This is my first post on CC. I am not sure this is the right place for my question, but feel free to move it as you see fit. I’d like to get some general ideas and do some research just to help my junior relieve some anxieties on college applications We prefer a school where she can explore her interests and decide her future path, and hopefully prepare her well for a living after graduation. Here is some basic background info -
GPA 4.6 after 1st semester of junior year in a competitive school
SAT 1550+
EC - Literature and Art national medals, selective summer writing programs, internationally ranked in a hobby
Leadership - captain of a varsity sport team (but not looking getting recruited), president of a school club
Career interest - biotechnology, neurology, researcher, writer, artist, no interest in CS/business/law/politics/practicing medicine
Personalities - outspoken, nerdy, optimistic, self-driven, independent thinker, VERY creative
Preferred location - suburbs, city
Other - public high school, Asian, no hooks
What kind of schools would be a good fit for her? LAC? State universities? Ivies?
If she is the type go go out and find opportunities, I like the big research universities that have a med school. I think they have greater potential for someone that wants to have a research career. But that does require the self motivated person. These opportunities are not likely with someone that you had as a professor in a class. That is more likely at a LAC.
It sounds like grad school is highly likely. The good news is that should be fully funded. I still would try to avoid debt. Between grad school and post doc’s, she may have a long period of low income.
For a major, I wouldn’t get too specific. Save that for grad school after she has been exposed to more areas.
A subset of Ivies are a good fit for the interests…probably want to include the urban ones as reach schools (particularly Yale and Brown I’d think, with those interests). Macalester is an urban LAC and would be a match in my opinion (some would say it might be a “reach for all” but in unrestricted early action I’d call it a match (given that a result would be available in December). McGill would look favorably at those stats and is in the best city on this continent in many people’s opinions. I’d call it a match for you. Finally, quirky/intense folks like Reed, which is not in the middle of Portland but has close access to it (another great city). Probably a reach?
Safety-wise…lots of options. I bet the thread will start to head in that direction so I’ll stop here.
Thanks for your input. That’s what I am afraid of, having a low-paying job with a huge debt. I’ll definitely keep it in mind. We’ll check out some research universities with a med school.
Get the Fiske Guide to colleges or the Princeton review book to start reading about different schools. Being in Virginia, you have a great variety of schools and would be of value to visit and see if she likes big, small etc. It will help define her likes/dislikes even if she doesn’t want Virginia.
No one here as mentioned the women’s colleges - don’t overlook them and all have different vibes - from wellesley in its own little bubble, but allowing classes at MIT and so close to
Boston, Smith in an amazing college town with a creative student body , Barnard linked tightly with Columbia allowing for a liberal
arts experience and access to a research university, Scripts part of the 5cs etc.
Midwest has lovely schools that seem to fit her interests and varying selectivity - Carleton, Grinnell, Kenyon, Mac, Oberlin etc.
The most important thing for you as a parent to do is figure out the finances. You need to know how much you can comfortably afford from savings and current income. Then you need to do a few Net Price Calculators. Even if she never applies to that school, it will give you an idea if they are affordable or not. If you do a NPC at one of the more generous schools (e.g. Yale) and the result comes back unaffordable, that drastically changes your search. I would also do this at UVA (your flagship).
Unweighted GPA with a description of courses taken in each core high school subject would be more useful, since weighting methods vary all over the place.
I hope she has frugal personal financial habits. Biology-related, English-related, and arts majors are commonly among the lowest paid college graduates on average.
As the parent, be sure to do the financial planning to know how much you can contribute to her college costs, and inform her before she makes the application list. Given her generally low paid career interests, it would be inadvisable to go into debt to go to college.
As noted above, determine your budget first. Run the NPC for schools. Most top schools offer no merit, just financial aid.
We pulled the parent card and made our sons apply to at least one state flagship. Safety, affordable and an early acceptance to get the ball rolling. UVA, VT and W&M…doesn’t get much better than that.
Emory and UNC are reaches but sounds like a possibility. Maybe Pitt or Case for neuroscience. Personally I think Boston might be the best College town. BU or Northeastern.
I’d suggest going to look at a few different types of schools and see if you can help her come up with an idea of what she wants and doesn’t want out of a college. How close to home does she want to be? Does she love snow or hate the cold? Would she like a large research university or prefer a small campus community?..
Being in Virginia you have some great and very different in state options and fairly local options that may give you a better feel for what she wants and doesn’t want. As Juniors they don’t know much outside of the bits of information they get from their friends. Here’s a suggested quick hit list to get you started.
UVA (Public Flagship)
William and Mary (Public - LAC Nerdy vibe)
Washington and Lee (LAC)
JHU (Research focused)
Georgetown (Jesuit)
Hopefully after that you’ll be able to come up with some further criteria to help define your list
You read my mind. I see great potentials in her as an excellent doctor (high intelligence, perseverance), and a successful lawyer (logical thinking, reading and writing, natural public speaker), but she wants to do something creative! I hope her future peers in college will influence her to be more practical.
So most large state schools you can go in undecided and many LACs - and even mid size.
It may be hard to jump into engineering or business and even some limited impact majors like a poli sci at UMD from outside - but I would be less concerned with major now and more concerned with fit.
Fit starts with finances - so you are lucky to have the uber large Va Tech (one of the higest rated for dining, btw), mid/large UVA, mid size W&M and then other fine schools like urban VCU and one of the highest rated for dorms - CNU.
You have to figure out things like urban/suburban/rural, weather, sports/greek, etc. and all those things.
You have to figure out finances - are you full pay or will you qualify for need. If you’re full pay, do you want to be? If you can go to a large state school but join the Honors College for a better experience, and pay $20-40K a year, is that preferable vs. a full-pay LAC at $80K+ - especially when grad school comes after…so budget is first and foremost.
Most college kids change majors, most pre-med never sniff med school and most colleges will provide access to change majors - especially within the arts and sciences.
So fill in some gaps that way - budget or desired budget and other desired traits - and we can help from there.
I also just want to say that as I was reading your initial post, William & Mary kept going through my head. When you said that you live in Virginia I was like, “Bingo!” You are so very luck to have such great in-state publics!
There has been a general consensus for a while that a biology degree is not very employable if you do not get into medical school. One daughter has recently done her best to contradict this idea. Apparently biotech is booming right now, at least in the Northeast (up near Boston).
However, biotech and neuroscience and generally research oriented degrees often are better with some form of graduate school. While a PhD is typically funded, a master’s degree is often not, and an MD is also not typically funded (and can be very expensive). It is possible to do research and not treat patients after getting an MD.
Not having any debt when you get your bachelor’s degree can open up multiple options that the student might not have had if they did graduate with debt. I agree with other comments that you should figure out what your budget is without any debt and without severely straining the family finances. You should also run the NPC and see what various private and out of state schools are likely to cost you.
Also, you have the good fortune of living in a state with at least one and probably two (or more?) great public universities.
At least in our experience there appear to be plenty of opportunities to participate in research at a wide range of universities.
The one thing we did with D20 was visit colleges that were close to home, a big state school and a LAC. The info session at the LAC had her lit up like the sun! She said it was the first time anyone talked to her about college that felt like they were addressing what she is looking for. If you have some options locally, check them out. They don’t have to stay on the list but sometimes it helps figure out what you are looking for.
Probably in part because many pre-meds default to majoring in biology because it conveniently covers most of the pre-med courses, but most of them do not get into any medical school, so they add to the supply of biology graduates each year seeking biology-related jobs.