreciated. Also my entire school gets two free SAT waivers and I ain’t trying to pay $80 for a 12 on the ACT :smiling_face::smiling_face:

Coursework (college coursework for transfer applicants)

9th: AP HUG, English 1 HP, Athletics, AVID Algebra 1, PLTW Biomedical sciences, DE Spanish 101, DE Into to Chicano Studies, DE Generic Required Intro to College Life Skills course

10th: AP Psych, AP Physics 1 AP World English 2-HP AVID Athletics Algebra 2 w/ Trig. DE Intro Political Philosophy, DE Music in Film, DE Child Development, DE Philosophy, DE English Composition, DE Human Biology w/ Lab (whyyyyyyyy :smiling_face_with_three_hearts::smiling_face_with_three_hearts:)

11th (This Fall): AP English Lang, AP Enviro. Sci, AP Comp Sci Principles, APUSH, Math Analysis HP, AVID, Chem HP DE Human Anatomy, DE General Chemistry for Medical Sciences, DE Human Physiology DE Advanced English Composition

12th AP Chem, AP Lit, AP Gov + Econ HP (it’s combined into one class at my school cause they don’t care about our test scores​:heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes:) AP Calc AB, (debating between AP Stats or Emergency Medical Response credentials class or a free period) DE Microbiology, DE Psychobiology, DE Speech & Debate,

Awards (Weakest link of my app ngl.)

Student of the Month :skull::skull::skull:
2nd Place at School Science Fair :skull::skull::skull:
National Hispanic Collegeboard thing (hopefully) :skull::skull::skull:
Local Baking Competition 1st Place :skull::skull::skull:

Extracurriculars (incl. summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

  1. Founder/President of Schools Cooking/Baking Club!! Hold meetings every other week, host food drives where we donate food to community food shelters, bake sweets for staff free of charge (I love my teachers but they are A N I M A L S) working on community cookbook website with translated recipes from member’s family to showcase Mexican/Hispanic cuisine. Hoping to expand it to senior centers and make it like a cute little community newsletter/blog/etc. Ironically, we rarely did any actual cooking this first year :skull:(10th-12th)

  2. Varsity Tennis, singles number two (9th-10th) was supposed to be captain this year but it looks like they are cutting the team :sob::sob::sob::sob: we’ve reached out to administrators voicing our concerns but they haven’t reached back to us and it’s been a month. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue doing this until senior year but idk :sob:

  3. Science Fair Research (10th, 11th,) Independently researched a major bio topic, studying the mechanisms that enable for metastatic parenchyma cells to cross the blood brain barrier and create brain metastases. It’s in the beginning stages but it’s really cool and I’m super excited to see where this goes!! Might be able to do it at an actual laboratory!!! Cause my Ap physics teachers bestie teaches neuro at Columbia and has neuro friends at a couple local universities near my school. Hoping to go to State and get an honorable recognition!!!

  4. National Science Bowl (9th, 11th-12th) In charge of Bio sets :sunglasses::sunglasses::sunglasses:

  5. Link Crew (10th-12th)

  6. Hospital Shadowing a Neurosurgeon (my Tia’s sugar daddy, thank you tia for fighting the good fight :heart_eyes::heart_eyes:) ~10 hrs rn, hoping it’ll increase by the time I fill out college apps (10th-12th)

  7. Hospital Volunteering 40hrs (bruh I work the gift shop and no one ever comes it’s so borrrrriiiiinnnnnngggggg. Applied to be restationed to ANYWHERE else wish me luck)

  8. Small Baking Buisness, generated $600 in profit, have catered for various events, several with 20+ attending people

  9. My mom goes through bouts of depression so I usually have a lot of household responsibilities like cooking, cleaning, looking after my grandparents who are both sick etc etc. kinda lame, but I mean, idk it takes up a lotta time. Hoping to get some more med related EC’s now that I’m an upperclassman to seem more…competitive?

  10. ummm, idk? Hoping to get a job soon to save some more $$ for college. Hopefully I’ll get into a summer program and can put that here. If not; technically I do babysitting.

Essays/LORs/Other

Essays; haven’t written yet, going to start this fall since I’m applying g to a lot of summer programs. Most likely be about how watching my grandparents work in farm work/fields and have to suffer through Illnesses due to being well, undocumented motivated me to want to become a physician and take the strain off the few rural doctors that support and hopefully continue to advocate for healthcare/workforce rights to our nations most vulnerable. Or maybe I’ll do it on how when my grandpa was diagnosed with cancer it felt easier to throw myself into research than accept the diagnosis but was able to come to terms with it showcasing my resilience, neediness and emotional strength.(feels kinda basic/overused cliche tho) idk, will update.

LOR:

AP Psych/AP Gov teacher: We are pretty close, I really trust him and maintain a good relationship with him. He’s literally awesome, idk if I’d still be in school without him.

AP Lang Teacher: Advisor for my club, we’re pretty close but not as close as my Ap psych teacher. She said she reminds me of her daughter on the same day she said she hated her daughter so I’m getting mixed signals :sob:

Counselor: We’ve talked a couple times, says I impress her. New and wants to make the school a feeder school/raise college enrollment levels so she’s a pretty strong ally.

Cost Constraints / Budget

Would prefer to minimize my debt as much as I can since I’m hoping to go to Med School, currently looks like no more than 30k-35k a year??? OH AND QUESTION: so my parents are legally separated and my mom has guardianship of me and my older sister, but my dad is still involved in my life and makes 300k ish a year would his income be considered even though he has no guardianship over me/I don’t live with him? (my parents file there taxes separately) ; Would I have to indicate that somewhere in FASFA? Will that hurt my chances of need based aid/screw with the estimates of net price calculators?

Schools including Safety, Match, Reach (include ED/EA when applicable)

Safety: Local Community College, ASU
Match: CSULB (usually send about 8 kids here hence why I’m not marking it as a reach), UC Merced
Reach:, UCSD,
Hard reach: UCLA, UCB, Brown PLME, USC (EA for scholarship consideration)

Additional Info:

Looking for advice on where else to apply if anywhere else. And my current college list. Prefer larger/urban-suburban campus with research opportunities, grade inflation and merit aid. Also school’s that have Mexican/Latino associations, life. Nowhere in a state where abortions are restricted btw. Kinda wanna apply to at least 10 schools since you only live once y’know? Is it worth applying to the other Ivies or other T50’s? Is it even worth it considering my schools probably not on their radar?

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Oh shoot should add that my 4.23 Weighted Gpa is for right now, assuming I get straight A’s I should end high school with a 4.57 GPA

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You’re very early to know exactly where to apply - and to start writing essays.

Let’s get through another semester -or until you have a test score (for merit at schools not UC/CSU).

You’re doing great - and keep up the good work

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You’ve obviously given a lot of thought to your high school course planning, which is great! You should check the recommended and required coursework for some of the schools you are interested in. For example, I only see one year of foreign language for you. Most competitive colleges require at least two years and recommend three or four.

Since you’re in CA and planning to apply to CA schools, make sure you have all your A-G coursework covered.

As far as essays go, these will be important, but it’s probably too early to get started. Spend that time working on test prep. Do the essays next summer.

Good luck to you on your journey!

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Oh okay, thank you so much! For your advice and feedback!! I think I get a bit confused because at my school a DE Spanish class counts for two years of credit on my transcript, do you think colleges would weight it the same? Ik the UC’s do but idk about other colleges. But ig taking a Spanish 102 class wouldn’t be the end of the world for me haha. Thanks! I appreciate your feedback :slight_smile:

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Thank you for the feedback :))

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Please be aware if you are considering a premed path - ALL your dual enrollment classes will factor into your COLLEGE GPA for medschool applications. Many students are unaware that they will be sent along with their undergraduate transcript and are horrified that a bunch of less than great grades when they were 16-17 year are impacting their GPA. Be extremely judicious with not just loading up on courses - more is not better! Take what makes sense and kill them!

It’s early in the process, but many school will look at a student from a disadvantaged school who’s made the best of their opportunities available. Many private schools will use CSS in addition to FAFSA and your father’s income will be considered and will absolutely impact potential financial aid. Best of luck to you.

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FAFSA and colleges that only use FAFSA (including UCs and CSUs) will consider the finances of the custodial parent only. However, some colleges use the CSS Profile or their own forms in addition, and some of those require both divorced parents’ finances. Custodial parent is the one you live with most of the time, but the definition will soon be changing to the parent who provides the most financial support.

Before using a college’s net price calculator, go through its financial aid web pages carefully to determine whether the college requires both parents’ finances. If it does, then you need to include both parents’ finances (though if the total parental income is over $300k, it is best to assume no need-based financial aid in that case).

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Who will be providing the most support to you? That is the parent who will be your custodial parent per FAFSA when you apply to college. So…if your dad is contributing significantly to your support, he might be your custodial parent when you apply…even if you don’t reside with him.

For private colleges, many that use the CSS Profile require financials from both parents. There is a non-custodial parent form for the other parent to complete. Brown and USC would want everything.

The CA public universities…I don’t believe they ask for non-custodial parent info. @Gumbymom or @ucbalumnus might know.

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If ASU means Arizona State University, check its scholarship estimator to see if the resulting net price will be affordable. If it is not assured to be affordable, it is not a safety.

UC Riverside has this program for pre-meds who want to practice medicine in inland southern California.

Brown and USC require both divorced parents’ finances.

The PSAT you will take in 11th grade is the important one, since hitting the National Merit Semifinalist threshold could open up a lot of scholarships at various colleges (mainly outside of California, though). A somewhat lower threshold could get you College Board National Recognition, which may also open up some scholarships (e.g. at Arizona State University, “National Scholar” for its scholarship offers means National Merit Finalist or College Board National Recognition).

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@ucbalumnus answered the custodial parent question in the post above for the CA publics.

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If you go in state, check Cal grants and the Middle Class Scholarship. I don’t recall the income limits off hand, but there’s a pretty good chance you’d qualify.

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First of all, there’s nothing “lame” about your family responsibilities at all! What’s important is that you convey these circumstances to your HS college counselor sooner than later, so that she has that context and can vouch for how you’ve carried a lot of responsibility in your family while also doing well in school. You can mention these things yourself, of course, but having your counselor talk about it in her recommendation will carry even more weight.

The tough thing here is going to be affordability. You’re a great student that many private colleges and universities would love to accept, but even a half-tuition scholarship (which is not an uncommon maximum among schools that give merit scholarships at all) is not going to get you to your budget. You’d need big merit to make private schools affordable. Such scholarships exist, certainly, but they can’t be counted upon. They don’t exist at all at Brown, and many other ultra-competitive private U’s.

It’s great that you’re prepping for this year’s PSAT - getting to the Natl. Hispanic scholar threshold would help with merit! (Make sure you self-identify as Hispanic when you fill out the test paperwork.)

Definitely look at the program Ucbalumnus pointed out, at Riverside. You also didn’t mention Davis, which IMHO is one of the best UC’s for premed.

In addition to the Arizona schools, U of New Mexico could be a great safety for you. Even before competitive scholarships, you would qualify for the WUE+ rate which is the same as in-state - currently the resident “sticker price” is under 28K/year - and you’re very likely to get additional merit, possibly a lot. Albuquerque meets your “larger urban-suburban campus” criterion, and the student population is >50% Hispanic/Latinx. The med school and hospital are right there, for shadowing opportunities. The Honors College has its own research opportunities and its own study abroad program (in Spain or Ecuador). What We Do in Honors :: Honors College | The University of New Mexico, and offers Honors housing and priority registration, in addition to small, seminar-style Honors classes.

Get your safeties and CA publics sorted first. Then you can consider reaches where large, competitive merit scholarships are possible. There will be some that you can try for, but it’s a little early to assemble that list - having next year’s grades and scores will help to bring that into focus. In the meantime, if you can identify safeties you could be happy with, and familiarize yourself more with your options in the UC and CSU systems, that will lay the foundation and give you confidence that you will have good options even if the reaches don’t come through with $$$.

Keep up the good work and keep us posted :slight_smile:

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I second University of New Mexico. Perhaps @WayOutWestMom can give more context.

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Congratulations on your achievements.

It will be preferred to get LoRs from junior year teachers. You can ask soph year teachers, but those would only be used at schools that take extra LoRs.

You should get the FAFSA custodial parent situation and budget sorted by next summer. As others have said, the FAFSA custodial parent is now the one who provides the most financial support, not the one the student lives with the most. Does your bio dad pay your rent/mortgage? Child support, etc? Will he be contributing toward college costs?

When you run NPCs at school which require the CSS Profile, you need to include both parents’ financial details (and stepparents, if applicable) at most if those schools, like Brown and USC. Even if your dad is not going to contribute to college costs you must include his info on these NPCs.

In terms of your goal to be a physician, you should prioritize getting patient facing experience. How can one know they want to be a physician without that? In California you can become a CNA when you are 16. I believe you can start the training class when you are 15, as long as you are 16 by the time it ends. That would be good experience and you would earn $.

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I don’t have advice, but I am chiming in to say that my spidey-sense is telling me you are going to go far. Your voice – which is wonderful! – comes through loud and clear. I hope you will continue to use CC as a resource these next 2 years. I have seen this community make a big difference for some kids.

Good luck with the journey!

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I’ll third UNM.

Univ of New Mexico definitely fits your criteria. it’s designated as a HSI–Hispanic Serving Institution-- by the DOE. 50% of the med school applicants UNM produces every year are Hispanic/Latinx.

Besides the WUE scholarship, if you earn National Hispanic Scholar recognition, there’s a special scholarship for that. It covers 100% of tuition.

The Amigo Scholarship gives in-state tuition plus $200/year toward other expenses.

You might even consider applying for the Regents–which is a true full ride. But it is a competitive scholarship that requires a separate application. (The application is fairly short and not burdensome.)

Scholarship info here: https://scholarship.unm.edu

UNM has rolling admissions, so you can apply early and see what scholarship monies you might be offered. It’ll be ice to have one A in your pocket while waiting to hear back from other schools.

FWIW, my older d graduated from UNM and both my daughters went to UNM for med school. UNM is one of the least expensive med schools in the US.

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Might U of Arizona also fit this category ?

Not Alabama (in regards to being an HSI) but the student would likely get 4 years tuition, one year housing and $1k a year. Plus they have the MCCullough Medical program for pre med.

National Hispanic Scholars | W.A Franke Honors College.

https://scholarships.ua.edu/freshman/diversity-merit-scholarship/

https://mccolloughscholars.as.ua.edu/

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I’d say, apply to both. Why not? They’ll both be significantly cheaper than a UC, and both really cultivate their Honors College students in a way that doesn’t exist at the UC’s. Both in decent-sized Southwestern cities, with med schools and with substantial Hispanic populations. Couldn’t go wrong with either IMO, and can always do a more detailed head-to-head comparison once the exact merit numbers have come in. But the OP is understandably concerned about the political landscape, and things are a bit more fraught on that front in AZ vs. NM, which is more reliably progressive, so there’s that.

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True but Tucson is blue. Only reason I thought when it was mentioned that UNM was Hispanic Serving. I knew Arizona was too. Thx.