Would love to find an affordable christian university/college with a great pre-med program!!! My son wants to be a doctor and we do not qualify for any financial assistance. None! So, we would like to know if anyone knows of an affordable school that has a TOP NOTCH PRE-MED program as well…???
Thanks in advance!
Look at Hope College. https://hope.edu/academics/pre-health/
*As close to St. Louis, MO would be sweeeeeet!!! 
I am going to check into Mississippi College and also Baptist College of Health Services. Looks like Hope College is quite a bit more expensive than those two so far 
But thank you for the recommendation!
Hope college. Baylor.
If you want less conservative than Hope yet Christian, St Olaf.
If you want more conservative, Wheaton Illinois.
Beware of accreditations.
What’s your budget?
What you want is called merit aid and that’s very dependent on test scores as well as how “deep pockets” the college is.
What are your child’s stats?
I’m not as familiar with as many Christian colleges in your area, but around here (in PA), one of the not-so-expensive and still with good stats (for a Christian college) schools that is popular is Grove City College.
When my oldest was looking at Christian colleges he really liked Union (TN), Calvin, and where he ended up going, Covenant, but he wasn’t anywhere close to wanting to be premed. He majored in business. He also considered Harding, but wasn’t sure if he would be a good fit for them and they are a bit farther from us, so he dropped them fairly early (esp since he loved Covenant).
Kids from my public high school who want Christian schools and aspire to go into the medical field also choose Messiah and Wheaton (besides Grove City), but I’m not sure that either will be less expensive. Notre Dame and BYU also come into play, but I’m going to guess you weren’t thinking Catholic or Mormon Christian as folks usually specify that when asking.
Adding in my own family experience… oldest son didn’t want pre-med, but middle son did and is currently in med school. Those two lads are two years apart so middle son went on college visits with us for oldest son and determined that Christian schools really didn’t offer what he wanted - he wanted extensive research options and had high stats to be competitive pretty much anywhere for admissions. He ended up mostly considering secular schools (did apply to and get accepted to Baylor) and eventually attending his first choice (U Rochester).
My youngest son also went on college visits and considered similar schools to his brothers, but opted for a secular LAC. He’s not pre-med.
Oldest graduated from college in 2014. Youngest graduates from college this year. We let each of them pick their colleges based upon their desires (within our budget). To date… the two who chose secular schools are the most active in their faith - going to and/or leading Bible studies (even at Med School - several are Christian and came from secular undergrads - I can ask if any attended Christian schools and update if so), attending church regularly, keeping God in their lives. I don’t think my oldest dropped his faith, but it’s certainly not as visible as the others - no church, etc.
My med school lad has also said he’s really glad as a future doctor that he chose a secular school because he’s continually interacted with a wide variety of people and beliefs - the same as he does in clinics and will do as a doctor.
Just sharing our experience and his thoughts. I wouldn’t limit school choice to Christian schools. I’d let the student figure out where he fit in by visiting all types (and attending Christian club meetings if possible with visits to see some Christian students at other schools). There are advantages to secular schools for some (many?) Christians. That said, if a Christian school is still his preference, my first thoughts give some ideas of schools I know more about via my own lad or those from the school where I work.
I’ve looked at both Hope and St. Olaf for my own D19 who is interested in being pre-med. Hope’s COA is $44,320 vs $58,330 for St Olaf. Both have merit scholarships available, although based on my review of their websites, Hope’s merit aid is more clearly spelled out by GPA and ACT/SAT. https://hope.edu/admissions/scholarships.html Also because St. Olaf is somewhat more selective, merit aid will be presumably be easier to get at Hope and of course is applied against a lower COA. Ex: Hope’s middle range ACT is 24-29 vs St. Olaf at 25-31. I agree that Hope is more conservative than St. Olaf, but I also have two nieces who graduated from Hope and they are both certainly very politically and socially liberal.
The talk of Hope College dusted off a brain neuron for me. One of the students at middle son’s med school (not his year) made the college news due to some research he was in (during med school). His undergrad was Hope. Here are a couple of articles the college put out about him and his accomplishments:
Seems like a school worthy of consideration if it fits the student. We at least know a good student can do well there.
Scratch Baylor off your list. It’s not likely to be affordable if you don’t have true financial need or if you are not a National Merit Finalist.
Why not find a school where you kid can be successful and is affordable and then encourage him to become involved in the campus ministry programs? Some of the schools mentioned already in this thread have a Christian name but wowzers…all you have to do is dig a bit for the daily campus crime report and you can easily see ALL the same stuff goes on there as at a regular non-religious school.
I know somebody who had a great experience at Biola as a pre-med (he also really enjoyed the Christian ethics and philosophy classes he took). He did well on his MCAT and got a good med school placement. I know nothing about the financials.
At St Olaf maximum merit was half of COA for the 2017 admissions round. That involved getting the Buntrock Scholarship and some supplemental merit from music or some other discipline specific scholarship.
You can do the pre-med course sequence just about anywhere. Top priority for med school placement is a high GPA and strong MCAT results. Research opportunities and internships in a medical setting are also pluses.
MYOS,
-Wheaton is great. However, their merit based scholarships are super minimal compared to many other colleges!
-The more conservative the better! And prefer a protestant type christian college vs a catholic college. However, a great pre-med program is obviously first concern. He has to be mentored properly to be able to pass the MKAT!
-He has very good grades. Right under a 4.0 (Always had a 4.0 until he started taking all college level classes at an actual college vs attending his actual high school. (Made a B is Sociology). It is a special program he qualified for. He will get his high school diploma AND his associates degree at the same time when he graduates high school. So only 2 years more to get his bachelors degree completed. (Another reason we need a good pre-med school. He will only have 2 years to prepare for the MKAT.)
-We are hoping to contribute 15K or less annually. He will have to take loans for the rest, which is another reason we are budget shopping as well as shopping for good pre-med, conservative and hopefully even christian based.
Creekland,
Thank you. Good to hear about your journey with your kids!
This one is our youngest.
Oldest attended a christian school her first 2 years than transferred to secular. She is active in her faith today at 25.
Our middle son wanted a christian college, but he was a scholarship athlete. The chrisitian colleges could not offer the same $ as secular. He ended up with a full ride to a secular University. He just graduated and despite his rowdy teammates/college life, still has good faith.
I do plan to give the youngest his “choice”. If he plans to be a doctor, he will have to take out loans, or go military after being accepted in med school. He knows our budget so he can choose, but I hope to find some very competitive and tempting christian schools for him to consider.
Corinthian,
Oh my. Did they start out conservative?
Carachel,
Yes. It is certainly true you can find bad in the good, and likewise, good in the bad. He has only ever attended secular school and always exemplified Godly character so I don’t have big concern. Also, his 2 older siblings attended secular colleges and still have great faith. So, I will give him the choice. However, I want to make sure he gets a few good christian colleges as viable competitive options so he really does have a choice. Not just secular. Obviously, finding a christian college with a great pre-med program and that is affordable, is a harder quest.
Mamadefamilia,
What is COA anyway? I have heard it mentioned now a few times…
COA is total cost of attendance: tuition, room, board, and fees.
@03katmom I believe MCAT is the spelling you want to get used to - unless you were making a play off your screen name, of course…
Note that all of his college grades while in high school will count on his med school applications. AP course grades do not count, but DE (Dual Enrollment) courses do.
I haven’t heard back from my med school lad yet regarding undergrads of those in his Bible study. I’ll shoot him another text in case he’s forgotten to check. (He told me he didn’t know and would check when he got a chance.) Still consider Grove City. They’re highly regarded among Christian schools, conservative, and cost less while occasionally giving out nice money.
Check out William Carey University in Hattiesburg MS. They made a list for most affordable. Great merit aid for grades and test scores. They recently started a DO school and has a pretty good record for Residency matches.
It’s not possible to prepare for med school in just two years. First, due to the fact med schools don’t like community college classes and want 4-year classes; second, because Christian schools will have a mn extensive core curriculum or specific classes he needs to take. Third, in addition to the MCAT, students need to grow into a leadership role in their medically related activities: they need to volunteer in a variety of situations and contexts, showing they understand the myriad challenges facing physicians (people who are homeless, who don’t speak English, who have a different value system than his, are low ses, etc. So, volunteering at a shelter, with refugees, a clinic…) And not only have the variety and hours of experiences but also being able to demonstrate impact.
If he does research, he’ll have to go from doing whatever he’s told to being able to work independently to presenting at a conference to being fourth author on a published paper. That takes long hours and talent that needs to be cultivated over time.
(Check out the tumbler by afrenchie36. It is an excellent example of what a gifted pre-med student should do.)
If he’s taken biology, chemistry, physics at the community college, he’ll need to take one more advanced class in each subject due to community college classes not going into enough depth for med school. (His other option wrt med schools is to retake the classes themselves but it’d be looked down upon ).
I’d recommend he take organic chemistry at the 4-year only, or saves level 2 in Orgo for the 4-year.
His B in sociology will count since sociology and psychology are part of the pre-med pre-requisites and it’s part of the expected knowledge for the MCAT.
He may want to take an extra sociology class to show the B was a fluke and use that second sociology class to take his diversity-focused class for med school.
His near-4.0 will help him, because the best indicator of college academic success is… surprize… Academic success in college classes taken in high school.
Is the 15k a year your EFC or is your EFC far removed from that amount?
If his budget is 15k a year, he’ll need to find full tuition scholarships.
Even at public or secular colleges those are rare. They heavily depend on high test scores so he needs to make sure his test scores are high.
Ole Miss, UaH would be within possibility. Miami Ohio.
Grove City and Hope might be your best bet. Look into Eastern, Messiah, Moravian?
Student loans are limited to 5.5k for freshman year.
My guy responded… the only Christian undergrad he knows about among his peers - his year in med school - is BYU. There may be some he’s not aware of. There are 104 in his class. Some are social doing activities with the “group” (as he is) and some aren’t.