University of MN Twin Cities CBS or CLA

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m wondering about my chances at this University, both CBS and CLA.

UW GPA: 3.9
Weighted GPA: 4.15

Freshman year: Honors Geometry, Honors Physics
Sophomore year: Honors Algebra 2, Honors Chemistry, Honors English
Junior year: H. pre Calc, H. English, H. Spanish, H. Biology, AP US History
Senior year: H. Calc, AP English, AP Gov, AP Biology

ACT Score: 26 (I haven’t gotten my scores back from the test I took yesterday, hoping to get 27 or 28)

Will be on my application (haven’t applied yet): - I will make it look a lot better and more organized on my actual application

School-Sponsored Activities:

Please list any school-sponsored activities such as clubs, music, student government, etc.

Football, varsity sr.
Track and Field
Student Ministry, Eucharistic minister
Student Ambassador
National Honors Society
Kathleen Murphy’s Scholars program
Engineering Program
Weight Lifting club, letter

Activities Outside School
Please list any activities outside school you have participated in such as community service, volunteer service, scouting, 4-H, FFA, etc.

Tutoring physics/spanish twice a week for two years
Lyndale Elementary tutoring
Sharing and Caring Hands
Feed my Starving Children
Summer stretch leader - Helping the youth volunteer once a week in the summer
Helped coach sister’s soccer team

Other Talents, Achievements, Activities
Please list any other special talents, honors, achievements, awards, or activities that don’t fit above. (Maximum 4,000 characters.)

3.8 or higher academic recognition
Maybe customer hero award at work
Have arduino, coding, cad skills from engineering program
Named player with most effort award for football freshman year

I’m not sure where I will put it, but I founded a club that sends a group of 10 students a week who are fluent in Spanish to educate elementary students who are hispanic.

2

UMN CLA: Match/High match
UMN CBS: Reach

3

I was thinking of maybe taking the ACT again in October to try to boost my score to 28 or 29 so I can have a higher ACT score for CBS

4

28-29 still keep CBS as a reach. 29 is bottom 25%, meaning that to get in with that score you’d have to have special extenuating circumstances or be of special interest to the school (ie., legacy, athlete…)
http://admissions.tc.umn.edu/academics/profile.html
You can apply to the CBS but your odds are very low. They’re pretty good in the CLA though, and since you hope to be premed, CLA is better anyway. :slight_smile:

5

MYOS1634, Are you sure cla would be better for premed? I’ve heard that CBS is better, but I’ve also heard that it goes too into depth in biology and and prepares you for med school courses in 2 years. Does a BS (cbs) or a BA (cla) make that much of a difference? And my sister went there, so I guess I am a legacy

6

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7

Starting this Fall, premed courses include: 2 semesters each of English, biology, chemistry, physics, plus one semester each of calculus, statistics, sociology, psychology, organic chemistry, biochemistry, perhaps neuroscience, and a good grasp of a language spoken by immigrants (4+ semesters).
There’s more to med school than passing Orgo. Sure, Orgo is a killer of med school dreams so the semester you take that class, don’t take other hard classes. But getting a B in Orgo isn’t the point. It’s just a weed out moment. You jumped through the fire hoop? Congratulations, now let’s look at the rest…
Med schools want you broadly educated rather than having a specialist’s knowledge. They want you to demonstrate scientific reasoning but also critical reasoning and a broad humanities base (“medical humanities”, this is sometimes called.) The specialist knowledge will come in med school.
Also, GPAs are higher in CLA, and med schools do NOT care whether your college had grade deflation or not, they just want to see a high GPA in any major of your choosing.
Finally, you’ll have more time to devote to necessary activities (research and volunteering) in CLA.
For this reason, CLA is better than CBS.