SUNY schools are for students who cannot get good careers? I went to SUNY and have had an outstanding career for 35 years. I have worked in major NYC hospitals and have presented at national conventions.
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Thank you. I was wrong and immature. Ill do proper research and then make another post in a month or two
You’re right. Ill probs close this thread and make a new one in a few months after some proper research
You need to rethink your attitude. I know that sounds like a boomer telling someone to get off their lawn. But it is well-meaning advice.
Your perspective is not unusual. It is quite common to believe that because you worked hard in high school, you deserve the reward of an elite college. Because why else work so hard?
But here’s the important thing: your stats aren’t unusual either…
There are around 120,000 public and private high schools in the U.S.
Every single one of them has a #1 ranked kid.
There are not spots at elite colleges for all the #1 kids, let alone the top 10 kids. And many many kids’ families don’t have $75k a year to fling at an elite school and end up going to state schools. That doesn’t make them losers either.
The most important things for med school are GPA and MCAT, and then experience with volunteering/lab/what-have-you. Not the name of your undergrad. Organic chemistry is gonna suck at every school, from what I’ve read.
Both my kids went to private high schools. They both ended up at state flagships. They got/are getting great educations. There was a certain amount of “did I settle?” angst from both of them. But the thing their rigorous high schools prepared them for was to learn, to excel, to study, to question, to debate, to write. These things are what will stand you in good stead going forward. These are what you worked so hard to achieve. NOT the US News ranking of the college you end up at.
You are only 15 and are learning about the process. I understand. I would give some thought to costs, as a graduate degree will add on to this. My own kid worked for 4 years and was able to save a decent amount of money before returning to school. Medical school is very expensive.
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I was wrong, thank you
I get crazy crazy anxious about college and my future. Im paranoid about putting myself in a bad situation. Ill do more proper research and close this thread if i can
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I saw above where you don’t like publics? I’m a big public believer myself, though one of my kids went to a small LAC (huge scholarship). But if you like trees, mountains, and beautiful areas, both Virginia Tech and JMU are beautiful. Both schools are large (VT larger than JMU), but have a ton of school spirit and filled with down to earth kids.
Virginia is notably stingy with merit scholarships, but you might have a shot at something. The motto for VT is “so that I may serve” which seems right up your alley. And JMU isn’t a bad deal either (I think) for out of state students - at least compared to some other out of state prices. I don’t know where you are in NY, but most places seem to be within 10 hours of VT and JMU would be 2+ hours closer.
I don’t know a lot about biology/premed - I’m an engineer and my kids are math/econ and Intelligence Analysis - but I linked a couple of options to each school. Feel free to poke around if there’s a more suitable major. Both schools have lots of options.
https://www.biol.vt.edu/undergraduate-advising/Major_Options_and_Minor.html
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Are you telling me that I need to adjust my attitude (I don’t think your message is intended for me)?
If you apply wisely you will not put yourself in a “bad situation.” I know you indicated that your grandparents will pay for college. Will they also pay for medical or graduate school? What if they need their money?
If you save money on college are they able/willing to help pay for medical or grad school? If not, you might be taking out tremendous loans. This is something to consider when you apply to college.
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lol, sorry, for OP!!!
It is possible that the GC chose to work part time. My daughter is currently in a GC program and she researched salaries ahead of time. They are actually pretty good where we live (just my opinion, others may not agree) and there is flexibility in terms of careers (you can also work in industry, clinical trials etc). I just wanted to clarify this for the OP, although like I said she has a lot of time, she did not indicate that she wants to do this specific career, and she could change her mind 10x in the next 10 years.
OP- Keep in mind that these programs are quite competitive (I was very surprised) and It would be in somebody’s best interest to attend a college where they can do very well. The same holds true for medical school.
I am only saying this because you expressed an interest in genetics. There are many ways to work in this field if that is what you decide to do down the road.
Can grandma put aside 900k for your education? Cause that is what you would need. 360k for private college, and prob over 500k for med school 6 yrs from now. Add Stonybrook, albany, binghamton, and genesco to your list, unless grandma is so wealthy that 900 k means nothing to her, and wouldnt be missed by her heirs.
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I know excellent scientists who did their undergraduate work at SUNYs. I personally know biomedical professors who work at Stonybrook who are considered titans in their fields. They do not have s****y shack labs and people are lucky to work with them.
There are amazing, brilliant scientists to be found at all types of institutions. Yes, there is cutting-edge research happening at a ton of universities that your family doesn’t respect. I don’t expect that you understood that, but now you do! The SUNYs are wonderful for pre-med and biology, so please identify the one you like best to have as a safety when the right time comes.
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Okay, I’m going to repeat myself for your benefit. The regular posters know my opinion of SUNY’s.
Our eldest daughter, had a 4.0, was accepted at the top UC’s, had Harvard interviews but was cut after her 3rd interview. Was she bummed? Yes and no. She gets over things really quickly. She was accepted at Yale, but hated the campus and snootiness.
She was also accepted at USC and Johns Hopkins for Bio and “pre-med”. She chose to go to SUNY Buffalo because they had a program whereby, if she maintained a 3.5 undergraduate GPA, she would benefit from a physician partnerships program with free MCAT study sessions and upstate NY medical schools volunteer placement. That’s why she chose to attend SUNY Buffalo.
We live in California.
UCSD is right down the road, and we would have gladly paid for it, and she chose to go to a SUNY school. It was cheaper for us because she got a FULL ride. So when you berate the school, you are unintentionally berating people, like our daughter who worked her butt off in high school academics and attended a SUNY school.
NOW, I get bragging rights:
She changed her major to Electrical engineering and Computer Software. They call it EECS (“eeks”) at Berkeley (where her best friend attended with the same exact major!) and the UC’s. It’s a not a double major out here. The UC’s are on a quarter system, so it goes really fast and a lot of students drop out of the major. Yes, Berkeley students do drop out of their majors.
Her employer offered to pay for her Masters Degree at USC or Johns Hopkins. She was too busy working to go to class so she decided to forego the MS. She is making enough money to afford to buy property to live in the most expensive city in the nation (San Diego).
So, I’m sorry that your opinion of the SUNY’s is so low. My husband and I believe that they are vastly underrated.
Edited to add: It took her 5 years at Buffalo to complete the EECS degree. She is killing it going up the corporate ladder. She is really good at training younger engineers, so much so, that her previous trainees often request to be on her projects. For a time, she and my husband worked at the same location, but for different projects, and never saw each other. His colleagues, who worked with her, would comment to my husband about her strong performance in her work. She was eventually head-hunted by another firm and is now a project manager who hires and trains EECS employees.
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OP I said this before but it is worth repeating. One of my kids attended a SUNY school and then attended an Ivy for grad school. Her advisor commented that she was very well prepared.
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This is exactly what my kid hears all of the time. That she is well organized and has a strong core of knowledge and preparation.
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OP- you sound terrific. A terrific student, a great person, and you’ll be an asset to any college which is lucky enough to get you.
There is one detail in your profile that concerns me- that you’re “only” 50% in math? What does that mean?
If your foundation in math is weak, you’ve got time to fix it. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to become a physician- but you DO need to be strong-- across the board- geometry, algebra, calculus, statistics-- for a med school application. And if you aren’t a strong math student now, you will find college level chemistry very, very challenging (it’s a weed out class at many colleges, and many strong students discover their math skills aren’t up to snuff when they get there). Understanding any clinical trial, evaluating whether a patient will benefit from a proposed treatment- these are all giant (and potentially life-ending) word problems which you’ll need to learn to solve down the road. Which require a strong foundation in math.
One tip- stop talking to your friends about college! Talk about Taylor Swift, talk about politics, talk about the weather. But you are going to drive yourself crazy if you are getting input on your education from other HS kids. They don’t know what they don’t know, but they sure have strong opinions.
You clearly take your education seriously. So get input from your guidance counselor, other savvy adults in your world. Have you ever spoken to your own doctors about your interest in medicine? That’s a good way to get a professional’s perspective on “what counts” in college.
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Thank you! Will check them out
Thank you, I’ll remember that
Ig ur right lol esp since they dont take it as seriously as me.
As for math, im not bad. Im just not great at it. I have a 93 in pre calc rn. And physics is mainly math-based, and im doing really well with a 99. But i was pretty bad with geometry and trig, like 80s bad. Ill try and work on it