Hello everyone. I’m new to this site, however I have been lurking for a while, and finally decided to bite the bullet and make an account. I hope I include all the information relevant to helping find some schools for my daughter. She’s my first, so this an entirely new process for my husband and I. She has been researching some schools on her own as well, so hopefully with her list and any suggestions that you folks come up with, we’ll be able to find some schools that would be a good fit for her.
DD is a junior at a large, public HS in Illinois. It’s not top-notch, but it’s not bad either, and a couple kids each year get into Northwestern, UChicago, and a good size of kids go to UIUC every year. As far as her involvement goes, she has worked part-time at a retail store for a about a year, has volunteered at our local hospital since she was a freshman in HS, and had volunteered at our local historical museum since she was 12. She was on the girls varsity soccer team her freshman and sophomore year, and has every intention of continuing soccer for her remaining two years of HS. At school she is a member of Student Council (has been since she was a freshman) and is also a member of Science Club, again, this is her third year within the club, and this year she was elected vice-president.
She took the ACT this September and received a 32. She will be retaking it at the end of the year. Unweighted GPA is a 3.86, she is in the top 10% of her class though I cannot remember her exact rank. Most AP Classes at her school aren’t available until Junior/Senior, so the only ones she was able to take so far are APUSH, which she received a 5 on, and AP Human Geography, which she received a 4 on. This year she is taking AP English Language, AP Biology, AP Calc BC, and AP Psychology. Next year she plans on taking AP Chemistry, AP Physics, AP Stats, AP English Literature, and AP European History. She is currently in her fourth year of German, which she will continue into senior year. It’s a heavy courseload, but DD excels at math and science and has a real love for history.
Though she does have a certain love for history, DD’s real passion is medicine and has always wanted to become a pediatric surgeon, and her desire to follow this path has only strengthened as she begins her college search. Obviously it’s a very hard path and it could change as she begins her studies, but for now, this is what she is set on, though she realizes that she is not hard and fast dedicated to this.
At my request she will be touring one large school, one medium school, and one small school, though I think she would really prefer a small, LAC type environment, or a more medium-sized school. She doesn’t want a heavy Greek presence and she really enjoys having close relationships with her teachers, and while I know this can be fostered at any school, smaller class sizes are preferable. She adores snow so a four seasons state is probably one of the only absolute requirements, besides having a strong science department that will give her a good pre-med track. She would prefer the Midwest, but this is not a necessity for her as she will have a car, so parking for freshman is a necessity. She is close to her younger siblings and would like to visit them, but she is very willing to look at schools outside of our region. She wants a campus feel and a “close” campus community, so urban probably wouldn’t be the best fit.
We are comfortable with $46k. DD is aware of this number. She is also aware that she can look at schools outside of that number, but that if she decided to attend, funds will be taken from elsewhere, such as money we have set aside for things like study abroad, grad school, etc. She really likes the idea of study abroad (so also a school with a good study abroad program?) so I doubt that she herself will be looking at schools much outside of this number, so preferably in this range.
I did use the Supermatch function and got a preliminary list of schools, but just wanted to see if there were any I am missing or anything else that you would recommend for her based on your knowledge and that would fit for a pre-med kid with a love for history.
I know this is long, but I greatly appreciate any advice you can provide!