We’ve been researching possible schools for my daughter (a junior), but honestly we’re kind of floundering, so I would like to ask for advice from the knowledgeable parents here. My daughter is extremely intent on med school, and wants to major in biology. We will not qualify for need-based financial aid. We cannot afford to pay full private school rates and also help her with med school. We have been discussing this, and she is on board with saving money on undergrad to avoid huge med school debt.
We are in state for Florida, and have been looking hard at UF and possibly FSU or USF. Our main concern is that they are all large schools, and she is worried that she won’t feel comfortable with the size. Therefore, we’re looking for small to medium schools with good merit possibilities. We would like tuition + room and board to be $35k per year or less.
Info on my daughter:
GPA through first quarter of 11th grade: 4.0 UW (all As)
By graduation will have 8 or 9 APs and 16 Honors classes.
Hasn’t taken official SAT or ACT yet. Took practice ACT at school last spring with no prep at all and got a 31. Should
be able to improve since she said she made time management mistakes on two of the sections.
ECs: Varsity swimming since 7th grade ( lettered each year; is a captain this year)
County-wide auditioned youth chorale since 5th grade (president this year and last year)
Volunteer at zoo since 8th grade (250+ hours)
Various clubs, honor societies, theater productions, etc.
Things she’s looking for in a college:
Excellent biology program large enough to have varied course offerings
Excellent pre-med advising
Undergraduate research opportunities
Club swimming
Chorale / singing opportunities for non-music majors
Southeastern location (due to weather) but will consider other regions
I apologize for such a long post. Thanks in advance for your input!
Searchable data base. Look for schools where (i) there’s a high percentage of students getting non-need based aid, (ii) where the average non-need based aid is larger, and (iii) where your kid will be an above average applicant.
Salem (womens) in NC gives significant merit and has a high Med-school placement rate (It is a really small school though) and Agnes Scott (Atlanta) also gives merit
Furman University COA is over $60,000 a year with her current stats she’s be eligible for approx 20,000- 22,000 in merit which is over OPs budget . Great school though.
At Florida Tech she’d get a lot of money - about $20k in merit, $3k in FRAG, ~$3k in bright futures. It has a very good biology department, especially marine biology. It has several pre-med tracks.
Is she interested in swimming at college? That is a source of scholarship money too. Florida tech has a gorgeous pool.
One issue my DD had at schools like Presbyterian and Rollins is that some of the departments are really small. We only found 5 physics professors at Presbyterian (maybe they have more that visit or teach part time). It was just too small for D. USF has two campuses, so maybe the smaller one is a better choice?
Thanks again to everyone for the suggestions. We’re putting together a spreadsheet to compare schools.
@twoinanddone , her times are not quite at the level for a swimming scholarship, but she would like to do club swimming in college for fun, fitness and meeting other swimmers. Also, the issue you mentioned with really small departments is definitely a concern. We will have to look into that closely.
Birmingham Southern has excellent merit scholarships. It is tiny but has a beautiful campus. I checked and they do have swim teams. We toured there for D who does not want to go into medicine, but all three of the other students who toured with us that day intended to go into the sciences and then on to medical school.
UAB isn’t small, but does have very good merit scholarships. My understanding is that pre-meds get a great education there and have access to things like shadowing through the UAB medical center.
Eckerd College offers merit up to $21,000. There are also research freshman grants. They have an honors program, phi beta kappa chapter and a wonderful professor/mentor program. Students have the ability to begin research in freshman year, author, co-author and present. There is a solid pre professional mentor program. Med. school recommendations are by committee. The students work with the committee and no student is denied the opportunity to apply to med. school, 63% of qualified students are accepted. https://www.eckerd.edu/prehealth/