D2 is highly focused on California, she hasn’t seen a Cali school yet which she disliked (except UCLA/Stanford, both gave her “bad vibes on the tour” whatever that means)
AA female, aiming for Biology, DC resident, won’t get need-based aid
ACT 34, a few low-key EC’s, mostly med-related activities
Not looking to be rural, ideally, nor cold
Planning apps for UCB, UCSD, UCSB, USC, ClaremontMcKenna, Scripps, Oxy
Also looking at Tulane, and UMiami
Trying to talk her into adding Rice?, Chapman? UNC? Temple? San Diego State? University of South Florida? Just trying not to narrow down her apps too much, but looking for either some merit or a reasonable tuition bill
Please give me your thoughts
Can we assume that you are CA residents? Otherwise the UC’s are full pay.
She might get merit at Rice, Tulane, and Miami; she would almost certainly get it from Temple, but why not add UCSC and Davis, where her chances are, respectively, as close to certain as any applicant can get, and somewhere between excellent and certain.
DC residents, yep, I know about the full pay which is why I am trying to add schools with merit or lower tuitions
Are all the colleges on her list affordable to you now? Have you run net price calculators on all of them (on the college websites)? She may get merit at Scripps or Oxy, and likely at Tulane (not sure of UMiami, just don’t know as much about them). You can tell if a school gives merit by:Googling the Common Data Set for the school. You can see how many students got merit and the average amount, and figure out if you think your student falls in roughly that top % of the student body as far as statistics go. Also each college website should have some information on non-need based scholarships. Putting that info together should give you some idea of her odds of merit.
UNC isn’t going to be any more affordable than the UCs if you are OOS as far as merit. They do give need based aid to OOS students, but that makes admission very competitive.
What about Rhodes or Agnes Scott?
Well, UCSD is 42k tuition, and UNC is 34K, plus I think housing is less @ UNC so about 9k less atUNC I think Scripps made the list as part of the consortium, really
Figure the UC’s at about $60K with OOS tuition/ room/ board not including transportation home for holidays/ summer. UC’s give little merit aid and need- based aid is reserved for in-state applicants.
Run the net price calculators. I would focus on California privates that offer better merit aid
It is the worst place to be in CA for OOS premeds. High tuition and COA, high competition and no financial relief. It does not matter if you go to UC’s or CA privates.
Better off with some where you like and also is the top 25% of the entering class, top 10% would even better for pre-med. You can learn more from the premed sections on CC.
Rice would be a great option for your daughter to consider. The campus has a Mediterranean architecture not dissimilar from that at Scripps, but it is set against shady oak groves rather than the dry SoCal scrub of Claremont. Houston is a vibrant city that boasts very comfortable weather during most of the school year. Rice offers a very welcoming student environment (ranked #1 nationally for Race/Class Interaction by the Princeton Review). Finally, the school is located right across the street from the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical facility in the world (and the location of the famous MD Anderson Cancer Center). She might well have a chance for some merit aid.
If you are considering Florida schools like USF and Miami, you might also want to look at Rollins, a liberal arts college in Orlando. I’m not sure how well it would fit your daughter (it has a reputation for attracting northern rich kids who want fun in the sun), but Rollins has been trying to attract top students by offering a generous merit scholarship program. A free ride would not be beyond the realm of possibility for your daughter. Check out the minimum requirements (grades, SATs) on the Rollins website.
UCs don’t need merit aid, except perhaps $5,000 at schools like UCSC. Expect to pay the full 60k. The “health profession” UC is Riverside BTW. But all in all premed as OOS in California is the same as renouncing med school right off the bat as the competition is the worst there is anywhere sue to too many qualified instate applicants and not enough space for qualified Californian residents, not to mention non Californians who aren’t eligible for public med schools. What else is she interested in?
Focus on the privates - Scripps, Occidental, Chapman, LMU (Catholic). Perhaps push a bit North and see if she’d apply to selective scholarships at Lewis and Clark, U Puget Sound, UPortland and of course UWashington.
Have her add Cal poly SLO and Pomona, Sdsu, and apply to their Honors programs.
The premed section has low traffic unfortunately
I discouraged her from applying to Pomona, as it doesn’t offer any merit money at all
Agnes Scott seems too small without a consortium, smaller than her high school
Going to look at stats for Rollins
University of Miami has the Hammond Scholarship for AA students. It covers full tuition/fees for 4-years. An ACT of 34 and a “decent” GPA will make her very competitive for that scholarship. Need to maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 to keep the scholarship. R&B will cost about 13K for freshman year.