Looking for a good fit, pre-med in the Northeast

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi!</p>

<p>I am a senior, currently searching for a right college, applying from outside the US (international, but a US citizen as well = eligible for domestic financial aid) so I'd like to ask you for some insider's advice. Not living in America I don't really have any opinions about colleges and lacking all that knowledge, it's hard to find a fit by myself.</p>

<p>Here's what I am looking for (in order of importance)
1. Strong pre-med program (eg. high med school acceptance, volunteer opportunities etc.)
2. Location in NY/NJ/PA/IL/OH/MA/CT
3. Good Financial Aid / low cost of attendance
4. Small or mid-sized
5. Good reputation
6. Near (or in) a mid-sized - larger city</p>

<p>And something fitting my stats:</p>

<p>My SAT:
CR: 610
M: 650
W: 690
(1950)</p>

<p>SAT Subject:
Biology M: 750
Chemistry: 650</p>

<p>It's kind of hard to "translate" my GPA into American, but I guess it could be around:
3.75 - 3.9</p>

<p>and for all the fellow IB students out there, I have:</p>

<p>IB: 43/45 predicted
(777,766 + 3)</p>

<p>Some of my ECs:
Leadership: President of Amnesty International group (11th-12th grade)
Volunteering: Children's Hospital (11th grade)
100+ hours of CS
MUNs, HS Mock Trial (10th-11th grade)</p>

<p>Awards:
International: European Youth Parliament - representing my country (12th grade)
National: School choir competition, 1st Place (9th grade)
Regional: Science Olympiad (Biology) finalist (9th grade)</p>

<p>Recommendations and essays: Really good</p>

<p>What do you think, is there a right college for me out there??</p>

2

<p>[Lycoming</a> College](<a href=“http://www.lycoming.edu/]Lycoming”>http://www.lycoming.edu/)
[Lebanon</a> Valley College](<a href=“http://www.lvc.edu/]Lebanon”>http://www.lvc.edu/)
[Wilkes</a> University - Wilkes Homepage](<a href=“http://www.wilkes.edu/]Wilkes”>http://www.wilkes.edu/)</p>

3

<p>Just curious, but - 43/45 predicted seems sort of out of line with the SAT and subject tests?</p>

4

<p>

You are walking right into a trap and don’t even know it. One thing to avoid is placing any importance into acceptance numbers. Some schools boast incredible rates, but it boils down to one of two things. Either they start with great students (think Stanford, etc) or the school weeds out students. Look out especially for the “committee letter” which small schools with average students coming in wield like an axe to prevent all but the strongest applicants from applying right out of college; to no surprise, they often boast 90% or better med school “acceptance” numbers for their undergrads.</p>

<p>There is an excellent online handbook at Amherst I recommend you read to get an understanding of the process and what really matters

Pretty soon a regular poster will chime in to recomend Holy Cross, like he does with every post mentioning medicine. This will be example #1 of why you shouldn’t care about admission rates. </p>

<p>You should know that Holy Cross will only write a favorable recommendation letter to medical schools for its top students. Applying without a strong letter is futile, so in effect Holy Cross controls who applies to med school. Consequently this lets them advertise a high med school acceptance rate. To the kids who paid $200K to attend Holy Cross and were then blocked from applying to med school, I guess them’s just the breaks…</p>

5

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<p>Your scores won’t be too competitive for most of the 50-60 schools that claim to be need-blind, full-need colleges ([Need-blind</a> admission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission]Need-blind”>Need-blind admission - Wikipedia)). Notwithstanding mikemac’s precautions, Holy Cross is one of the least selective of those 50-60 schools. It’s located in one of your states and seems to meet most of your other criteria pretty well (assuming you qualify for need-based aid).</p>

6

<p>@zobroward thank you for those schools, out of them I think Lebanon Valley would be worth considering</p>

<p>@nanotechnology I understand your curiosity. Although it might sound like looking for excuses, just to somehow clear the situation for you, I have to point out that in my country there is no such thing as standardized tests. Being educated in a completely different system the format of the tests was somewhat new to me, we do not learn how to approach that kind of tests at school. I understand that exceptional individuals whose first language isn’t English (like it isn’t for me) can nail the SATs despite the language barrier, but I unfortunately struggled a little, and wasn’t able to reach a higher score.
The IB on the other hand is something that I flourish in. The format of exams, the curriculum seem to be all working in my favor and I expect (and so do my teachers) to do well. Hence I am extremely dissatisfied with my SAT scores, as I believe they don’t represent my full academic potential.</p>

<p>@mikemac thank you so much for sharing that valuable information! Although I hope will be able to do well in college and earn a good recommendation, I think it’s better to avoid schools that “force” the higher med school acceptance rates in the way you described. The Amherst’s guide was also very informative. Thank you again.</p>

<p>Does anyone else have any other idea of where I could apply?</p>

7

<p>^Agree with the other posters-Holy Cross has a great pre-med program.</p>