Demographics: Rural community, US citizen, middle class family
US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student: US domestic
State/Location of residency: NY
Type of high school: Rural Public, noncompetitive
Gender/Race/Ethnicity: Asian American
Other special factors: First Gen
Intended Major(s)
Biology (pre-med track)
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
Weighted HS GPA: School does not weigh.
Class Rank: School doesn’t do class rank.
ACT/SAT Scores: Predicted 35 or 36 on the ACT.
Coursework
9 honors classes so far, 6 APs, 1 dual enrollment and a predicted additional 6 APs in senior year for a total of 12.
Expected to take AP Calc BC in in senior year.
Expected 4 years of foreign language.
Awards
A couple of academic awards, but nothing huge.
Extracurriculars
(I feel like I’m lacking in this aspect)
Leadership in 2 clubs so far (member of a few more)
Host/cashier at restaurant
Volunteer at food pantry
Summer tech internship at the school
Junior EMT
I applied to be Junior Rep to the school board?
No sports, though I could probably do varsity skiing? Should I…?
Is it too late to improve here? Will colleges think I’m trying to improve my resume just to improve it?
Mostly, I’m worried that my ECs aren’t strong enough. If nothing changes for the rest of my junior year, will schools like Case Western and Lehigh be a target? I’m also very open to any universities that may be a match.
In terms of leadership in clubs, try to make the club better for everyone who participates (or at least for the great majority of participants). Leadership is not about getting your way. Leadership is about helping others. Frequently other people in the club will have some good ideas and listening can be a very important part of “leadership”.
The “helping others” issue of course also points out the value of your volunteer work.
The tech internship sounds good also.
Continue to do the ECs that you want to do and that feel right to you. Continue to keep up the great work academically. Be aware that you do not need to attend a “big name” university to do very well in life. Think about what you want in a university and pay attention to your budget.
Don’t take 6 AP’s senior year - take 4(5 at most), because senior year includes a hidden, writing-intensive “class”, college applications - and you want to spend time doing well on those.
You can major in anything and be premed. Biology has the big downside of offering few strong professional outcomes, so look into other subjects you’d be interested in.
35 or 36 ACT would be awesome (very rare)
What’s your EFC? (If you don’t know, look up FAFSA4caster).
SUNY Bing, SUNY Geneseo, another SUNY will all be safeties, do a good job and you’ll be invited for Honors College (important, especially as a premed).
Run the NPC (net price calculator) on Skidmore, Colby, Bates, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Lafayette, Barnard, Bryn Mawr.
Are those affordable? Then those would be reachable reaches.
What about St Bonaventure, Agnes Scott, Muhlenberg, the SUNYs? Are they affordable? Then you have your safeties.
Run the NPC on St Lawrence, Fordham, Mount Holyoke, Dickinson: those would be decent matches.
Note: you need to run the NPC on every college since each college calculates your FA differently.
Your list of EC’s are just fine. Depth is more important than quantity.
Since you are considering pre-med, will you complete your state’s EMT course and obtain your certification? For one, the no-nonsense rigor of the EMT course, and physiology section, will give you a good sense of what to expect for your years in college.
And, of course, having your EMT certification and being part of regular-scheduled crew will set you apart from other applicants.
What would you mean by biology having few strong professional outcomes? Sorry, I’m not well-versed in all this. I thought it was a very typical major for anyone going into the medical field?
As for the 6 APs, I understand your point! I just really wanted to finish up all my sciences (AP chem and AP physics being the ones I need). Now that I think about it…probably overdoing it.
Thank you for all the college input though. Definitely going to look into it and run the FAFSA bit.
It is. And since most don’t get into med school* they flood the job market, which has precious few positions to begin with because research-based jobs would require a higher degree.
You can major in anything and be a premed, choose a major with good professional outcome as a Plan B.
*60% med school applicants dont get into 1 single med school. Those aren’t 60% from all the freshmen premeds, but rather the top students from organic chemistry, who themselves were the students who made it fine through General Chem1&2+ General Bio1&2.
As one aspect to consider, premed students at liberal arts colleges such as Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Hamilton, Swarthmore, Haverford and Colgate may benefit from early assurance programs at associated medical schools:
They have a lot of resources for premeds in terms of support, alumni network, etc. and don’t have so many students that want the same thing the way big state schools do; as a result, they dont need to weed them out purposely (which doesn’t mean there’s no attrition, far from it). But most importantly, since you dont attend a prep school or a feeder school, they may not be as well known to you (because they’re smaller, don’t have famous sports teams, etc) so are worth exploring. Finally, the matches and reaches offer excellent financial aid and are need blind so running the NPC would let you kbow the best offers you can expect (run the NPC on, say, Villanova, and compare…) As a premed, finding the ideal combination between fit (in case you don’t get into any med school, like most of them) and the best price (no more debt than the federal loans, none at all if possible)
Some schools factor pt jobs into admissions. Some don’t. Some weight it differently. If you look at CDS it should list admission factors for each school.
6 AP’s senior year is realistically too much.
What type of school do you want? Big, small, etc?
Med schools accept all types of majors, not just bio.
What do you think about a university like Case Western? It won’t be like an LAC, obviously, but it’s a school I’m looking into. Their medical school acceptance rates are 60-something percent.
6 APs may be a bit much, yeah. I’m going to see how well I do this year with 5. I might not even be able to fit it all into my schedule. We’ll see.
As for school size, I don’t really mind. I’ve been looking more into universities than LACs. I’d say a school in a suburban/urban setting. I’ve had enough of rural living for a lifetime.
I know some schools offer a General Sciences degree (or something along those lines). Would that be a smarter decision than bio if I don’t get into a med school?
I was going to suggest Case and Pitt because they’re strong in health professions. Run the NPC to see if they’re affordable.
WVU might be an option. Underrated for health. They have a trauma and teaching hospital on campus. You probably would qualify for a lot of merit. Not a metropolis but not small either.
Case Western is a great choice. Very flexible, excellent resources, great neighborhood, urban.
I suppose you also have Emory and Northeastern on your list?
Do keep LACs on your list though, for costs (as I said, run the NPC) and support.
They don’t need to be rural. Look at Rhodes, Macalester, Lafayette, Connecticut College, Bates, Skidmore, Southwestern, Agnes Scott, for instance (very different environments but not rural).
BTW colleges towns can be better for college students than cities, even if cities are great (Ann Arbor> Detroit, Saratoga Springs>Buffalo…) so don’t just look at how many people live there or if there are skyscrapers, look at how walkable everything is from campus.
However, don’t look at any college’s medical school acceptance rate, since it’s so easily doctored (do they include seniors only or seniors and graduates? MD and DO, or any health profession? Do they even include no-good/for-profit Carribean “schools”?)
Yeah, I’ve looked into both Northeastern and Case Western over the summer. Having the Cleveland Clinic so close to CWRU is a huge plus, and I feel that they have a strong academic program. I’ve visited Northeastern’s campus, and I could definitely see myself there. I also love their co-ops. I think I’ll have a much easier time getting into Case than Northeastern though.
I’ll definitely look into LACs as well. Thanks for the advice.