I have a couple universities that I´ve been aiming for, but I´m wondering what kind of school this level of work would be good for. What schools do you think I´m eligible for based on my current application?
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown out of 1600): 1550 (790M, 760R)
SAT II: Math 2-750, Biology E-800
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.95
Weighted GPA (out of 5.0): 4.83
Rank: My school does not rank
AP: Stats (4), Biology (4), Psychology (5), English Lang (4), World History (4), Calc AB (4), Calc BC (5), Chemistry (4), Physics 1 (3), US History (5),
Subjective:
Extracurriculars: State President of HOSA, co founded a meditation and healthy body club, semifinalist in several HOSA national competitions, I am currently conducting research at a local small university (but nothing published as of yet), Varsity Softball
Job/Work Experience:Have worked at a bakery for 4 years, I also work as a CNA at a hospital
Volunteer/Community service: I really only volunteer at the hospital once or twice a week, sometimes I tutor for free as well.
Summer Activities: Baylor Surgical Summer Program, in freshman year I went to a selective health-careers camp run through my state.
State: WI
School Type: public high school
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Gender: Female
Obviously you’d apply to UWisconsin and UMN-TC but other than that you can apply to a variety of colleges as long as you run the NPC.
With these stats, the difficulty will be in finding safeties you like and enough matches (3-5 affordable colleges with about 35-40% acceptance rate that share some characteristics with your reaches).
The KEY element will be cost, so, what can your parents afford from income and savings?
St Olaf would likely be an excellent safety as long as you express interest starting now (it means filling out the Request info form, planning an official visit…) If you need merit aid, Lawrence and Beloit would be two other safeties.
Premeds must have a “Plan B” major since about 75% freshmen never make it to the “med school applicant stage” and only about half of those are admitted - in other words, your odds are about 10%. Attending a uiversity with an excellent career center is important as are opportunities for volunteering (or EMT certification, working at a clinic…) Wrt a major, biochemistry is a better choice than biology - both have low professional prospects but at least there are fewer biochemistry majors than biology majors, so when students don’t get into med school biochem majors have less competition to find a job.
Another of your threads indicates an interest in JHU. I think you would have a good chance of admission there.
For a sampling of reaches and matches (ranging in selectivity from somewhat more than to somewhat less than that of JHU) that would be excellent for your academic interests, look into Pomona, Swarthmore, Hamilton, Haverford, Carleton, Reed, Mt. Holyoke, Colby . . . These colleges generally provide top pre-med support amid fully undergraduate-focused environments. All offer well-funded, need-based financial assistance.
No. Don’t do this. Med school can cost well over 300k. There is very little financial or merit aid beyond loans. keep undergrad debt as low as possible.
Save the debt for medical school. With your stats, there is no need to go into debt as an undergrad. You are in range for many great colleges that meet full need and offer top pre-med programs.
Start by running the Net Price Calculators for the schools you are already thinking about to make sure they’re affordable. Then run the NPCs on some of the schools mentioned in this thread to see how they compare.
What are the universities that you’re currently considering and what is it about them that you like?