My bad. I cant find an Amherst NY tho. And I wouldn’t wanna go because of the name association
You would turn down a very good school because of the name of the town it’s in? Okay.
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Buffalo, NY is almost a six hour drive from Amherst, MA. It’s concerning that you don’t seem to do your own research, but merely respond to suggestions with knee-jerk reactions and responses about things you’ve “heard” from unspecified and dubious sources. If you want to be a doctor, this would be a good time to learn to base decisions on reliable data.
You really need to step back from the hyperbole. Your academic capabilities are fine, but your over-the-top rhetoric is causing me to question whether your mental health can handle the stresses of med school, residency, and a medical career. Medical training is not the place for a person who can’t tolerate criticism, bounce back and learn from mistakes, and function in a peer group where other people will inevitably outperform you a lot of the time.
Both Stony Brook at Buffalo are excellent, flagship-level public universities. Many students from these universities go on to med school. There are honors programs that can enhance the experience and assuage the ego problem by setting you apart from the “regular” pool of students, who still have to be very respectable academically to get in. As Parentologist says, apply to Stony Brook at minimum. You can worry about whether your parents will let you go there once you see what the alternatives are and how the costs compare.
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I looked up Amherst ny and couldn’t find anything other than buffalo. Ive never even heard of it and clearly its not all that well known
I think you might be in the classic spiral of self-doubt after looking at other match me/chance me threads. It’s a common problem on this site. My advice would be to force yourself to not go on any other match or chance me thread besides your own on this site until the end of the process. The average student doing those is so ridiculously over-accomplished, and on top of that, those threads often involve OPs who exaggerate or even flat-out lie to boost their egos. So just ignore those… focus on yourself and what you can do. That’s my advice 
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They said suny buf was in amherst. I made a mistake, my bad.
My “sources” are my family, friends, and online sites ranking colleges such as naviance and washington. Sure the first two could be wrong but it doesn’t take much research to see that a School with a 70%+ acceptance rate and high dropout rate just isn’t good. Plus, id feel like i let myself down. Sure, maybe id be at the top of the classes there, but do med schools even consider that? I got mixed results.
Yeah my mental health isn’t great, but its a lot better than what it used to be. Ive come so far- academically, mentally, and physically. Im recovering from a bad mental scar that was the last year of my life. Ill get better and bounce back because ive done it before from way darker places I dont want to go back to.
Yeah, im flawed, I wont deny that. At least I dont lie about or exaggerate my achivements, ill say that. I do have an ego problem, but my family isn’t rich and its not like im super beautiful- it comes from getting myself so far, so it almost feels earned. I have issues with schools and myself, but ill figure it out, im not perfect
Thanks. Ive been advised to stay off the chance me forum so ill probably do that
Thank you! I think thats the problem here.
Thank you! Ill try
I get that neither you, nor your parents want to go to a SUNY. I’m sorry you’ve been so misguided.
I don’t think you remember that our eldest CHOSE to go to SUNY Buffalo because of their “premed program” opportunities for med school, their honors program and even after receiving acceptances from USC, Johns Hopkins, the top 4 UC’s and a myriad of privates (including Yale).
Before sending her 3000 miles away from sand, sun, surf and home, she spoke to graduates of the program at Buffalo. She did her research and spoke with us. We were impressed but had zero family on the East Coast. She decided she really wanted to go there. She later changed to Electrical Engineering because she was very strong in her biomed classes.
This was a kid from San Diego California, who was used to great weather, surfing, volunteering, a strong tennis player (recruited), access to the LA and Bay Area concerts and great Mexican Fish tacos (Rubio’s) actually chose to go to Buffalo.
Not to put salt in your wounds but her stats were a lot higher than yours currently are and she could have easily applied for med school with her background.
I get that you are at an age where you will be emotional about your choices. What I am saying is that you have a lot of growing up to do and it’s better that you start to learn what is really important. Amherst, New York is a neighborhood city in northern Buffalo. It’ was my first visit, ever, to a Wegman’s. The school is not run-down but has some great spots on campus. It was a bargain for our family and she made the use of everything there.
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Wow. She got into ivies and chose to go to suny buffalo? Woahhhhhhh . Youll have to tell me more, if you want. Damn
I’ve clearly been misguided and im pretty flawed, ill try and change
Stony Brook appears to be a target school for you, not a safety. While you stand a good chance of getting in, it is not a slam dunk.
Gpa 4.0
Math 50% 680-780
R/W 50% 640-720
ACT 28-34
I stated above that you should be applying to a few SUNY schools, and I would include UB on the list. I don’t understand the aversion to SUNY. I went to UB and have had a successful 35 year career. I worked in well known NYC hospitals and presented at national conventions.
Amherst NY is a suburb and is not urban. My fear is that you will shut yourself out of colleges (or they will be too costly) because you are dismissing schools as “not good enough.”
I would like to congratulate you on your hard work and accomplishments. I also want to mention my concerns about your mental health and anger over the accomplishments of others. That is difficult.
There are many students attending state schools who were accepted to an Ivy or similar. My daughter is also one of them.
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I also went to SUNY bing and have a long successful career as a private practice sub specialist in nyc. I then went to SB for med school. Premed is one of the few places that were you go makes almost no difference. The cheapest option is almost always the best.
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I remember you from the other day, thank you!
Thank you once again, I’ll seriously consider them all, especially bu. Ill try to improve
She intended to become a doctor and she knew that getting into medical school was almost impossible in California (although our middle daughter did get into UCSF for her med school program).
California is way too, too, overboard, competitive and when her HS counselor (yes, in California), found a brochure about the program at SUNY Buffalo that “almost guaranteed” her admission to upstate NY med schools, our stubborn daughter wanted in. Hopkins and USC wouldn’t guaranteed that.
Her professors at Buffalo, also thought she fit the profile of previous students who had gained admission to med school via their program. That’s why she received a full ride. Because, think about it, what kind of a crazy kid, who already has phenomenal choices in universities and in-state mammoth schools, would choose to go to the land of the tundra (Buffalo)?
We didn’t want her to go because we had no family, friends, acquaintances on the East Coast. She had guaranteed admission at UCSD (Revelle) and it was a short drive there, but she refused to go to UCSD. We got her to go to Admitted Students Day, but she asked to leave early.
She had never flown by herself. She had never been completely on her own. But she’s always been a stubborn kind of kid and we knew we couldn’t change her mind. She changed our minds. She hasn’t stopped since she graduated from Buffalo. It took her 5 years to finish her EECS program (It was a double major), which she would have finished at Berkeley, in 4 years, because they are on the quarter system. Stubborn girl still went through both Electrical Engineering and Computer Software Engineering but she loves her job.
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Thats incredible! Thanks!
This is really concerning. When you go to college, you will almost certainly find yourself among a lot of students who will do “better” than you, as you define it. But most of them won’t be thinking of it as “one-upping” anyone – they are just doing well.
And this is especially true since you seem very focussed on getting into the most competitive college you can get into. These colleges are going to be filled with many, many students who are extremely accomplished.
Please give some serious thought to where you will really thrive in college, and if at all possible, learn some strategies for better coping while you are still at home and have the support of your family. Many students crash and burn at college because they haven’t learned appropriate coping strategies and then they are hundreds – or thousands – of miles away from anything familiar.
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In the past I have advised kids who were good students, but not extremely brilliant very high achievers, if they wanted med school eventually, to go to their local 4 yr public, or the flagship state U if they wanted, because there might be less competition, and they would find it easier to achieve the 4.0 that they would need to apply to med school.
Don’t think that prestige of your undergrad college is going to get you into med school - it’s not. Consider that if you reach too high, and by some miracle get in, you could be blown away by the competition there, and be unable to get the grades you’d need.
And then there’s the money issue. Unless the family is so wealthy that an extra 250K means nothing to you guys, it’s just foolish to pay for prestige, when you have such fine public options in NYS.
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What I was trying to tell you is that if you’re worried that it’s gonna be a noisy stoner druggy dorm, you could try for a substance free dorm. You need a minimum of a 3.0 COLLEGE GPA to stay in it, not your high school GPA. No one with a 3.0 high school GPA is getting into Stony Brook. I’m trying to explain to you that your stereotyped perception of what is your best educational value is wrong, that you have options there that would decrease any exposure to drugs and alcohol and non-serious students.
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This is further than you wanted granted. It’s a 4 hour plane ride I think, but have you considered Baylor? It is a larger University with lots of school spirit/ teams, is Christian, has sailboat tailgating which I think is so cool, has a pretty solid reputation, has a medical school and they can be very generous with aid depending on the stats.