Ideas Based on Stats - DD Interested in Bio/PreMed

College Search & Selection
1

MAJOR: Biology/PreMed
FROM: Texas (here 20+ years), Colorado (us originally and us for college)
HOOKS: none
GEO PREF: Want dd to go to school out of state-not in TX, she likes CA & NY, would consider Int., prefers a larger city
WEATHER: OK with snow, loves the outdoors and the beach
MONEY: Don’t need any aid (& wouldn’t qualify for), will use fully funded 529
HS: Current junior at large (3500 students) suburban, very competitive
SPORTS: Plays lacrosse, but it’s a club sport at her HS
GPA: 5.3 weighted/4.0 unweighted, Also 4.0 on college transcript
APs: HuG/4, Psych/5, WorH/4, currently in Span, EnvSci, Phys1, Eng, US Hist
COLL: 22 college credits w/ 4.0 GPA (dualE), ColAlg, PlaTrig, EnvBio, EarSci, PhyFit, Photog
PSAT: 1280 9th-620V/660M, 1260 10th-660V/600M, 11th taken Oct
SAT: registered for 12/7/19, 1390/1520 on last practice-710V/680M
ACT: not registered yet
GREEK: not interested
VISITED: Tulane, Rice, USCal, UCLA, CalTech (Women in STEM), U of Col, attended all the local info sessions in our city (probably at least 30?)

Would Tulane be a match, she did like the campus. Need ideas for safety schools.
OTHER SCHOOLS? - Amherst, Babson, UC Berkeley, UCLA, U of Chicago, U of Col, Columbia, Dartmouth, Emory, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Johns Hopkins, U of Miami, U of Michigan, NYU, U of N Car, Northwestern, Stanford, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Villanova, UVA, Wash USL, U of Wisc

We think our daughter is great but looking at many of the kids posting here is humbling/intimidating/terrifying. Any advice or suggestions appreciated.

2

Has she looked at University of Rochester? Would probably be a low match.

3

Quite a few of the colleges you listed do not appear to meet your daughter’s criteria (e.g., Babson is a business specialty school).

As one suggestion, look into the University of Rochester.

4

For matches, check out College of Charleston, Loyola Marymount.

6

I think you are going to need to wait for test scores before you can really know what will be a reach/match/safety. She’s going to need a 1500+ to even be in the ball park at some of the schools on your list. And some of these school recommend subject tests.

7

Tulane is absolutely a match, pending SAT scores. CU and UW-Madison are safeties but not near large cities. Wash U is need-aware so that gives her a boost. Do you have access to Naviance?

8

Tulane has a 13% acceptance rate and is a reach. Honestly, many/most of the schools on this list are reaches. There are a few that may be a match, depending.

Before any determination is made in regard to safety and target schools, this student needs test scores. College of Charleston was mentioned…that might be a good one. Pitt might be one to add as well.

10

UC Berkeley and UCLA are Reach schools and not worth the $65K/year to attend as an OOS possible Pre-Med/Biology major. Medical school is expensive so she will want to keep her Undergrad costs low. Too many high performing students at the UC’s and too few Medical school spots available. Also UCB is known to have grade deflation so not a good choice for Pre-Med where is GPA is king.

Also agree she will have to up her game with her test scores and aim for a 1450+ for a solid chance at UCLA/UCB.

11

@disorbed…Tulane, Amherst, UC Berkeley, UCLA, U Chicago, Columbia, Dartmouth, Emory, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Hopkins, Michigan, Northwestern, UNC, Stanford, Vanderbilt, UVA, Wash U…will still be reaches even if your daughter takes both tests and gets a score that is in the 99%. How was this list created?

The U of Colorado, Miami, NYU, Villanova, Wisconsin…can be match or safety schools, depending. Some can also be put into the reach category…depending on scores.

My advice is as follows:

  1. Wait for scores before making this list
  2. Cut the reach schools...significantly. Right now there are about 18.
  3. Add several safety and match schools, which your daughter can’t do without scores (a few possibilities have been suggested)
  4. Take the subject tests if recommended

Congrats to your daughter on her accomplishments!

12

She needs real test scores, some kids test lower than PSAT, some higher. I would not rule out any instate options for pre med. I would make the DD aware of that. I assume she is not ranked high enough for UT?

13

Assuming that she has Texas residency, do not give up the pre-med and medical school advantages of staying in Texas lightly. Texas public medical schools (and Baylor College of Medicine) are relatively low cost among medical schools for Texas residents, so they will be targets for any Texas resident pre-med applying to medical schools (completing medical school with less debt will allow for more career and life options as a physician, rather than being pressured to chase the money at every decision). Staying in Texas for undergraduate will make it much easier to get to short notice medical school interviews at Texas public medical schools; Texas public universities may also offer a cost advantage for Texas residents.

Of course, if the 529 contains $280k for undergraduate plus $400k+ for medical school, then the above cost reason to favor Texas public undergraduate and medical school may be less of a concern for you.

14

I agree with @ucbalumnus. We have friends that just started med school in TX and going there undergrad really helped. They will be able to graduate med school with no, or very little debt.

I do understand the opposite though. Our son wanted out of TX and we were able to support him and luckily got a deal where undergrad was actually cheaper than TX in state. CA admissions will be tricky, expensive and challenging OOS. Look at places where she can get good shadowing experience and med related volunteering, research etc. S17’s gf is pre-med and says those things have been very important. Also go where you are pretty sure she can get the highest grades. Grades, experience and MCAT scores mean everything - far above how much of a reach the undergrad college is.

Good luck!

15

You may already know all of this but this advice was given to my daughter who was thinking of med school when she visited colleges and it helped her to ask the right questions on college tours:
-Undergrad GPA is very important when applying to med school so she may want to avoid schools with grade deflation. Sometimes the less competitive college may be better choice for premed student who’s very concerned with GPA.
-Consider what opportunities are available to do research and/or volunteer at local hospital. Are these roles easy for students to get or super competitive?
-Don’t need to major in bio or chem but will need the specific prerequisites. In fact med schools like to see students with more “unusual” majors (at least that’s what I’ve been told).
-Is it important for her to study abroad? Some colleges will help premed students make this work with their schedule; others will tell you it’s virtually impossible. Some have summer study abroad programs as an alternative option.
-How is the advising for premed students? (One student at highly ranked school told us the premed advisors didn’t want to see students until their junior year which seems a little late.)
-Many (around 50%?) of students who think they will be premed when they begin college end up changing their mind. How easy is it to change majors? Would she be happy at that school in a different major?

There are certainly other factors as well but these are a few things that my daughter considered when making her final decision on where to enroll.

Good luck in the process!

16

Medical schools don’t care what your major is, although I am sure some may argue that point. There are plenty of other things that they DO care about. It should be mentioned that the average age of first year medical students is increasing and it is not unusual to take several years off to strengthen or develop your application (volunteering, taking classes, Peace Corp work, etc). Taking time off, which has become increasingly more common, takes the focus off of ones major…and places greater attention on what the applicant has accomplished/done over the past 2 or 3+ years.

I do think it’s important to choose a school where there are plenty of options that are of interest… just in case this student changes her mind.

17

Loyola Marymount isn’t very religious. I’d definitely recommend it for Pre Med.

It’s VERY easy to get from the Denver airport to CU Boulder. There is a nice clean bus and it’s full of professionals and students, and takes about an hour from CU.