Other special factors: I move around Mississippi a lot: In my senior year, I will be going to my third high school, so I haven’t had much opportunity for leadership.
Type of High Schools: The high schools that I’ve been to are very mediocre and poor, so there aren’t many opportunities
Intended Major(s): Biomedical Engineering
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.1
Class Rank: 4/120
ACT/SAT Scores: 34 ACT
Coursework
AP Euro- 4
AP World History- Currently taking
AP Bio- Currently taking
(These are the only APs offered across the schools I’ve been to)
Dual Credit US History
Dual Credit English Comp 1 (in progress)
Next Year: I don’t know where I’ll be, so I don’t know about the rigor.
Awards
Probably National Merit Finalist, since my score matches other years in MS
National Rural/Small Town Scholar
Extracurriculars
Martial Arts Instructor- Freshman year
Robotics team- Sophomore year
Anchor Club
Beta Club
Marching Band (first chair)
Jazz Band (first chair)
Cross country team (bad at it)
Essays/LORs/Other
I may be able to get recommendation letters from my AP World/Euro teacher and my Chemistry/Physics/AP Bio teacher, who both have stated their willingness to do this. If there is a band program, I may also ask my current band director. If they only allow recommendations from the school I go to senior year, that isn’t good.
I think I have pretty good essay topics available, such as struggling with moving around/my autism. I also have good sources available for editing and I have always been a good author.
Cost Constraints / Budget
*My parents used the Mississippi MPACT college fund, which pays 290.58 per credit hour, or the current average in Mississippi tuition and fees. I will have to pay for room and board/food myself. Our financial situation is very unstable so I can’t currently give the best estimate of EFC, since there’s a good chance income will plunge this summer.
Current EFC- $8,000-$10,000
*Money will be tight for at least next year since my dad is losing his job in June and the field he works in is very saturated
Schools
I’m not completely sure, and I’m not too knowledgeable about financial aid, but some on my list include Mississippi State, Ole Miss, UVA, UAB, Johns Hopkins, Georgia Tech, Duke, and Stanford
I don’t know too much about schools, and my high school career has been really hectic and hard, so I’m probably not getting into any Ivies, but it doesn’t hurt to get an estimate. I don’t really care about if a school is rural or in a city, as long as it’s safe.
What I want in a college
Research Focused
ABET accredited in Biomedical engineering
Preferably not too far from home (Mississippi) but also out of state
Program that is suited for someone aiming for a PhD
Provides good merit aid and/or National Merit Finalist scholarships
A medical school would be good since it might lend more medical research opportunities
I want to go into pharmaceutical research after my BME program, so it would be good if they had something in that category.
Maybe look at Questbridge? NMF should be a big help.
You might also get a slight geographical bump being a high stat student from Mississippi. Maybe not at Stanford that gets applicants from all over the world. Maybe Rice, WUSTL, or Lehigh.
Would you consider majoring in something similar like biophysics? That could widen your opportunities.
Georgia Tech most likely won’t be affordable unless you win Stamps. It’s extremely competitive. Good luck.
You sound like the type of student many schools would love to have considering your grades/scores even with multiple moves.
Definitely look into Questbridge. I like your list otherwise. If you want to give it a go, try U Penn (different than Penn St), and if you’re willing to go further north, U Rochester (a very research oriented school that can offer good aid - no guarantee). Both are close to airports fortunately.
Florida A&M - This is an HBCU that has all the engineering programs in Tallahassee (Florida State pairs with Florida A&M for engineering, I believe). Historically, National Merit scholars get a full ride here, though I know that Florida was tightening some of the restrictions recently, so I’d double-check. It also has a pharmacy school, so that melds well with your interests. There are about 7k undergrads here.
Florida Gulf Coast: There are about 14k undergrads here and I think you’d be likely to get very generous merit. These are the details on their National Merit Scholarship, which seems to have a few hoops, but that you could feasibly
get all of your tuition knocked off. With a Pell grant, that would then knock out most of your living expenses, leaving the costs within budget.
U. of Houston: I think there’s be a full ride here and Houston is an amazing place for people interested in medical fields.
Louisiana Tech would give you very generous merit aid
U. of Louisville would give you at least full tuition and I’ve heard lots of good things about their engineering programs. U. of Kentucky might give you a full ride.
I don’t know what the safety is like, but U. of Memphis might be worth looking into as it seems to have a very popular biomedical engineering program (through a PhD) while keeping you close to home.
UT-Dallas would be another school that would give you a full ride.
Vanderbilt would be worth an application, I think. Very generous aid calculations there.
OP-- you don’t need to major in biomedical engineering if your goal is pharma research. Pharma research is an interdisciplinary field, and there are well respected folks in the field who majored in applied math, chemistry, biology, i.e. majors that will be available at virtually every research university in the country.
So start by focusing on finances. Find an affordable program at a university (it doesn’t need to have a med school- faculty at universities without med schools do all kinds of cool research-- genetics, brain/cog sci, biodome, epidemiology…).
If you’ve had a hectic HS career, you will likely find ANY college challenging-- doesn’t look as though you’ve had calculus, right? And you’ll need to retake a physics course AFTER calculus in college. So start with the obvious- an affordable, rigorous BS.
The graduate school, the pharma-- all of that can wait. You sound terrific!