Female student, 2220 SAT, 3.85/4.45 GPA SAT II: Math II 800, US History 650 (3 APs this year, but I don’t have scores yet)
Strong ECs in Math (several team awards at the national and Intl level, but not things like USAMO/IMO), likely NMSF (right on the California cutoff cusp), Yale Book Award and a few other good ECs; excellent LORs
Possible majors of interest: Math, Biology, Bio-Engineering, BS/MD programs
Areas of possible future interst: Psychiatry, mental health and medicine, and research
Which schools should be eliminated? We’d like to get the list down to 10-12 schools.
UC Berkeley
UCLA
Stanford (REA only)
Wheaton
UCSD
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UT Dallas (NM)
UT Arlington (NM)
USC (Not sure it's right fit)
University of Illinois Champaign
12, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
The following are some combined BS/MD programs:
University of Missouri (6 Year BS/MD program)
Brown University PLME (8 year program)
Howard University (6 year)
Boston University (7 year)
Finances are uncertain, but likely family will qualify for a decent amount of need-based, but not a huge amount.
I don’t know anything about BS/MD programs, so can’t really advise on this other than to know that these are very competitive, correct?
LOL! Of course. I work with very few students–only by personal referral and only a couple a year. I did find this about BS/MD programs, which is what I figured.
You mention the family qualifying for a good amount of need based aid? But the only three schools on this list that guarantee to meet full need are Stanford, USC, and Brown. None of the others do.
Has the family run net price calculators for this list of schools to get an estimate of affordability?
BS/MD programs are highly competitive.
With the major possibilities you listed, why not include Santa Clara? No guarantee of sufficient aid there either…but certainly no less likely than the other non-CA publics on her list.
Santa Clara–excellent idea. I think they have some good scholarships.
No, I would not think they would qualify for Cal Grant, but I will ask. The student is on a 4 year full scholarship to a private Christian school, so they have been able to save because of that, I presume. I would guess they are comfortably middle class, but would still get need based aid at those schools mentioned. I asked them to run NPCs after our first meeting, but I don’t know if they have. I will ask that again.
I was also just thinking of trying to get the app process more streamlined–meaning, right now, there are apps going to too many different places: Common App, UC, Cal State, Texas, Illinois, private (Wheaton).
Wondering about eliminating SLO…or is it a good fit for what she wants? Also maybe eliminating Illinois. I think Wheaton will stay on.
All BA/MD programs are Ivy-level competitive admissions since the number admitted to any given program is very small. If your student advances to the interview stage, she will be expected to interview in person to qualify for admission. (So she needs to budget $$ for plane fare. BA/MD programs typically do not pay travel expenses for interviewees.)
For all BA/MD programs, financial aid is only for the undergrad portion of the program. Once the student begins the professional portion, the type of aid available will change substantially to mostly, if not exclusively, loans. (Med schools rarely offer merit and what merit that is offered is usually not directed toward its BA/MD students since those students have already committed to the school.) This is something the student should keep in mind since private and OOS public med schools are very expensive.
She also needs to check specific requirements for programs. Some require the MCAT to advance to the profession portion of the program; others do not. Some allow the student to apply to other programs without losing their guaranteed spot in med school; most do not.
Applicants to BA/MD programs need to have medically related ECs (principally clinical volunteering and physician shadowing, although some programs seem to also expect lab research), plus AP/IB courses in sciences. Some programs specifically require a LOR from a physician whom the student has worked with/shadowed. Again, check each program’s unique requirements.
Howard U is a mission-driven school and applicants are expect to have demonstrated involvement with medically underserved populations, particularly within the black community.
I'd take Illinois off the list. UIUC is expensive for a state U and offers very little in the way of merit aid or need based aid for OOS students.
I don’t think Illinois will be affordable. They don’t meet full need. Their merit awards are slim. Their cost for OOS is high.
I’m not sure why you think they will receive enough aid to attend schools like BU, or the OOS publics.
I know it’s hard, but they need to see the costs of these schools, and they need to run the NPCs. You need to remind them that an acceptance to an unaffordable school is like a rejection.
Also, if they won’t qualify for the Calgrant, what need based aid would they get from the CA publics beside Direct Loans?
I would drop SLO since the applicant looks very competitive for UCI/UCSD/UCD and where they will probably receive better FA than SLO. SLO also happens to be the most expensive Cal state and only about a $5k/year difference in COA from the UC’s. Although SLO is a very good school, I believe the UC’s are a better choice for the applicants intended major other than BME (has the a below 10% acceptance rate at SLO).
Is the search national? If so, some LACs may meet aid better than a lot of the larger state U’s she is looking at. Also, while the BS/MD programs are highly competitive and may be “reachy” for her, she also really needs to decide if she’s locked in on getting an MD. If not, those programs are not for her.
I should back up and say I don’t know if they’d qualify for Cal Grant. Sorry–in my mind I was thinking about the Blue Gold program. In actuality, they might indeed qualify for some Cal Grant. Someone I know with an income of around 110k qualified, so this family might, as well.
I will press further to find out how serious the student is about getting an MD. Student was much more heavily involved in math and math competition stuff in the earlier years of high school, but more recently, has come to love biology, particularly with said interst in mental health. I sense a bit of a disagreement between parents and child (parents would prefer to see student go towards math/engineering).
Which LACs might you suggest, @Cameron121? Are there good research opportunities at LACs?
Ok, so Howard would not be the right fit. Student has been very active in working with poor communities in India, and founded a non-profit last year to focus on this issue. She has not worked in black communities.
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All BA/MD programs are Ivy-level competitive admissions since the number admitted to any given program is very small.
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I agree. Admissions are just crazy difficult.
If she’s a Calif resident and will consider going OOS, then she should choose a state where the public med schools will give a preference to OOS students who have a “tie” to the state (such as having gone to undergrad there).
How does one find that information, @mom2collegekids? As of now, she just has two OOS state schools (presuming she drops UIUC)–the two UT schools on the list because of the possibility of NM scholarship and neither has a med school.
And yeah, I did see admit rates are between 1-8% for BA/MD BS/MD programs. Ouch.
There’s no point in going OOS to a state that won’t provide more med schools to apply to. A calif resident needs all the help he/she can get to add more schools to the med school app list.
Hm, the other family had 4 in the family and qualified for the Cal Grant, but they own a business, so though the income was 110K, there may be other circumstances. I actually have forgotten how many are in the family-at least 4, but maybe one more?
I work with very few students–only by personal referral and only a couple a year. I did find this about BS/MD programs, which is what I figured.