Overwhelmed

Student Lounge Hispanic Students
1

<p>My son is a senior this year and has begun filling out common ap and apply Texas (we are Tx residents). The truth is we are overwhelmed with choices of where to apply, why, and where to attend. He is a serious student and has chosen pre-med. Here are his stats - any matches or suggestions will be appreciated. We are now against the clock...with some really great offers from a few state schools but interest in some reach schools like Notre Dame, Duke, and Rice. He is also interested in 7 and 8 year med programs.</p>

<p>Objective
· ACT: 33 composite (36 reading, 33 science, 32 English, 29 math)
GPA - 4.0 (unweighted) 4.5 weighted
· Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): end of junior year 2 out of 135 - moved senior year to different school 7 out of 395 at new schools
· AP/Dual Credit/Honors (place score in parenthesis): Taken all honors. dual credit, and pre-AP classes offered at high school AP this year Bio, Calculus, English, Govt
· Major Awards National Hispanic Scholar, National Honor Society, Future Problem Solver State, UIL District Champ (multiple), UIL Regional qualifier (multiple)</p>

<p>Subjective:
· Extracurricular: UIL academic - Social Studies, Science, Math, Number Sense, future problem solvers, national honor society
Varsity Athletics: Football, Power Lifting, Track
· Job/Work Experience: babysitting younger siblings in summer
· Volunteer/Community service: research assistant for health/fitness school resource (2 summers), tutoring peers in core subjects (throughout school year 4 years)
· Summer Activities: college dual credit classes (2 summers), football/sports conditioning (4 years), shadowed doctor (1 summer)
· Essays: working on them
· Teacher Recommendation: (2) should be excellent
· Counselor Rec: should be excellent
· Additional Rec: MD he shadowed during summer (very fond of my son)</p>

<p>Other
· State (if domestic applicant): TX
· School Type: Public - 3 high schools in 4 years due to dad's career
· Ethnicity: Hispanic (Mexican American)
· Gender: M
· Income Bracket: over $125,000
Parents: Mother, BA Father, BA, Masters
· Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM, attended 3 high schools in 4 years 2 out of 3 schools underserved, predominantly minority, lower performing schools</p>

<p>Any help for matches or fits would be greatly appreciated!</p>

2

<p>Just confirming, will his HS GC mark that he has taken the most demanding classes?</p>

<p>As far as schools that fit your S, what are his preferences as far as things like: size (small LAC, mid sized, large), region of country, city/suburban/rural, social scene (Greek influence, etc.). </p>

<p>He wants to take premed coursework, does he know possible majors? </p>

<p>What about your financial situation? How much can you afford to pay? </p>

<p>I’m not sure how big a part the underserved HS will play due to family income and parental education.</p>

3

<p>Yes the guidance counselor will attest to his taking the most pre-ap/honors/dual credit classes available during hs. The hs school he attended as soph and junior was around 650 students very rural and very under performing academically so he took all dual credit he could from a neighboring college during the school year and summer. This year (senior year) is his first year where AP classes are offered, he is taking the max amount and so far is still hitting As in all of them.</p>

<p>He’s pretty open as far as size of schools and so far he has only said he does not want to live in the heat anymore (raised in So TX all his life with temps over 100 for weeks on end). His personality will not lend itself to Greek life…he’s always leaned towards smaller groups of kids with similar interests.</p>

<p>He is leaning towards a biology biomedical science major. </p>

<p>We can afford to contribute a % of his tuition/board but not anywhere near the costs of some of the private schools (we have a fund for 2 years at a Tx public school that becomes cash if not used) and could contribute monthly.</p>

<p>Do you think his attendance of 3 different high schools in 4 years with continued academic success is helpful?</p>

4

<p>Can you give around the exact number you can contribute to the cost? Also have you run your EC or net price calculators for the schools you mentioned? Having a budget will help us in making suggestions.</p>

<p>It is important to know your budget before applying because you don’t want your son applying to schools you cannot afford. It is simply pointless and heartbreaking if your son did get accepted so make sure you run your efc before he goes to the trouble of applying to Notre Dame and Duke which give very little merit money. If your income is under $200k then you would qualify for fin. aid at most schools that give aid. </p>

<p>One thing I would look into right away to make sure he can still apply is the Baylor/Rice MD program. It is a great program and Baylor gives out merit money however the deadline may have passed. </p>

<p>Okay for some safeties with quick money I would look at Nebraska; Iowa or Iowa State and Arizona (I know the heat) but recently they have sent some pretty good scholarship offers. My D is at Ohio State on a full-ride and he loves it. Their deadline may be soon. </p>

<p>Look at collegemajors101.com for schools with good bio. Also do a search on collegedata.com which can give you more schools. </p>

<p>Look at the colleges that change lives organization. CTCL.org. These are some great schools that have merit money that could close the gap in the money department. Especially with your son’s rankings and grades you can go after the merit money. I have a student at Hendrix College from Texas that loves it and they were very generous with merit money for her. </p>

<p>There is a poster on CC named Bob Wallace (I think) he has a list of full-ride scholarships. Here is one list of full-ride scholarships I had saved. [National</a> Liberal Arts Colleges That Offer Full Ride Scholarships](<a href=“http://www.thecollegiateblog.org/2013/01/03/national-liberal-arts-colleges-that-offer-full-ride-scholarships/]National”>Loading...)</p>

5

<p>I agree that you should run the NPCs to get some idea of whether or not you will qualify for need based FA and if so, how much and what type. Be aware that these are just estimates and the more complex your family finances (small business, rentals, etc.), the less accurate they will be. </p>

<p>The Rice/Baylor program is UG at Rice and then Baylor Med School. My main concern with his applying heavily to combined BS/MD programs is that I don’t see much medical experience in his ECs. These programs look at this type of involvement to assure that the student has reasonable familiarity with medicine so that they are more likely to stay in the program.</p>

<p>UMinn-TC has relatively low OOS tuition and some nice merit awards. Pitt has good merit as well, but it’s best to apply early for consideration. I second the idea of him looking at some LACs that offer merit awards.</p>

6

<p>itsv,Those calculators were a good tool for us to get an idea of the $$ we are dealing with at most schools. I used 2 different calculators on 2 different sites, and the range I was given for EFC was $20,000 - $32,000 total for 4 years which is manageable (difficult but doable). I think we are having difficulty narrowing down the choices because he has never been “rah rah” about any one particular school or region of the country. Which can make it very difficult…he has received numerous mailings/letter/emails from A&M, Nebraska, Arizona State, and a few other state schools that guarantee full tuition and entrance into their honors programs based on his stats so far (and additional scholarship opportunities). However, we are worried about his next step into med school if he is not at one of the more prestigious schools or ivies. Any advise or thoughts on that?</p>

<p>Entomom, do the BS/MD programs take into account that there were no opportunities for any medical EC at his high schools and that to make up for that he spent the summer between his junior/senior year shadowing a doctor 5 hours a day M-Th. ? He got really familiar with the hectic, demanding days a doctor deals with…and the clinic was inner city and underserved which was really eye opening and educational for him.</p>

7

<p>OP- just so I understand you- your yearly EFC is between $5K and $6K a year?</p>

<p>I also wouldn’t get hung up on thinking that his only path to med school is through a prestigious school or ivy. There is a famous study “ESTIMATING THE PAYOFF TO ATTENDINGA MORE SELECTIVE COLLEGE:AN APPLICATION OF SELECTION ONOBSERVABLES AND UNOBSERVABLES” by Stacy Berg Dale and Alan B. Krueger which looked into this phenomenon and found it is the student that makes the success not the school. They examined students who had been rejected by ivies but had similar stats and found the students were equally successful at “lower tier schools”. </p>

<p>Moreover my DH and I are prime examples- each of us went to a small liberal arts college for undergrad but we did well enough at that school to attend grad schools at an ivy and prestigious school. You want your son to be in an environment where he can succeed. Obviously if he wants to apply to an ivy then by all means do so but don’t think his acceptance rate to med school connected to an ivy. Instead if he wants to go to med school he should look to see if the college offers a pre-med track. I also wouldn’t put too much stock into a college’s med school acceptance rates. Many colleges with a pre-med track weed out students so what is left are the students likely to get accepted to med school. Focus on how many freshmen entered pre-med and how many remain by senior year. </p>

<p>Since he isn’t “rah rah” about a region or kind of school then divide his list into segements. Have some guaranteed or close to guaranteed full ride/tuition schools. Put some reaches like ivies that meet 100% of need. Put one or two combined md programs on the list. Put some matches that meet 100% of need like Occidental or Grinnell (I haven’t see Grinnell’s admission stats lately so I think they would be a match). Put some Texas schools since they would be cheaper for him to attend. Throw on a couple of colleges that change lives. My DS has a friend who went to one and is in med school now. </p>

<p>One school that comes to mind is George Washington University. They can be generous with merit money and then have financial aid bridge the gap. They just opened a new school of engineering and applied science with a biomed major. They are looking to fill it and they have a pretty good med school. They also have a combined md program. Plus with NIH nearby your son would have research opportunities. </p>

<p>I do think his shadow experience as long as it is around 100 hours or more will fit the requirement. At GW they said they wanted to see a two year history of volunteering at a hospital. In my community I know students who have done that. </p>

<p>Deadlines especially those that trigger merit money have passed or are approaching so be sure to have him complete his applications as soon as possible. </p>

<p>Good Luck.</p>

8

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<p>Go to the Premed Topics forum and read some of the threads in the Resource sticky thread. The question of the importance of the UG school comes up frequently. The conventional wisdom is that the most important factors are gpa and MCAT score more than UG college. There are likely a small handful of highly selective UG colleges that may help slightly, but the kids who get into these schools and what they do there likely is more the cause than the name of the college.</p>

<p>Also note that the med school admissions stats that colleges use are not a viable tool for determining which UG school to attend as schools calculate this figure in different ways. </p>

<p>I think more than a prestigious school, your S should be looking for the college where he will be happy and do his best work.</p>

<p>As far as shadowing being enough for combined programs, you might want to go over to the Multiple Degree Programs forum and check some threads there. D1 got an invitation to apply to the Rice/Baylor program several years ago, but she decided not to as she wasn’t positive that she wanted to be a physician at the time. For reference, her medical experience was: 1 HS elective in medical careers, 1 HS elective where she shadowed a physician, HS member of a County Health Advisory committee, 2 yrs volunteering at a Community Outreach Clinic for low income patients (clerical, shadowing and Spanish translation).</p>

<p>BTW, she ended up taking the traditional route and is a M1 this year.</p>

9

<p>The University of Houston might be a good match, and your son sounds like a strong candidate for the Tier One Scholars program. The scholarship provides four years of tuition, two years housing, etc. The website has biographies of the current students, so you can see how your student compares. U of H also has a fairly new program for getting high-achieving students on a graduate school track. I wish I could remember the name of the program; probably someone in the Honors College could provide the exact name.</p>

<p>If your son wants to go after this he will have to get moving…the “preferred” deadline is December 1. The school application is through Apply Texas, and the scholarship application isn’t too difficult. I think it was mostly scores, transcripts, and an essay that can probably be drafted from other essays he’s already written for other schools.</p>

<p>[Benefits</a> of Being a UH Tier One Scholar - University of Houston](<a href=“http://www.uh.edu/tieronescholars/benefits/index.php]Benefits”>Benefits of Being a UH Tier One Scholar - University of Houston)</p>

<p>Good luck to your son. It sounds like he will do well wherever he goes.</p>

10

<p>I would check UAB in Alabama. They have an honor program that basically gets him accepted to their medical school after the BS degree. I heard is awesome and UAB is ranked high in Medical Research.</p>

11

<p>Thanks so much to everyone for all the helpful advise and links…it seems we may have been putting too much emphasis on the “prestige” schools based on name alone. There seems to be a ton of paths that lead to medical school acceptance if a student works hard, focuses on the correct info, and studies.<br>
We are definitely going to look hard at the offers of full rides and full tuition at the state schools with honors colleges. If we can take advantage of 4 years worth of savings…this will be very helpful for med school cost.</p>

<p>The U of H program sounds great as do the others…</p>

<p>If any other school matches seem plausible (especially if attached to merit money) , please post.</p>

<p>Thanks again</p>