As the title says, I’m a rising senior. I’m from NY looking to go on a pre-med/pre-PA track in college. I’m still undecided on the major (honestly, if anyone knows any majors that can be more lucrative than just plain biology but still align decently close to pre-med requirements, I could use advice on that too).
I’m looking for colleges that have an acceptance rate of 40-50% or higher. So far, I’ve determined a couple safeties and a few reaches, but I feel I’m still lacking in matches. I would prefer to stay in the Northeast, but that’s not a hard requirement. Also, I wouldn’t want to go to school somewhere rural, and preferably the school would be small to medium sized. Some of the schools that I’ve visited and liked are Lehigh and Northeastern (drastically different, I know).
Looking for strong academics with less of a party vibe and a more liberal community. If anyone has any suggestions, I’d appreciate it!
A couple of things, if you are seriously thinking about medicine, there are a certain set of classes you HAVE to take. Plus, you have to take the MCAT. And do well on both. So, remember, high GPA and high MCAT score. A biology major is not as important. If you want to major in dance, then by all means, do so. Just take the pre-med classes (bio, chem, org chem, etc.). Second, currently, there are very few scholarships for medical school. Medical school is not cheap. You will take out loans (my wife is practicing and paid hers off in seventeen years). So, the goal should be to minimize undergraduate debt because medical school debt WILL be there. Further, if you go down the medical school track, you will do a residency (they suck, for you and your spouse, speaking from experience). So, enjoy your time in college. Seriously, I remember looking at residencies with my wife that were proud that their residents qualified for low-income housing. Congrats! You just graduated from medical school with debt, and you too qualify for low income housing while working 100+ hours a week! Fun times.
Anyway, max the GPA and the MCAT. Minimize the undergraduate costs. Likely, that is best done at your state university. If not, find a university that will offer you scholarships (I note that you did not mention any stats or cost parameters). Best of luck.
It’s great that you’re thinking about having a well-balanced list of schools to apply to. Admissions rates largely depend on your stats, as one form of measurement. What’s your GPA (unweighted or weighted) and do you have any standardized test scores? Also, how would you describe your extracurriculars? And, quite importantly, what’s your budget?
If you list the other schools you’re considering, that can also help provide a picture of what you’re looking for.
That is pretty much premed at any “top 100” and probably even “top 200” university. Both daughters had majors that overlapped with premed classes and therefore had quite a few friends who were premed (some of whom are in medical school right now, one daughter is currently studying for her DVM). You will find quite a few tough classes and quite a few very strong students in the typical premed classes at a rather wide range of universities. If you get to medical school, you will find that the other students there have graduated from quite a wide range of universities.
Have you run the NPCs on these two universities? Do you know what your budget is for a full eight years of university? We personally found Northeastern to be rather expensive, but your results may differ from ours.
As others have indicated medical school is expensive. You need to be careful about your budget and avoid debt for your bachelor’s degree if you possibly can. Even better would be leaving some money in your college fund for medical school.
This suggests that since you are a NY resident the SUNY’s are worth taking a close look at. It is okay to attend a university that is a safety – you will still find plenty of very strong students and plenty of very tough courses. Being in the top 1/2 or even top 1/4 of the class in these tough courses will not be easy but will be helpful for medical school admissions.
I think that it is a good idea for you to be thinking about alternate majors other than biology. One issue is that what major makes sense for you depends a great deal on what you like and what you are interested in. It is common for students to change their major after arriving on campus and even after taking a semester or two of classes.
UVM fits “strong academics … and a more liberal community”. How much of a party vibe it has would depend upon where you hang out. However, you would need either a very wealthy family or a major merit scholarship (which they do offer to out of state students) for it to make any sense financially compared to a SUNY. Even with a UVM presidential merit scholarship a SUNY in-state would probably be more affordable for a potential medical school student.
These colleges all have physician assistant majors and several other health-related majors as well. But they also have the hard sciences as well, as sometimes some of the science classes for health majors are of a different rigor/focus than those that are premed. Depending on your high school background these could be matches or likelies, and as they all offer merit aid, that could definitely decrease the price substantially if you are awarded scholarships.
• Wheaton (MA)
• Chatham (PA )
The above two have the most students describing the student population as liberal, per Niche.
• Thomas Jefferson (PA )
• Le Moyne (NY)
• Marist (NY)
• Duquesne (PA )
• Seton Hall (NJ)
• Quinnipiac (CT)
I am assuming that you already have some SUNYs on your list as safeties, but if not, I’d take a close look at them. SUNY New Paltz & Oswego seem as though they would be definite possibilities.
My daughter is looking for the exact same thing. One she’s considering is Macalester College in St Paul, MN. About 40% acceptance, very high grad/retention rate, excellent pre-med reputation, and 5-10 minutes from the main parts of the cities. It’s definitely not a party school, it doesn’t even have Greek life.
Hey, thanks for the advice! Yeah, stories like these are why I am also considering PA school instead of med school. I guess that’s still expensive and a big time commitment though.
My school doesn’t use the standard GPA, but on a 100 scale, it is currently about a 101 weighted. My PreACT was 99th percentile, actual one was 98th percentile, but I’m retaking it in June! My ECs are honestly just about average. I’d say they’re my weak point. Nothing compared to a lot of the stuff posted here. Work, varsity sport, officer of a few clubs, volunteering, internship this summer at a non-profit. Nothing super notable. My family probably won’t qualify for much if any financial aid at all. I’m still not super clear on budget. My family thinks I can take out whatever I want in loans. They’ve never been to college, so I’ll be the first one and they’re not super clear on this stuff. We’re working on it.
Some schools I am considering:
SUNY Binghamton (probably a target?)
Stony Brook (Safety?)
CWRU (hard match?)
Lehigh (hard match?)
ASU (Safety)
Swarthmore (reach)
Lafayette (match?)
Northeastern (reach)
Johns Hopkins (reach)
American University (match)
Will probably add another SUNY as a safety. Issue here is that I don’t think I have any assured matches besides Bing.
Yeah, I’m seriously considering SUNYs (especially Bing). Affordability is definitely a huge factor. Definitely going to try to go for scholarships at less selective colleges. Or do you think it’s a better idea to just focus on SUNYs?
Please don’t be thrown off by some of the posts you see here on this forum. You’ve got some great extracurriculars. Having a job is actually a really important one, and you’ve done a varsity sport, have leadership positions in your clubs, and volunteer experience. It seems like you’re a well-rounded person who will do well in college.
The most important thing to figure out is the budget. I would have your family do the Net Price Calculator at Swarthmore and/or Johns Hopkins to see what those schools think your family would be able to contribute on an annual basis. (Both of those schools are need blind and meet full-need…as the school defines it… and are likely to be among the most generous options in terms of providing financial aid.) Once you see what number the schools think your family can pay, your family needs to decide if it is willing and able to do so, WITHOUT them taking out loans or endangering a financially secure retirement to do so. (You are only eligible to take out abut $27k of loans…total…for your undergrad years, about $6k your first year and then goes up a little each subsequent year.) If your family is willing and able to pay this price, then schools that don’t offer merit aid but meet full need are in. If that price is not affordable (and it’s not for many, many people), then that means you need to look at schools where it’s a lower cost and/or that offer merit aid.
Once you get that budget number that your family is willing and able to pay without loans, then let us know. We can likely tell you which schools would be possibilities and which ones would be unlikely to meet that number.
When making your college list, the only thing you MUST have is a school where you are extremely likely to be admitted, that your family can afford to pay for, and where you would be happy to attend. And if you want to make sure you have choices come the spring of your senior year, you might want 2-3 schools in that category. Any colleges beyond that set is entirely option. There is no requirement to have a certain number of match or reach schools (or any). So don’t feel compelled to add schools just to come up with a certain number. Start with the likeliest schools (which it sounds like you probably have) and then you can work your way toward less likely schools if you so desire.
You said that your pre-ACT was in the 99th percentile, but you have one in the 98th percentile and you’re retaking this summer. Does that mean you’ve taken the regular ACT once and scored in the 98th percentile (i.e. a 34 or 35)? Also, do you know what your unweighted GPA is on the 100-point scale?
Are you NMSF qualified? That could help with scholarships.
Please lockdown your budget before you apply. Getting accepted and not being able to afford is a waste of time. A few financial reaches are OK if you’re trying for scholarships. Just balance that with safeties.
You can only take $27k in loans total. The rest would be on your parents. SUNY’s are probably your best option at the moment. Run the NPC for your schools.
Have you shadowed a doctor or PA? If you’re looking at direct admit PA programs you should be sure that’s what you want to do.
Some schools weigh jobs in the admission process more heavily than others. You can usually find this in the CDS or similar.
Look at Lafayette, Pitt (apply early for merit), or Dickinson. Maybe Delaware? Pitt and Delaware are smaller public schools. Pitt is outstanding for anything medical.
My son really liked Macalester and almost decided to go there. One thing to note is that their acceptance rate for this year (class of 2026) was 25% and last year was around 30%. Several websites such as Niche are not up to date.
You could do nursing. You’d probably need to add a minor to make sure the rest of the premed prerequisites are met, but it’s a strong practical degree you can fallback on.
You can apply to a range of schools and see what offers come back. I would definitely include some SUNY’s in your applications and would take them very seriously.
For any merit offers make sure that you check whether they are renewable for a full 4 years and what the qualifications are for them to renew. Both daughters had merit scholarships. One needed to maintain a 3.0 to keep the merit aid after the first year. The other needed to maintain a 3.5. This is not easy in a range of premed classes but is a good idea if you want to keep the option open of attending a medical school at some point.
Another issue is that if you change your mind about your potential career path and change majors late this might in some cases extend your bachelor’s beyond four years. If you stay in-state you will still be in-state for your fifth year. If you attend a private university with financial aid then the aid will probably end after four years (I am not sure that this is always true – the merit aid we got did have a four year limit).
You should try very hard to avoid loans if you reasonably can, particularly for your bachelor’s degree.
There is a limit on how much in loans you can take out without a parent cosigner. As others have mentioned for the first year this would be $5,500. Of course this is very little compared to the cost of a full pay private university, but I would still try to avoid taking out this much in loans.
One daughter when she was a senior in high school was not very happy with my insistence that she completely avoid loans for her bachelor’s degree. Five years later when she had her first job she thanked me for not letting her take any loans – her first job was a dream job and helped to set her up well for what she is going now (studying for a DVM) but that first job paid very badly and she could only afford to take it because she had no debt.
Having no debt will help quite a bit in terms of not limiting your options for what you do after getting your bachelor’s degree.
I agree with the uvm suggestion- lots of kids interested in medicine there and good chance to explore that with the hospital essentially on campus. Good merit aid for out of state. Liberal. Strong academics especially in science. Medium sized with a pretty, compact campus.
The Net Price calculators may not be entirely accurate for my family, because my parents both own a small business and have a rental property. I think the absolute most they could contribute is 60k, and they would only do so if it was an elite university. (honestly, highly doubt they’d want to contribute more than 30-40k for most unis).
Yes, I took the February ACT. I scored worse on it than I had on all my practices. I know I can definitely do better. My math dropped 3 points and my science dropped 2. It was actually a 33/36 but it was still considered 98th percentile. My preACT was a 34/35. My unweighted GPA is likely around a 98 now with a definite upward trend. Unweighted GPA for junior year is looking to be slightly over a 99.
Do you have any ideas on how I can convince my parents that loans aren’t a good thing? They’re insistent that loans are extremely easy to pay back (even loans of 200k!).