Match my HS junior who is interested in a pre-med or PA and art

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

  • US citizen
  • State/Location of residency: North Carolina
  • Type of high school *small middle college high school (on a community college campus)
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): Female/White
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): No

Intended Major(s)
Neuroscience, would like to minor in art

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.8
  • Weighted HS GPA*: 4.3 (+.5 honors, +1 AP or college)
  • Class Rank: unknown, guessing top 25%?
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1350 SAT, is studying and will take again

Coursework
AP Seminar (4), Comp Sci (3) sophomore year, will be taking AP Lang and Lit
Dual enrollment Bio 1, Painting, Psychology, Sociology, History, Stat, Pre-calc

Plans to take college calc senior year
French 1&2

Awards
Not much here, a poetry award sophomore year

Extracurriculars
Currently,
Youth community theater (in 1-2 productions per season + summer, some lead roles)
SGA, Yearbook

Humane Society volunteer

Essays/LORs/Other Her English teacher is also a club advisor so should know her pretty well

Cost Constraints / Budget
Trying to keep the cost at less than $50K per year

Schools
Applying EA wherever possible

  • Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)
    UNC Wilmington
    U of Cincinnati
    Miami (OH)

  • Match
    NC State
    UIUC
    Pitt
    Virginia Tech
    Cal Poly
    SUNY Binghamton
    SUNY Stony Brook

  • Reach
    UNC Chapel Hill
    CWRU

She is looking for a place where undergraduate research is available and encouraged. Availability of art/painting classes/minor/double major would be a plus. Availability of club/community theater would be a plus.

She is not sure whether pre-med or PA or even law would be something she would pursue, so good advising would be a plus, as well as a good variety of majors in case she wants to go another direction.

In terms of campuses, she has liked U of Cincinnati, Pitt, and Case Western. NC State is OK but kinda bordering on too large. Wake Forest and Davidson felt too small.

Preferences seem to be a more urban or suburban setting, non-religious, Greek life cannot be overwhelming, near water would be a plus. She is iffy to downright no on extreme cold or desert weather. She loves the idea of NY or California. She would consider Canada or UK schools. A collaborative and diverse student body would be great.

Thank you so much for any thoughts on this!

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Look at Rhodes. My daughter’s friend went there for neuroscience and loved it. He’s now doing research at St. Jude’s.

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Cal Poly SLO, Pomona or Humboldt? None of these campuses have a Neuroscience major so what major is she considering? They are also test blind for admissions.

Cal Poly SLO would be closer to a High Math/Low Reach vs a Target depending upon major. Cal Poly Pomona is probably a Match and Humboldt a likely.

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If medical school is the goal, she may want to consider a lower cost undergraduate (e.g. in-state public) to save money for medical school. Some NC medical schools are significantly lower cost than most medical schools for NC residents, but that is still a significant amount of money.

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Has she given any thought to studying medical illustration? Rowan (NJ) and Iowa State would be two possibilities for that area of study that would hit budget before any merit aid and seem to have the size she wants.

Will think more about additional possibilities.

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ECU might be worth adding to her safety list. It’s good for health-related stuff.

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Probably something like Biology w/Anatomy & Physiology concentration at Cal Poly SLO since no neuroscience. It seems impossible to find California schools that would be likely to accept her, be in budget, and have neuroscience. I am thinking California is probably not a realistic choice for her.

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Some possibilities you may want to consider are:

  • U. of Alabama at Birmingham: This is not the flagship campus with all the sorority fame, but this is still a residential campus that is well-known for the preparation for health careers, both pre-med and tons of others. There are more than 13k undergrads here.

  • U. of Delaware: This school with over 19k undergrads has a strong neuroscience department, and one is never too far from the water when somewhere in Delaware. I hear lots of positive things about this campus here on CC.

  • U. of Kentucky: This state flagship with about 22k undergrads also has a popular neuroscience major. There are some lakes nearby, but this one is more land-locked than some of the other choices mentioned.

The next two schools are classified as commuter schools, but I’ve provided the percentage of first-years living on-campus, if that sways you one way or another with respect to their varied offerings.

  • U. of Nevada - Reno: This isn’t in California, but not far from it, and Lake Tahoe is nearby. This is classified as a commuter campus, but more than 60% of first-year students live on-campus. The neuroscience major here is popular. There are about 17k undergrads here.

  • Nova Southeastern (FL): With its location in Fort Lauderdale, there is water all-around at this school with over 6600 undergrads. Again, a popular neuroscience major. This is classified as a commuter campus with 40% of first year students living on-campus. @AmyIzzy’s kid is considering Nova Southeastern and might be able to provide additional insight about it.

These two are both affiliated with the Roman Catholic church, so if no religious affiliation is a requirement, then these can be deleted. But with merit aid (using this resource), these schools could fall within budget, with DePaul more likely to do so than San Diego.

  • DePaul (IL): If she’s looking for urban, DePaul’s location in Chicago is definitely urban. This page provides info on religion at DePaul, including that it has full-time Jewish, Muslim, and Protestant staff for its students. There are more than 14k undergrads here.

  • U. of San Diego (CA): This school of about 5700 undergrads has a very popular neuroscience major. She can be at the beach in less than 15 minutes, and Mission Bay is even closer. U. of San Diego seems more closely aligned with its religious affiliation than DePaul so it may not fit, but its section on religion may help your family see if it would be a fit.

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If she could get into Chapel Hill that would be awesome, but it sometimes feels like every single student in NC wants to go to Chapel Hill and it shows in the acceptance rate.

NC State and UNC Wilmington are more likely and on her list. She would really like to go out of state for a new experience, and I get that so she will apply to at least a few out of state options and see how the numbers shake out.

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Cal Poly SLO’s projected admit rate for Biology is around 13% so I would put this school in the Reach category. For Fall 2022, the Cost of Attendance for Non-residents is listed as $50,541 so a bit over your budget.

With merit, Santa Clara University and the University of San Diego (USD a private Catholic University) could meet your budget with a Neuroscience major.

https://www.scu.edu/cas/neuroscience/

I agree that with an intention to pursue Medical or PA school, that keeping Undergrad costs below budget is a sound option.

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That is an interesting thought! I will have her look into that. At the moment she is mostly using art as a creative/emotional outlet and wants to have more education in it so she can improve her skills. I thought that she could try to combine the interests by becoming an art therapist but no dice there.

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I’m guessing UDel would offer $10,000 a year in merit based on my kids.

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That is a good thought. They also seem to have a great honors program and I know the mom of a couple of kids who go there and are happy. I have a few campus culture concerns but it would be worth looking into more closely and going on a tour.

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Thank you for the extensive list! I think U of Delaware could be a good option for her and am putting that on her list to consider.

I really want her to experience the freshman college experience so probably not considering commuter colleges.

I loved the look of U of San Diego from what I saw online, but daughter is just big NO on any kind of religion in school.

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Another school your family may want to consider is Christopher Newport (VA). It’s a public liberal arts college with about 4500 undergrads, so you’d definitely want to visit to see how it compares with Wake Forest in terms of campus size. But it has the neuropsych major your daughter wants, a small student/faculty ratio of 13:1, and is in a super location for those who like the water.

On a similar note, Salisbury (MD) has a location that is a dream for water-lovers. It’s a little larger with about 6700 undergrads, but doesn’t have a neuropsych major. It does have a number of health-related offerings as I believe the area is the medical hub for the eastern shore of Maryland.

Both are residential campuses.

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I wasn’t thinking about the fact that Cal Poly SLO is impacted AND admits by major, so what college vine was predicting is way off. Going to cross that one off the list.

She isn’t considering any religiously affiliated schools, which does cut out several good and affordable options.

Below budget is definitely a good thing. And if she ends up in state, we have three different geographical regions to choose from (mountains, piedmont, and coastal) so at least it doesn’t have to feel just like home.

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Note: I started this post more than an hour ago then was pulled away. Others have posted in that time so apologies for any redundancies.

Wake is too small but NC State too large… so her sweet spot is mid to large 5500-30k students?
Urban or Suburban
Budget $50k… will she qualify for any need aid or does merit aid need to get to COA $50k?

The weather preferences give me pause but since you say she will consider Canadian unis… which I think could be a good fit budget wise and it is nice how admission requirements are spelled out on their sites… but perhaps not a good fit for weather and size? How flexible is that? Obviously whenever there are budget considerations, there must sometimes be compromises with other preferences. Been there!

I like a lot of the list you have started. Others to research:

Christopher Newport
Elon
SMU

I look forward to following her journey! Best of luck!

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Thank you for those suggestions. I will look into them more and pick the brain of my friend who I found out went to CNU.

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Mid to large seems to be her preference, yes. The campus is quite sprawling at NC State to the point where they were driving the camp kids around in shuttles for various things. I think she would prefer it be walkable size, though I am sure she would get used to having to use buses to get around.

Either urban suburban could work, if the safety is OK for urban and shopping/activities/etc are accessible for suburban.

She will likely not qualify for any need aid.

I was surprised to find that one Canadian university I looked at was located on the same latitude as northern California according to their website, and it went on about how not bad the weather was for perhaps a protesteth-too-much amount.

I would size that weather and size are more flexible than some other preferences. I think that sometimes the weather + location together (terrible weather in the middle of nowhere) are more of a deal breaker than just weather. I think if we visited when school is in session maybe a smaller size school wouldn’t feel so lackluster to her.

Checking into CNU
Elon seems promising especially for their PA program.
Religious is a deal breaker to her so no SMU.

Thank you for the detailed information!

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Thanks for the additional details. I love how you are approaching this process with your D.

BTW - SMU is not religious and hasn’t been for many years, despite its name. :slight_smile: It was founded by the Methodist-Episcopal church but is no longer affiliated and is nonsectarian in its teachings. I would describe its student body as similar to the kids at Wake, but it is a bit larger and located in a large city (Dallas).

ETA: Several nice lakes relatively nearby.

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