Looking for a college with good opportunities for Pre-Med Students

College Search & Selection
1

I’ve been having a hard time finding a college that I really want to go to after I recently got rejected from Tufts in Early Decision. I have been thinking about BU or Northeastern but I dont like how big BU is and not too sure on how I feel about the Co-OP program for Pre-Med students.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

-Prefer small to medium colleges
-Urban or Suburban
-SAT Score: 1450

2

GPA (unweighted)?
State of residency?
Amount of money available for college + medical school?

3
  1. School doesn't offer unweighted GPA but my weighted is 4.5/5.
  2. Massachusetts
  3. Not really concerned about finances as my parents have told me we have a lot saved up.
4

BU has a lot of grade deflation so not good for premed.
Look at Bates, Colby, etc. Very supportive of premeds. Run the NPC and talk about costs with parents.

5

University of Richmond- good collegiate experience, great ties with local med school/hospital.

6

If you can look further away and wouldn’t mind merit:
Rhodes
St Olaf

7

Trinity U in San Antonio (~2500 undergrads) is strong in the sciences and has pretty decent merit aid.

Lewis & Clark in Portland may be worth a look too.

8

Based on your criteria, I’d also recommend the University of Richmond. It’s strong in core sciences, in a suburban setting, and somewhat less difficult to get into than Tufts.

9

If you’re female, look into Bryn Mawr, which appears online by searching “The 25 Best Colleges for Pre-meds,” as well as below as a “most desirable” suburban school.

https://www.newsweek.com/25-most-desirable-suburban-schools-71867

10

Case Western Reserve University

11
  1. Calculating your unweighted GPA should be a simple math application problem. No one outside your high school knows what your weighted GPA means.
  2. Have they told you that they have $680,000 of money for your education ($280,000 for college plus $400,000 for medical school)?
12

“Not really concerned about finances as my parents have told me we have a lot saved up.”

Find out whether you can use any money that you save for undergrad when you get to medical school. We gave our kids a budget. My youngest is attending a university where she will graduate under budget, and what is left will be hers for graduate school. Medical school is very expensive. The most expensive university in the US is now about $80,000 per year, will be more by the time that you graduate, and medical school is even more expensive as @ucbalumnus points out.

U.Mass Amherst has a very good premed program. Since you are in-state it would be a bargain.

UVM is a bit smaller and also has a very strong premed program. The NPC will probably tell you whether you would qualify for a presidential merit scholarship, which you would probably need to make it worth the cost. Burlington is also a very attractive small city.

13

After calculating my unweighted GPA is 3.49, lower than I would like.

My current list right now includes:
Amherst College
BC
CWRU
Colby
Emory
Hamilton
Middlebury
Northeastern
UMass Amherst
U Mich
U Richmond
U of Rochester
Wash U
Wesleyan

14

Based on GPA and test score, U Mass is your only clear target school. CWRU, Rochester, and Richmond may be high targets (but we don’t know your essays, course rigor, LoRs, etc.) All the other schools are reaches, and I would cull that list, it’s too many.

Is this the full list? No safety?

I second some of the suggestions above: St Olaf, Rhodes, UVM, Trinity U San Antonio, Lewis and Clark…are any of those of interest?

I would add Pitt, Miami Ohio, Dayton, Trinity College (CT), Connecticut College. Do you have a GC helping you?

15

Try Baylor University. Their pre-Med track is exceptionally successful. They have a combined program with Baylor School of Medicine and many other health professions institutions and hospitals in Baylor network as well as other healthcare institutions in Texas. Financial aid and merit scholarships are generous, housing affordable and medical colleges in Texas are very affordable as well.

They are pouring in lots of money in research at the moment to gain tier 1 research designation so great time for students interested in research.

16

2nding Pitt in particular

17

It seems your current list includes several schools that are as or more selective than Tufts. Below you can compare them to Tufts by their Princeton Review selectively ratings:

Amherst College: 98
Emory: 98
WUStL: 98
Colby: 97
Hamilton: 97
Middlebury: 97
Northeastern: 97
Tufts: 97
BC: 96
UMich: 96
Wesleyan: 96
CWRU: 95
URochester: 94
URichmond: 93
UMass–Amherst: 87

You may want to adjust your choices a bit as you see fit, or as recommended by local guidance. If you develop a strong affinity for one of these colleges, consider an ED2 application.

18

I agree with response above that your GPA is not a good match for most of those schools you listed. I will say UMASS Lowell might be a good match for STEM.