LACs for pretty decent student?

<p>As the end of 1st semester of my junior year approaches, I figure I should get some ideas as far as what LACs I can get into. I prefer LACs due to small classes and focus on undergrad teaching, but if you know any unis that fit these criteria, that works too.</p>

<p>I have a 4.0 unweighted GPA and a 4.704 weighted (out of 5) with a course load heavy on APs this year: AP Chem, AP Lit, AP Human Geo, AP MacroEcon. I'm assuming I'll get 5s and 4s on these tests, as I have above 95% in all these classes. I'm ranked 4 out of 399 (and hopefully that will increase... I have some problems with my transcript...).</p>

<p>I've already taken the AP Calc AB and APUSH tests; 5s on both. Next year, I'm planning on AP Calc BC, AP Psych, AP Gov, AP Language, AP Bio, and AP Physics. Hoping I'll do fairly well on those as well. Also, I'll have college credit for Latin 4 through U of Minnesota.</p>

<p>As far as testing goes, I'm not a strong tester. 218 on PSAT (probably good for NMSF in MN), but I'm hoping to get 2200+ on the SAT. I took a couple of years ago and got 2080, but I'm going to assume that my scores can only go up from then... 770 CR, 680 M, 630 W. I've been working hard, so these stats should see a significant improvement.</p>

<p>I volunteer with disadvantaged kids in a poor neighborhood, tutoring them and generally being a mentor. I'm captain of the swim and speech teams, 3 year veteran of Model UN (hopefully leadership next year!), lettered in Key Club all years, and a Conflict Mediator. Outside of school, I am a manager at McDonald's and I work (unpaid) in a lab at Mayo Clinic. I've also been playing piano for 9 years.</p>

<p>I'm interested in pursing a medical degree later on, but I'm hoping to major in psychology or something with social sciences (cultural studies?). Anyone know how hard it is to get into a good med school with a major in something unorthodox? Is it hard doing prereqs like organic chem, bio, etc. and still graduating in 4 years?</p>

<p>What can your family afford?</p>

<p>My parents make just under 100k a year, but my mom’s job isn’t stable. I’m hoping to get scholarships and such.</p>

<p>It’s definitely possible to have a non-science major and still go pre-med… as long as you are willing to devote pretty much ALL of your non-major classes to pre-med requirements. As you probably know, med schools will require a full year each of general chem, organic chem, physics, and bio, all with significant lab time. Med schools generally prefer applicants with significant upper level bio classes as well. I’d ask yourself what your reasons are for wanting to pursue a medical degree… are you actually interested in biomedical science? Hopefully so, because it’s a long, intense route to take if you’d rather be spending your time taking extra classes in Psychology or the social sciences. </p>

<p>As a junior in high school it’s probably difficult to know whether you’ll still want to pursue med school when the time comes, but starting early with the prereqs will keep your options open and should help you figure out what path is best for you. Taking all of those AP exams should be a big help, too, in getting extra course credit and freeing up your college schedule.</p>

<p>Your GPA and extracurriculars are great, so you seem well qualified for most LACs, especially if you do well on the SAT. A lot of the top LACs give great need-based aid, too. Is there a particular part of the country you’d like to study in? City, suburban, rural? Do you want a campus with a strong study abroad program? Are there any hobbies in particular that you’d like to continue in college?</p>

<p>I really do enjoy medicine, as well as social sciences. I am hoping to be a psychiatrist in the future, and I feel that a basis in psychology would help me develop my interests. Though I’d love to do something with cultural studies, that’s not where the money’s at. I want to do something I enjoy, but also provides financial security.</p>

<p>I prefer schools in urban and suburban areas. I can’t stand the thought of being stranded in a small town, probably because I’ve always lived in small towns. I want something different for a change. And I’m really strongly drawn to study abroad (I guess it kind of goes along with my interests in other cultures).</p>

<p>As far as hobbies go, I want some sort of Speech club, something like Toastmasters. I really enjoy the speech team at my school. Also, i like to be politically involved, but I figure most schools will have something like that.</p>

<p>silver, clarify your financial position first. Ask your parents to use an on-line calculator to determine how much NEED based aid you may be eligible for. If that works you can have a wide list of LACs to explore. If, on the other hand, you will require MERIT based aid, then your list will be quite different. Some well known selective LACs only offer need based aid, but there are also a few very good LACs that offer merit aid as well. So find out where you stand before you make your list.</p>

<p>Some urban/suburban LACs that you should look at are Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Haverford, Pomona, Macalester, Rhodes. Amherst is in a lively small town. If you are female you could add Smith and Barnard.</p>

<p>Williams is definitely rural, but I would include it because of its strong psychology department, it’s successful track record in medical school admission and it’s interest in candidates with a balance of academics/sports/arts(music). Need only though.</p>

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<p>A college friend of mine did an interdisciplinary humanities major with a concentration in Persian, then went to Yale med school after a gap. If necessary, you can push off some of your pre-med courses to summer programs (though you may need that time for work.)</p>

<p>The Kiplinger’s “best value” site is a good resource for evaluating cost and financial aid prospects.<br>
([Best</a> Values in Private Colleges, 2010-11](<a href=“Kiplinger | Personal Finance News, Investing Advice, Business Forecasts”>Kiplinger | Personal Finance News, Investing Advice, Business Forecasts))</p>

<p>Below are 10 LACs from the Kiplinger list that might interest you. All are urban/suburban colleges. Barnard is a women’s college (affiliated with Columbia U); the rest are co-ed. They all have pretty much the same academic programs. However, Amherst has an “open curriculum” (few or no course requirements); Colorado College operates on an unusual one-course-at-a-time “block plan”. Amherst, Pomona/Claremont McKenna, and Swarthmore/Haverford are all part of college consortium groups, which multiplies the range of courses available to you.</p>

<p>Value rank…name…% admitted…cost…avg need-based…avg merit…% getting merit…avg debt
1 Pomona…15% $54,010 $34,674…$0…0%… $10,592
3 Swarthmore…16% $54,400 $35,033…$39,260…1%… $18,739
10 Amherst…15% $55,098 $39,675…$0…0%… $12,843
11 Colorado C…34% $50,498 $30,672…$13,573…12%… $18,349
12 Haverford…26% $56,544 $35,416…$0…0%… $16,238
18 Claremont MK…17% $56,505 $30,891…$13,266…12%… $10,280
19 Macalester…43% $52,407 $28,793…$7,347…13%… $19,649
32 Barnard…28% $56,712 $33,617…$0…0%… $14,617
36 Rhodes…45% $46,510 $22,182…$16,711…19% …$24,946
47 Reed…43% $54,780 $32,548…$0…0%… $16,910</p>

<p>Your choice of college should have little or no bearing on med school admissions (except to the extent grade inflation/deflation may be a factor). Students with equal GPAs and MCATs selected randomly from all these schools would probably have roughly equal admission chances at most med schools.</p>

<p>As a major, I would recommend biological anthropology if you like science and cultural studies.</p>

<p>I believe (can’t remember where I saw the stat) that approximately 40% of med students were non-science majors, so it’s quite common to major in something else. And no, it’s not hard to graduate in 4 years, but it might prevent you from studying abroad if you don’t plan your schedule carefully.</p>

<p>I plugged rough estimates into a financial aid calculator (Pomona’s). I was still left with about 24k family contribution. That’s still a serious problem, but if necessary, I think my parents would rather I go to a good college and accumulate some debt.
Would it cost considerably less to go to college in my home state? In Minnesota, Carleton and Macalester are two great LACs. Do they have the sort of programs I’m looking for? Also, I’ve heard University of Minnesota Twin Cities has a really good psych program.</p>

<p>Carleton and Macalester are excellent LAC’s but they are private so they will be priced accordingly. You may want to consider St Olaf as a possibility where your grades may help you qualify for some merit awards. University of Minnesota is an excellent university and the tuition is a great deal. Good luck to you.</p>

<p>You and your parents will need to decide what you mean by “some debt”.
Federal student loans have strict limits. See the chart on the following page for details:
[Student</a> Aid on the Web](<a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/studentloans.jsp]Student”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/studentloans.jsp)</p>

<p>$23K is the aggregate limit on subsidized, direct Stafford loans. Notice that for 9 of the 10 schools I listed above, the average debt at graduation is below this limit. So let’s say you hold student loans to $5K-$6K/year, max (an amount YOU commit to repaying after graduation). Is your family able and willing to pay the balance of $18K-$19K per year out of current income? If not, are they able and willing to make up the difference somehow (for example, by taking out a home equity loan)? There should be a realistic plan (one that doesn’t involve your mom working until she’s 90, selling your little sister into slavery, or winning the lottery).</p>

<p>Thanks guys, I realized there’s a lot more to the college search than the academic fit. I’ll definitely take into consideration everything that’s been said.</p>

<p>silveralpaca123,</p>

<p>If you spend some time reading through the threads in the Financial Aid Forum and the information at [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”&gt;http://www.finaid.org]FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans<a href=“better%20yet,%20get%20your%20parents%20to%20read%20all%20of%20this%20too”>/url</a> you will be better prepared to deal with the financial side of matters. You have good grades and test scores, by choosing your college/university list carefully, you should be able to find decent merit-based aid.</p>

<p>Look at Holy Cross-great pre-med program and nice campus near Boston.</p>

<p>I’m an Ursinus grad. They have a good rate of acceptance into med schools. There are also a CTCL school. I recommend you check out some of the CTCL schools. With your stats, most would provide merit.</p>

<p>To me, Rhodes is a top choice for someone with your interest. In the city of Memphis, near St Jude and all the wonderful internship/volunteer that offers and a LAC.</p>

<p>My 11th grade son prefers LACs, but he is open to explore Honor’s Colleges within larger universities. For our family, Alabama is a top choice because of the guaranteed Presidential Scholarship (free tuition) with a 1400 SAT M/CR and 3.5 GPA. Natl Merit is practically a full ride and laptop or tablet. Building a list from the base up is our strategy. We are in a similar financial situation as your family – $20-$25k/year when I run the calculators + 1 parent whose job is unstable + 2 younger siblings. Building from the base up is helping me stay calm and helping son keep his list to a reasonable number of schools.</p>

<p>A couple points about pre-med:

  1. All programs steer students into the same set of required pre-med courses
  2. The only factors that directly, seriously affect your admission chances are your grades ad MCAT scores</p>

<p>Different colleges do have different med school admission rates, but for the most part, that only reflects differences in the percentage of applicants with high GPAs and scores, and where they apply. Grade inflation/deflation may be a factor at some schools, but presumably the admission committees know how to adjust for that.</p>

<p>Therefore, I don’t think the quality of the pre-med program needs to be a significant concern in differentiating among similar, peer schools. The quality of pre-med advising may deserve to be a minor factor (if you think that might make a difference to you). Proximity to hospitals and work/internship/research opportunities may deserve to be a more significant factor.</p>

<p>Here are a couple of somewhat dated links with good merit info:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;