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<p>If Rutgers is an actual safety for you (both admissions and cost wise), then there is no point in applying to any school that you like less than Rutgers.</p>
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Might be worth mentioning.</p>
<p>Well, had another discussion yesterday. I swear, I need to join the debate team or something ;)</p>
<p>Let’s just say we agreed on a general list, based on both our ideas. Final list that we’ll all agree on will come along soon enough.</p>
<p>What we agreed on:
Penn
Notre Dame
Michigan
Rutgers
Penn State</p>
<h2>Purdue </h2>
<p>Cornell
NYU
Emory</p>
<p>Still debating on
Carnegie Mellon
Berkeley
Johns Hopkins
Vanderbilt
UCLA
Wake Forest </p>
<p>Some new schools they suggested, some still in argument, and Georgetown is off the list (no big deal). But I just took a firmer stand to my argument and used some of the pointers here (they didn’t know about ND’s alumni power or some of the schools’ med school rates). And I’m pretty sure they realized how Notre Dame is actually a fantastic school. </p>
<p>Safeties: Rutgers, Penn State, Purdue (based on my school’s Naviance)
Matches: NYU, maybe Michigan and Emory (already showed a ridiculous amount of interest in Emory), apparently Wake Forest and Vanderbilt too based on Naviance.
Reaches: Everything else. </p>
<p>I think this is reasonable, no? But anyway, thank you very much for your responses guys, I appreciate it a lot. :)</p>
<p>Just went back and read through your original post to see if you had said anything about the money issue, and found this:</p>
<p>“… I’m relying on their money (which might turn out to be a double-edged blade) for undergraduate tuitions, and I suppose I understand that they think that spending 60K for a school they hate would be a waste.”</p>
<p>Med school is their dream, not yours, but you need to be aware that there are almost no scholarships for med school. Have you talked with them about who will pay for med school provided you do get in? Maybe a couple of places that will offer you merit-based aid (Pitt comes to mind here as it is near you), would be nice to add to your list so that someone can save a bit of money for med school.</p>
<p>^ I don’t think I ever mentioned that I wanted to go to medical school. </p>
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<p>I know that you don’t want to go to med school! But since med school is so hideously expensive and they are convinced that you are headed in that direction, you need to find out what their plans are for paying for it. This may give you an opportunity to look at places that would offer you merit-based money, or that are a bit less expensive than some of their short-list on the grounds that “Well you know we have to think about the cost of med school.” ;)</p>