That would be a big plus.
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It might be a plus for your daughter, but at some point she is going to have to decide what is most important, and what she is willing to possibly give up.
You indicated that she volunteers now. Since she is already connected to the facility, would they allow her to return during breaks and also do some shadowing? This will allow something to be crossed off the above list.
She will also need to volunteer in underserved communities, but that doesnât seem to be on her list of âmust haves.â ?? She can do this at home as well, whether she applies to med school or not (keep in mind that many/most do not head straight to med school)
I like the option of fulfilling that FL requirement with other courses like York College of PA does.
Here is more info about it.
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/york-college-of-pennsylvania-3399
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That is easy. She already worked a bit in shelters and senior communities.
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Great! Shadowing at home during breaks should also be easy. No need to have a hospital on campus.
York College of Pa looks impressive- they seem to have strong pre-health advising, Hillel, looks affordable etc.
I would absolutely look at this one!
Question: would your daughter prefer to be premed at a safety school that is affordable, or would she prefer UMD with a (reported by you) different career path? In other words- is it more important for her to attempt premed/medical school at a good, yet âlesserâ school, or does she prefer the higher ranking of UMD even if it means changing her career path (as reported)?
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Iâm confused as to why it matters where kids from your high school go. Our kids are at LACs that usually have one student a year from our high school. LACs are not popular from our high school. As for you, they are mostly athletes. Out of 700 in a graduating class, maybe ten go to a LAC. Didnât matter to our kids. It was their choice.
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I get the distance thing and hope your D can find a safety she likes with the "closer to home requirementâ. People here give suggestions for schools farther from home because thatâs a big way to branch out and get more options. Our kids are flights away with no family nearby. One would be a 12 hour drive and I think the other would be more like 16. Our older son, who is 16 hours away, now has multiple friends whose families are two hours away and we know those families a bit now. I know they would help him In a pinch for most things.
If you donât want your D far, thatâs fair, but then donât get too frustrated when options are more limited.
She may have been answering my question. I thought maybe the student might have some insight as to where they tend to get merit, maybe she could get some ideas for merit schools etc.
I believe that people have worked hard to come up with a long list of schools that might be affordable for this family. I assume a few are acceptable to this student?
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This is very true. Our kid went to a college that no one in her school had ever heard of. No one had previously attended. But the kid did her due diligence and the college totally fit our kid. We didnât care at all where anyone else went. And neither did our kid. OhâŠand our kid graduated college in 2010 and no one else from her HS has ever gone to her college since. So what?
This student and her family need to start thinking and looking outside the box.
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I think @momsearcheng is just soaking in the comments. Her daughterâs safety is UMD. She is willing to live with it but is still searching for a school with all 9 âwantsâ. She has several reaches and maybe one will hit. Maybe there will be a last minute match like her sister found at GaTech.
Many of the schools in the sweet spot for size, 5000 to 10,000 that give a lot of merit are the Catholic schools, and OP doesnât want that even if they have a strong Hillel because most will have some kind of theology requirement (even if it is Jewish theology). Thatâs OPâs choice too, but it excludes a lot of schools that otherwise match for size, distance, pre-med advising, near hospitals, and a decent but not impossible acceptance rate. Loyola Maryland, Villanova, St. Joseph, Catholic would all fit, but not what she wants.
My daughter went from Florida to Wyoming and Iâm not sure most at her high school could find Wyoming on a map-not the school, the state! The next year, another student went. Who knew my daughter would be such a trendsetter? (but I think the trend stopped at 2).
OP is okay with UMD being the safety and feels it is better than most of the other big state universities (in and OOS) for this family. I think thatâs reasonable. On the list, it meets #1, 3, 4, and 5. The UM hospital is in Baltimore (although there may be another nearby) for #6, donât know about the foreign language (#8) and it fails on # 2, 7 and 9.
The list (for reference)
- East coast school within 8 hours drive of Maryland
- A university with at least 2,000 students, but not a big school
- Jewish body and no theological classes in the core
- Sufficient merit aid to get the price to $25k and that is not super competitive (i.e. only 2% get it)
- Strong premed advising
- Opportunities for hospital work and research
- Small classes
- A specific (unnamed) foreign language
- A 50-65% acceptance rate as 70+% acceptance rate is not giving the desired vibe
It may be that #2,7, and 9 are less important than the others. It may be that #4, cost, is the one that squashes all the others.
But keep looking. Daughter might find she really likes a SUNY school or one of the PA schools (some are quite lovely and smaller than a flagship). Smaller is probably going to eliminate the specialty language.
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I recommended 2 SUNY schools and the OP has not commented on them. One might be too big (Binghamton) but otherwise checks the boxes and is known to give merit to OOS kids. The other one i mentioned is New Paltz. This school also checks all of the boxes- including size (about 6500). They might be able to get the cost down.
It seems the OP and/or the student does not want public schools, other than UMD. C of C is an excellent one as well.
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There are a number of small schools that donât require college foreign language be met with FL course. Some allow international affairsâŠor allow a student who is fluent in another language to have this waived.
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I could be wrong, but I think this student would be fine at UMD if her desired list is too costly. I think itâs the parent who isnât in favor of UMD (too big, not enough âhand holding,â not good for premed for this student, people say itâs not good etc) and it is the parentâŠnot the kidâŠwho is searching for other options.
To me, the student is perfectly ok applying to these reach schools, with UMD as the backup. She prefers that âŠinstead of many of the schools mentioned here.
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Itâs always true that we, as parents, think we know what our kids want and even push them in that direction.
My wife was sure that when we learned of Embry Riddle (at a college fair) that it was my sons school. Heâs an aviation buff and the person at the fair said every time a plane takes off from the neighboring Daytona airport, everyone looks up. After visiting we figured my son will have found his place. Or UAH because heâs quiet, itâs smaller and a lot of tech and a relaxed environment⊠he liked neither.
I thought for sure heâd end up at Purdue after he spent a week at a summer camp and loved it.
Never was interested in Alabama and only went to hang out with friends who were going to check it out. Came home, applied that night and there he is, choosing it over acceptances at Purdue, UAH, Embry Riddle and more.
The point - we think we know our kids or whatâs right for them. But itâs not necessarily true !!that very well could happen here. Or in any family.
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Yes and no. In our case older D went to GaTech without ever visiting due to Covid. She loves it ( I knew she would, since she liked Case and some other schools with similar vibe.) She did not like UMD but she was OK with it if there was no other financially feasible option. For her it was all about vibe and kids with similar interests. But I agree kids need to make their choice (if it is possible).
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I think Elon and Clark are both good options, but it does not look that there would be possibility of enough money there. Elon has mostly 6-7K awards (not even 1/4) with 42k tuition. Clarkâs merit awards 14-20k. Tuition there is 52k prior to room and board. Both have big Jewish population. Interestingly with much smaller acceptance rate Clark is ranked significantly lower than Elon (not that ranking matters for small schools at all). That makes me wonder what Clark does wrong and Elon correct. Is it just stupid ranking matrix or there is something else?
Can you please give me idea why Miami of Ohio is a great choice? It looks like it is quite big. Yes public. And theoretically they can cover full tuition (most likely half). They also look like strong with premed. Am I missing anything? I am trying to come up with small safety list. Candidates are Ursinus, St. Maryâs, Wooster, Juniata or Miami of Ohio. None are perfect. Ursinus is too small but fine and most likely will give scholarship. Has good premed. St. Maryâs, Wooster and Juniata are too isolated. St. Maryâs is not expensive but also does not have Hillel and is missing language that DD needs. So it is most likely will be dropped after visiting (unless my DD would love it for some other reason after visit.)
Elon had a huge price hike this year.
Miami is larger - but less than 20K kids so half the size of a UMD. They offer few doctoral programs so there is a focus on undergrads (I believe). When I visited with my daughter, we both saw similarity to William & Mary - in regards to the campus. Sorority housing is located in the dorms - although I think the frats have houses. It has sports - but the mid-american - so a smaller conference. They are known for outstanding undergraduate teaching. Thereâs different rankings - Elon is actually #1 per US News, ahead of Princeton, Brown, and Dartmouth. UMBC - you wonât look - but is #6, tied with Rice. Miami is #22, tied with MIT and Cornell.
Itâs a rural campus in a very small town, about 15 minutes from a bigger town and an hour from the Cincy Airport (will have lots of reasonably priced flights), less than an hour to Cincy, and a hour to DaytonâŠso rural butâŠnot horribly far from society. Strong Hillel.
Here in TN, people speak about it with near reverenceâŠsort of like a huge LAC with some pre-professional (engineering, business - but it has that feel on campus. It is known to be a party school - but what school isnâtâŠbut again, the sororities are based in dorms, not houses (I believe).
They have an Honors College.
It looks like with a 4.3 GPA, you can earn $15K to $34K vs.$38K in tuition. There are a few extra scholarships - Podesse - which is on top. I see, on this yearâs Miami thread, people listed $19K, $22K and $34K in merit. So this is where, to me, itâs an easy app (unless you apply to Honors), so this is worth a throw away - i.e. if you have 12, why not spend the $50 to apply to see what happens since itâs no extra work. What if you got the $34K?
If you get back out to Ohio, go check it out. Meet with Hillel. It could be greatâŠthe campus isnât huge.
Bonus if your daughter likes horses - they have a big equestrian center.
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Youngest daughter LOVEs horses! She can commit just for that 
.
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I just know on the tour, they said everyone is welcome. Donât know much more than that.
Equestrian Center | Miami University - Miami University (miamioh.edu)
OMG. Riding for credit? I should not mention it, or she will not apply to any other college 
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