So in high school I struggled a lot with family problems most prominent during my freshman and sophomore year. With that my GPA is sunk into eternity (2.8 atm). While my GPA my junior year is a 4.0 I’m not sure what to do. So I’m sure that I’ll be able to lift my GPA to a 3.0 by the end of my senior year and I know it’s pretty bad for an aspiring pre-med student but I still want to become a doctor. My ACT was a 30 and SAT 2250, those are pretty high. I have a ton of EC’s and a pretty good essay. But what I’m looking for is all in the title, what’s a good college I can get into with an average GPA with a good pre-med program that I can excel in and show medical schools that I am a great student. (Sorry for grammar and punctuation errors it’s currently 2 a.m and can’t be bothered with caring right now).
What state are you in? With your stats you should be able to get into one of your state colleges and universities. And since there is no such thing as a “pre-med” program, just go there, and do very, very well. Med school admission is all about your GPA, your MCAT score and some medicine-related ECs. If for some reason you don’t want to go to a state school, and you can afford private school tuition, there are plenty privates that will love your scores and accept your high school GPA as long as you can come up with the tuition money.
^Seconding the post above. Also recommend the state school (or cheaper option) of undergrad since med school is pricey. MCAT/college GPA are the most important criteria for most med school admissions.
Most “pre-med” students major in something medical related (bio, human biology, chemistry, etc.) because the requirements for the major overlap somewhat with requirements for attending med school.
Note, that while most pre-meds major in biology, chemistry, etc., others choose different majors. I know a comparative literature major now in her 3rd year of medical school. My own doctor was a music major. They simply took courses required for medical school in addition to the classes in their major. The comparative literature grad told me that during her med school interview she spent much of the time talking about Shakespeare with one of the doctors.
Your SAT and ACT scores are on entirely different levels. Your SAT would be high for some of the most selective schools in the country, while your ACT would be low at these same schools.
You have written your application essay already?
You could look through the colleges on this list: “The Experts’ Choice: Colleges with Great Pre-med Programs.” A few would be accessible to you.
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I’m sure that I’ll be able to lift my GPA to a 3.0 by the end of my senior year
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that is too late. Your apps get submitted fall of senior year. In many cases, only grades 9-11 will get looked at…maybe fall semester.
Your bigger issue may be paying for college since the schools that give the best aid (merit or FA) won’t likely work for you.
What is your home state and how much will your parents pay?
My Parents will pay 0 as I live only with my dad and he makes literally nothing because of social security.
I also live in ohio.
I’m looking at majoring in something to do with physics or math. I’m not sure because I’m not taking my Hon Physicss course till next year so I’ll know once I get into that. So my plan is take that class figure out which of the 3 sciences I like the best, biology is shot already, and if none of them I feel like I could major in then move onto just a math course since I love to do math.
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My Parents will pay 0 as I live only with my dad and he makes literally nothing because of social security.
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Ok…so your EFC will likely be 0, but as I said, the schools that give great aid will not likely admit you OR will not likely give you merit because of your GPA.
There ARE schools that will admit you…BUT…they’re likely not ones that will give you much money and you don’t have the means to pay the remaining costs. If you’re handed a $25k bill, what can you do but decline the admittance.
So…What will your GPA be at the end of junior year?
What Ohio public univs can you commute to?
I’m not sure it’s 2.8 but then average in a 4.0 so probably around 3.0-3.1 I’d assume. The only colleges near me are Wrightstate and University of Dayton but UD is private so basically none Ohio state is an hour away I live in Dayton.
Learn what it takes to get into med school by reading thru the very informative pages at https://www.rhodes.edu/content/health-professions-advising-hpa on the “PreMed Essentials” link. There is also a good handbook at https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/careers/act/gradstudy/health/guide and no doubt many other websites, as well as books.
Asking about “good premed programs” leads many into a trap, since they are told to consider
acceptance numbers. For med school college acceptance numbers are meaningless. Impressive rates boil down to one of two things, great students or screening. It’s no surprise that kids that can get into elite colleges like Stanford or Middlebury do well in med school admissions 4 years later. Or the school aggresively uses their “committee letter” and only recommends the best kids. A regular poster used to chime in on posts like this to recommend one such school, Holy Cross.
Any college in the country offers the lower-division science and math tested on the MCAT. Whether you work work for good grades, get to know some profs so you get strong recs, take part in appropriate ECs, and develop compelling essays is up to you. The best colleges say as much.
The real question to address at this point is not what college, but why an M.D? Have you looked into the medical field and considered the alternatives? From the day you start college it will be 11-15 years before you are a practicing doctor. Its almost a reflex action among HS kids, they think of a career in medicine and its “I’m pre-med!” Doctors are far from the only ones in the health field that help people. Physical therapists, radiology techs, nurses, speech pathologists, physician assistants, to name but just a few. Unless you’ve considered the alternatives and have spent time actually working in a health care setting (which is an unofficial requirement to get into med school, BTW) its better to think of yourself as interested in exploring a career as a doctor rather than someone who has already made the decision.
If you’re near Dayton, you’re near Earlham (in Richmond, IN). You should visit and talk to them. They do a good job on med school placements (n part because the student-prof relationships are so strong), and they might be sympathetic to your “redemption” story, given how good your grades are this year. It may or may not be affordable. But it’s not so far away that you can’t explore it.
@mikemac Well I want to be a medical doctor so I can help others. Physical training and such to me are just boring. I’m about 80% sure that I want to become a surgical doctor of some sort. My sister who is an “elitist” (went to Yale undergrad, Columbia medical school, and now Vanderbilt for her residency) really pushed me on whether or not I really wanted to attempt and join the medical field. Yet I have persisted because it’s something that I m really passionate about. The only two things I can see myself doing is being a physicist or an physician and by far I would rather major in something that I could go to grad school and become some sort of physicists if medical school doesn’t work out.
@gardenstategal I may put that school down on my lists of schools just to visit that are near me during the summer. I really don’t want to stay in Ohio for college just so I can get away from my family drama that has been in my life since I was born. But I was planning on visiting 2 or 3 schools near me just to get a feel of what I could expect for colleges. I was thinking a huge public school such as Ohio State and then a medium private school and maybe another medium sized school.
If you don’t have the grades for med school, it isn’t very likely that you will have them for Physics grad school, either. Physics is also a very difficult field of study.
Each school has a net price calculator on their website that you should run to see what your expected cost of attendance would be. You can also Google the Common Data Set with each college name, and you can see test score ranges and GPA ranges for their accepted students. I think you need a reality check, to be honest. You have a low GPA and high financial need, and possibly divorced parents (if either parent has remarried, many college will look at the income and assets of both bio parents AND stepparents with the expectation that they will contribute to college if they are able). Plus, your GPA probably puts you out of the running for most college that “meet need”. You might not be able to be super picky.
@intparent my GPA isn’t that low. If i keep my 4.0 I have a 3.1~, plus my sat score which is top 99% of test takers. r I was just saying what I would want to do if medical route didn’t work out. And no neither of my parents are remarried. I’m not looking to be picky either that’s why I said average school. I have found a lists of schools that I have looked at some are more selective like 30% range others 60% acceptance rate. They’re Boston University (reach) University of Southern Florida (safety) UD (more of a match than safety) UNC Chapel Hill (Match/Reach) Creighton (Reach/match) Pepperdine (match). Pepperdine is about to be crossed off because their student body is too small for what I’m looking for.
@intparent Also my high school grades on a 7 point scale, so like 93-100 for A 92-85 for B 84-77 for C 76-69 for D 60 below F. If i were to translate my GPA to a 10 point scale like most high schools it would jump from a current 2.8 to like a round a 3 it self then transfer in my 4.0 from this year to average CUM around probably 3.2-3.33. Do you think it would be beneficial to put that on my applications? Or would it be seen as not good.
UNC-CH is a huge reach with a 3.0 from out of state. OOS admissions are much more difficult for UNC, partly because they are one of the few state universities that provide good FA to get in. So OOS competition is fierce.
The rest seem unaffordable. You can’t borrow much ($5,500 freshman year in federal loans, and you might qualify for a few thousand more from a Perkins loan). BU does not meet need – they will likely gap you. Creighton does not meet need either, and they are not need blind – you are less likely to get in if you have a lot of need. Go run the net price calculators for all of those schools --UNC will likely be the only one you could afford, and it is a high reach.
Finances are likely to drive your choices. You need a lot of aid, and your GPA limits your ability to get into the schools where you can get a lot of aid.
You can’t apply to out of state public universities because you won’t get financial aid nor merit aid (you qualify through test scores but your GPA is too low).
Among the schools you listed the only one you could get into is Creighton.
So your choices are instate public’s (you have a shot at Ohio University and if your essays and story are compelling you may get into honors college) and out of state selective private colleges, especially those where you’d bring geographical diversity, plus of course instate privates.
Earlham is TERRIFIC for B+ students who want to go to med school, very successful.
Hiram with its medical humanities program and partnership with neomed is another good choice for you. Since you have good ec’s you’d qualify for some of their merit aid.
Borrow the book ‘Colleges that change lives’ and start reading. Many of the colleges in that book are within reach.
A good alternative for you would be to look into PA programs.