Hi, I’m currently a junior and I’m trying to decide which colleges I should apply to. I’m an Asian-American female (Filipina). My family’s income is around $150,000.
My parents would prefer that I stay in-state (Texas) since it would be much cheaper but I would take out-of-state recommendations. So far, I’ve looked at UT Austin, A&M, Baylor, UT San Antonio, UT Dallas, and Rice.
I have a 3.7 UW and 4.3 W GPA (out of 6.0). I have been taking all honors/pre-AP classes. This is the first year I’m taking AP classes, and I’m currently in AP Chem, APUSH, and AP English. I received a 1940 (620 W, 630 M, 690 CR) on my SAT (planning to retake) and I’m going to take the ACT in a month.
I’m hoping for a career in health science (possibly pre-med) so I’m looking at colleges with strong science programs and health science career advisors.
I’m not a partier and I don’t plan on joining a sorority so I would like to stay away from colleges that have an extremely strong Greek life.
I have no preference for weather, location, and religion. To be honest, all I really care about is the academics and the student population.
Also, I know my stats aren’t the best but I would like schools that have good merit scholarships.
I’m a bit overwhelmed with all the colleges to choose from. Please recommend a college for me, thank you!
Class rank? Texas publics use rank instead of GPA for most frosh admission purposes.
@ucbalumnus Sorry, I forgot to add that in! I’m in the top 15% (hovering around 14%).
You would like UTD. It’s not a big party school mostly due to the commuter population, but it’s a really nice campus with plenty of opportunities, a nice student body, and a growing reputation. At top 15%, you would be auto admit.
You could check out UNT. I don’t know much about it, just that the music school is amazing. But I do know that they give pretty substantial merit aid to kids with high stats.
You probably wouldn’t like LSU, but it’s on the money trail. There’s a niche for everyone at a school that big.
There’s UH and Baylor as well. They both give out some pretty nice $$$$$. Baylor has the med school thing going on, so ya know. UH has Houston, which is nice. The campus is in a sketch part of town, but outside of that it’s a nice place.
Good out-of-state options (for pre-med) I recommend you look into Northwestern, Amherst College, Colgate, St. Louis University and obviously your Stanford, UPenn, and Brown, though those would require a higher SAT score I think but you’re improving it so you’ll have to see. Also, any reason you prefer out-of-state? the in-state options you have are pretty good.
@ohsomello Since UTD is a commuter school, would it feel empty on the weekends? Also, I heard many students there are super introverted and have no school spirit. I visited the campus a few days ago during spring break so I didn’t really get a feel of the campus life.
@buckeyefan912 The reason why I’m looking at OOS colleges is that I’m trying to find a reach school. So far, my reach schools are Rice and UT Austin. Most colleges in Texas are great though!
@megs1011 oh well I left you some for you to look into, looking at your stats it’s not impossible to get into any of them but gotta work a bit harder on that next SAT, hopefully you’ll go great.
I’ve never been, so I don’t really know. A close friend of mine went and will attend next year and she liked it a lot. She’s the kind of person who values close friendships with a small group of people. Very much an “adventures with my friends” kid rather than a “party with strangers” kid. I imagine that’s the culture as a majority of the people I know going are the same way. Apply that how you will to the culture. I think you’re right about less school spirit. I didn’t peg you as someone who valued that, but my snap judgement could absolutely be wrong. Are you looking for spirit and a conventionally lively campus?
@buckeyefan912 Thanks so much for the suggestions! I’ll definitely look into them. As for my SAT, would 2100+ be sufficient? I’m even aiming for 2200+, if that’s even possible, haha. I have plenty of time to study since I’ll be retaking it in June. Thanks again!
@ohsomello I think I have the same personality as your friend since I enjoy small tightknit groups. I’m not exactly looking for a school with tons of spirit and pep; I just don’t want the campus to feel “dead.” Sorry if this is a little confusing, lol
2100+ is sufficient, yes. Bring up the SAT and definitely try the ACT. It will be best to stay in-state especially if you want to go on to grad school. UT Austin, Baylor and A&M are great choices.
Haha totally fine. There are only three dorms, so you are going to have a very different weekend experience from an A&M or a Baylor. I imagine that after a while it’ll just be a matter of what your friends are doing on the weekend, though. Dallas is a really big place, but the school is actually in Richardson, Texas. It’s about 30 minutes to the center of Dallas. I have no idea where to fun stuff is located in town, sorry not from there. But it’s still an easy commute to a fun weekend. To be honest, I didn’t apply, so my knowledge is limited to Google searches and what my friend told me. If you know anybody who went, I would start talking to them, or head over to the UTD forum on CC. I would also consider visiting again depending on when you went. If you didn’t get to visit in the middle of a school day, go to a class, and talk to some students, that would be a valuable experience if you’re seriously considering the school. If not, skip it and plan a good trip elsewhere.
@ohsomello I already seriously considered this school when I visited because it had such a big focus on STEM. I’ll probably head into the UTD forum now, thank you so so much for your advice!
Is it necessarily to have additional reach schools? If all of the schools on your list are ones you would like to attend (including an affordable safety, which most Texas publics other than Austin should be for you if you can afford them), then you have a good list.
Have you talked to your parents about what they will contribute, and run net price calculators on each school’s web site?
Be aware that medical school can be very expensive, although in-state Texas public and Baylor medical school is much lower cost than most.
@ucbalumnus I think I’ll just stay with my current list. OOS schools seemed appealing to me since I wanted to experience life outside of Texas but now I realize that would be unnecessary and expensive. Thank you for your advice!
Actually, the list given by ucbalumnus shows that you could get full tuition scholarships at quite a few universities out of state. You should apply to a couple of them if you need some scholarships.
Within Texas, Austin College (not in Austin), Trinity, and St Edward’s have excellent records for sustaining premed students and getting them into med school (vs. weed out classes). They should be easy to visit.
Not too far, good merit, good for med school (+ funded experiential learning, ie., research/study abroad/internships/projects) you have Hendrix College.