State/Location of residency: Michigan
**Intended Major(s): Biology
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.9
Weighted HS GPA: 4.0
ACT/SAT Scores: 1520
Coursework
10 APs
2 completed so far, 5s on both
Awards
Extracurriculars
volunteering at senior sports center 3 hours a week started recently but will continue till senior yr
VP of finance of a cultural youth leadership club outside of school
HOSA board member
participation in HOSA 3 yrs so far , DECA, Red Cross Club 2 yrs, Art Club 3 yrs so far, Dance team 1 year
Schools
University of Michigan
University of Detroit Mercy Direct Dental
Nova Southeastern direct Dental
Haven’t written and essay yet bc i am a junior i was just wondering how my ap looks so far
So it’s not the more APs that win. Also you need to state which APs you have taken. What will be your highest math class and which sciences have you and what will you take in senior year.
As an example Michigan likes GPA and rigor. You got that. They also like students that are active in some meaningful way at school for a few years. Check. You got that plus your instate to Michigan.
Do you know how many students get accepted from your school? Check Naviance or whatever similar software you use at your school.
You are intending to take a LOT of AP classes. I am not sure that so many is a good plan. I might cut down a bit on AP classes.
Remember that during your senior year of high school you will be spending quite a bit of effort in deciding which universities to apply to, filling out applications, visiting schools, waiting for responses, and then deciding which university to attend (which for us meant even more visits to schools). This adds up to quite a bit of effort.
I am not particularly familiar with dental programs. I am more familiar with medical or particularly DVM admissions. However, I am wondering if you are intending to apply to Dental programs if having some experience in a dental environment might be helpful.
I would be inclined to also consider applying to Michigan State University.
You have a chance for NOVA. My daughter applied and got accepted last year for NOVA premed.
Apply to NOVA as early as possible (I just noticed that you are junior). You will get a reply in 2-3 weeks. Then you will be invited for fly-in mandatory event. It is going to be super competitive. DD felt like an alien during the interview. Every other student (if not more) was Indian and all had mom and dad as doctors. On the question why you want to be a doctor, all but my daughter answered I am from doctor family and I do not see myself doing anything else… But if you can stay genuine, interested and engaged you can do it. I have heard that Dental at NOVA even more competitive than premed.
My DD chose to go with LECOM instead of NOVA. I believe LECOM has DENTAL too. Look it up.
Key with LECOM is to apply as early as possible. LECOM has a separate list of schools for BS. My daughter attends Rhodes College.
The LECOM plan is better IMHO than the traditional BS/MD or BS/DO plan: it allows for the student to change their minds as they grow and doesn’t contain any extra hoops that make it almost impossible for the student to achieve the criteria (always ask how many BS or DO/MD students are admitted as freshmen… and how many actually go to the designated DO or MD school).
Indian Americans are considered “over represented in medicine” - med schools are trying to avoid “reproducing elites”, where grandparents induct their kids into a job who themselves do the same for their own kids, reducing odds of social mobility.
(Right now, your best odds of becoming a doctor in the Us is to have a parent who’s a doctor, although some doctor parents discourage their kids from following in their footsteps due to the changing landscape of medicine in the US.)
As a result, some Indian American families want to “secure” the path for their children through the BS/MD or BS/DO path, especially since the “medicine right after HS” model used in the rest of the world seems more logical and less risky.
Therefore it doesn’t seem strange that Indian American kids who want to be doctors would seem to be in the majority (and depending on where OP’s child is from, it may not have been a usual experience).
It would be especially striking at Nova, which otherwise could serve as a back up for “Baywatch” casting ;).
Yes, I’m aware of the over representation, but I wasn’t clear what the actionable information for OP was. I guess - if they’re Indian-American their odds are lower at Nova, but higher if not?
It was a group interview. 10 + students. They had 4 group interviews per day. All students selected and intrested were attending I believe one of 4 different weekends. If you will enter a room and see almost everybody from one ethnicity and all from doctor family wouldn’t you be surprised? My daughter was a bit in shock…DO school at Nova was established by an Indian guy. So technically it is not surprising that so many students with Indian roots were attracted.
And that is exactly why LECOM was chosen over NOVA since so many NOVA students from BS/DO did not enroll for DO at NOVA. NOVA claims it is due to students opportunity to go to other MD or DO schools, but my gut feeling was that because some could not pass MCAT minimum requirement…
Even though you have the stats for Michigan, consider broadening your list to include some clear safeties. I would love to say you should get into UMich for sure, but sadly, UMich does not take care of its residents like some other state schools do. Definitely apply and hope, but it should always go in the reach category. By way of example, my niece graduated in 2023 with a 4.2/4.0, Michigan in-state valedictorian, all-state scholar athlete, sports 4 years all seasons, National Rural Scholar, class President, NHS President, Girl Scout Gold award. She applied early, was deferred and then waitlisted at UMich. She ended up accepting a full ride from an OOS with an honors college in May. If you need in-state safeties, Michigan State and Western Michigan have excellent honors colleges with $$ and Michigan State’s Lyman Briggs science community is well respected for grad school. Best of luck!