I’ll add Valparaiso in Indiana. We we impressed with the science program, the campus culture, and the under graduate research oppertunitues. My DD was offered an excellent merit package that would have put the COA in that 15 to 20K range.
Seconding Valparaiso. Add Concordia Moorhead, Luther, Augustana - those have pretty good sciences.
Hope is probably your best bet since it combines everything, but you can’t put ll your eggs in one basket. 
I would second the recommendation for Concordia Moorhead. Quite good med school acceptance rate, lower total COA than St. Olaf, mix of conservative and liberal students (though I wouldn’t put it at 50/50, prob more on the liberal side), daily chapel offered, weekly Wednesday night services, many service opportunities.
Creekland, You are correct!!! I went back in yesterday after realizing I had misspelled it and tried to edit it but it would not allow me. lol.
I do still have Grove City on the list to call. However, they are a 10 hour drive and my son hopes to find something closer to home.
As of now Evangel U, and Baptist College of Health Sciences are at the top of our list. BCOHS is 100% all health field students, christian, very affordable and even offers medical mission trips. We will be visiting both of those colleges for sure and feel excited! Mississippi College, at a 7.5 hour drive, seems like a good fit too, but he’s not excited about driving that far. I told him he needs to be open minded though since that drive can be made in one day.
Thank you for reaching out to your son’s friend again.
MYOS,
My son corrected me. Since he still takes 1 weighted class at his high school, he said his GPA will still be a 4.0 The B (3) and the weighted A (5) will average it back out to a 4.0
I talked to a newer college today (5 years old), Baptist College of Health Sciences. 100% of their students are something medical. They said he should be able to prepare properly there in only 2 years for the MCAT as long as most classes transfer. If not, he may need an extra semester or year. They are very affordable and the idea they are all medical seems like a bonus.
He has already and is planning on doing more leadership events. (Example: school activities, sports, volunteer at a food bank, shadowing doctors, a one week medical camp this summer, has a summer lawn care business etc.) So, hopefully that will help him…
I will make sure he knows to hold back in community classes next year on some of the higher classes and save those for university. And to try to reverse his Sociology B with another similar class. All good advice.
IDK what EFC means? The 15k annually will come from mom and dad. If his choice is a school higher, that difference, plus med school will be on him.
Thanks.
Creekland, BYU is Mormon. Not for us. But thank you.
HappyDad, wow! Online Valparaiso U shows their annual rate at 51K!!! I can check into the merit scholarships, but they must be super high to get that number down close to 15k!
MYOS, Valparaiso, 51K yr. Concordia, 30 hr drive. Moorhead, not christian. Luther College, 41K yr. Augustana is 53K yr. Hope is 44K yr and he will only get approx 8K merit based. Sooooo… thank you all for the info, I do appreciate it, but as you can imagine, we are excited about the 3 I mentioned earlier!! Christian principals, good pre-med, distance and affordability.
You’re looking at sticker price - you need to run the NPC (net price calculator) which will give you that college’s net price for your family. Each college calculates differently so you have to run it for each of them unless they use a consolidated system such as npc.collegeboard.
Here are examples:
https://hope.edu/admiss/npc/npcalc.htm
https://gcc.studentaidcalculator.com/survey.aspx
https://www.luther.edu/admissions/financial-aid/net-price-calculator/
https://npc.collegeboard.org/student/app/berry
https://www.messiah.edu/info/21387/net_price_calculator
http://www.geneva.edu/student-financial-services/financial-aid/calculator/netprice-calculator
https://www.eastern.edu/admissions/undergraduate/undergraduate-net-price-calculator
https://www.concordiacollege.edu/admission-aid/tuition-aid/
https://www.wheaton.edu/admissions-and-aid/cost-and-aid/cost/estimate-your-college-costs/federal-net-price-calculator/
EFC= expected family contribution. The minimum colleges will expect you to pay, unless he earns “merit scholarships”. (Scholarships primarily come from the college itself, then federal, then the State).
So, his budget is 20.5K (your contribution+Stafford) + whatever scholarships he manages to earn.
You should know your EFC so that you know what you’re eligible for and whether your 15K are what “meet need” colleges would expect you to pay, or not. If you have a 12-15K EFC, then applying to Washington&Lee would make sense, for instance (if you want a very conservative college that’s also highly respected). If your EFC is 45K, then you need to hunt for Merit.
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/paying-your-share/expected-family-contribution-calculator
BCOHS mostly trains medical technicians. With it being so new, I wouldn’t see it as a viable choice.
I am also very suspicious of the $14K tuition, which would likely indicate subpar facilities, adjunct instructors, zero research and publications, etc. I think most med schools would view it very suspiciously.
Since the goal is med school, you really have to pick Christian colleges that are well-established, well-respected in the scientific/medical community, which is why people immediately suggested Wheaton IL, Hope, Pepperdine, Point Loma, Grove City Valparaiso, etc. It’s important the colleges he applies to are both legitimate and respected - compromising on distance should be an easy decision if it means better access to a strong premed curriculum. (BTW most people would fly, not drive, to Moorhead, if the distance were to take 30hours.) He can’t both believe he’s mature enough to become a doctor yet not accept he’ll be far from his parents in college.
Classes he can freely take at the CC are classes such as Biological Anthropology, Philosophy, Ethics, upper-level sociology and psychology classes, English, Foreign languages, communication (including interpersonal and intercultural courses), upper-level statistics&probability, African American Studies, East Asian Studies, Women’s Studies, bioinformatics… everything that will complement his profile and help him understand and communicate with people very different from himself or include a tech/quant component.
The problem with trying to “accelerate” is not that it’s impossible to know enough for the MCAT in 2 years, but rather that med schools don’t want 19-20 year old applicants who’ve rushed through college. They want the student growing and maturing and learning as much as they can, doing everything possible to show what they’re able of. Even a gifted high school student can’t do the things a junior/senior in college can (and HS EC’s don’t count for med school).
@iwannabe_Brown @artloversplus @mom2collegekids can explain in more detail how to handle the premed journey.
It looks like Baptist College of Health Sciences is a very new very small place, so it’s tough to see stats. The few they have are just retention rate and employment in a healthcare field or acceptance into grad school - too bad they don’t break that down into both categories - and what types of med schools (MD/DO/Caribbean, etc).
If you opt to head that route, best wishes for you. Well… actually… best wishes any way you end up going!
ps I figured BYU wouldn’t match your faith desires, but thought I’d post what my lad found out anyway. It could be as hopeful for some as Hope’s info is pending what various readers are looking for.
You can’t really go by the listed price. It’s important to cast a wide net and then see what type of scholarships/merit aid your child qualifies for. My more conservative friends have kids at Hillsdale in Michigan and Belmont in Tennessee. and I have heard nothing but good things. I’ve known several people who went to Wheaton in Illinois and really liked it–but definitely make sure it’s a perfect fit before committing.
I always bookmarked the following thread for low cost colleges, I have not been looking at Christian Colleges but you can explore yourself and I don’t know how far are these from St. Louis.
The above list is a very low total COA colleges. I did use USAO as an example, they have success in placing students in med school, but not sure how good are they.
One of the low cost state flag school is Maine, but it is far from St. Louis.
Is there particular reason to focus in Christian schools? As far as I know, Pepperdine is being labeled “Christian” , but in practice its far from the religion.
Besides, you should not rush in to take the Mcat. Two years for all medical school prerequisites is crazy. Unless you are getting As through out the college, HS grades do not count. Make sure the school you go to has a good medical school advisory and will issue committee letters, especially if they are from lower ranked schools. When I say lower ranked schools, I mean below American top 200.
Baylor is a christian college in Texas and their pre-med program is really solid. They also offer a Baylor-Baylor BS-MD program with Baylor Medical School. Texas has Baylor Dental School, Baylor Nursing school and many Baylor hospitals all around the state. Not offically related but many have same people on their boards or as trustees so influence is there. Even if you don’t qualify for financial aid or National Merit, you may get partial merit scholarships to make it affordable. Individual departments also offer stackable smaller scholarships.
If he’s not planning on a gap year, he actually only has 1 year to get things in order for med school which feels very unlikely to be a successful app.
If paying only 2 years of tuition is vital then I suggest planning on 2 gap years so that he has more time to build his resume and get LORs. Really want to have at least 3 years of post high school life under your belt at the time of application.
Oklahoma Christian University has a pre-med program and it is relatively inexpensive.
^all universities have a “premed program”, as it’s just a set of introductory courses in a variety of subjects + organic chemistry. What matters is support and, to a certain extent, opportunity to participate in research and build a resume of medical experience (EMT/CNA, volunteering, shadowing etc)
MYOS thanks for the links. Just tried Hope and it came out to over 37K!!!
It’s not his budget I speak of at this point, it is what we, his parents, are willing to pay for him per year. His loans will be anything above that amount.
Yes, I am still learning more about BCOHS and plan to visit the school to see the facilities.
I spoke directly with a med school and they said they mainly go off of GPA, and a well rounded student of shadowing, etc like you mentioned. He has/is doing all of that. One thing that sets BCOHS apart in my opinion is the fact he can go on a medical mission trip to another country! I think that is a fantastic opportunity and would look good too.
Thanks!
ZZ, yes, I am looking at the final annual amounts after the merit based scholarships are applied as I compare our options. (Not the sticker price). Wheaton is super high and hardly any merit based offered. I already checked into Hillsdale = too high. Belmont starts at 33K with it’s highest merit scholarship of only 10K so it is out too.
But thanks!
BCOHS is very risky for your son. it’s cheap but very limited. Yes med schools mainly look at GPA and MCAT scores + medical activities, but I don’t think BCOHS woud pass the bar for med school (professions like lab technician, certainly).
If you’re really limited to 20-25K a year then look into UMain Orono’s Christian groups. It’s a pretty conservative state and almost all Christian, so there should be Cru, FCA, etc - and they’re very good with scholarships. You can also look at your flagship and directional, looking into the Christian groups on campus.
Here are a bunch of NPC’s to try.
https://www.augustana.edu/admissions/estimating
https://www.hillsdale.edu/admissions-aid/financial-aid/financial-aid-early-estimator/
https://www.concordiacollege.edu/admission-aid/tuition-aid/types-of-aid/scholarships/concordia/
https://www.troy.edu/scholarships/undergraduate/troy-scholarships.html
https://www.troy.edu/studentinvolvement/religious.html
https://gcc.studentaidcalculator.com/survey.aspx
https://www.luther.edu/admissions/financial-aid/net-price-calculator/