Please Help: College Admissions season is coming and IDK what to do exactly.

College Search & Selection
1

Hi guys, I am a senior in High School.
I have been receiving emails from various colleges and scholarship sites on deadlines and stuff for so many things. I don’t know what to do right now.
I want basically a guideline or structure on how to start the process, what I need to do, etc.
I live in California and I want a scholarship (doesn’t have to be full coverage and can be any type of scholarships) to good colleges that offer Pre-Medicine or Biochemistry as majors. So please guide me on what steps to take right now; I know a lot of this stuff is time-important .

Recently I got contacted by QuestBridge for college match. They said that they could potentially offer full-ride scholarships to many universities in CA. I wanna know how useful it is and if it’s worth putting my time into their application. I started filling out their online application and it asked me to provide 2 core-subject teachers (from preferably my 11th grade) as recommendations. Which teachers should I pick? Is this recommendation the same as the teacher recommendations they ask for when applying to colleges?

What is the essay I have to write before going to college?
Which colleges should I apply to and how (don’t need full details, just basic steps to take or a useful website that can help out)?

Here’s what I accomplished during High School:
-4.056 GPA / 4.000 GPA Unweighted
-29 ACT Composite:- 34 Eng, 29 Math; 29 science, 24 reading (9 for Writing; 9 in all 4 areas)
-4.2% Class Rank (school is moderately competitive; there are extremely good and extremely bad students; not much in between)

-2 years JV badminton and 1 year varsity Badminton (varsity most likely this year as well)
-1 year speech and debate- no notable acolmplishments
-Joined Science Olympiad Club in 11th grade- no notable accomplishments

-During summer before senior year, I got invited to take part in an opportunity by Project SEED by ACS, where I spent 9 weeks at a college (University of the Pacific) and did chemistry related research with a professor there during the time.

-All A’s in all classes
-Honors Classes: CSU English Reading Writing Compository (taking it currently senior year)

-AP Classes:- AP Chemistry (A both semesters, 4 on AP test)
AP Biology (taking it currently in my senior year as well)

*Rest of my classes have been all CP (took 2 years of Spanish as foreign language)
*No volunteer work, but I did do research at the college during the summer, as mentioned
*Parents are low income

Guys I wanna know what are the colleges I should apply to given my background info and how?
Thanks a lot, any help would be MOST appreciated.
I can still retake the ACT if I sign up for it today (tomorrow is deadline). I only took it once and didn’t really study, but I know the structure now so I think I can do better; not sure if it’s worth it though.

2

What do you want to study? Do you want to stay in CA?

Yes, re-take the ACT. A higher score can open up more scholarship opportunities and yes pursue Questbridge. Definitely worth it!

Sounds like you need to connect with your school’s guidance department too.

Go to the common app web site. Most college use that application and it’s already gone live and has the essay prompts: https://www.commonapp.org

3

Yes, re-take the ACT and do some online prep before school starts. Getting to even 30 or 31 will give you more options.

Questbridge is long odds but worth doing.

I am hopeful others can offer additional suggestions.

Congrats on your hard work and success – take a deep breath and do some digging online and in the library to get the resources you need!

4

Check your schools website to see if there is information about the process at your school. Many schools have programs in the winter/spring of Junior year to discuss timelines, making a preliminary list of schools, when to ask teachers for recommendations (often spring of junior year). In the fall you will have to give your guidance counselor a list of schools so they can send transcript.

Questbridge can be helpful if you qualify. They might have FAQ about the process.

Make a spreadsheet with deadlines. Scholarship applications are often earlier than RD deadlines - even if they don’t have a separate application.

Each school will have its own deadlines.

Common application opened last week so you can create an account and look at the essay prompts. Some schools have supplemental essays.

FAFSA will be up in October - this is the first step in applying for financial aid. You need your parents to fill out part and you fill out part.

5

As a California resident, you may get good financial aid at the UCs and CSUs (check the net price calculator on each school’s web site). They have their own applications (one for each system) due 11/30. The UC application includes essays (CSUs do not use essays).

UCs and CSUs use a recalculated high school GPA; see https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/ (the weighted-capped one is the one used in most contexts) and https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist#/list/search/institution (to determine which of your courses count as honors courses for UC and CSU purposes). They do tend to emphasize GPA more than test scores, so your unweighted 4.0 GPA is a good thing. But some other colleges may emphasize test scores more, so you may want another ACT try and also try the SAT.

6

Thanks everyone. @AlmostThere2018 school has already started for me, this is the second week. Does your suggestion still apply?

7

Even easier to connect with your guidance counselor!

8

@momofsenior1 Normally that would be correct to say, but in our school, they are only letting freshmen and students with critical issues/problems talk to the counselor for the first 3 weeks of school because the counselors are still placing/removing students in classes for the school year. I think I will probably schedule a meeting after the course change period has stopped.

9

2 things.

A. Get to know need base grant if your parents do not make a ton of money to pay. Alot of school offer these grants, you are have to get in.

B. Premedicine and biochemistry are awful undergrad majors with virtually 0 pay. They are normally stepping stone for medical school, but there are better options and majors to choose from in case you change your mind.

Also, a lot of school offer application fee waiver as well, so you could apply for free. Explore explore explore. research research research.

Good luck.

10

Go to the Financial Aid Forum here to read up on need-based aid. There is a whole sub-forum just for Questbridge…

11

Take a look at the following site:
https://www.fairopportunityproject.org
It is a non-profit that offers a free college admission guide that is a good place to start.

12

Fortunately, the UCs and CSUs do not require counselor (or any) recommendations, so if your counselor is overloaded, such limited access will not prevent you from applying to UCs and CSUs.

You can start reading about UC and CSU admissions here:
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/index.html
https://www2.calstate.edu/apply/freshman

Regarding pre-med…

Pre-med is not a major; medical schools do not really care about your undergraduate major, although you need to fit in the pre-med courses into your schedule. Biology majors are common due to automatically including most pre-med courses, but about half of pre-med have an undergraduate major other than biology. Biology also has poor major-specific job prospects for the great majority who do not get into medical school, since all of the unsuccessful pre-meds compete against each other for the small number of biology-specific jobs (biology graduates should also consider major-agnostic jobs, but then they will be competing with all of the graduates in majors that do not have much in the way of major-specific jobs).

A pre-med’s college grade scale is:
A = acceptable
B = bad
C = catastrophic
D = disastrous
F = forget it
Remember that your college grades are unlikely to be as high as your high school grades. At one of the more selective colleges (e.g. UCs), the A students in high school will be spread across the A through C grade range in college (e.g. UCB pre-med courses typically have about a quarter of the students earning A grades). Moderately selective colleges (e.g. many CSUs) may have those who were A and B students in high school, but those colleges’ grades tend to be lower (more C, fewer A grades).

There are also expected pre-med extracurriculars (that may be more difficult to find time for if you also have to work to earn some money to help pay for college – yes, the pre-med process is stacked against those from low income origins) and the MCAT. Most pre-meds are unsuccessful at getting into any medical school, so you need to have some sort of backup plan. Medical school is also extremely expensive, typically financed by huge debt (e.g. $300,000) that can take decades to pay off even at physician pay.

13

@Kadel1023 For part B.
What about majors in chemistry or biomedical engineering? Chemistry is my best subject so far in high school, but my teachers have told me chemists make little money.

14

@ucbalumnus In case I don’t get into medical school, what would be some good majors that would offer back up options related to chemistry / biochemistry (and still be good to apply for medical school)?

15

Of majors that are easy to fit the pre-med courses around, probably math or statistics, since that leaves major-related options like (bio)informatics, data science, finance/actuarial, teaching high school math (with teaching credential), and even computing as possible backup plans. Obviously, it is best if some of these are of interest to you, and that you are good at math and like it.

If you think you may like engineering (solving design problems using math and science), biomedical engineering has the most overlap with pre-med courses, but does not have that great job prospects at the bachelor’s degree level. Of the other kinds of engineering, chemical engineering probably has the most overlap with pre-med courses, but it can still be difficult to fit all of the pre-med courses in (e.g. general biology and biochemistry) to what is ordinarily a packed schedule.

16

ucbalumnus has great insight.

My issue with chem and premed is that they are tough majors with zero flexibility in case things dont work out or if you have a change of heart.

Research schools with need base grant. Research research research. You got work to do.

If medical field is a long hard road, long long hard road. If you do not have the financial means, best to consider business or computers or nursing. Those are majors with decent pay and good job outlook.

Good luck.

17

I know many people believe this to be true but I personally don’t agree with the chem or bio track offering no flexibility.

Any liberal arts major. Art history Econ Poli sci history etc find plenty of those students in law school or getting an mba. What’s the difference with the scientific track. I think it’s an excellent combo with both law and mba for jobs of the next century.

If it prepared you for a medical field great. But how many students other than specific business programs like accounting or nursing are directly tied to their career.

Engineering and computer science are the same. Yes they lead to great career options. Assuming you still like it when you’ve finished. What happens if you change your mind. Not a lot of direct correlation to career if you leave those paths.

It’s all the same to me. Study what intrigues you and interests you the most. See if that leads to further interests or pivot in grad school and take what you’ve learned and make yourself an interesting combination. Very appealing to a lot of businesses.

18

@ucbalumnus Math is my best and favorite subject, but I have no interest in any of those fields. I do like engineering, but I like that only 2nd to being a doctor.

19

@privatebanker I like what you have said. I will go with what interests me and has a good job options. I won’t let low-income decide what I want to do, so I will research grant based schools.

20

Math or statistics graduates may also go into operations research type of jobs. Could that be of interest to you?

In any case, if you are not interested in any of the major-related jobs associated with liberal arts majors like math, biology, chemistry, etc. (i.e. you would be seeking non-major-specific bachelor’s degree jobs if you do not get into medical school), then you may as well major in the one that you are best at and like the most (which seems to be math, rather than biology or chemistry), since you will likely do better, which can help you earn a good GPA for pre-med purposes and pass whatever GPA cutoffs that employers have. Or try to cram pre-med course work around an engineering major if you really are interested in engineering.

Remember that getting into medical school is always a reach. Most pre-meds who do make it to applying to medical school get shut out. Of those who get in, most only get one admission, so it is unlikely that you will have a choice to choose a lower cost/debt one.