Hello! I am a high school senior looking for good pre-med schools in the midwest that don’t cost an insane amount (ie WashU, Northwestern). I have a 32 ACT, 4.2 GPA and I am involved both in school and outside of school (stuco VP, received the lead role in the school’s play, president of Science NHS, treasurer for Service Club, volunteer, and I have played violin most of my life). I like the liberal arts feel and I prefer an urban setting, and my plan is to get a neuroscience major. I love UMKCs 6 year medical program, but considering that I have not had much experience volunteering in hospitals I doubt I will get in. I know Rhodes has a good program where students can work at St. Judes hospital, but does anyone know any others?
Thanks in advance to anyone who replies! Any advice would be great
What state do you have residence in? Start with the public universities there. Med schools don’t care much at all about where you study. What matters for them is your GPA, your MCAT score, and medical-related extracurriculars and job-shadowing. Truly. So if your stats guarantee you a ginormous scholarship at your own Big State U, put that place at the top of your list. You want to save money for med school.
There aren’t “premed schools”. Premed isn’t anything special or unique. It’s everywhere. Premed classes are just regular normal bio, Chem, physics, math classes that other STEM students take.
How much will your parents spend each year?
what is your home state?
You’re right about UMKC’s program. You’d need a resume that includes impressive medically related ECs. And, if you’re not instate for Missouri, it’s probably even more difficult to get in.
St Olaf, Lawrence, Gustavus Adolphus, Earlham, Creighton, Truman State, SLU, Lake Forest, Drake; Macalester, Grinnell (rural), Haverford (not Midwest) for reaches?
Have you run the NPC? Sticker price isn’t necessarily what our parents would have to pay - running the NPC will tell you how much they’d be expected to pay at each college. You can get the numbers from them, run the NPC, then show them the results and cross out those that are too expensive.
Michigan is cheaper than most private schools (especially if you’re in-state). It has the Residential College, which is UofM’s liberal arts college within the Univeristy.
I actually live in Missouri if that helps at all. As far as my financial situation, my dad is a doctor so I have pretty much no chance of getting any need-based scholarships, but I will still be expected by my parents to pay for most of college.
Why do your parents expect that? Do they understand that 1) nowadays it’s not possible for a student to pay for college on their own since a part time, minimum wage job will not suffice to pay tuition even at a State University, and despite the claim you can ‘just get a loan’, students can get 5.5k from the federal government and everything else is on the parents. 2) having debt is a bad idea for a future doctor so you’re limited to the federal loans and what they can borrow, but if they have the money borrowing makes no financial sense. 3) your efc is not based in what they’re willing to pay but on what the college’s formula says they should pay. Their unwillingness to pay will NOT increase your financial aid, it’ll just greatly limit your choices.
As of now, your parents are saying that if you don’t get at least a full tuition scholarship at Mizzou or Truman State, you can’t become a doctor (because you yourself can only afford to pay for instate public universities, and that medical schools don’t want any prereq to be taken in community college - and there are now more pre reqs than in your father 's time.)
If you get a 32 you can get full tuition at UAlabama, you can also look at Howard or other hbcu’s.
For now, it’s CRUCIAL you have a definite figure. Do they expect you to pay for tuition and they’ll pay for room, board, books? Or the reverse - they’ll pay for any tuition but you have to handle room,board, books yourself? Will they simply refund the AOT Credit to you? Since you no longer will eat there, will they provide a stipend in the amount of what it cost to feed you (and that they’d pay if you stayed at home)?
Are they in favor or against your becoming a doctor? (Because nowadays becoming a doctor depends on having as little undergraduate debt as possible and certainly not more than the federal limit + not having a job during the year over about 10 hours a week in order to achieve the top ranking in each class that You need for medical school qualification + attending a 4-year college + being involved in health -related groups and volunteering + doing research. If they don’t want you to become a doctor they’ll put obstacles in your path through the above, if they do hope you become a doctor they’ll try to smooth things out for the above.)
Do they have a fixed amount in mind - perhaps full costs at Mizzou and everything on top of that is on you?
Many of the private universities listed above - St Olaf, Drake, Lawrence… Have full tuition scholarships. If you competed and won one of those, would they be willing to cover room and board, and books would be on you?
Be aware that in most cases the scholarships depend on demonstrating interest early - fill out all these colleges ’ ‘request interest’ forms now, and make sure to click on what they send you.
Go visit both Mizzou and Truman State asap, and apply to both.
Creighton also should award merit, and also a shot at their Honors Program. They have a strong pre-Med track, with ties to their own medical school with preferential admission.
You should receive merit at Trinity U in Texas, also good in pre-Med.
However, absent a full tuition offer like Alabama, you are still looking at high $20K per year for costs at any of these three schools. Not sure how you can be expected to pay that, when you can only borrow $5500 yourself…
Kalamazoo College offers generous financial aid packages and is very strong in the sciences, sending big numbers of their grads to graduate school or medical school.