Help narrowing down college list?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hi everybody! I am a senior in HS and I live in Washington. For about 2 years, I've been looking at colleges and everything that pertains to the subject. My main criteria were: the area it was in (Mostly Urban/Suburban), the majors it offered, what I could do for fun, and its rankings on various lists. I need it down to 10 schools please. :) </p>

<p>For interested majors: a good pre-med program(#1, yes i know its not a "major" per se.), Neurobiology/Neuroscience, Business (#2), Global/International Health (#3), International Relations (#4).</p>

<p>Schools at the moment:
Definite (ones that I like the most and definitely applying to):
University of Washington- Seattle
University of California- Los Angeles
Pomona College</p>

<p>In the air (where I need help to narrow down):
Harvey Mudd College
Boston University
Johns Hopkins University
University of Pennsylvania
Stanford University
Georgetown University
University of Southern California
Washington University- St. Louis
University of Chicago
Northwestern University?
Cornell University</p>

<p>Feel free to add colleges if you feel like they match my criteria. :)</p>

2

<p>What are your stats?</p>

3

<p>3.9 unweighted. 1800 SAT’s in June, retaking October.</p>

4

<p>Rigor of courseload relative to your school (most demanding, very demanding, demanding)?</p>

<p>Financial situation? How much can your family afford to spend per year? Will you qualify for need based FA?</p>

<p>Why is UCLA a definite, are you really willing to pay that much for a UC?</p>

5

<p>OP, I don’t want to be pessimistic, but your “in the air” list is unrealistic. Unless your SAT score changes dramatically (which almost never happens), you need to make a new list. </p>

<p>Have you taken many advanced (AP/IB) classes?</p>

6

<p>What is your class rank or percentile? </p>

<p>All of those schools (except for BU to an extent) are unrealistic unless you improve your SAT by about 200 points, at least.</p>

7

<p>An 1800 is not getting you in any of those schools except BU and UW.</p>

8

<p>Yes…an 1800 is not competitive for many of your schools. Your list is not realistic at all for your stats. Stanford? JHU? UPenn? G’town? WashU? UChi? NU? </p>

<p>you need to look at the middle quartile SATs at the schools that you’re interested in. If you’re not well in the middle quartiles, then your chances are very slim. the bottom/near bottom quartile is for athlete admits and other very hooked admits. </p>

<p>What is your budget? the amount that your family will PAY will largely determine where you should apply. </p>

<p>Unless your parents will pay for all costs, many/most OOS publics won’t work because either you won’t get the aid or you won’t get the merit money.</p>

9

<p>Mom2collegekids is right…your list is really unrealistic.</p>

<p>While your grades are excellent, your scores don’t correlate at all. (and what is your class rank? Even if not assigned, most adcoms know the schools in their regions well and will have a fairly good idea of where you fall in comparison to your peers).</p>

<p>You may be considered an academic star at your high school, but that’s still like being a big fish in a very small pond. The schools on your list are each going to have droves of applicants with grades as good as yours --or better–and much, much higher scores.</p>

<p>Definitely keep some of your reach schools on your list, but please do yourself a favor and find some more realistic schools for you to apply to. Does your high school have Naviance? That would be a good place for you to start.</p>

10

<p>

TopAsianNerd, you’ve listed the schools that very top students might be considering. Unfortunately, you’re not at that level. I think you might want to apply to one or two absolute favorites, just because it’s fun. But, it’s also fun to get an acceptance too. There are plenty of those out there, and some real gems, but you’ll need to rethink your list. Consider schools like Franklin & Marshall for instance. Their science program is terrific and you might even get some merit aid.</p>

11

<p>^^^ Franklin & Marshall does NOT offer merit aid. They quit a couple of years back.</p>

12

<p>Not clear from above what criteria is used to choose the college. Different people are choosing based on their personal criteria and it is very different from person to person. Asking others may results in going to place that will be complete mismatch to personality and wide range of interests. I am sure that most UG college can provide sufficient background and allow to complete Med. School requirements. Make sure to choose the one that fits you personally.</p>

13

<p>The ONLY college that you even have a shot at is Boston University, and that is only if you are full pay. The others are not worth the app fee without much, much higher test scores.</p>

14

<p>The bottom line is that app process is time consuming and costly. Many people have to limit their apps to - say - less than 10 - because they don’t have the time or money to apply to more. The essays, getting the teacher recs, sending scores, getting transcripts sent, all take a lot of time. Each school’s app can take many hours (sometimes days), especially if there are essay rewrites to do.</p>

<p>Therefore, it’s not a good idea to include so many schools where you won’t have a chance. With an 1800 SAT, it’s not likely that you’d get a 2200+ to be truly competitive at a number of your schools.</p>

<p>As Limabeans wrote, it’s ok to pick a couple of top favs “just to see”, but most of your schools need to be reasonable…meaning they need to be “matches” and “financial safeties”. Unless your parents will pay $55k+ for any school, be sure to include a couple of financial safeties. these are schools that you know FOR SURE that you have all costs covered.</p>