Help! Where should I apply?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Im a rising senior and I'm having major issues with choosing colleges to apply to.. It seems like all of them are reaches! Right now I definitely want to apply to MIT, Princeton, Duke, Johns Hopkins, and U Chicago for Pre-Med or Biological engineering</p>

<p>ACT:
1st - 34 (35 Eng, 33 Math, 33 Read, 36 Sci)
2nd - 33 (36 Eng, 32 Math, 31 Read, 32 Sci) - that was a bad day for me</p>

<p>SAT:
Took it June 2nd (predicted [practice tests]: Math 780-800, 640-660 Reading, 680-700 Writing) - don't know if I'm going to report SAT</p>

<p>PSAT:
80 math, 62 Reading, 62 Writing</p>

<p>APs: Last year: Bio (5)
This year: Literature (4-5), US history (3-4), Psychology (5, definitely), physics b (3-4, hopefully) - self studied physics and psych</p>

<p>GPA: 99.1, school doesn't weight</p>

<p>Rank: 1/64, tiny public school in rural western NY</p>

<p>Main ECs:
Choir (President), Band (Public Relations), National Honor Society, Tri-M Music Honor Society, FIRST FRC robotics team 3951 (helped form the team, won regionals our first year), piano lessons (recently got a 99 at state adjudications playing the highest level of music), Jazz Band, Drama Club (lead in lots of musicals and plays), accompanist at church</p>

<p>Lots of music and drama stuff- my school doesn't have very many clubs or anything</p>

<p>Last summer: medical sciences program at RIT</p>

<p>This summer: Bio research program at UC Davis (young scholars program)</p>

2

<p>Add Case Western, U of Rochester, and Pitt and you’d be fine waiting for your reaches. Pitt is a rolling admissions school, so you’d have your “safety” in the bag early.</p>

<p>NOTE: Pitt is only a safety for admissions (though I fully expect you’d be in at all three above). Can you afford it or are you looking for merit/need based aid? With your ACT, you’re a likely to get merit aid at Pitt, but not necessarily the full amount. Ditto that for Case and U of R. U of R is a needs met school, so if your folks can meet their EFC, that could end up being a financial safety (more or less safety since their admit rate is 34% this year - usually 38% - I think you’d get in.) U of R would have plenty of musical opportunities too.</p>

3

<p>If your SATs play out as predicted then I would only report your ACTs. That said, even with your high GPA and strong ACTs, MIT, Princeton and Duke are going to be big reaches (primarily for their abysmally low admissions rates). Hopkins and Chicago will only be marginally “easier”.</p>

<p>Other schools to consider:</p>

<p>Michigan (Engineering) (match to low reach. Note: unlikely to get any merit aid)
Carnegie-Mellon (match to reach but a too often overlooked school)
Case-Western (safety in my opinion)
Northwestern (match to low reach)
Northeastern (Boston) - probably safety to match for engineering
Univ of Southern California (match and possibly some merit aid)
Univ of Iowa (safety)
Iowa Sate (safety)
Univ of Minnesota (safety)
Purdue (safety to low match)</p>

<p>The state schools are unlikely to provide big aid unless you’re at the very top of their admitted range. Some hints will help with suggestions - location, size etc.</p>

4

<p>Okay thanks… Looks like I have no chance at any of the schools on my list! I like U of R a lot right now because I’ve won ~$35k/year from them in scholarships. I like Northwestern too… Time to start visiting!</p>

5

<p>Wisconsin - Safety
Minnesota - Safety
RIT - Safety</p>

6

<p>Might look at Holy Cross and Tufts. Holy Cross has great pre-med program and the schools has good financial aid.</p>

7

<p>you could add uab (birmingham) for a safety…with your stats you will get blazer elite merit of 15K per year against total cost of attendance of 20-25K. Only accredited BME program in alabama. urban campus 11K undergrads</p>

<p>you would be an excellent candidate for sci/tech honors…research honors program</p>

<p>UAB is the home of a top ranked medical school.</p>

<p>very strong for sciences. tier one research university. avg class size is 31, diverse campus, taught by professors not TA’s.</p>

8

<p>How big a concern is cost? Your ACT of 34 looks like it may give some full rides and near full rides just by stats (assuming GPA of 99.1 is near 4.0 by the usual scale), as well as make you competitive for some non-guaranteed large merit scholarships.</p>

<p>Pre-med is not by itself a major.</p>

9

<p>Cost is kind of a concern right now- and it will definitely be a concern when both my siblings are in college (my sister’s entering this year and my brother will be in two years)</p>

10

<p>Some of the more obvious guaranteed full or near-full rides with ACT of 34 (UA Huntsville, Howard) do not have biomedical engineering.</p>

<p>However, you may also want to try for competitive full rides like Georgia Tech President’s, NCSU Park, and Duke Robertson.</p>

<p>Texas A&M may also be of interest, because many of the scholarships come with waivers of the additional non-resident tuition.</p>

<p>You may also want to check your in-state public universities to see if they can be low cost safeties. Stony Brook and Binghamton have biomedical engineering.</p>

11

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<p>Mind if I ask how this has happened if you haven’t applied yet? I do know they have scholarships including some (very competitive) up to the full amount, but if you haven’t applied… ???</p>

<p>And yes, do some visits if you can.</p>

12

<p>My school gives out lots of awards with scholarships to U of R and I won three of them-</p>

13

<p>^^^ Ok, that makes sense. ;)</p>

14

<p>I don’t think you should do pre-med at MIT loool. Change that to like rice, harvard, Stanford, or Yale. You won’t have a great gpa in MIT. GPA is a huge factor in med school acceptance.</p>

15

<p>^^ everyone says that about MIT… I’m definitely keeping that in mind.</p>