Okay this is gonna be really long but I really need help with this. I’m stressing out and want some advice. Thank you to all that reply!
I’m currently a student in a relatively large high school in Oregon (1,500 students) and I would say I am in the top 5% of my class. I need some help figuring out what I should do for college. I got a 1440 on the new SAT my first and only try and am taking it in June, shooting for a 1550. I have a 3.97 GPA (1 B in Freshman Year) and went through the Honors program offered. I’ve taken AP Literature, AP US History, and AP Biology. I will be taking CN Chemistry and AP Calculus next year. Along with this, I have taken Spanish for 3 years and will take it my Senior year as well. I don’t do too much outside of school, I am in Key Club (a volunteering club) and National Honors Society and plan to graduate with a special diploma seal that requires a GPA higher than 3.5 and 120 community service hours. I also plan to volunteer year round and expect around 150 hours by the time I graduate.
With that said, what colleges would be reasonable for me to reach for? I plan to become a pediatrician and definitely need as much financial aid as possible. I’ve been thinking of going to an undergrad out of Oregon then coming back to Oregon for med school at OHSU but I’m not set on that decision. I’ve been liking Duke as a top target as well, what would my chances be in getting in Duke undergrad and med? I prefer a college of 5,000-20,000 in a safe, mild city that isn’t too crowded.
Any other suggestions/tips would be greatly appreciated as well. Thank you so much!
Are your parents willing to pay for an OOS public?
What is your intended major?
Are you open to a STEM only school?
How important are the preferences you noted?
Would you want the most prestigious colleges possible or ones where you can get merit aid?
I plan to major in biology, and I will most likely get a loan to pay for college. I’m sure they’ll help but we’re not at a financial standpoint to pay that much money, which is why I’m looking for as much financial aid as possible. I wouldn’t mind a STEM only school if its better or cheaper. I don’t really want the MOST prestigious colleges, colleges like Duke are my target schools while colleges with about 30% acceptance rate could be more reasonable. I wouldn’t really want to go to a school in a city that’s more populated than 400,000. And I guess I wouldn’t be that opposed to a large college, just would prefer a medium sized one.
Duke University
You already mentioned this school but I agree it would be a great fit.
Emory University
In the suburbs of Atlanta (450k pop but in the quiet suburbs), has a great record of med school acceptances, 24% acceptance rate, Emory university hospital is huge and one of the biggest in the city, offers full tuition scholarships, 14k students (7k undergrads).
-UNC Chapel Hill
City with a pop of 60k, great record of med school admission (some sources say 90% of students get in), great pre-med track programme, 30% acceptance rate, offers full tuition scholarships, 29k students (18k undergrads)
Stanford University
City with a 70k pop, great pre-med advising, 5% acceptance rate, 17k students (7k undergrads)
Brown University
City with a pop of 200k, 9% acceptance rate, known for undergrad focus, 9k students (7k undergrads)
Carnegie Mellon University
City with a population of 300k, 24% acceptance rate, famous for it’s STEM programmes, 13k students (6k undergrads)
-Wake Forest University
City with a pop of 250k, 29% acceptance rate, offers full tuition scholarships, 8k students (5k undergrads)
University of Rochester
City with a pop of 200k, 34% acceptance rate, offers full tuition scholarships, 11k students (6k undergrads)
Thank you so much Gr8Gatsby that list is SUPER helpful and I’ll consider all your suggestions heavily. Your a beast
And I didn’t know Biology majors had a low percentage of acceptance, what would you suggest I major in? I hadn’t really though much of what I want to major in, I just thought physicians would major in chemistry or biology and I don’t really enjoy chemistry so…
What do you guys think my chances of getting into a medical school would be if I went to the University of Oregon or Oregon State University and got a 4.0 GPA or something near it with an above average MCAT score? I’m just curious
Just to be clear: Biology is still the most popular pre-medical preparation, but the acceptance rate is lower than for other majors. There are lots of bio majors applying to medical school. Check out all the AAMC pages. They list acceptance rates by all kinds of variables. If you are only in high school now, just relax. Go to a school that feels right to you and is affordable. Math majors have very high acceptance rates to medical schools, but don’t choose a major just because it has a high acceptance rate. What do you enjoy doing? What are your passions? Why medicine? There are lots of science fields out there – neuroscience, biophysics, microbiology – beyond basic biology. What interests you? And aiming for OHSU at this point? Why? There are lots of great medical schools out there. Some offer amazing opportunities, like internships abroad or research lab experience or special preparation for practicing family medicine in rural areas. It’s fine to be goal-oriented, but let yourself have some fun and explore the world, too.
Yeah, you’re probably right. I’ve just been getting into looking into my future recently and have been stressing a lot. I don’t have an older sibling so I am kind of running into this with a smaller amount of advice/knowledge than I would like. And I want to go to OHSU because I have two younger siblings that will have graduated and one that would be graduating the year that I will graduate undergrad. So I want to be close to home and take care of my mother who means the world to me(my dad lives overseas). Also, I’ve heard OHSU is a pretty good medical school so considering that and family, I thought it would be nice to go to undergrad elsewhere and explore then come back to Oregon and spend time with my mom. Thanks for the advice, this is really helpful for me.
You probably don’t want to fund undergrad with loans if you are going on to medical school. You will definitely have loans for med school. No sense piling undergrad loans on top of that if you can avoid it.
Please run net price calculators with your mom and maybe only consider out of state schools where you will qualify for large amounts of aid.
Are both your parents funding your college education or just your mom? If it’s just your mom, you may need to cross off schools that ask for your dad’s financial information on the noncustodial CSS/Profile form. (That would be mostly elite/reach schools.)
High school students with high stats tend to think all of them should be shooting for the very best college they can possibly get into. But there are several different paradigms, depending on their intended careers.
For those intending to go into careers like investment banking, business consulting, State Department, CIA, International business, etc. going to an elite college for undergrad might indeed pay off.
But for students who intend to be accountants, engineers, school teachers, or doctors, it’s important that they go to a solid and competent college, but there doesn’t seem to be a SIGNIFICANT difference between going to a good public school like San Jose State, Oklahoma State, Alabama, or U of Maine, and a flashier school like NYU, Rice, Duke, or Cornell. For those intending to be medical doctors, the price of undergrad is also especially important due to the high cost of medical school.
It’s hard to resist the allure of prestigious colleges, especially when the other students you know seem to be obsessed with going to the very best school they can get into. But the reality is that you’d probably be better off going to Alabama or Nebraska for a total price less than about $16,000 per year, kicking butt academically, being one of the best students, getting great recommendations, & getting involved in some research, than you would being just another excellent student paying $70,000 per year at Cornell.
“I plan to become a pediatrician and definitely need as much financial aid as possible.”
Medical school is very expensive. You will end up with a lot of debt and need to keep this as low as possible. As such, you need to take the cost of your undergraduate education very seriously. Also, you need a high GPA in undergrad to get in to medical school. Some of the highest ranked universities are also very academically demanding (making it correspondingly difficult to get straight A’s).
Given that you are from Oregon, I think that you should take the University of Oregon very seriously for undergrad. If possible you should plan on graduating undergrad with a Bachelor’s degree, high GPA, and no debt.
If you plan to go public for either your BS or MD then I definitely suggest you go to your state flagship for undergrad, get the highest GPA you can and then go to a flashier med school. Maybe Stanford if you don’t want to be too far from home?
@XAJL123 no one else has mentioned this yet, so I will - you said that you plan to take a loan to pay for undergrad. You may not be aware that freshman can only take 5500 in loans for freshman year (a little more in subsequent years, but not much). Anything more than the federal loans requires your parents to take out a parental loan or to co-sign the loan. If your parents aren’t in a position to help much with college costs they most likely will not be willing or able to take out loans on your behalf and most people here would discourage them from doing so, especially since you have younger siblings. And as others have mentioned, med school will require huge loans, too.
It sounds like cost is going to be your biggest limiting factor. Fortunately your stats are great, that is WONDERFUL, so you will have options. Some of those generous schools that meet need may be a possibility, and depending on your situation they may even end up being more affordable than your in state options since many public universities don’t have a lot of need based or merit based aid to give, and many of the best merit awards are highly competitive. Hopefully your in state schools have good merit awards that you will qualify for, I know nothing about Oregon schools and merit. Out of state schools where you will qualify for automatic full tuition merit scholarships also may be good possibilities if your parents are able to pay room and board costs.
At this stage it would be very useful for you and/or your parents to run both the FAFSA4caster (to see what federal aid you may qualify for as well as to learn your approximate FAFSA EFC) plus a few net price calculators at some of the schools mentioned (Duke, etc) as well as your in state schools with your parents’ income numbers to find out the range of what your family is likely to be expected to pay. Note that if you have a non custodial parent (sounds like you do) or if your family owns a business they will be less accurate. See if those numbers are affordable to your family - many families find those numbers to be wildly unrealistic.
If you are not finding affordable options, come back and report what the colleges expect your family’s contribution to be, as well as how much you can REALLY afford per year (including the 5500 loans and any Pell grant money you may qualify for based on the FAFSA4caster). There are posters here who are GREAT at finding options for high stat students who need big merit awards.
I mean I was kind of hoping that I could apply to as many scholarships as possible and cut the cost of college down to a much lower price. Are scholarships harder to get than I think they are? I was looking at some guaranteed scholarships and some were tens of thousands of dollars just for a 3.9 GPA and a score of like 1300+. I thought my GPA score and hopefully 1500+ score (I’m taking the SAT this Saturday again) would be enough to get close to a full ride through a numerous amount of medium-sized scholarships. Since full ride scholarships I expect would be out of my league.
You have nice stats, but from what I hear, you need to have some in demand talents or interesting ECs in order to get into tippy top schools like Duke. Is there anything you can think of to engage in? It doesn’t have to be through your school. Not only can this help for the top schools, but ECs can bring joy to your life if you do things that are fun for you.
To answer your question above: you can go to U of Oregon and get into a medical school if you work hard and do well. You also can major in anything your heart desires as long as you take the prequisites that med schools require. You will have an advisor who will let you know what those classes are.
