Demographics: current Straight white junior male from Texas
Type of school: Large Public competitive HS
Hooks: none
Intended Major(s): Biology on a pre-med track (hoping to eventually go into family medicine)
(These will be my stats when I apply in the fall next year)
SAT: 1500 (math: 760, EBRW: 740)
GPA: unweighted is 3.89, weighted is 5.0 on a 5+ scale (My school gives an extra point for honors, and then two extra points for AP/Dual Credit), ranked 41/1087 (top 4 percent).
Coursework:
6 APs: Human Geography, World History, Statistics, Chemistry, Physics 1, Calc BC
4 Dual credits: American History, English Language and Composition, World Literature, US Government and Politics
9 Honors: English 1, Algebra 2, Biology, Chemistry, English 2, Spanish 3, Pre-Calculus, economics, organic chemistry
(I am going to choose to take honors organic chemistry instead of AP Bio my senior year. What are y’alls thoughts on this?)
Extracurriculars:
(I know this is my weak spot)
Varsity Football
Job as a lifeguard for two summers
Internship at a hospital
National Honors Society
Medical oriented summer camp at Johns Hopkins
some volunteer work
Essays: I believe my essays will be strong considering I am a strong writer
LORs: will ask for ones from my AP Chemistry/organic chemistry teacher and AP Physics 1 teacher
This is my list of schools so far
Texas A&M (auto admit but not for major)
UT Austin (auto admit but not for major)
UCLA
University of Michigan
Northwestern
Duke
UNC Chapel Hill
I was also wondering if there were any other schools y’all would reccommend. Should I apply to some Ivy’s? As of now the only school I even semi consider a safety is Texas A&M. Also cost is not an issue at all.
Congratulations on all of your accomplishments! You will be a competitive applicant at many schools, and if there are schools with low admit rates that you think would be a good fit, it certainly wouldn’t be a waste of money to apply. That said, however, that type of school is a reach for even the strongest of candidates…the vast majority of strong candidates will not be granted admission. But those schools will accept some, and you could certainly be one of them.
I would not advise you to take organic chemistry next year. Would it be at a regular college or a community college? Most medical schools will want to see students take courses beyond whatever they did at community college. So if you were thinking of fulfilling your orgo requirement in high school and then calling it a day, you would be unlikely to have success in med school applications.
Out-of-state applicants receive virtually no merit aid at UCLA, so is your family okay paying about $70k/year for a big state school when you have excellent large state schools at home? Even families that don’t have cost constraints will often place a “value” constraint. Michigan is also very stingy in merit aid for OOS students, so that one is about $60k/year. Again, check with your family if they’re okay with the value proposition.
What is it that you want out of you college experience? You seem to have a preference for large schools…have you visited any small or medium ones? How do you feel about Greek life or the degree of enthusiasm for the college’s sports teams? Do you prefer urban/suburban/rural environments? Are there areas of the country that you’re particularly interested in (or interested in avoiding)? What kind of climate are you okay with? Are there interests that you want to pursue in college (new ones or continuing some from high school)?
Also, what kind of environment do you do best in? A place where you’re among the top students and where opportunities are frequently presented to you because of that? Or do you do better in a place where everybody is an all-star and you have to continuously hustle to keep up and try to grab opportunities? Some people do better in one or the other, and that can also influence recommendations.
Additionally, do you do better in smaller classes where the professor knows if you’re there (and what additions you make to class discussions), or do you do better with the anonymity offered in a larger class?
If you would like to explore a greater range of college environments, you may want to consider purely undergraduate-focused schools. Academically, you are within range for most of the NESCACs, for example.
LORs: will ask for ones from my AP Chemistry/organic chemistry teacher and AP Physics 1 teacher
My suggestion…don’t use two science teachers for your LOR. Pick the second one from some other area.
This is my list of schools so far
Texas A&M (auto admit but not for major)
UT Austin (auto admit but not for major)
UCLA
University of Michigan
Northwestern
Duke
UNC Chapel Hill
Except for the two Texas colleges…this list is VERY top heavy. Many many very high achieving students apply to these colleges every year…like you. These schools simply don’t have spots for all of them to be accepted.
Someone else will need to clarify…but how hard is it to become a biology major at the two Texas colleges where you are auto admit?
You can major in biology at just about any college in this country (arts conservatories excluded).
If you are happy with attending the two Texas colleges where you are auto admit, then apply to a bunch of reaches and see what happens.
It sounds to me like you are not happy to attend either of the colleges in Texas. Why is that?
As long as you have a balanced list (current list is much too reach-heavy, as the other commenters have noted), you will get into plenty of good schools with your excellent profile.
I think you should take AP bio instead of honors organic chemistry. This is not because I think the credit is important one way or the other. It’s because the content you learn in AP bio will give you a good start in your bio major. I would also advise any bio major to retake bio in college regardless of their score on the AP test. First year bio can be a pretty challenging class, and the content is so foundational that it will pay to have it drilled into your brain repeatedly. Have you taken the AP chem test yet? If so, how did it go?
Ok since cost is not an issue at all, as you say, I would ditch that entire list. The state schools are good but you want to go somewhere where you will stand out - you will not as a biology major at those schools. Too many people, less than optimal advising. Common major, lots of people competing for clubs, internships, research, etc. You’re unlikely to get into the rest on your list, and if you do, it will be difficult for you to rise to the top at those schools.
Look at/ add out of state publics in the adjacent states like Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi. Try for the honors colleges at those places. Having honors gives you a bump in med school applications and being in honors will give you access to perhaps better/smaller classes and research opportunities that you won’t get at other schools. When you apply to med school, there is an instate preference for pretty much all states and some schools will flat out tell you don’t apply unless you’re instate. But many make an exception if you are an undergraduate in that state - you’ll have to look at each med school to see their requirements. So that will give you more options that you can apply to when med school application time comes about.
And ditch the OChem. Take AP Bio. It’s a weeder class in college and many in that class will have taken AP Bio in high school. You will have not so you’re already behind in the class (regular Bio is nothing like AP Bio or what you will see in college). Don’t fall behind and get a B in Biology because you weren’t as prepared as many (most?) that are taking the class with you. Get the As in Bio and Chem your freshman year, which will give you some breathing room for OChem the next year. You can prepare for OChem between freshman and sophomore year by reading Organic Chemistry As a Second Language over the summer.
There are so many schools. You need to make some visits and decide on things you would like-size, location and such. You will be competitive, but so will many of the students applying to the schools on your list. Make sure you apply to some true safeties where the admit rate is great than 60%. Since you seem to be ok coming east, maybe look at some competitive smaller schools such as Wake Forest, William and Mary, University of Richmond. They are selective, but not as impossible as Duke and the Ivys.
To start, you should plan to budget for a full 8 years of university, where the last 4 are going to be quite expensive.
By the time that you get to medical school is could very well cost $100,000 dollars per year. If we figure four years of this, plus four years of undergrad at a private university (perhaps $85,000 per year) then we are talking about a total cost of at least $740,000 over 8 years. Can you do this with no debt at all? (I will assume the answer is yes and drop the issue unless I hear otherwise).
Some public facing experience is valuable for someone who wants to go into medicine.
Again these are very good ECs for someone interested in medicine.
The first thing to think about is safeties. Texas A&M has a very good medical school. It would be very solid school for you to attend as a premed student. If you are sure that you will get in and if you are sure about getting your intended major then it would be a very good choice. UT Austin is also a very good school. Given how good these schools are, I am okay with the rest of your list being reaches as long as you are confident of getting your intended major at your safeties. If not, I would add another safety.
It is not obvious to me what the out of state public schools on your list have that you would not get at the two Texas public universities on your list.
I think that this is worth commenting on. My wife and both daughters all had majors that overlapped with premed requirements. As one example, all three of them took organic chemistry in university. My wife says that it was tough and the only C that she ever had in her life. My older daughter said that it was the toughest B- that she ever had in her life. My younger daughter waited until junior year of university to take it. At that point she was very well prepared, had done well in the prerequisites, and said “what’s the big deal” and “organic chemicals fit together in ways that make logical sense”. We occasionally see posts on CC from students who are freshmen in university, are taking organic chemistry, and are suffering. They worry about what this will do to their chances of getting accepted to medical school.
My point is that you will be a stronger student as a junior or senior in university than you are now, or than you will be as a freshman in university. You will find some premed classes in university that are tougher than anything that you have seen up to now. You do not need to rush ahead. Instead plan to take the required premed classes over the full four years of your undergraduate studies. For now, just take classes that make sense for you.
As such, I do not think that you need to rush to take more AP classes in high school. However, if you take honors organic chemistry next year, I would not rush to take organic chemistry again in university. Instead I would pace out the university classes, and plan to take the most difficult ones when you are solidly ready.
In terms of applying to some Ivy’s, or Johns Hopkins, I think that this depends upon what you want to do. The top schools get a higher percentage of their undergrads into medical school, but quite a bit of this, some might say all of this, comes from the level of student who gets accepted to the top ranked universities in the first place. Someone who is capable of getting accepted to Harvard out of high school is likely to have the work ethic, study skills, brains, and whatever else it takes to have a good chance to get into medical school regardless of whether they actually attend Harvard or their in-state public universities.
Up to now I think that you are doing very well. I think that you can get a very good premed preparation at any university on your list, or any one of at least 100 other universities in the US.
And I have wondered whether you should consider adding Rice or maybe Baylor to the list.
@ieubviuwbrvuib Your list is highly competitive. Have you looked at University of South Florida’s guaranteed interview program for Morsani Med School? You will be a shoo in and save a ton of money!
Thank you so much for all of your comments! I’m not considering baylor because I’m not really a fan of religious schools. The thing with the organic chemistry class is that it is not a dual credit class or college class. It is just a highschool course that they teach so I would have to take it in college regardless. With that being said, my teacher claims every student who has taken this class gets an A or high B in their college o-chem class. However, I want to major in Bio and I would be sacrificing AP Bio for this. Also I love TAMU and UT and honestly could potentially see myself choosing one of the two over more prestigious universities that are out of state.
Both TAMU and UT most of the time are the two college’s everyone in Texas tries to get into. Both have great pre-med programs and med schools. I am still in between a college town and a city as of now, but they both have that. TAMU has a nice college town, outstanding football atmosphere, and good opportunities for the college experience, clubs, and involvement. UT has the same thing except it’s in a city and not a college town. Also I grew up in a UT familly lol.
Also, TAMU will roll out acceptance starting in late September. If I don’t hear anything by early October of next year, I plan to apply to the University of Arkansas and the University of Oklahoma as safeties. I also plan to get my TAMU application in by mid august due to their rolling admissions.
I do plan to pledge (However if it affects my studies I will drop it). I would prefer a bigger campus (at least 20-30k students). I do not want to attend small liberal arts schools with only 5,000 students. I would prefer a college town, but I am totally open to city schools. I just want a sense of a campus at that city school.
In another post, you say you already got into A&M, your major is finance, your SAT is 1310 and your Johns Hopkins course is in business, among other discrepancies.