Rising senior in need of more suitable schools to apply.Asian Female at a super competitive High school.Will have taken 17
AP’s by end of senior year.
Stats:
ACT : 35 C
GPA (weighted): 4.6
GPA unweighted:4.0
Extra curricular:
Student Body VP- raised through student council over $485,000 for local charity.
Science Olympiad: State and Regional medalist
VP Key Club
GS gold award
VP Women in Science
Piano
NC Governors School-science
Summer Ventures program
Marshal
NM semifinalist most likely.
Colleges planning to apply to:
UNC Chapel Hill (in state)
Duke
Wake forest
Princeton
Vanderbilt
USC
Johns Hopkins
WashU
NC State
Boston University
Dartmouth
Interested in Neuroscience and global public health pre med track. Please suggest other schools that give good merit aid.
Pitt and also LACs would offer a good chance for merit. Boston University also has partial merit scholarships that you would be competitive for. As a National Merit Semifinalist you would also be eligible for some automatic scholarships.
If you are in need of merit aid (not financial aid), I would suggest redoing your list. Many of the schools give no merit or it is really competitive. I would start your merit list with CWRU.
Have you used the NPCs to see if you qualify for FA? Merit aid will be hard to get at most of the schools on your list, either because merit is very competitive or it is non-existent. What can your parents pay?
I would add Pittsburgh, Case Western, U of Miami (Fla), U of South Carolina
Many of the women’s colleges give lots of merit aid. Also check out the colleges that change lives list (just google and you will find it) Most of those give good merit as well.
You have a shot to get into any of those colleges – congrats on your hard work!
UNC has top 1 or 2 global health graduate school in the country, which you probably know. While you can’t major in global health per se as an undergrad (I think they have an undergrad health administration degree in the school but that’s not your interest), you can certainly access faculty to be part of research and take some glasses. You will get in there, probably with some sort of Carolina Honors program like the Chancellor’s Science Scholars (comes with merit $$) or Research Scholar. As in state it’s very affordable at $23k. Be sure to apply early action to be considered for those programs!
If that works with your family’s budget and you like UNC, then you are in great shape!!
I think you could get very generous merit from NC State too. For them, also apply EA and then they invite certain applicants (you’ll be one) to apply for honors program and scholarships.
Just FYI, Duke has a global health concentration but my D (who’s also interested in global health) heard from a student (he was the co-chair for her committee at DUMUNC last year) there that the program was not very strong. Duke is very good overall, obviously, but the impression my D got is the global health doesn’t live up to its advertising. Just one person’s input so you might want to investigate further.
Do you know your family’s EFC? As someone said, most of the colleges on your list don’t give merit $. However, some define need aid more generously than others, e.g., Princeton, so you might get $$ at some, unless your EFC is very high.
Finally, do you have any interest in LACs or do you only want to attend a medium or larger school?
What is the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) for schools that interest you, according to their online Net Price Calculators?
How much of the EFC is your family able and willing to cover?
The difference between the college cost (#1) and your family budget (#2) is the amount of merit money you’d need.
Schools where you’d have the best chances for large merit scholarships typically are much less selective than most of the schools on your list.
Some rather selective schools (like USC) do grant some merit awards, but typically not enough to cover full costs or even full tuition. Many of the most selective schools (like Princeton) don’t offer merit grants at all, although they do offer relatively generous need-based aid to those who qualify. The online NPCs will clarify whether you qualify for need-based aid.
My D18 had similar stats - although not your incredible ECs - and is also interested in neuroscience and global health. She’ll be attending Oxford College of Emory in the fall with a merit scholarship. Emory has a good neuroscience and behavioral biology degree that might interest you. She applied widely to increase her chances of merit and the results were surprising and difficult to predict. You might also want to take a look at Tulane, but I agree with @AlmostThere2018 that UNC may end up being your smartest choice. You’re lucky to be in-state in NC!
@rtharuv – There’s a difference between what your parents are able to contribute and your family’s EFC (estimated family contribution). The federal FAFSA (and the CSS Profile that most of the colleges on your list also requires to determine financial aid need) will come up with their own determination of your family’s expected contribution to college based on income and certain assets.
To start, you can google a EFC estimator and plug in financial numbers for your family to get close to what that number is – however, you will need financial information from your parents. They may want/need to go through the estimator themselves.
The EFC could be lower or higher than what your parents are able to pay. If it is much higher – then, yes, you need merit aid. If your EFC is lower, then you may qualify for need-based aid and when you apply to need-blind colleges that meet 100% of need (like UNC and Duke and many others on on your list) you will be in good shape because they will only expect your family to pay the EFC and they will pay the rest of total cost of attendance.
Does this make sense to you or do you have more questions?
Don’t worry about a school having a “global public health” track or minor, etc…totally not necessary and it might cause you to overlook some schools that will give you the large merit you need. Even if a school doesn’t have a “global health” track, you can likely take related classes and engage in activities/community service/volunteering that demonstrate your interest in that area. That said, the university that my son attended as a premed, does have a Public Health bachelors of science major, which interested premeds do.
If your goal is med school, then your focus needs to be going where you’ll get the best GPA. Many premeds trip themselves up by thinking that they need to go to a big name school. Med schools dont care about school name. They care about GPA, MCAT score, research, volunteering, community service.
You’re an ORM, so your stats need to be impeccable. I wouldn’t risk that by attending a tippy top school. Besides, getting merit at those schools is either impossible or rare…particularly for an unhooked student. Schools like Duke, Vandy, and WashU tend to give their merit to hooked students who are likely going to have acceptances to HYPSM (students that help their ethnic/region/talent diversity numbers). Their goal is to poach those students away from the HYPSM. A student like you, altho wonderful, is not likely going to get awarded their highly competitive merit.
You can apply to a few of these tippy top schools, just to see if somehow you get awarded merit, but have at least 3 or 4 schools on your list. Also include a couple of schools that will give you huge merit for being a NMF.
^^^ Also note that you are not an ORM to some excellent liberal arts colleges which are fabulous choices for pre-med. A good many of these offer merit scholarships and your stats put you in play for the competitive full rides at some of them.
As a full pay ORM interested in health professions, looking for merit scholarships, you should look at North Western, Vandy, Duke, Rice, USC type schools and LACs where merit scholarships are a possibility.
Tulane is low on Asian enrollment, so you would have a boost. Plus I hear they have good merit scholarships for early applicants with very high stats (like yours!
I have not heard of Northwestern handing out merit awards–correct me if I’m wrong. (Alum, live five minutes away, lots of D’s friends and acquaintances going there with FA only or full pay)
You may want to consider the College of Wooster in Ohio. Excellent college for Neuroscience and gives great merit aid, also has access to major internships as a small college