<p>I will be a senior in highschool the fall and will be doing Chemisty, Biology, or Biochemistry as my major in college. With that being said, my senior schedule goes as follows:</p>
<p>AP Chem (may be taking this online and independent study)
AP English
Anatomy
Calculus
Statistics
Spanish 4
Philosophy and Psychology (Community College courses)
Government</p>
<p>I am looking at colleges in Illinois who offer a good pre-med program and/or science program that will benefit me for college. (4 year university)</p>
<p>I have taken AP Bio, and APUSH my junior year along with advanced courses (scores are yet unknown). My GPA is about a 3.7-3.8 and we have unweighted grades. I am 10th in my class of 165. My first ACT was a 27 (will be retaking in the fall). </p>
<p>Questions:
*Should I be taking any other classes that would better prepare me for college?
*Are there any recommended colleges that (from experience/knowledge) are known for their science programs?
*I have shadowed a doctor at a local medical clinic for a week, what else could I be doing for experience? I have looked into volunteering at a hospital
* Any additional tips as I make my way into my last year of highschool?</p>
<p>Thanks! Hope everyone enjoys the holiday weekend!</p>
<p>Your senior classes look great. Just do well in them. Just note that you will retake Chem in college and that retaking stats and psych will be highly recommended, as you will be applying to many med schools, many of which accept only some if not no AP credit.</p>
<p>Your GPA is good, but your ACT isn’t spectacular. Assuming you don’t raise your score, you probably won’t get in to Northwestern or UChicago, 2 Illinois schools that are ranked in the top 15. Generally a 33+ is needed to be competitive.</p>
<p>You would be accepted to the University of Illinois, a top state school. It has the best engineering program not named MIT or Harvard or Caltech or Berkeley. Needless to say, U of I’s science will be good enough to get you in to med school, provided you are good enough (that goes for anyone applying to any med school anywhere).</p>
<p>U of I, though, is pretty expensive as far as a state school goes, costing 33k per year for science/engineer majors, and they give little to no merit aid, and the need aid is 95% loans.</p>
<p>Most people on this board will tell you that you can attain a competitive application for med schools at any accredited undergraduate institution, so your main goal should be to escape will as little debt as possible.</p>
<p>Since the state of Illinois is as broke as it gets (meaning state schools will be expensive), you’ll have to go to private schools. So if you don’t get in to NU or UChicago, look in to Knox College and Augustana, liberal arts schools that may actually try to help you out.</p>
<p>Also, don’t just apply to Illinois schools. You may not get the aid you want (I’m assuming you’re not rich) and you’ll be stuck. Look at all of your options.</p>
<p>I will be getting dual credit in Calc and Stats, not sure if that will effect retaking or not. I took my AP classes mainly for the experience/content, knowing that I will have to retake them in college because (mainly Chem.) you will have to take labs if you get the credit, meaning you would have no lecture, thus needing to take the lecture and lab.</p>
<p>I was actually looking into U of I and Illinois State Universities. I love U of I’s campus and would love to be accepted into that school. I hope to raise my ACT score by a few points, my goal is a 29 or 30, though I am happy with the score I have now.</p>
<p>I will check out private schools, though I am looking into a bigger university, preferrably over 10,000, which private schools are usually a lot smaller. With that being said, I know that private schools give out more aid than state schools, thus allowing less debt in the long run.</p>
<p>I know I have a long way to go, but its a start. </p>
<p>^Agree with UncannyCrayon. Also, private schools may give more aid, but state schools cost less than private. Here a state school will run roughly 15k a year. With scholarships, this could easily be downed to 2-3k. At a private, tuition is 30k+. You will need at least 15k a year in FA just to be even with the state schools tuition. Than, you need more to not leave with 60k of debt. Remember, private schools run off your money almost exclusively. State schools run of the states money and yours. You should apply evenly, and maybe talk to you schools counselor about past students FA at schools in Illi. They may know which state and private schools give the most to students with your stats.</p>
<p>If your goal is to get out with 60k or less debt, U of I is out of the question unless you have outside scholarships. </p>
<p>State schools in Illinois will be at least 20-25k per year. It was actually cheaper for some of my friends to go to Iowa. The flagship, though, is 33k.</p>
<p>@PacaMed, the decision to retake any AP courses is a personal choice that depends on many factors including your major and the specific upper division courses you plan to take. I started my studies with 55 credits of AP work and I have no plans to retake a single one of them. This is completely consistent with my university’s pre-med advising office recommendations, and with the requirements posted on the websites for every medical school to which I plan to apply. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Depends on the private college, Pacamed.
Privates like NU and UChicago are perceived to be much better schools, and they are certainly more selective and prestigious, for what it’s worth.</p>
<p>Other privates like Loyola, Augustana, Knox, Illinois Wesleyan are very good schools but the “rankings” and such will tell you that U of I is better. If you are interested in research, U of I would be the best bet for you. You can get a quality education and see your way in to med school with no regrets going to a small private, though.</p>
<p>If you want a ton of research possibilities and like the urban setting with the fancy recreation centers and 1,000 student clubs and the largest Greek system in the country, go to U of I. But if you like the small classes, the personal, tight-knit community feel, you may want to go to a small college.</p>
<p>I believe it won’t matter a whole lot where you go learning-wise, for there really isn’t a huge disparity in the quality of science teaching among schools. A science degree by its self isn’t very marketable like…say…engineering, so the difference between random U versus U of I won’t be very significant.</p>
<p>It really should come down to where you want to be and how much it will cost, except that it is a whole lot easier to get involved with extracurriculars with an urban setting around you and a campus with about 40,000 students. It isn’t impossible otherwise by any means, but you probably won’t have certain clubs and such you may otherwise want at a smaller setting.</p>
<p>I realize it’s been a couple of decades since I graduated from UIUC, but I was back there to visit friends 2 years ago–and neither then or now would I ever call Urbana “urban”. Mid-sized town, maybe, largish even if you include Champaign as well, but definitely not urban.</p>
<p>The campus spreads across Urbana and Champaign, hence University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, so it is appropriate to include both towns and treat them as one.</p>
<p>I suppose 100-200 thousand people isn’t quite “urban”, but it is big and has a lot of students and has places to go that a mid sized city would have.</p>
<p>It IS out in the middle of the corn field, but it doesn’t feel that way.
It does not have a Liberal Arts small town “all up in your neighbor’s business” feel. That’s what I’m trying to get across.</p>
<p>You’re right WOWMom, it isn’t quite urban. Madison comes to mind for urban. But it isn’t a small fry, either.</p>
<p>Actually CU has a population of just over 100,000 at the last census. Add in 40,000 students (most of whom are not there year round).</p>
<p>I probably have a different view of the town than you do. Was never an undergrad. Never lived on campus. Actually lived and worked (full time) there as a non-student for 2 years.</p>
<p>Campus is pretty lively, but the town itself—not so much. (Though the dining options have greatly improved in 25 years. It used to be a choice between a chinese place, Steak & Shake or Garcia’s Pizza.)</p>
<p>Wayoutwestmom: I was at their campus recently (within the past year) and it does feel like a small town within the campus, yet its surrounded by a big city itself. I like the mixture of both as I have grown up in both places as well. </p>
<p>Pros and Cons to U of I? (in your opinion)
What, from experience, would I need to get into U of I? I really like that school tho I am searching others.</p>
<p>D2 was accepted into the Honor College at UIUC 3 years ago, but choose to enroll elsewhere. D2 would have been Ok with UIUC, but preferred a couple of other schools more and got offered big money elsewhere to boot.</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, admission is very numbers-driven. (ACT/SAT + GPA + HS curriculum difficulty). I don’t think she even had to send LORs. </p>
<p>Cons: Size. Easy to get lost in the bureaucracy. Some facilities [gym] get over-crowded. In lower level science classes, lack of personal contact w/ your instructors in the big lectures. Scheduling. (See bureaucracy above. Honors College helps to avoid the issue.) Lack of outdoor stuff to do. CU feels pretty claustrophobic and isolated at times, esp if you’re from a more urban area. Limited opportunities for physician shadowing due to the small number of local medical facilities (though Uncanny can correct me if I’m wrong about that)</p>
<p>Pros: very pretty campus, great sweet corn. World class library. Excellent research facilities (but profs aren’t going to go hunting for undergrads to staff their labs–that’s what grad students are for). University tries hard to fulfill its role as a cultural center for the region by bringing in events/ performances you’d otherwise have to Chicago to see. Sports (Go Illini!) Lots of clubs and plenty of diversity. Profs who are world renown in the fields–even if they don’t teach a UG class, the chance to hear them give a lecture is very worthwhile. </p>
<p>The strong Greek presence on campus can be seen as a plus or minus, depending upon your feelings on the subject.</p>
<p>I actually like CU and wouldn’t mind living there. (Still hate the summer weather, though. Muggy times three.)</p>
<p>I’m in Materials Science and Engineering.
I agree pretty much with all that WOWMom says, although I’d say undergrads won’t have that much of a hard time doing research of some sort, although it may be engineering biased. Medical opportunities are limited in Urbana-Champaign, but I live in a city that has 3 large hospitals and a medical school so that didn’t factor in for me, as I can get a lot of volunteering/shadowing in during the summer months.</p>
<p>UIUC is very numbers driven. They do not accept LORs or SAT IIs, and I had only a few extracurriculars and my friends who were accepted had even fewer yet. But that may just be the college of engineering.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that business is known to look at the whole file, so Liberal Arts and Sciences may emphasize ECs a little more.</p>
<p>A 27 ACT and a 3.7-3.8 will probably get you into LAS unless you go to a bad school. I only had a a 3.62 weighted at the time of application and a 31 ACT and I got in to engineering. I went to a top 100 HS, though, so that may have factored in.</p>
<p>The middle 50% of LAS is 27-32 for the ACT, you are in the low end for that but the HS class rank is only top 3% to top 13%, which you are probably well within. You probably wouldn’t be rejected outright in the unlikely event that this happened, you’d be placed in General Studies and would be given an opportunity to transfer into LAS later.</p>
<p>You’ll probably get in to the school, and if you don’t get in to the honors college, you probably will by 2nd semester if you get the grades a good pre med should get.</p>
Isn’t it true that most flagship state universities are the same? A prime example is Cal. Ditto for UT Austin. I read an article on a newspaper at one time. The author basically wrote that high schoolers really do not need to bother too much about ECs (they should still have some though), as they mostly look at numbers. On the other hand, for the elite privates, all of a sudden the quality of ECs becomes much more important. It is almost like: no achievement on ECs = no admittance. Some rumors go like this: If a school insists on having an outstanding ECs achievement, they will get quite a high percentage of high achieving students from a more financially resourceful family (read: full pay students). This is because GPA does not cost money while “all-state” or even national competition level EC accomplishment do cost money and travel time, generally speaking. I heard a high profile private high school even recruits an ex-Olympia swimmer as their coach! BTW, even in the non-EC areas, the science teacher in a wealthy school district is often much better than that in a poor school district.</p>
<p>Even public high schools can have massive budgets, since school funding is based on property taxes (at least it is that way in IL). So the Chicago suburb schools (read: rich) can afford to foot plane ticket bills and such for even low-visibility activities such as quiz bowl, and hire away college professors to their high schools.</p>
<p>I know of a school that teaches all levels of math through linear algebra, when some public high schools in my city don’t even offer calculus of any kind.</p>