Smaller school with merit aid for Jewish girl B+/A- premed [really 3.95 unweighted HS GPA]

College Search & Selection
1861

Happy kids do better in college than unhappy kids. Your daughter is very fortunate to have two choices she really likes a lot (Rhodes and Gettysburg). And one that will work (Juniata). Especially if medical school is on the horizon someplace, I would urge you to let her pick a place where she will be happy for four years of undergrad.

We know graduates of Rhodes, Gettysburg and Juniata, all in health care fields. A couple doctors. A couple of nurses. They felt they got great educations at their colleges and are successful adults now.

I guess what Iā€™m saying isā€¦so what if she has to take some courses again. Iā€™m not sure that is a crisis. At Rhodes, that would take the edge off and give her the time to shadow at one of those hospitals (because thatā€™s never a bad thing to do even with an assured admittance to LECOM), or do research (which a lot of undergrads do there). Then she has the assured seat at LECOM should she continue the medical school path.

This will all work out.

I would take two things out of the choice equationsā€¦

  1. Medical schoolā€¦IOWā€¦where would she go if that was not being considered?
  2. Needing to retake some courses (because reallyā€¦thatā€™s not as big a deal as you and she seem to think it is)

ETAā€¦another considerationā€¦re: Nova. Does she really want to be there for 7-8 years? Or would she prefer another undergrad followed by a different place for medical school? Plusā€¦Nova medical school part costs double what LECOM costs.

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1862

Juniata is definitely not all about sports - just ask my art kid.

But it sounds like Rhodes is a great option - and she loves the school. And while it is a bummer they wonā€™t accept her dual enrollment classes, she should ace them at there. it will keep her GPA high and maybe she can TA or tutor for some of those classes.

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1863

While Rhodes official policy is to not allow testing out of classes, some private colleges give the department chairs some discretion in this area. If your D chooses Rhodes (or any school that will not accept her CC classes), she could meet with the department chair and ask to take an old final exam to test into a higher level class in that subject.

This is not something to count on when making a decision, but Iā€™ve heard enough anecdotally to make it worth suggesting.

Good luck with the final decision! Thanks for the update.

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1864

No worries about Jewish life or safety at Rhodes. She already found plenty of interesting people there. Same with Gettysburg. She canā€™t find her people in Juniata. She liked Juniata as college, but LOVES both Rhodes and Gettysburg. Rhodes give her vibe of Richmond and Gettysburg of Washington and Lee. Juniata is just a passable place in a beautiful natural setting with horses and sunsets. :rofl:

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1865

This makes it sound like itā€™s either Rhodes with the direct admit to LECOM.

Or Gettysburg with a traditional medical school application process.

Just one FYIā€¦if your daughter is thinking of graduating from Gettysburg in three years and then starting medical school the fall after undergrad graduation, she would need to complete all medical school required courses by her sophomore year. And apply that spring. That is a very tight schedule. And remember, there are some traditional medical schools that wonā€™t accept CC courses.

@WayOutWestMom can elaborate and correct me if Iā€™m wrong.

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1866

I agree on the potential issues of graduating from Gettysburg in 3 yearsā€¦.it will be difficult to be a competitive applicant at that point even if the D scores high on MCAT. Many 23/24 year olds will have significantly more clinical hours, research experience, etc.

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1867

She can go to Nova, but as you mentioned correctly it is 8 years away from home and almost double the cost of DOā€¦
Plus I still canā€™t get over why so many students are failing MCAT thereā€¦
I think Rhodes and Gettysburg kind of better options than Nova. No problems with the location their too. There are plenty of Jewish kids in or near Nova and enough kids that match her interests.

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1868

We know grads of all three of these schools. Letā€™s just sayā€¦the very strongest students of the group were the Rhodes kids. Many turned down much higher ranked colleges because they were courted by Rhodes in terms of merit aid (much like this kid).

The Gettysburg and Juniata grads we know are successful adults, but they were not the top student in high school.

ETAā€¦Iā€™m not saying Gettysburg and Juniata are bad schools. They are both really fine for the students who choose to attend.

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1869

Technically yes, but Juniata(LECOM) and Nova (another BS/DO with more expensive DO and MCAT) are still inā€¦

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1870

Here is my vote. Let your daughter enjoy the four years of undergrad which sounds like it would be Rhodes or Gettysburg.

If she wants that guaranteed spot at LECOM, Rhodes should have to be the choice.

If she is thinking a traditional medical school application will work, then Gettysburg can be in the mix.

She can enjoy undergrad for four yearsā€¦make some lifelong friends, do some activities she really enjoys, etc. Because in medical school (particularly the first two years) she will be hitting the classes and books almost 24/7.

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1871

But my kid is not art kid.
My kid is social kid. She canā€™t be happy by herself sitting in dorm listening music or reading books. She needs big group of social kids (not from fraternity or sorority) with similar interests. She socialize in her free timeā€¦That is what helps her to unwind.

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1872

Last paragraph is her thoughts word to word. She is smart kid. :slight_smile:

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1873

She would have that at Rhodes and not have the whole medical school application process hanging over her head. Every college student wants to socialize during their free time. At Rhodes, your kid wonā€™t need to worry about medical school admissionā€¦should that continue to be her interest.

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1874

I would choose Rhodes. She loves it and already has an acceptance to medical school. Retaking the CC classes should not be a dealbreaker.

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1875

Am I dense and missing something here? Rhodes, imo seems like a no brainer. Sure, they wonā€™t accept her DE courses but everything else seems great! Many, or most college applicants and their family have to make concessions in one way or another. And in most cases things seem to work out just fine.

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1876

The good news about the repeats is the ability to balance the tough semesters (Orgo anyone?) with less stressful classes. So I see Rhodes policy as a positive. The D doesnā€™t need to take an entire semester of repeats freshman year- she can balance out the more time consuming classes (particularly the ones with labs, evening review sessions, etc) with the ones she is likely to do well in.

I have never seen a CC course taken by a HS kid which was as rigorous as an actual college class but Iā€™d be happy to be proven wrong. The CC professors in my area seem to have their thumb on the scale when it comes to grading 16 and 17 year oldsā€¦ and even they admit that they are a lot more generous when grading the HS kids than the actual CC students. So I would not assume that an A in a CC class automatically means total repeat at Rhodes taking the same course.

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1877

@momsearcheng what is the GPA needed to continue to the LECOM portion? Is it 3.6 or soā€¦

If so, retaking courses can certainly help keep that GPA high.

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1878

How did your D feel about the core curriculum at Rhodes? I know there was discussion about that not being a good fit a while back in this thread. Are the requirements different than originally understood? Did your D decide she was okay with them? That would be a helpful update for future readers who may have questions about the Rhodes core.

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1879

Many college will not accept CC credits because the rigor at most CCs simply isnā€™t there. All college-level classes are not created equalā€“and both colleges and med schools know that. This is why med schools either severely limit the number or do not accept CC credits for admission purposes.

Here on CC weā€™ve seen it happen over and over again that ambitious pre-meds with AP/DE credits start out taking a heavy load of UL sciences as freshmen and they struggle with the increased pace, greater rigor and steeper competition they face in college, doing permanent damage to their GPA that is hard to recover from.

You donā€™t want to put your daughter into the position of struggling in her first year of college classes. Her contract with LECOM requires she maintain a certain GPA (3.5? 3.6? no C grades?) to qualify for her ultimate admission. What will happen if she discovers she has a weak foundation in chemistry and biology due to her CC classes?

(BTW, have you looked at the syllabus of her CC chem and compared it with whatā€™s covered in Rhodesā€™ gen chem course?)

And if your daughter is able to cruise through her freshman repeated classes? Thatā€™s great! she had a protective pad in case she struggles with the really tough classes like physics, biostats or biochem.

So thereā€™s nothing wrong with Rhodes and repeating classes.

The other option is Gettysburg and the traditional application process. I know youā€™re concerned that your daughter wonā€™t do well on the MCAT, but if she canā€™t make 505 on the MCAT, sheā€™s at very high risk of failing her board exams and probably doesnā€™t belong in med school in the first place.

Medicine is one long line of high stakes, career-determining exams.The MCAT is the just the first and easiest of them. COMLEX and USMLE are much, much harder than the MCAT. And unlike the MCAT cannot be retaken. Plus there are NBMEs, ITEs and written and oral specialty boards which have to be retaken every few years to maintain a medical license. The testing never stops and any failure can mean the loss of a career.

Your daughter has 3 optionsā€“none of them are perfect, but thatā€™s life. Becoming a physician is privilege and there are costs (financial, emotional, social, educational) associated with that privilege.

Your daughter should decide which trade-offs sheā€™s willing to accept because the farther along she gets in her journey to a medical career, the fewer choices she will have. (Do you and your daughter realize that her residency placement is decided by a computer algorithm? Med grads get one option, take it or leave it, even if it requires pulling up stakes and moving across the country or isnā€™t in her first choice specialty.)

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1880

The course credit situation is frustrating.

My D entered with over 50 credits from a combination of AP, dual enrollment, and external college courses, but with the understanding some would be repeated in some form. Chemistry was one she took for, I guess, the third time and she still learned some new content, experienced different labs, and was also able to focus energy on the courses that were 100% new.

As others have stated, within departments there is more discretion for certain courses. Math was one that she was able to meet with the professor and dean and explain the weird name that the local community college uses for calc1. She was able to document that they had accepted the course from transfers from two of our state colleges that accept it as calc 1.

One way I read the Rhodes language that could be discussed with them is if she exceeded the requirements for high school graduation. In Maryland, it looks like they need 21 credits to graduate (combo of 4 English, 3 Math, 3 Science, etcā€¦). Rhodes states: Applicants must complete sixteen or more academic units in high school, including at least four years of English, two years of the same foreign language (classical or modern), two years of laboratory science and two years of history or social science. Furthermore, applicants are expected to have completed the mathematics course sequence Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II or their equivalent. A fourth year of high school mathematics, including trigonometry and advanced algebra is especially important for students who plan to study mathematics, natural science, computer science, economics or business administration.

So she may be able to explain the differentiation of courses taken that exceed the requirements- if they were taken on the Cc campus and not at the high school (their requirement).

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