Hi everyone…
I’m just kinda stressing right now about college. I’m a junior (white, female) in high school. My parents are immigrants. Father no college. Mother technical school for 2 years. I come from a financially stable background. Middle class. I speak English fluently, Russian fluently, and learning french. I had a 3.9 GPA freshman year unweighted. 3.8 GPA sophomore unweighted. and will most likely have a 3.8 GPA unweighted this year. I have taken all the honors courses possible up to this point. I took 2 APs as a sophomore. I took APUSH and AP Microeconomics. This year i’m taking honors french, AP Lang, AP Physics 1, AP Calc BC, AP bio, and electives. I am planning on taking 3 or 4 (AP french, AP Chem, AP Psych, maybe one more) APs next year. My extracurriculars are Student Co, board of Art Club, Head of tutoring for a girls science club, founder of Biology club, Best Buddies, and LEAD. I also do about 10 hours of volunteering each year and receive a merit award. I took the ACT for the first time and got a 30 (without studying much). I’m kinda worried about this being too low. I will definitely study and work on improving my score. My GPA is not the best. I was wondering what colleges I should consider / what advice do you all have for me to improve what i’m doing. I’m looking to go into something with science, possibly premed. My dream school would probably be UCLA. Do I have any chance of getting in there with such a low GPA?
Calculate your UC GPA here:
http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
30 ACT might be a bit low for UCLA, especially given how competitive it has become over the last few years.
Do you live in California?
No, I’m out of state. I’m hoping to get my ACT to at least a 32.
If you are OOS, are your parents prepared to pay around $55K/year to attend? OOS applicants get little to no FA.
Well, I did ask where I should look at other than UCLA. I want to know where I have a chance, and where a good place would be to go for premed. I want to go to a good school because I work so hard. My parents do not have much money to be paying for a lot, so either way I will need loans.
What state do you live in? Also if you’re in a lower income bracket look to schools who offer great need based aid
As a student, you can only take out $5500 Freshman year, $6500 Sophomore year, $7500 Junior/Senior year in loans. The rest of the loans would be financed by your parents and you do not want huge debt for undergrad if you plan to go to Medical School. For Medical school, you want to have a high GPA, access to medically related EC’s and a High MCAT score. Going to your state school will not be a deterrent for you to get into a good Medical School and would save you much needed money.
Big merit scholarship lists:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
If your parents are middle or low income, try the net price calculators on college web sites to get an idea of what their net prices are.
Remember that medical school can be very expensive.
I’d suggest first looking at your state flagship, then proceeding to find schools which offer merit aid that you like and qualify for, and also outside scholarships as well. Maybe you should have a talk with your guidance counselor and see if there are any scholarships that you can consider applying for.
If you’re doing premed, then your best bet is to save as much as you can during undergrad, and use that money for med school.