My son is having a blast at Bama. He turned down “better” schools to go there.
The auto-merit scholarship got him to visit and the visit sealed the deal. He’s thanked me for pushing him to apply there and says he loves it.
The only things he misses are a city (he really wants to be in a city, and Tuscaloosa ain’t it) and the true fall/winter of PA, where we live. He’s super busy with his classes (he is double-majoring and double-minoring), working, has a few activities outside of class that he loves, and there’s that whole football thing - which, I mean, I’m a Gator for life but I have to admit it’s pretty impressive.
You stated that you want to be able to push yourself. You will be pushing yourself a lot if you are premed at a SUNY school (or any school). Please do not take this the wrong way, but there will be students in your classes (at SUNY and others) who were stronger HS students than you (NOT suggesting you are a weak student).
Given what you reported about your mental health, I worry about your ability to handle the accomplishments of your college peers. Right now your mental health should be your priority. You appear to be struggling, and I do not want this to follow you to college.
Since you’ve mentioned that family members are enthusiastic to foot the bill for prestige, I would ask grandma or your parents to take this money out of their accounts now and put it in a special account for your schooling, so they can see it missing from their account and feel the impact of its absence. That’s crazy money right there. I know several students whose families promised to pay for “wherever they wanted to go” only to back out when they saw how much it really costs. A friend of my daughter’s dad lost his job, and now her friend has had to rely on loans to finish his degree.
My thoughts earlier in this thread have been reinforced by the conversations over not knowing where Amherst is but ruling every school out that has a remote association to the word Amherst because of an irrational fear of future unemployment . It’s irresponsible at best to be making decisions that will eat up that kind of money based on hearsay and irrational rumors.
FYI - There are drugs at most college campuses - even Ivy.
My daughter’s best friend was admitted to UVA, Vanderbilt, UNC but chose a lower ranked state university to do her undergrad because she knew that her 4 years of undergrad would be her last chance to have fun during her educational journey - so she chose a big, fun football school. She received almost every academic honor the university gave out, went on to medical school and is now in a residency at Vanderbilt. No where along the way did anyone pause about where she did her undergrad. They saw her GPA, her academic honors, her clinical volunteer hours, her MCAT score.
Maybe both you and your parents can meet with a school counselor or a private college counselor so you can better educate yourselves on the college process. It’s hard to advise someone who thinks that going to college in the town of Amherst will negatively affect future employment.
Also, the hundreds of successful and impactful medical professionals who list a SUNY as their undergrad (including those in Amherst), would like a word…
I went to SUNY Buffalo and had many classes on what used to be called the Amherst Campus. It is now called the North Campus and is located in Amherst, NY.
I mentioned this earlier, but I have had (and still have) a successful career spanning 35+ years. This included working in NYC hospitals and presenting at my organization’s national convention.
What the OP believes to be true is not based on factual information.
At this time, OP needs to focus on studying for SAT and/or ACT and participates in more meaningful extracurricular activities to stand a good chances of acceptance to her "prestige " schools. She should work with school counselors and her parents to have a list of schools to apply consists of reach, match and safety based on fits and cost.
I still don’t understand the resistance of applying SUNY, especially UB and Stony Brooks, where they have good biology major and offer honors programs, which will definitely help her if opportunities with researches, internships, volunteers and most importantly build leadership skill to help preparing for med school or future careers.
Many posters here have given OP great recommendations and advices. It’s a little complicated or stressful, I admit, but OP just needs to do more research for schools, talks to HS/college counselors and/or visits couple potential college campuses and potentially come up with a list of schools that she will be happy to attend.
You should maybe seek a therapist - if you meant school counselor here.
You can do pre med anywhere and going to a ‘better’ school whatever that means is no assurance of a good job and going to a ‘regular’ school does not mean you won’t get a great job.
Stressing yourself out because a test score was lower than hoped or a gpa was .3 less is - quite frankly - not healthy nor necessary.
For the money you’re right. I had a chat with my Dad on the way to school today- he has no problem funding the 70k a year for high point but doesn’t want me going to a suny, even after i mentioned their superior programs and close location. Lol. And we are not rich
Ive cooled down a lot since yesterday, I was very on-edge over my psat score. I think I was just frustrated seeing other students in the chance/match me being complimented on their amazing resumes and being recommended high tier schools, and nobody told them “oh just have fun in college”
Okay. College peers i should be absolutely fine. Im not used to it, being at the top of many of my classes, but theres a handful where other people consistently do better then me. I hold nothing against them and most of the time we have a good relationship.
The problem isn’t people in-person. Its mainly other people here in the chance/match me threads who are showered in compliments and recommended amazing schools while I worked my self off (other than psat lol) and just get told “go wherever and have fun”
I know you are very successful, this is more personal but you dont regret anything regarding college choice? And what made you choose suny buf over the high tier colleges im assuming you could have gotten into? You were just as competitive when applying? Colleges themselves make your undergrad seem like a big deal
Everyone who is successful in life has stress. If you don’t stress, it’s probably lazy. Ive been in way darker places is my life, this is nothing to me. I have a therapist but she doesn’t help me academically and isn’t very useful at the moment, so I stopped going, but maybe ill go back. I also dont see a problem with pushing myself, but ill rethink that too.
I was also in a very bad mood yesterday because of my disappointing psat but ive cooled down a loy
Ill put it bluntly, he knows close to nothing about college. I love him but he didn’t even graduate college. He doesn’t like sunys for the name, and he likes high point for its lux campus. We had a chat this morning and it didn’t go anywhere so ill send him some facts to back it up.
High Point is not a prestigious college. Its name will not get you any advantage, and frankly, no college, other than possibly a few schools that you are unlikely to get into, would. As for med school, even if you are at Harvard, if you do not have a very high GPA, and a high MCAT score, plus a number of other elements, you will not get in.
So, the family is not wealthy. 250k means something to your family finances. You do not want a city? Then Stony Brook is your best SUNY option. At least apply, so you will have that to fall back upon, when you come to your senses.
Thank you! I study every day now. No more disappointments. What extracurriculars do you recommend? Im applying for internships this summer if it helps.
I know its not prestigious, and I really dont see what he sees, ill have a lot of work to do in changing his mind. And yes, I’ll definitely end up applying to Stony and Buffalo, and maybe Bing.
. It’s irresponsible at best to be making decisions that will eat up that kind of money based on hearsay and irrational rumors.