<p>Armani, if you have any interest in smaller schools, and aren't adverse to being in the South, at schools with relatively small Af-Am populations, look into Davidson College and Rhodes College - both have top notch pre-med programs, two of the best I've seen. Rhodes I know will you give you money, and it is in Memphis. Davidson has much less merit money, but i have a feeling they would be generous to a URM with your background. There are some other small colleges in the Midwest with excellent track records getting kids into med school, but I know very little about them beyond reputation - Juniata and Ursinius are 2 of them.
The advantage of a small college to a pre-med is the opportunity to develop relationships between students and the pre-med advisors who will be writing their recommendations. Often these small colleges have developed relationships between the pre-med "committee" and a nearby med school or large teaching hospital to provide internships and service experiences pre-meds need to decide that medicine is for them - for example, Rhodes sends students to do research and service work at St. Judes, which sounds like a perfect spot for your interests.</p>
<p>Sorry to butt into your thread but I also work at Kumon! It's an awesome job, I must say.</p>
<p>Kumon Rules!!</p>
<p>i looked up davidson and rhodes. I dont think i wud be happy in a small liberal arts school, especially in the south. right now, my list is USC, hopkins, BU, emory, miami, and harvard. i think i need more safeties/slight reaches with excellent merit aid. Thanks a lot for all your replies so far. i really appreciate it</p>
<p>"African-American male
SAT: 2110 (M 740 CR 660 W 710)
ACT: 31 (M 35 S 30 R 28 Eng 29)
SAT II: Math Level 2 790 US History 750 Spanish 680 Physics 630)
GPA: 3.9 unweighted 4.25 weighted (9 AP classes, one B)
"</p>
<p>u can probably get in wherever you want. big city? Harvard, NYU, Georgetown, American Uni., UPenn, U. of Chicago.................UCLA........</p>
<p>i can probably get in (knock on wood) but i'm just worried about the financial aid situation. i basically need a full ride if i have a chance of going anywhere besides my local college. this is what im thinking: i think i should stay away from the big-name univesities, such as hopkins, emory, BU, NYU, Georgetown, etc. because there will b thousands of other applicants just like me and even better competing for the full ride, despite my URM status. i think i shud apply to a smaller, lesser known school cuz that'll give me lots of aid. but then my parents won't approve of going to a lesser prestige school unless i can presuade them its actually good. AHHHHHH i hate college... does anyone have any more suggestions maybe of lesser-prestige schools but still in somewht big cities or just any suggestions about my situation???</p>
<p>AHHHHHHHH!</p>
<p>I think you underestimate yourself mightily. You are likely among the top 300 African American male candidates in the country (figured by SAT scores), maybe better than that, and you have a lot else to offer as well. I think you are going to find the colleges fighting over you. </p>
<p>You've already gone through the list of Big City big universities with merit aid, and you seem aware of the ones who claim to be without it (you should know that it is a claim I don't buy - the Northwestern example is very telling - a no-merit-aid school with merit aid. I've seen that at the Ivies time and time again - provided the student has some aid to begin with. All of a sudden, come April, when you allow them to compete for you, your family "becomes poorer".)</p>
<p>Macalester is in a city. Haverford and Swarthmore not too far off (but one can't make believe that the students spend a lot of time in the city, because they don't). I don't know of any other first-tier LACs that fit the bill.</p>
<p>Really, you could probably get into any university.</p>
<p>yeah ivies get around it</p>
<p>at cornell, they give out dean scholarships, where basically they give some of the best students all grants for their loans, so u are all loan-free</p>
<p>however, if u dont get financial aid like mua, it means nothing
so...</p>
<p>ill check out that essay. my brother had experiences writing these so he might be able to give some input. hes just about to graduate med school.</p>
<p>check ur PM red06</p>
<p>look into the merit scholarships at Boston University. i think you would be a good match there</p>
<p>or try bigtime scholarships, such as Gates Millenium or Ron Brown. Those offer pretty much full rides, but theyre reallllly competitive</p>
<p>Austin College in Sherman, TX is great for pre-med and gives full scholarships.</p>
<p>Rice University - good for pre-med, in a big city, not sure about merit aid, but it is cheaper than usual anyway. </p>
<p>I do think that you will get good FA from the need-based schools, especially if you wait until spring, and compare packages. I also think that if you really hone down your criteria, spend some time researching a few financial safety schools, and comparing what each offers to what you want, that you will only need 1 maybe 2 safeties, because as others have said, you will get plenty of admissions, your problem will be money and where do I want to go.</p>
<p>Have you considered big state schools? Some of them are like a city in themselves - UMich, Penn State.</p>
<p>Holy Cross very good LAC -one hour from Boston. Holy Cross offers good financial aid and merit aid. HC has strong pre-med and better reputation than Boston Univ.</p>
<p>thanks for all your replies guys. I really am researching and looking up every school you guys suggest. i could always use any and all other suggestions that you guys have. i'm a pretty indecisive guy, so i'm putting my future in your hands (no pressure or nething). This is my list so far... tell me what you guys think i shud add, delete, etc based on my situation (from first post)</p>
<p>Harvard
Columbia
NYU
Hopkins
Emory
U Miami
UCLA
UCSB
USC
Cal State
San Diego State
BU
BC
Rice
Northeastern (maybe)
U Cincinnati (safety)</p>
<p>Thanks again for all your earlier replies and hoplier your future replies!!!</p>
<p>Don't forget about WUSTL.
Also check out this thread:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=63770&page=1&pp=20%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=63770&page=1&pp=20</a></p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
Stanford
Tech
MIT
Princeton
Brown
Columbia
Amherst
Dartmouth
Wellesley
Penn
Dame
Swarthmore
Cornell
Georgetown
Rice
Williams
Duke
Virginia
Northwestern
Pomona
Berkeley
Tech
Middlebury
Wesleyan
Chicago
Hopkins
USC
Furman
UNC
Barnard
Oberlin
Carleton
Vanderbilt
UCLA
Davidson
Texas
NYU
Tufts
Washington
Michigan
Vassar</p>
<p>wow way to list the top 50 schools in the US. hahah just kidding, its a real solid list, covers all spectrums. </p>
<p>armani I would love to read ur essay-so just pm it to me whenever u want.</p>
<p>Beside that...
u should be able to get into most, and sometimes u have to settle with a little less "name"-aka harvard, duke, princton, and go to a school that u love that you are one of the most competitive kids at, beacuse thats where u will find the most merit aid. Also I heard, repeat, heard that if your family makes less than i believe 28,000 a year then u can get afull ride to harvard...so check that out...</p>
<p>let me know how it goes and pm that essay! good luck</p>