<p>Hey everybody, I'm starting my senior year in highschool and I'm still looking for colleges and I'm not sure what schools are in my range. I have a 33 ACT score, 4.1 W GPA (rank 80/960) from almost all honors/AP, AP's are 5 in English Lang, and 4 in Chem, US History, and Macro Economics, and I also plan on taking the SAT soon (estimating 2220 based on act conversion). My EC's are decent, Junior and Senior class VP and NHS member and VP, International Club, Interact club (volunteer group), and a few more. I live in Illinois and I don't want to go too far from home for college. Any suggestions on colleges to consider? The schools I'm considering right now are U of I and Northwestern, are my stats suitable for these schools? Thanks in advance for any help.</p>
<p>*I have a 33 ACT score, 4.1 W GPA (rank 80/960) from almost all honors/AP, AP’s are 5 in English Lang, and 4 in Chem, US History, and Macro Economics, and I also plan on taking the SAT soon (estimating 2220 based on act conversion).</p>
<p>I live in Illinois and I don’t want to go too far from home for college. </p>
<p>The schools I’m considering right now are U of I and Northwestern, are my stats suitable for these schools? Thanks in advance for any help. *</p>
<p>Getting in is only one part of the equation…affording is another.</p>
<p>First you need to determine what schools will work out financially. There’s no point in having a handful of acceptances for schools that won’t be affordable.</p>
<p>So…</p>
<p>1) Do you know how much your parents will pay each year? If you don’t know, then ask.</p>
<p>2) Do you know what your FAFSA EFC will likely be? Do you know what your institutional CSS Profile family contribution will likely be? If you don’t know, find out…
FA Calc<br>
[FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Expected Family Contribution (EFC) Calculator - Finaid) </p>
<p>3) Most schools do not meet need, so that can be an issue. Your family doesn’t get to determine its “need.” The school does.</p>
<p>4) what are your financial safety schools? Those are schools that you know that you’ll get accepted to AND you know FOR SURE will be affordable thru assured gov’t grants, merit scholarships, small fed loans, and/or personal funds.</p>
<p>If your parents have said that they will pay $55k+ per year for any school, then great!!</p>
<p>What are your financial safety schools?</p>
<p>What do you want in a college? </p>
<p>What is your likely major?</p>
<p>Does anyone know if NU meets 100% of determined need without big loans?</p>
<p>Focus on your grades, take as many practice SATs as possible and keep up your extra curriculars. In the end, your grades and SAT scores are all that matter. Get them as high as possible and apply early. You should be fine at a few schools if you can move your GPA up a little and get those SAT scores up.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>He may not be “fine” if he gets in but he doesn’t get an affordable FA package.</p>
<p>However, if his parents will pay any and all costs, then great!</p>
<p>^ Very true.</p>
<p>You have the numbers to be a NU student, but you definitely lack the involvement and passion–unless that comes out somewhere else. However, the class rank is kind of high (but I guess you go to school with 1000 kids), I really dont’ know how those work because my school didn’t do those. </p>
<p>NU has loan caps and good financial aid from my experience. You just really just have to apply then play a numbers game when it’s all over. I got into NU, WashU, Emory, Rochester, and Grinnell and NU was the least expensive by a decent amount so it really can vary.</p>
<p>Financial factors are not a concern. My dad makes a good living and has had my college fund set aside for a number of years so I wouldn’t have to worry. In addition, I want to go to medical school after undergrad, so are there any colleges that would be more suited for this path? Thanks</p>
<p>What about Notre Dame?</p>
<p>I would definitely be willing to apply to Notre Dame, I’m just not sure if I can compete for schools like that (same concern with Northwestern). Also, ever since I realized I want to go to a good college, junior year, I started trying and went from mostly B’s to straight A’s so I will definitely raise my GPA and class rank with my 4 AP classes this year.</p>
<p>Not sure what you want to major in. If it’s engineering then you’re all set. UIUC is great and you should be in there. Northwestern would be a lot tougher. If you are not into engineering and want to consider LACs look at Grinnell, Oberlin, Denison.</p>
<p>NU premed courses, esp. those from the chemistry department, are pretty intense. But they claim to have ~80% med school placement rate.</p>
<p>*Financial factors are not a concern. My dad makes a good living and has had my college fund set aside for a number of years so I wouldn’t have to worry. *</p>
<p>Great… 
</p>
<p>However, many of us underestimated that colleges would cost $50k+ per year, so just make sure that your dad has set aside $200k+ for your undergrad education. I don’t know how aware your dad is about current college costs. LOL When my kids were little, a financial planner told us that private college would cost $25k per year when our kids grew up. The number was off by 100% !!! Yikes!!!</p>
<p>Since med school is in your future, will your dad pay for that, too? If so, then awesome! If not, then you might want to explore going to schools that will “eat up” less of your college fund so you can use some of it towards med school.</p>
<p>*NU premed courses, esp. those from the chemistry department, are pretty intense. But they claim to have ~80% med school placement rate. *</p>
<p>Many schools have similar placements, so NU isn’t unique in that area. My kids’ state flagship also has an 80% placement rate. Once the Organic Chem classes weed out the weaker students, schools often have good placement records.</p>
<p>The truth is that any good college can prepare you for med school. A strong GPA and a strong MCAT are your goals. </p>
<p>If I were you, I would go to UIUC and save money towards med school. Or, I’d get a great merit scholarship for my stats at another school and have more money towards med school.</p>
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<p>Do you mind telling us which one is your kid’s state flagship? Based on what I’ve seen, good LACs and top privates have ~80%+. State flagships are worse with limited resources being one of the factors.</p>
<p>UCLA, Berkeley, Michigan placement rates have fluctuated between 50 and mid-60 %.</p>
<p>Speaking of “weeding out”, I’ve heard that certain schools have premed committees doing that to inflate their placement rates, with some being more subtle than others. But that doesn’t apply to NU. NU usually has >300 med school applicants each year despite its small size (2000 per class).<br>
<a href=“http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/campus/nu-undergraduates-rank-24th-nationally-in-medical-school-applications-1.2097332#[/url]”>http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/campus/nu-undergraduates-rank-24th-nationally-in-medical-school-applications-1.2097332#</a></p>
<p>your stats are in line to apply to ND, but you wouldn’t be a shoo in. We usually have a 75%-80% acceptance rate to med schools. Weeders are going to be intense wherever you go, I’d just look at financials as well as fit in making your decision.</p>
<p>ND is similar to NU, 2,000 in a class, over 300 apply every year. The advisor will just tell you it’s not worth applying if you have a low GPA, but won’t stop you from applying.</p>
<p>To the OP,</p>
<p>What is your unweighted GPA? (my rule of thumb is .9 X WGPA which for you translates to a 3.7)</p>
<p>With a 3.7/33 I think you’re a viable candidate at Notre Dame and Northwestern, though they are both tough enough to get into that I wouldn’t feel overly comfortable about acceptances from either. Other schools in this category are UChicago and WashU St. Louis.</p>
<p>Med school acceptances seem to be about strong GPA and high MCATs so I wouldn’t sweat the prestige question. Med school is also stunningly expensive, so to mom2kids’ point, you should keep the financial profiles of your school in mind, (Of course if your dad did a good job saving and investing you may have too much money to qualify for aid regardless of a particular schools profile of generosity).</p>
<p>You need to give us some more criteria: How far is too far from home? Is Wisconsin or Minnesota too far? How about Michigan or Indiana? (those four Big 10 schools would all do a great job getting you ready for med school - plus if my GPA guess is correct you’d qualify for at least $4,000/yr in merit aid automatically at IU). How big a school do you want - 40,000 at Minnesota or <10,000 at Notre Dame?</p>
<p>“If you are not into engineering and want to consider LACs look at Grinnell, Oberlin, Denison.”</p>
<p>I second Erin’s Dad. These, and other well-respected midwestern LACs will give you the solid science background you need for the MCAT, and because of the smaller class sizes, you will know faculty who will be writing your letters of recommendation. The problem with a school that has big lecture classes in the sciences and hundreds of med school applicants each year is that you will have a tougher time standing out from the crowd.</p>