Midwestern colleges with good merit aid?

<p>Another poster mentioned this before. If you are looking at pre-med with those majors then some Indiana schools may throw you a Full ride with 35 ACT.</p>

<p>IPFW on Stats and an interview. They have a full blown Medical school there. With tight connections to Residency programs. It is more of a commuter school but has a new dorm and a pretty nice campus.</p>

<p>IUPUI you will get the top OOS scholarship for sure and you might get the Bepko (full ride) if you have good community outreach experience. This is where the main Medical School so that is a clear track. Smack in the middle of Indy. Some really like the access to everything. Others like the a more campus feel at IU or Purdue.</p>

<p>Do remember that public medical schools will highly favor instate residents. You do not get residency status by attending college in a state. Do not use attending a college with a medical school as a presumed in to the system. Make the fit, especially academic, of any school your top priority. Do not sacrifice the best academic options in areas of probable majors just to get a cheaper education. </p>

<p>My D got full tuition at UMinn-TC, $20k/yr from Purdue, and $8k/yr from UMich (in state). </p>

<p>I think @wis75 is on the money. Look in-state first, what about Wayne State? They have a good undergrad and Medical School. If you are excelling in the undergrad system at a school that has a Medical School it really helps you get in too.That is why I still think IPFW and IUPUI are good options because I think they give you a bunch of money. MCAT needs to be strong though.</p>

<p>It is free to apply to IPFW and IUPUI so shoot them an application and see what comes back. I think with a 35 ACT will at least get you a full tuition at all places. Probably a free ride to IPFW.</p>

<p>I work with MD’s that have undergrad degrees from IPFW, big publics, privates etc, and from Ivy Leagues. Guess what. They make the same amount of money. Just the ones that went to IPFW have a 150K less debt. In this world of Hospital owned Physician Groups they are all employees. That’s the bad news. The good new is that it is still a great occupation and in very high demand.</p>

<p>If you want to “Practice” Medicine it really doesn’t matter how you got the MD behind your name. As long as you can keep your Board certification you are good to go. And will be a busy as you want to be and earning a great living.</p>

<p>If you want more research, administration or department head positions you probably do need prestige. These folks are movers and shakers but only “practicing” part time. </p>

<p>I will throw in another suggestion:</p>

<p>Creighton in Omaha. With a 35 ACT and good GPA, you can probably drive the COA down to about $20-22K.</p>

<p>The bigger thing is that you could get into the Honor’s Program, with preferred housing, priority registration, etc.</p>

<p>They have the pre-med program extremely well organized there. They get you on track right away freshman year, have a huge, well organized support program, and then you get preferential admission to their medical school.</p>

<p>If you are for sure pre-med, this should be under consideration. Get great grades, smoke the MCAT, and save your money for medical school–you’re gonna need it!</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>^ Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa appears to offer some decent scholarships as well: <a href=“Costs & Financial Aid | Admissions | Drake University”>http://www.drake.edu/admission/undergraduate/costsfinancialaid/typesofaid/usfirstyear/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Background: my family moved down South my junior year and I plan to go to college back home, near Chicago. For personal reasons, I’d like to focus on Illinois/Ohio schools, but am open to Indiana/Wisconsin/Minnesota/Michigan.</p>

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<p>@Goodkidsdad‌ I don’t think this student is instate for Wayne State. she mentioned that her family moved south. </p>

<p>OP…what state are you in?</p>

<p>@wis75 is right. Public SOMs HIGHLY favor instate students. Often the only OOS students they accept are the MD/PhD (academic medicine) students…and those admissions are EVEN MORE competitive. </p>

<p>I would not exclude some of my home-state schools since their med schools will highly favor their resident applicants. My son is in med school, and when we looked over the instate vs OOS numbers and his stats, we realized that his chances for admittance at our instate med schools were going to be very high.</p>

<p>Are you a NMSF?</p>

<p>Med school is very expensive, so if you can get most/all of your costs covered for undergrad then that saves your college money for med school. My son’s undergrad cost us very little. </p>

<p>Have you looked at University of Evansville? It is a private University in Southern Indiana. They have fabulous merit aid and a very nice reputation. They also have an honors college. My daughter, with lower stats than yours received about 75% off tuition, all merit. They are so friendly and helpful without being pushy. When she went for her first visit they had her do a personality test (since she was undecided) and she spent 1.5 hours in their Career Counseling getting advice about Majors. They also have a competition in the winter for more merit aid. And they own a castle in England for their foreign study abroad program. You should take a look at them, I think you would be pleased.</p>

<p>Pay attention to the rigor of the various schools suggested. Will the peer group be at the same academic level as the student? Will the courses offer as much academically? Will there be as many top upper level courses in the major, or will all take the only chemistry et al courses available, plus have few options for diverse courses in whatever major is chosen? What about research opportunities? Will the student get the opportunity to be with many students of equal or better ability and be challenged, or will it be HS all over again- tops in classes but not stimulating levels?</p>

<p>Do not try to game the system for medical school admissions. Plan a college at which the student will be happy- a good academic and social fit. Being miserable but spending the least is not conducive to being motivated to do well. Look at what any Honors program/college consists of. I have seen several websites for various schools and they are all over the map. Some require several honors survey courses instead of giving Honors credit for credit for courses that are more in depth in a given field. Some only seem to have limited choices and not for upper division courses. I also am surprised that at some school that rank highly everyone has to take the same general chemistry course- no options for majors or those with more/less in HS.</p>

<p>A private school like Creighton could be an option if they give preference to their grads and give a lot of money as well. But- one has to like the atmosphere, ie it has to be a decent fit.</p>

<p>Beloit
St. Olaf
Knox
Earlham
Kalamazoo
College of Wooster
Lawrence University</p>

<p>Just a comment in regards to several Medical school posts.
It is absolutely not required and not necessary to attend and UG at institution that has a Medical school if the Med. School is in plan. Not at all. More so, Medical Schools do not care which UG an applicant attended. They care about high college GPA, decent MCAT score. medical ECs and somewhat social personality. Also, frankly, I never heard of the Medical School that does not have some residency programs associated with it. Well, we do not know all Medical Schools, but D. just applied to residencies and she has applied to soooo many that we do know lots and lots of them (but NOT all).
So, if the goal is to be in Midwest and attend on great Merit award (which is exactly what my D. did), forget about any Medical School connections, totally irrelevant at this point. Find the place that kid will enjoy while accomplishing all the goals (including Merit award, if possible). After all it is 4 most important years of a very young life. Being happy is important, more so it is very important for success and much more so (I cannot even describe how high it should be on a priority list) being happy is at the very top if Medical school is in plaans. Very challenging rough road with lots of events that will contribute to a rapid maturity and it should go as smoothly as possible. Being at the place that feels like second home will facilitate this process.
BTW, D. attended UG that did not have a Medical School at all. It did not affect her negatively in any way whatsoever.</p>

<p>Warren Buffet went to Grinnell and he has endowed them tons of money. Always look for schools with large endowments. My D was offered a full tuition scholarship at DePauw in Greencastle, IN. For a small school, they have money to give away. Case was not so generous to her, but she ultimately chose Carnegie Mellon, in which she got a near full tuition scholarship. There are many variables that come in to play so just keep an open mind.</p>

<p>annwank, that is not correct – Warren Buffet graduated from Nebraska. He did serve for many years on the Board of Trustees at Grinnell, and his investment expertise helped grow Grinnell’s endowment. </p>

<p>A few people asked- I live in Texas right now. However, my parents are considering moving again after I graduate high school, so I’m not sure how that will affect things.
Also, I am a NMSF… Just curious, how does that affect things?</p>

<p>oops my bad. Sorry. Buffett actually started at UPenn and then transferred to Nebraska. </p>

<p>Bunhead mom’s list is a nice list of quality midwest LACs, I’d add Grinnell. Do the research on National merit and scholarships for those schools along with their regular merit scholarships. For the LACs you can generally find out what percent of the kids went on to medical school. Then target a couple states and pick some of the big 10 schools that interest you and research their national merit and regular scholarships. Look at Chicago and DePaul and Northwestern if you want proximity to Chicago. Look at Miami of Ohio. Eliminate what doesn’t interest you for fit and merit and you should have a tidy list. I would not factor your parents moving as for most of the Big 10 schools you’ll still be considered out of state and it won’t matter for the privates. </p>