Need Help Finding/Choosing Safety, Match, and Reach Schools!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I've looked through multiple sources to try to find schools that fit into each category (safe, match/target, and reach), yet feel like I'm missing key pieces of info and feel like my searches are limited to only certain databases of colleges.
I'm interested in finding undergraduate schools that satisfy these conditions (which are semi-flexible):</p>

<p>-MUST offer good pre-med OR pre-health
-MUST offer engineering (as a major/minor/etc ... as long as the school has a very good science program that includes biology & engineering :D)
-preferably an undergrad class size greater than 2,000, less than 15,000 (ideal size maybe around 5,000-8,000).. but this isn't as important
-has focus on the undergraduate experience (example: Dartmouth College; which places their undergrads' needs over those of their graduates)
-preferably a campus that isn't in the middle of nowhere ... although the fact that it's a campus usually means even in rural settings, there are interesting things to do
-geographical location isn't important .. it does not matter if I am close to home or not, although I do enjoy warmer weather ... (but I'm a New Englander so I CAN tolerate odd temps if the school is worth it)</p>

<p>My academics:</p>

<p>-I'm a senior at a small New England high school (total students < 800, my class ~190)
-My school's highest grade is an A (no A+)
-we have a 4.0 and 5.0 scale (like most schools), but it is impossible to get a 5.0 because we're required to take gym/health, which are NON honors</p>

<p>-Classes:</p>

<p>Every honors/AP core class possible throughout all 4 years (with the exception of freshman year math, where I was in the advanced but not advanced-honors class).
I've taken in my Junior year: French 4 Honors (A), AP Lit/Comp (A), AP US History (B+), Sociology Honors (A), Physics Honors (A), AP Chemistry (B-), Advanced PreCalc Honors (B). </p>

<p>My senior year schedule is as such (haven't started school yet, so no grades thus far):
French 5 Honors, Zoology (wanting to change that to an honors elective, but guidance makes that difficult), AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics (2nd semester), AP Physics, AP Bio, AP Calculus, American Lit Honors.</p>

<p>-Test Scores:</p>

<p>AP Exams:
Chemistry: 4
US History: 4
English Lit/Comp: 5</p>

<p>SATs (will re-take in October, to be honest I've never prepared for an SAT, SAT II, or ACT ... I usually don't even get a good night's rest but I'm planning on taking the SAT more seriously in October. These are my current scores though...)
Reading: 660
Math: 700
Writing: 770 w/ essay score = 12</p>

<p>SAT IIs
Chemistry: 670
Physics: 610
Math II: 680</p>

<p>-GPA:</p>

<p>weighted: 4.5, unweighted 3.61</p>

<p>-ECs/accomplishments:</p>

<p>NHS (accepted during junior year),
FTC robotics (won the promote award, junior year .. plan to do it senior year, competition in February),
Science Olympiad (earned a bronze in Microbe Mission as a sophomore, silver in robot arm as junior, and gold in chemistry lab as a junior, will compete senior year as well, but competition isn't until April),
Academic Decathlon (junior year),
tutored 15 hours at local elementary school via InterAct (was an InterAct member sophomore year),
student council member,
math team member (sophomore and junior year, plan to do it senior year as well)
Environmental club member (junior year, plan to do senior year),
Took National French Exam (levels I-IV, although only levels II-IV in HS)
Took National Latin Exam (level I) sophomore year, earning second-highest awards; silver and Maxima Cum Laude,
As a freshman, qualified for and competed in State gymnastics meet, won 5th out of 21 all-around, placed 3rd on vault, 5th on beam, 10th on floor, and 6th on bars. My team finished 4th out of 10,
Attended the Student Leadership Training Conference summer into senior year.</p>

<p>-other app elements
*Building a D/C motor for Senior project
*Anticipating great letters of recommendation (I'm fortunate enough to have amazing teachers who I feel really know me and are aware of my leadership experience, etc)
*Finished my common app essay in June, I have yet to edit it but everyone I've shown it to has loved it .. planning on showing it to someone working in admissions at some schools to see their take on it, if possible</p>

<p>I'm looking for Safe, Target, and Reach schools, ALL suggestions are helpful!!</p>

<p>PS: my top reach schools are UPenn, Stanford, and Brown, so any suggestions regarding them would be GREATLY appreciated!! </p>

<p>Thanks!!!</p>

2

<p>Safety schools must be affordable, so have your parents said how much they’ll pay? If not, ask them.</p>

<p>Virtually all good schools are fine for premed. </p>

<p>What area of eng’g are you interested in? </p>

<p>I suggest that you do take the ACT…and practice it first.</p>

3

<p>

Premed is not an offering. It’s a set of classes that you can take virtually anywhere while majoring in any subject.

A class is a single year in college. All but the three largest colleges have fewer than 15K students in a class. Do you mean undergraduate student body?</p>

<p>What is your home state? Most flagship Us have good engineering programs
What can your family afford? Smaller schools are generally private and can cost quite a lot. </p>

<p>I agree with taking the ACT. Some people do better on that.</p>

4

<p>I think that you are the ideal candidate for WPI. They have tremendous grade inflation which is important for premed, but they also have decent engineering but are a little gentler than some of the higher rated schools, and since your math and science scores are not greater than 700, I think this would be a great fit for you. </p>

<p>In terms of grade inflation, as a hiring manager, I’ve seen more 4.0s from WPI than any other school. We think it’s because a significant part of the professor’s evaluations come from the students. We joke that it’s like the prisoners running the prison. This can really work to your advantage though for premed, and I think that you should take advantage of it.</p>

<p>I think Stanford is a miniscule chance.
Penn, while you can get in ED, the engineering school will eat you for lunch. Penn Engineering requires 5 classes a semester every semester. That seems really hard. Combine that with premed, and given your test scores, I think you will not get the grades needed for med school. </p>

<p>Brown on the other hand does not seem like as hard of a school. Maybe that should be your ED school.</p>

5

<p>Assuming no bumps, here are some ideas of small to medium sized schools with good undergrad programs focused on enginnering in cities/good college towns:</p>

<p>Somewhat realistic Reaches (ie, a chance beyond 10%): Southern Cal, Tufts, Virginia OOS</p>

<p>Low Reach/Low Match: GA Tech, URochester </p>

<p>Match (at least 50%): Case Western, Villanova, Rose Hulman</p>

<p>Some slightly larger schools to consider that have tight-knit undergrad environments and strong enginenering programs where you would have a good shot at getting into: Va Tech, Purdue</p>

6

<p>Yes I am aware that pre-med is as set of classes, but I more meant a school where pre-med students do well in terms of Med-School acceptance :slight_smile:
And thanks for the correction, I did mean undergrad student body… oops!</p>

7

<p>Thanks so much for your input! I REALLY appreciate it!! :)</p>

8

<p>Thanks for your detailed reply :slight_smile: and I have a quick follow-up question:
Since applying ED will give me less of an opportunity to improve my test scores/GPA, is it worth the chance that the school Might be more admission-generous than RD?</p>

9

<p>RE: WPI -
At WPI students are encouraged to stretch themselves intellectually, so they are allowed to get a grade of “NR” in a course if they get below a C in it. Of course, you cannot NR a required course without taking it again and getting a better grade, and there are limits on how often you can do this, and you don’t get course credit for it. But it doesn’t kill your GPA if you want to take an advanced course in a subject outside your major. But these NR’s do show up in the transcript if you look at number of credits attempted versus the number of credits earned.
Oh yeah, in addition to biomed engineering they have some good bio-related majors such as bioinformatics and computational biology, biochem, biology and biotechnology. Read more about pre-med here: [Pre-Health</a> - WPI](<a href=“http://www.wpi.edu/academics/prehealth.html]Pre-Health”>Pre-Health | Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
They have partnerships with UMass Medical School, and Tufts Veterinary School which are both in the area…
Check out the new Life Sciences and Bioengineering facilities -
<a href=“http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/LSBC/[/url]”>http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/LSBC/&lt;/a&gt;
And you can apply EA.</p>

10

<p>Schools themselves don’t really make the difference for med school acceptance…</p>

<p>another poster posted this from Amherst…</p>

<p>Amherst College has no magic touch that automatically elevates a student’s chances of entering medical school simply by virtue of the student’s coming to Amherst; no college or university has that kind of magic touch. What does elevate a student’s chances is to go to an institution (1) that energizes and challenges that particular student academically, while providing good teaching and academic support so the student can meet the challenge satisfactorily; and (2) that provides opportunities for accomplishment and leadership in extracurricular areas. Of course the student must take advantage of these educational and extracurricular opportunities - in the end it’s the student’s accomplishments that count, not the name of the institution.</p>

11

<p>Unless you go to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton, where you go has no affect on med school admissions. However, some med schools are biased and admit students at a high rate from the undergrad school.</p>