Regarding Bowdoin, suggest you check in with @homerdog . Her S29 is a first-year there, and he is at home now, so they should be able to answer any questions. It’s such a neat school! Congratulations on all your good news. We all really need it these days.
I think visiting is off the cards for you. And truly, it isn’t necessary. There are still many students who never set foot on campus until move in day. Especially international kids. Read Niche reviews and watch videos if you want to see what the students are like.
Bowdoin and Grinnell are two of the most respected LACs in the country. Honestly, there aren’t necessarily better choices, there are just more famous schools.
You run the risk of not getting back from wherever you fly, but worse, you can spread the virus, or get it yourself and bring it back to your community. We all need to stop the spread.
Many face group type groups might be helpful. If you live with in a few hundred miles you could rent a car (with someone of rental car age) and do a day trip or overnight trip to walk the closed campus to get a feel. We did this to some schools that were close to schools we were considering or the day before a school tour. But yes with the restrictions now who knows.
S19, unless she has a real prodigy?!
This. We are seeing pleas from the schools that have closed not to travel if possible, as that helps undermine the reason the schools are closing.
I would think that one of your current decisions would be W&L vs Bowden/Grinnell/Mac. The culture seems so much different to me that you should be able to eliminate one of the groups. If you had limited choices I understand “suffering” at a school that doesn’t fit. However, that is no longer your problem.
If college visits are off (which is likely) one way you can try to get a better feel for different schools is to see if the college newspapers are online and look through some old issues. It can help you to get a sense of things happening on campus, what is on student’s minds etc.
Congrats on all your success.
So thrilled for you @HKimPOSSIBLE. Been following you for almost 1.5 years, and I love how you’ve turned lemons into lemonade. Best of luck with your new adventures!
As a journalist, I whole-heartedly agree with this. Read several issues from this year and last year.
Congrats!
Darn…I made a very foolish mistake of not submitting an Amherst supplement (on Questbridge I thought it said they didn’t have a separate supplement). :,(
Oof. Well, you had a lot of apps to keep track of.
Anyway you’ve got Bowdoin, and your gut has appeared to prefer Bowdoin over Amherst all along. Good luck with the rest!
Gotta start to weed them out some how ?
Hmmm, I’m constantly wondering which school would be better for Pre-Med if I don’t attend GPPA (and they’re not being helpful at all financially): W&L or Bowdoin?
I’ve done some research and Hamilton and Macalester don’t seem to have too much a focus on Pre-Med but more a good interdisciplinary education.
Based on what I saw online, it seems like W&L is the perfect place for a Poli-Sci/Law/Business major whereas Bowdoin seems to be more STEM-based?
Lots to think about for sure. To research and compare schools here are some things to consider:
1)For majors IPEDS is best (some schools don’t fill in the common data set accurately enough). Here is Bowdoin’s page, look at programs/majors (there are more non-stem majors than stem major grads for the year surveyed). https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=bowdoin&s=all&id=161004#programs
2)Also look at the school’s premed advising offerings. What type of programs do they run? Do they prepare a committee letter for every student who wants to apply to med school?
3)What type of pre-med clubs are on campus?
4)How easy is it to get to a hospital or medical office to volunteer/work? For Bowdoin, it is not a walk to the hospital, but a bike ride (long winter), or cab (ubers are scant).
5)You also have to think about how far away a school is and how easy it is to get there. Bowdoin is relatively difficult to get to from Chicago. I don’t know if your FA package includes travel costs, but there aren’t many direct flights from ORD to Portland, and they are expensive. Then you have to cab/uber from Portland to Brunswick, which is around 30 mins. You could connect, but that takes more than 1/2 day in travel, and still not cheap. You could fly into Boston, but then have a long train or bus ride to get to Brunswick (drive is 2.5 hours, not sure how long train/bus ride is or cost). Hamilton and W&L aren’t easy to get to either. Macalester is closest to Chicago, about a 5-6 hour drive.
6)All the schools listed here will prepare you well for med school.
It’s good to be thinking about these types of things. I expect you will have some more choices as well, which may make your decision even tougher!
Make sure when comparing FA offers that you check and double check what is included. Travel costs? Health Insurance? Etc.
@homerdog, whose son is a freshman at Bowdoin, lives in the Chicago area and would be able to answer questions about transportation and other things.
My D goes to Bowdoin as well, happy to answer any questions.
This has been an amazing thread. Congratulations on some fantastic acceptances.
Hmmm, I see thank you, everyone! I’m just having second thoughts about maybe forgoing UIC GPPA after hearing/reading some things about how it’s getting more and more difficult to get into medical school and GPPA seems to alleviate some of those concerns - but then again, finances.
@Mwfan1921 I’m sure that Pre-Med can work out at any institution, but I’m having a hard time thinking about Bowdoin vs W&L vs GPPA, since all are fantastic and have supposedly great medical school matriculation, but GPPA is more within the scope.
I recently received GPPA’s official acceptance letter in the mail and it seems like I need to hit a 513 on the MCAT to matriculate, which I think is definitely doable, but makes we wonder if, say, I get a very good MCAT score, and I’d like to see better options/places that might offer more aid that UIC for medical school (I might be getting ahead of myself, but it’s still good to think about possible options).
Speaking of options, I feel like W&L and Bowdoin will have the resources to help me with medical school applications both financially and opportunity wise (especially W&L Johnsons allowing for abroad studies and internships).
@Mwfan1921 pretty much called it on the travel from Chicago to Bowdoin. We typically have S take a SW flight that goes through Baltimore. The whole trip takes maybe seven hours? His spring break flight round trip was really expensive - almost $700. Kids share a taxi to and from the airport in Portland - $30 one way. Twice now, though, S19 had a friend drive him.
Sorry, but I don’t have any more info on the pre-med questions.
One thing I will say that maybe gives a little insight - S19 hardly spends ANY money. He spent a total of $400 for the whole year (well, though early March!) and that included books. Food is good and plentiful on campus. Almost everything social on campus costs little to no money.
I haven’t read this whole thread but looking up the page here, it looks like Grinnell is an option. S19 was accepted there as well and really liked it. Super easy drive from Chicago. He just wanted to get out of dodge for a while and Grinnell is very midwestern. Not a bad thing - certainly meant he felt he fit there and everyone was super friendly. My H and I were also very very impressed. I do think it favors kids going to med or grad school and S wants to work after undergrad so that was one downside for him.
Your thinking makes sense, guaranteed med school admission is a great opportunity, even if you need to keep a certain GPA and still have to take the MCAT, as you do at UIC GPPA.
What would UIC’s net cost be right now… total costs e.g., tuition, fees, books, room & board, health insurance, less FA?
What would it cost if you lived at home and commuted (not that I am recommending that, I’m just asking)?
Is the level of aid they are giving you for freshman year guaranteed for the rest of undergrad?
How does the timing of the UIC GPPA program work? It’s 4 years of ug, unless you can knock some time off with AP credits, correct? Would you be able to finish ug in 3 or 3.5 years?
@Mwfan1921 For UIC, the net cost would be around 8.5-9.5K if I remove the overestimating of living expenses/food/textbooks (my brother is going to finish his final year at UIC).
If I stayed home, it wouldn’t cost me much besides time. Around 3 hours roundtrip every day for the commute. UIC offers a U-Pass for the CTA (Chicago Transit/Subway/Bus). In fact, UIC covers my tuition at the moment.
As for the aid, that is what I am worried about as it’s mostly need-based. I was hoping to get their renewable merit scholarship which has a requirement of a 3.8 UNWEIGHTED grade point average and a 30 ACT - unfortunately, while my ACT is way up there (35), my unweighted GPA is not a 3.8, so that is a huge bummer.
I am still waiting to see if the Honors College scholarships have been provided because they’re renewable and would provide a bit more stability while closing the room and board gap.
Also yes, it’s a usual 7 year bs/md program, so 3 years of undergrad (in fact, I might be able to graduate in 2, but that’s not ideal especially not for medical school), and then 4 years of medical school.