That’s great!!! I do think she will have some very nice options.
Your daughter is a strong student with impressive ECs. The “problem” is that it seems students/colleges are getting more and more competitive each year and it’s hard to predict merit and acceptances. I do think if she chooses wisely she will have some great choices.
The issue with merit is that most people have to go down in selectivity in order to get it. This doesn’t mean that the schools that many get merit from won’t be good, it just means they aren’t as selective. There are strong students everywhere. I know kids at state schools who were accepted to Ivy League schools.
Has your daughter shared with you what she’s looking for in a school? I don’t recall seeing that information. It seems she’s looking for a pretty campus but beyond that I don’t know.
I’m going to throw out a few more options for your family to consider:
Truman State (about 3600 undergrads in Missouri)
Trinity (about 2500 undergrads in Texas)
Butler (about 4400 undergrads in Indiana)
SUNY Geneseo (already mentioned several times in this thread, about 4100 undergrads in NY)
Xavier (about 4900 undergrads in Ohio)
Ithaca (about 4600 undergrads in New York)
College of Charleston (about 10k undergrads in South Carolina)
James Madison (about 20k undergrads in Virginia)
Why did I list all these? Because I think most of these stand a pretty good shot of getting into budget, they seem to be about the size your D is interested in, and they seem to do well in having students earn doctorates in biology, chemistry, or psychology, which (per the commentary from @ColdWombat) would all be key fields with your daughter’s current areas of interest.
Using the data from this site (Baccalaureate origins of doctoral recipients) I only looked at doctorates received between 2000-2018 (the latest year of data available on the site). I included the # of doctorates in each respective field and then divided that number by the total number of undergrads to come up with a rough ratio to get a sense of how prevalent students going to for doctorates in these fields are.
This ratio is not the be-all-end-all data point. But I included the schools that are already on your list so that you can see how the schools I’m mentioning compare. I would not say that any school should be eliminated just because of these ratios, but perhaps it might give you comfort in taking a closer look at schools you may not have been thinking of before to see that they really are producing results. The list is ordered by the chemistry ratio (highest ratio to lowest).
There are a few jobs, but honestly not many outside of academics. Almost all the computational neuroscientists I know work in academic labs. I know a handful that work in other jobs, but those jobs stray away from neuro and use their computational skills for other stuff.
All the computational neuroscientists I know have PhDs. It’s not really an undergrad degree. Most did undergrad degrees in biology and PhD could be in variety of things (usually bio or physiology or neuroscience) and picked up the coding somewhere along the way.
Some computational neuroscientists are heavy on the computation, and light on the biology. They have more marketable skills if they’ve majored in something like engineering or CS. Those are great majors if they interest the student, because they’re employable. They don’t tend to find jobs in neuroscience, though (because there are so few outside of academic labs).
I am an electrophysiologist (a type of neuroscientist), and part of my work involves neural circuits. I’ve done quite a bit of receptor work (that’s membrane stuff). I have a small computational neuroscience component. That would all be considered biophysics, though I’m primarily a neurophysiologist. My major was bio, with a chem minor. My PhD is in bio. I only took a year of physics. I took a ton of cell/molecular bio classes, and lots of chem. I took neuro electives throughout. I picked up a bit of coding along the way. This is probably the most common academic path for career neuroscientists.
On other threads, I’ve gone into detail about why I don’t advocate neuroscience as an undergrad major (too narrow a niche at that stage, etc). It’s fine for people who know they want a PhD, or for pre-meds, but I think bio or biochem are better. But that’s not what OP asked, so this is a tangent
My D22 had a lower GPA, test optional but strong ECs and legacy (although they say that has no bearing, not sure) and got $15k merit and honors college so definitely look hard there!
What is the 75th percentile SAT combined score for Pitt? Teying to figure out if 1480 will be beneficial or detrimental for OOS merit? Looked at a few sources but seemes to be okd data and guessing test optional has skewed results as no one without a 1500+ SAT is submitting. Thoughts?
They used to say you needed a 33 but they don’t say anymore. Mine applied with a 32 after talking to admissions. Got nothing. I think most get nothing.
In the spirit of this is why we drink, one of her friends from her school who just graduated is heading to Rutgers NB. 1470 SAT, got into honors college and apparently received a full tuition scholarship, so now she is interested. Werent even on the radar before, but with Waksman, I would think she would also have a strong chance at honors and merit.
That’s a low score for Rutgers honors college, was she valedictorian? My daughter with a 33 act got zip, tons of kids from our HS go to Rutgers, I only know of one in the honors college. In state students seem to rarely get merit.
I know Miami Ohio was mentioned by AustenNut above. Have you checked them out? It’s a pretty campus and your daughter would qualify for merit aid. And she’d likely qualify for the honors college if that’s something she’s interested in. We know quite a few people there and they all love it.
Her school is a STEM magnet school. They accept about 20 kids per academy each year from the county, so very competitive to be considered. Her friend is in the Healthcare Academy, she is in Biotech. Her friend has very high grades and lots of extracurriculars including HOSA. That’s all I know but lots of kids from her school go to Rutgers.
That has not been my observation. It’s common for a good chunk of students at my daughter’s high school (small magnet school) to receive merit aid, often reducing COA by half.
Perhaps it depends on the high school, out of the 2021 graduating class of 300 there were probably 30 or so students heading to Rutgers, my daughter was 10th in her class and I think all of those going to Rutgers were further down (including her twin). None were accepted into the honors college. However there could’ve been students accepted that went elsewhere.
Yes, could be school dependent. This school has a graduating class of around 70 and typically at least 20-25 seem to get merit. They do have very high stats though.
Hold on- now she may apply? Kids are funny that way.
We have been there twice so far. The first time we only saw the Busch campus. I loved it and have no doubt about their strength in the sciences.
Yesterday we drove to New Brunswick for lunch and saw another part of the school. I loved it!! It reminded me of certain parts of Queens (NY) with the streets and old houses, places to eat. I thought it was great.
You mentioned safety. I felt very safe. There were a few students, families, people watering their lawns etc. I would not walk alone late at night, but I would not walk alone late at night at any of the schools my kids attended. No difference.
I realize kids from NJ do not want to attend. I realize there are prettier campuses out there. But- I also feel Rutgers is way underrated, with smart kids and very strong academics.
