I'm a soon to be senior who has already begun searching for colleges.

<p>Thank you guys so much for the college suggestions. I will take a look at each of those schools. Someone mentioned something about my GPA so let me just clarify that I have a good GPA: 3.95 unweighted and 4.7 weighted.</p>

<p>Of the schools that were mentioned earlier in this thread, UCLA is very appealing to me. Can any of you tell me more about this school? UCLA has pretty much everything I want in a college and more but financial aid might be a problem. Also someone mentioned that UCLA is very competitive. Is it really that bad? I’m most likely going to do premed.</p>

<p>Duke, U Michigan, and UVA are also very appealing schools as well. Can any of you tell me more about these schools and what premed might be like? </p>

<p>Thanks a lot. You guys have been a tremendous help.</p>

<p>OOS tuition for UCLA is very expensive, and given California’s terrible financial crisis, you should not expect any financial aid. It might take you 5 years to finish your degree there, because of numerous cutbacks in programs and classes, so factor that in as well. I believe UCLA only accepts about 20%[ maybe less?]of OOS applicants.</p>

<p>as menloparkmom said, UCLA would probably give you little to none financial aid. the state crisis in california is OUT OF PROPORTION, which is why i bailed asap ahaha. also to clarify, UCLA, like a lot of big top state schools, is extremely competitive. it has the largest pre-med population of any UC, and of any university if i remember correctly. the UCs are notorious for people stealing papers, shredding papers, stealing projects, etcetc. just as a disclaimer: it’s not as bad as i’m actually making it sound - it’s not rampant or anything, but its definitely present and you can feel it.</p>

<p>as for pre med, i’ve been posting a post from bluedevilmike on pre med at duke on different threads. here it is again:</p>

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<p>additionally, duke publishes a report every year regarding the success of the pre med department/advising @ duke: <a href=“http://premed.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/2007-annual-report.pdf[/url]”>http://premed.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/2007-annual-report.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>duke likes to be very clear about its process. this report also reveals how successful our advising team here is. keep in mind that this is just the 2007 report. there have been years where the success rate was even higher/lower. avg rate is ~85% and a good chunk go to top med schools.</p>

<p>i hope this helps :)</p>

<p>If you have those stats and need financial aid, you should really apply to Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford to provide the opportunity of their financial aid. It is unparalleled, and will make attending any of them beyond affordable. Aside from these, Duke, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt are all excellent ideas. The UC schools may sound appealing, but you have no chance of affording them unless you want to take out large loans or can piece together enough external merit aid to basically cover the entire cost of attending them. Harvard, Yale, and Princeton do not meet some of your requirements, but you would be really doing yourself a disservice by not applying to them. At least, apply to three. Of them, you would probably want to drop Harvard (perhaps too competitive) or Princeton (you know Princeton’s location well enough, and it is partially competitive due to the grade deflation). I’m not sure how much focus on the undergraduate is desired by you, though. If it is a significant factor, definitely drop Harvard. Another factor to consider is where you attend school. If you are attending Princeton High School (or whatever it is called), you have a strong chance of acceptance with your stats and involvement, and you should consequently apply there.</p>

<p>Another good idea would be to look into the Morehead-Cain scholarship at UNC-Chapel Hill. The university satisfies many of your requirements, and the scholarship is a full ride, including stipends for books and other expenses. I think the CC user Emphemeral2 recieved it and is going to UNC-Chapel Hill from it, so you could contact him for more information.</p>

<p>I would agree that UCLA would be a great if money was not a concern but because it is I would look into public university such as UVa that give great financial aid grants to students who come from less well off families regardless of which state applicants are from. University of Michigan is also a very good school that give good scholarship OOS students who score well on the SAT and have good gpa like you.</p>

<p>For private university I would look at Duke, and maybe Notre Dame. I’m pretty sure most top 20 private universities give good if not great aid.</p>

<p>Go to UCLA its a great university especially for premed. It’s science departments will more than prepare you for MCATs and there are ample research and volunteer opportunities since UCLA has its own hospital. However, there are also some negatives about UCLA as well but I rather not get into that. The pros more than outweighs the cons. So go bruins.</p>

<p>Duke, Holy Cross(near Boston), and Davidson(near Charlotte). All great academic schools with strong school spirit and alumni networks.</p>

<p>Another thing about UCLA- athletics is huge and so is school spirit. There lots of stuff to do outside of UCLA if you walk around westwood and its surrounding communities. Even if you only stay on campus there tons of stuff to do as well.</p>

<p>From your description of an ideal school, I think you will love UCLA. Just give it a visit if you have time over the summer. Take a student guide tour or just walk around with your family. The campus is gorgeous and so is the weather.</p>

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Agreed. UCLA meets the full need of only 25% of those eligible for aid, and most of those are in-state students. With the cost of attendance for OOS students rapidly approaching $50K, the OP could easily find a better deal elsewhere.</p>