Please help me cut my college list/see which schools are worth applying to?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi guys, it would be great if I could get help cutting down my college list!

I’m a rising senior trying to decide on schools to apply to, and the number I have right now is quite overwhelming. I’d prefer a diverse school that’s in a warm climate, urban environment, not much of a party school, Greek life doesn’t dominate the social scene, and students care about academics. I’m quiet and most likely won’t party or join Greek life, so I hope I’m choosing schools where I wouldn’t have to join those things to make friends.

I’m interested in majoring in Microbiology, Neuroscience, or Public Health, and minoring in Statistics. Because of that, I’d prefer a school that has research opportunities or bio/health-related companies/institutes nearby. (That’s why I have so many Massachusetts schools even though I’d prefer warm weather).

My ACT scores are 33 (1st try), 32 (2nd try), and the superstore is a 35. My UC/CSU GPA is 3.76 uw, 3.97 w, which I know makes most of the UCs a reach for me. My 9-12th GPA is 3.73 uw, 4.13 weighted. I’ve taken 8 APs, and will take 2 more in senior year.

My AP scores so far are:
AP Chinese (5), AP Spanish Lang (4), AP Bio (4), AP Stats (3), AP Calc AB (4), AP Psych (5), AP Euro (4), AP US Gov (3)

My ECs are pretty weak:
piano (~11yrs so far)
church worship team (~2 yr so far)
playing piano @ senior center (~9 month so far)
volunteering at hospital (just started)
Java Programming Class (2 months)
Key Club member (3 yrs)
NHS member (1 yr)
taught English in Asia (2 weeks)
Medical Club member (1 yr)
taught at VBS (1 week)
ethnic dance (~8 yrs)

I’m an Asian female, middle/upper-middle class, and from California.

Finally, these are the schools currently on my list – (as well as notes on certain schools)

CA publics – (I’m fairly sure about applying to all of these, except for CSULB & SJSU)
UC San Diego
UC Santa Barbara
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UC Santa Cruz
UC Riverside
Cal Poly SLO – (don’t want a college town location, but am applying for good academics & price)
San Diego State University – (very interested in their major Microbio w/ Emphasis in Clinical Lab Sci & Pub Health)
CSU Long Beach
San Jose State University – (considering SJSU only because it’s my local CSU)

CA private:
Scripps College – (like that students can take classes at other Claremont schools)
Loyola Marymount University
Santa Clara University – (strong academics, great location for internships; may be too close to home)
University of San Francisco

OOS Publics:
U of Washington – (very strong academics, location seems great)
UT Austin – (do I have a chance at this school at all?)
Purdue
UMass Amherst
U Oregon – (would UO be worth OOS tuition?)

OOS Privates:
Northeastern – (I like the idea of doing coops & that Boston is a biotech hotspot)
Baylor – (I like that it’s a Christian university that’s also strong in the sciences)
Emory (Oxford College) – (like Emory’s proximity to the CDC & the school’s overall academic strength)
Boston University
Seattle U – (location & social atmosphere seem good, but academics-wise, nursing seems to be it’s only forté)
Brandeis

2

All the Boston schools/Umass/Purdue/Oregon and Wash are not in warm climates. Baylor is very much a big party/frat boy atmosphere. It doesn’t make them not good fits, just not what you listed as a ‘want.’

3

Your list is a good one, with some safeties. Good job.

If you want a lot of on campus research options, you may want to rethink the schools that offer mostly undergraduate education, such as Scripps College, Cal Poly, and SJSU. However, the later two are pretty strong in biology, and have great job connections. Do you want a PhD later? Or do you want a masters in public health?

If you want a PhD in Microbiology, look for programs with on campus research, where you would join a PhD grad student and faculty in a lab. You will need undergraduate lab experiences and research experience, so funded research work, where you can test your skills at real science problems, if you ant to become a scientist. I like UC San Diego best for that, as well as UW Seattle, Purdue, U of Oregon, and U Mass.

UT Austin offers a very low number of non Texans admission. Look that up, for microbiology, to see if
you have a shot at that school. It is a fantastic research school, though in every way, and Austin is a LOT more
fun than Waco Texas.

Baylor is a very conservative student body, and “Texas focused”. Its in a smaller town thats not very interesting, Waco, Texas. It may not fit you, if you grew up in a very liberal part of California, but academically its very strong in biology. Baylor Medical Center though is all the way down in Houston Texas, so that may also be a negative for you.

Santa Clara U is Jesuit (Roman Catholic) but much more liberal theologically speaking compared to Southern Baptist theology practiced at Baylor U. So it may depend on what sort of Christian theology you are looking for.

Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles is not really that focused on medical, its more of a prelaw type of school. Loyola Marymount in Chicago may be closer to what you are looking for.

I like Case Western Reserve U for microbiology and there are two hospitals within walking distance of campus.
Its located in Cleveland and offers good merit scholarships. It might be a stretch with your GPA but then, if you not aiming for medical school, but for a masters in public health, that will interest them.

I don’t believe Scripps and the Claremont Group are a match for you, so much, as its in a small town, with no advanced medical research going on, all the Claremont schools are small undergraduate only type of LACs. If you want an LAC and the ability to take classes at other LACs, they are excellent though.

If you want on campus research, or a major research hospital nearby, then stick with a bigger public or private school with research types of microbiology degrees, where you can meet PhD students, and find out what grad school is all about.

Emory is fantastic, its sort of like the Ivy League of Georgia and located close to GATech. There is a lot going on in Atlanta in your fields of interest, but Cleveland may be the bigger health sciences city today, or of course Boston, LA, and SF.

As far as choices in Texas-- What about Trinity U, in San Antonio, I think it has some health sciences related hospitals.

Houston is the top health sciences city in Texas. U of Houston ???. Rice may be out of range, its very small and very tough to get in.

4

U of Oregon has OOS merit awards if you can get your GPA up to 3.85 /4.0

https://financialaid.uoregon.edu/scholarships_freshmen

U of Oregon also will expose you to neuroscience in their undergrad curriculum:
https://biology.uoregon.edu

5

Here is Trinity U’s neuroscience program, in San Antonio Texas:

https://new.trinity.edu/academics/majors-minors/neuroscience

UT Health has a campus in San Antonio, so research hospitals in the same city, for jobs:
http://som.uthscsa.edu

I think there are some connections between the private Trinity U and UT Health for grad school admissions
so it may be good to be from a Texas school if you hope to get into a masters degree in the U of Texas system later.

Baylor is still a good school, but its much more conservative, “frat boy”, and in a boring town, Waco.

San Antonio is a beautiful city and Trinity a great LAC in Texas.

6

Thank you so much for all the information!

Does anyone have an opinion on Seattle U? From what I’ve read online it seems like the social scene isn’t very party-oriented, and the location near Seattle downtown seems convenient. However, it seems to only be strong in nursing. Would it be worth applying to this school for Biology?

Similarly, I have concerns about USF, as it seems to only be strong in Nursing as well. However, the location seems good and the campus looks beautiful. Would it be a good school for biology related major? I’m sure the science education would be fine, but would the research opportunities be there?

@Coloradomama, I will definitely consider Trinity U & you confirmed my doubts about Baylor, so that one’s probably off the list.

7

You can cross out CSU LB since it is very difficult to get in from out of district kd you already have sjsu. UCs require just one app and CSUs too, so you’re good there.

Baylor doesn’t sound like what you want at all in terms of vibe.

Scripps is a great choice - LACs are actually the best places for students who want to do research (check out the list “where science PhDs got their start”… LACs are way over represented.) That’s because 1) professors are hired in part on their willingness to include undergrads into their projects and 2) there aren’t any grad students to do it instead of you. The Claremonts have Pomona, HarveyMudd, and the Keck institute.

USF doesn’t carry out much research - it’s a regional university. Not sure it’s the right pick and since you’re trying to cross out universities I would.

Oos publics: can your parents pay 50+k each year from income and savings? Have you run the NPCs and shown them the results to have a realistic budget?

Since you have UCs and CSUs, I wouldn’t include any Oos public. Perhaps UOregon Honors “just in case” but that’s it.

USeattle (like UPortland) would be a safety. However Lewis and Clark would be better academically. Even better, if lack of urban location isn’t a deal breaker: Whitman. A gem and very, very strong in the Sciences.

Run the NPC on all the private universities and, before you apply, make sure your parents confirm they can afford the net cost from income and savings.

8

If you’re willing to do cold weather (judging from MA schools), how about U of Pitt?

9

Schools that have only undergrads may have MORE research options for undergrads because there are no grad students hogging a prof’s attention. My STEM kid was pretty much running her mentor’s lab at one of the 5Cs by the time she graduated, and got great research experience.

10

I would get rid of the OOS publics (except Oregon, which is a decent safety), Northeastern & BU (cold winter; you mentioned that you want a warm climate), and Baylor.

11

@Coloradomama – It’s a misperception that there’s few science research opportunities at LACs. We toured many in the past 2 years and there are many science research options for undergrads and you don’t have to compete with grad students for them.

Here’s just one article on the topic: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chadorzel/2015/04/10/why-small-colleges-are-great-for-science-students/#6f0ec5b87b9a

And, here’s a list of top feeder colleges for PhDs in science/engineering and LACs make up a large number of them!

http://www.thecollegesolution.com/50-schools-that-produce-the-most-science-and-engineering-phds-2/

Just wanted to put that out there so students don’t overlook science opportunities at LACs.

12

Just want to repeat this message: “Run the NPC on all the private universities and, before you apply, make sure your parents confirm they can afford the net cost from income and savings.”

Anything that looks unaffordable after running the Net Price Calculator at its website, should be tossed from your list.

13

You should add Rice to your list of out of state privates. It is a tough admit for everyone, but you are in the range to have a good shot to get in Rice. It is in a warm climate, diverse, urban, and has great academics and lots of research opportunities. It does not have Greek life, but has the residential college system instead. Rice is ranked towards the top for happiest students and race and class diversity.

Emory (Oxford) is not in Atlanta but in a small town about an hour to the east of Atlanta. If you get in Oxford you attend the rural campus the first 2 years then spend the last two at the main campus in Atlanta. You can apply to Oxford, Emory College or both.

UT is a very hard admit for people from out of state. By law UT has to take all the in state students in the top 6 percent of their class. It is hard to get into the popular majors.

14

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21182988/#Comment_21182988 can help you with past admission rates by GPA at UCs. UCR looks likely, UCSC looks like a match, while the other UCs on your list look like high matches or low reaches.

http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/impactionresultsfreshmen/index.html lists SJSU’s most recent past admission thresholds. Assuming that your 33 ACT converts to something like 1510 SAT, your CSU eligibility index would be around 3.97 * 800 + 1510 = 4686, which would make SJSU very likely for your majors of interest.

15

thank you for all the help! didn’t expect this much :slight_smile: Running the NPC sounds like a good idea, but for many of the privates, I would only seriously consider going if I was offered a good scholarship, anyway.

What do you guys think about LMU? Is the social scene very Greek-life dominated, and is it strong in the biology or health related majors?

16

You run the NPC to know whether it’ll be affordable - the NPC tells you if you’d get a scholarship, grants, or loans only.

Do you like another subject than biology? There’s an oversupply of bio majors and the job market is totally saturated between the ‘real’ bio majors and the 'didnt get into any med schools bio majors. (Keep in mind about 75% would be pre-meds don’t make it to the application stage and among those remaining only about 40% get into a med school.)

17

@MYOS1634

My family wouldn’t qualify for much financial aid, if any.

Major wise, I’ve also considered nursing & psychology. However, I know there’s also an oversupply of psychology majors. And in regards to nursing, I’d love to help people but I wouldn’t fit the job well, IMO. Considering nursing is the factor that originally led me to consider USF, SeattleU & UPortland though.

18

You might want to consider UCF as a real choice since it fits pretty much everything you want.

Student Life: It is one of the largest schools in the country and is known for how diverse its student population is (att my orientation there was a kid from Turkey). It is in Orlando and the school is almost a city in itself. Because of the size of the school the parties that are there are swallowed up by anything else (FSU and UF are far worse party schools in Florida).The Florida weather is nice but can get a bit hot during summer and Greek life isn’t that big of a force on campus. Most kids are passionate about what they are doing and generally care about their grades. There are over 600 student organizations so if you’re interested in something there is likely a club for it. It has a great modern campus with MANY amenities.

Academics:If you get into the honor’s college you get priority registration 3 semesters in advance and there are honors classes for both gen-eds and major specific classes with maximum capacities of 25 students. There are 4 different pathways to do undergrad research and there is an emphasis on actual experience in the undergrad programs iirc. It isn’t as prestigious as UF or FSU but is widely considered to be one of the biggest up-and-coming universities in the country.