I’m a high school senior with a 4.2 weighted GPA, a 35 ACT and several extracurriculars. I have been trying to find decent safety schools to apply to for biology on a pre-med track. Does anyone have any recommendations? Thank you!
Your best in-state public university. Even better if medical school located nearby.
Though not necessarily safeties, you’d probably get into nice colleges such as Richmond and Denison.
You can get the pre-med rquirements just about anywhere, including most community colleges, so there is no need to get too worried about this. Talk with your parents about how they expect you to pay for college, and once you have a budget, check the Financial Aid forum here for threads about automatic admission and automatic scholarships.
Need cost constraints and location preferences. If you want to go to med school keep undergrad costs low unless you have unlimited funds.
Here are the 3 criteria for admittance to Med School. Keep in mind you will be fortunate to get into one medical school.
- Grades- You need above a 3.7 overall and in your pre reqs. Obviously higher is better. Med schools publish acceptance #s by gpa. You need to go to a school that will teach you the material but not be too tough.
- MCAT- You need a high score. Again, medical schools publish the scores of accepted students.
- Volunteering- They want to see you went out in the real world and helped care for real people. Not lab work. They also want to see that you shadowed a DR to be sure you want to be a DR. Some schools offer excellent help with this.
Med schools don’t heavily weigh where you went to school. Yes, they will prefer top 100 schools, but that’s about it.
What are normal student criteria?
- Cost- Your instate med school will be the best deal.
- Quality- You want a school that prepares students for the boards, the students do well on the boards, and get into preferred residences because of their scores. This info is published, and often the state schools do VERY well. There are a few elite private schools, but after that it tends to be state schools.
- Chances of admittance to a solid med school- Remember you will most likely only get in one school. Some schools have far better results than others. Most under grad schools try hard to puff their stats. Ask hard questions.
Here are 2 real world examples. Let’s say you live in California. CA has excellent under grad schools and excellent med schools. This makes the state schools very competitive. But what if you went to school in another state like Washington? UW’s med school is ranked about 10th and you can get instate residency at some of the under grad schools. It’s a lot easier to get in if you are instate. Again, they publish this info. 
Check out the pre med / med school forum for excellent info: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-medical-school/
A safety school is whoever offers you a full scholarship. Apply to all the scholarships you can because it’ll be worth it’s weight in gold when you start taking out loans for medical schools. You don’t need an elite school for medical school, just top grades and a strong MCAT score.
I’ve looked at the earlier postings by the OP and no mention of volunteer or other experience in a medical setting. So without any actual exposure the question I think the OP ought to first think about isn’t about schools with “biology on a pre-med track” but why medical school, why the field of medical care?
When a lot of HS kids think of a career in medicine it becomes “I’m pre-med!” and happily embark on a track that will take 11+ years of school/training plus enormous debt. Doctors are far from the only ones in the health field that help people. Physical therapists, radiology techs, nurses, speech pathologists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, to name but just a few. as you can see on http://explorehealthcareers.org
Until the OP has carefully considered the alternatives and have spent time actually working in a health care setting (which is an unwritten requirement to get into med school and is actually required for some other medical fields) then trying to pick schools for premed is jumping a bit ahead. And truth be told any college in the country is capable of teaching the dozen or so lower-division courses required to apply to med school.
I agree with @Hippobirdy and @happymomof1. There are a lot of very good universities in the US with very good premed programs.
If you really want to get to attend medical school in the future, then you need to maintain a very high GPA as an undergraduate student, and you need to save your $$ for medical school, and you need quite a bit of experience in a medical environment such as by volunteering at a hospital. Many high school students seem to be focused on attending the highest ranked school that they can get accepted to. However, you might be better off attending a university where you are in the top 1/4 of incoming students.
If you do attend a university where you are in the top 1/4 of incoming students, then do not get lazy or complacent. Many of the strongest students will be sitting next to you in your premed classes. Premed classes will be tough. You will be plenty challenged and will have to work VERY hard to maintain a high GPA. Of course this hard work will also help you learn the material which should in the long run help you in other ways (such as helping you get ready for the MCAT).
In many cases this makes finding a safety school relatively easy for a premed student who is really serious about getting into medical school. Your in-state flagship is likely to be a great choice. If you live in California it might be your in-state #3 through #9 which are more appropriate as a safety.
Which leads to the obvious question: Which state are you in?
I’ve heard that Brandeis has an excellent premed program, and I believe with your stats this is a “likely” school for you if you show interest. The best “safety” school is one where you are an auto-admit or that you get admitted to via rolling admission or non-restricted early action before your other apps are due. And truly, don’t minimize the other posters’ advice about affordability. Look at the total cost for all 8 years and have a serious conversation with your parents, keeping in mind that sometimes life happens and things can happen outside of their control like job losses and health issues that negatively impact their finances.
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Have you calculated what you want to/are willing to spend for college? You’ll want to limit undergrad debt, as medical school is extremely expensive. Once you know what you can afford, then you are best able to search for safety schools.
The University of Utah would be a nice safety. 35 ACT should get a full OOS tuition scholarship. In addition there is a med school on site, and the undergrad grading policy is extremely generous with over 50% of students receiving an A or A- in most science courses.