Help with college list for class of 2024. Current junior in high school, lives in CA.
GPA 4 (UW), 4.5 (UW)
5 AP’s (AP world Hist, AP Chem, AP Lang, AP Physics, AP Calc, AP Computer science principles)
7 Community college courses (25 credits) through dual and concurrent enrollment
Club president, Superintendent advisory council member.
Won awards at school level
Volunteer at the Hospital (around 250hrs)
Works as piano teacher.
Wanted to pursue career in Medical sciences.
What would be her Target/Reach and Safe schools?
You’ll get plenty of suggestions here, but some more information would be helpful:
-What type of high school and what is her class rank?
-What are her AP scores and SAT/ACT scores?
-Is she possibly a National Merit Semifinalist?
-Is she an under or over represented minority?
-First gen college student?
-What types of medical sciences? This is a very broad description that can cover dozens of majors.
-What kind is schools is she interested in? Big? Small? Public or private? In state or oos?
And probably the most important one- budget? Will she need financial aid?
Good luck on your search!
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Thank you so much.
Public school and they dont have rank system but she is definitely in top 5%.
AP Scores so far 5 (for world hist, computer science). She is currently taking the rest of AP Exams.
ACT is 35 (one attempt)
Asian and not first gen student
Mostly Biology and Bio Chemistry
Not too particular about Big/Small/In state and out of state and aid.
U of Pittsburgh could be a safety if your D applies early when the common app opens. They have rolling admission so she would know early in the process.
Case Western would be a good target but she will need to demonstrate interest.
Both are strong for students with pre-med intentions.
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Thank you. What would be the good in state uni she could get into? Based on the stats, which UC she may get into?
What is her intended major since Medical Sciences is not a specific major. Biology/Biochemistry can be competitive. Biological Sciences is an impacted major at many of the UC’s. Biochemistry is not nearly as impacted.
If she is interested in pursing Medical school, then she can major in any subject as long as she takes the required Medical school pre-requisite classes.
First she needs to calculate her UC GPA’s: Unweighted, Capped Weighted and Fully weighted.
She will use the A-G courses taken the summer after 9th to the summer prior to 12th including CC/DE courses if they are UC transferable. She will get 1 extra honors point for each AP/IB/DE/CC and UC approved honors course taken during this time. 1 semster CC/DE/AP/IB or UC approved Honors course= 1 Honors point in the calculation.
Here is the calculator: GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub
Depending upon intended major, the Safe/Target and Reach UC’s will vary.
Here is the general UC Admit table based on the UC Capped weighted GPA and does not take into consideration the intended major.
2022 Admit rates based on the Capped weighted UC GPA.
| Campus | 4.00+ | 3.70-3.99 | 3.30-3.69 | 3.00-3.29 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berkeley | 17% | 3% | 1% | 0% |
| Davis | 58% | 20% | 5% | 2% |
| Irvine | 35% | 10% | 3% | 0% |
| Los Angeles | 13% | 2% | 1% | 0% |
| Merced | 97% | 97% | 95% | 85% |
| Riverside | 95% | 83% | 42% | 17% |
| San Diego | 37% | 8% | 1% | 0% |
| Santa Barbara | 41% | 8% | 3% | 0% |
| Santa Cruz | 69% | 45% | 16% | 4% |
If she is ELC (top 9% of her HS class or statewide) she will be guaranteed admission (if room is available) at the default campus UC Merced which would be a safety. They have the following Medical school program if local to the San Joaquin area: SJV PRIME+ | BS to MD Pathway | Undergraduate Admissions
UC Riverside is a potential Safe/Likely school. UCR also has the Thomas Haider Early assurance program if Medical school is a possibility.
For the other UC’s, they can range from target to reach depending upon major and UC GPA’s.
She might also want to consider some Cal states especially her local CSU as a Safe/Very Likely school. SDSU, Cal Poly SLO, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal state Long Beach, San Jose State etc… all have very good STEM/Health related majors.
What is your college budget?
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She looks competitive for pretty much all the UCs, however…The UCs can be a bit unpredictable in admissions, so no matter how competitive she is as an applicant, she absolutely must apply to a range of schools. No one is a lock for any of the UCs. She has a chance at all, but with no guarantees (except for UC Merced since it sounds like she will have top 9% ELC which will guarantee admission there). Also consider applying to a few CSUs to ensure that you have your bases pretty well covered.
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Does this student hope to apply to medical school?
Yes, thats what she is planning
@WayOutWestMom can you outline what applying to medical school in California is like? Perhaps this will help this poster.
@GreenD525 I have tagged @WayOutWestMom because I think your family needs to also consider the costs of medical school if that really is the goal. The %age of CA residents who apply to medical school as instate residents in CA is pretty high, I believe…and the acceptance rate lower.
Therefore, it’s very possible your daughter will be attending medical school outside of CA, and the costs of medical school can easily be $100,000 a year by the time she gets there…if she does. Med school is funded largely by loans loans and more loans…and help from the bank of mom and dad. Just FYI…as you start this search.
Your daughter has a strong GPA. Will she take the SAT or ACT? She could very well qualify for some significant merit aid…some places outside of CA.
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Congratulations to your daughter on her strong academic profile! When you say that aid is needed, what is the budget? Has your family run a Net Price Calculator (NPC) at any schools? When you do so, it will estimate your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). For instance, you may want to run the NPC at Harvard or Princeton which are two of the most financially generous schools in the U.S. When you see the EFC, is that number affordable for your family (and for many families, it is not)? If so, then schools that only meet need (and don’t offer merit aid) are still in consideration. If not, then you should eliminate any schools that do not offer merit aid.
If she doesn’t have preferences about in-state/out-of-state or big/small, what about climate? Are there certain states she would prefer (or prefer to avoid)? What about a school’s religious affiliation? How does she feel about Greek life? Does she want a school where intercollegiate sports are really important? How does she feel about class sizes? Would she prefer the anonymity of large lectures or prefers smaller classes where the professor knows if she missed a class and she’s expected to actively participate every session?
Any information you could provide about your daughter and her likes/dislikes/preferences/personality would be helpful, as there are a lot of options for someone with stats like your daughter’s.
OP gave more info on her daughter in a reply.
@Gumbymom Wow, thank you so much. Thats a lot of great information. We are looking around 20-30k. Also, she was selected in college advantage program through her HS to CC. She will be finishing her senior year of HS in CC taking some of the college courses along. Does this transition impacts her college admission?
If she is leaning towards Medical school, taking the Med school pre-req courses at a CC can be an issue. I am going to refer you to this discussion:
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@thumper1 Thank you for tagging. Thats sure lots of money for med school. She took ACT and got 35. What would be some good universities for Biology majors outside CA that she could qualify for merit aid?
Thank you so much. She doesn’t have preferences regarding big/small and doesn’t play sports as well. Just looking for universities with good biology major that could also grant merit aid.
If you are looking to stay within $20-30k, then the UCs may be out-of-budget, but @Gumbymom would likely know of Cal Grant or other programs that might be available to assist or which UC campuses would be able to provide sufficient merit aid to bring them within budget, as UCs are generally not known for generous merit aid.
Since all we really know is that your daughter is interested in biology, these are schools that have produced the most students who earned a doctoral degree in biological or biomedical sciences (which may be both PhD and MD, I am unsure). I am going on the assumption that if students were successfully able to get a doctorate in the field, that they received strong preparation as undergrads.
Just because I don’t mention a school doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a good program…biology is one of the bread and butter majors for most colleges in the U.S. and faculty with their degrees from top-notch institutions can be found at just about any school in the country. I’m just trying to give you a place to start.
Colleges that primarily give Bachelor’s degrees (typically smaller schools)
- Oberlin (OH)
- St. Olaf (MN)
- Mt. Holyoke (MA) - women’s college
- Smith (MA) - women’s college
- Allegheny (PA )
- Bucknell (PA )
- Lafayette (PA )
- Colorado College
- Davidson (NC)
- Ursinus (PA )
- U. of Richmond (VA)
- Macalester (MN)
- Whitman (WA)
Colleges that primarily give Master’s degrees as their highest degree (tend to be medium to larger schools)
- Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo - an in-state public that will come within budget even without merit aid
- Truman State (MO)
- The College of New Jersey
- SUNY Geneseo (NY)
- Western Washington (which is a WUE school, so you could get a discount here for living in CA, too)
- Grand Valley State (MI)
- Cal Poly - Humboldt -another in-state public that will be within budget, and probably an extremely likely admit, too
- College of Charleston (SC)
- U. of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
- San Francisco State - yet another in-state public
For the previous two categories, I generally went with schools that produced at least 75 doctoral recipients between 2010-2018. But these numbers are not adjusted for the size of the school. So some of the schools I listed in the baccaulaureate section may only have 2k undergrads at a time, so 75 or more is a much bigger proportion of its graduates than a doctoral school that has 20,000 students (which would proportionally need to have 750 students getting a doctoral degree in the field). Here, I’m listing schools that had at least 200 students receive a doctoral degree in that time period.
Colleges that primarily give doctoral degrees as their highest degree (tend to be large schools)
- UC-Berkeley
- UC-Davis
- UC-San Diego
- UC-Los Angeles
- U. of Florida
- U. of Arizona
- U. of Georgia
- UC-Santa Cruz
- UC-Irvine
- UC-Santa Barbara
- Colorado State (another WUE school)
- Iowa State
- Florida State
- U. of Delaware
All of the above are schools where I think your daughter has a reasonable shot of getting the price within your budget via merit aid, though certainly it is not assured.
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Your daughter can study biology at just about any college in the country. Since you are in CA, you might look at Arizona where there is auto merit. Another option would be University of New Mexico. Folks have already suggested applying to University of Pittsburgh as soon as the application comes out. It’s not auto merit, but with that ACT score, she might get merit aid there. Miami University in Oxford Ohio is another option. University of Alabama is another option with guaranteed merit aid based on stats.
Definitely run the Net price calculator on any school of interest. Depending upon your financial situation, the UC’s and CSU’s could come in budget.
Without FA, the UC’s range from $36-41K/year. Cal Poly SLO without FA is around $30-33K/year. Similar CSU’s such as SDSU, CSU Long Beach etc… have comparable costs unless the student commutes.
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