<p>"good" as in no lower than top 40</p>
<p>Go have a chat with the Transfer Counselor at your closest community college. That person can tell you where their best students end up and the aid that they receive.</p>
<p>Premedgirl, the fact of the matter is that it is far more difficult to get merit scholarships and financial aid as a transfer. Even the schools with the most generous fiancial aid policies that do guarantee to meet full need do not all have that same assurance for transfers. For merit money, it 's even more difficult.</p>
<p>In your case, you would be better off to take a gap year, and reapply to colleges as a freshman and see what you can get in merit money. Take a look at those schools that are off the beaten track. Getting full or close to full rides at the top 40 type colleges is a low probability. You need to look at schools that are so searching for students of your caliber that they will pay for them. </p>
<p>Look at the guaranteed merit scholarship section and that will give the best of the best out there that is assured. Then look at the schools that do have big awards but are limited in how many they give. It’s tough going to get those. A lot of the kids I know who get full rides or full tuition or a sizeable chunk of their rides paid, are kids who turn down ivy and other highly selective schools to get those awards.</p>
<p>University of Rochester.</p>
<p>Oh, wait. </p>
<p>I think you need more criteria here.</p>
<p>No, I would not recommend a gap year. I would recommend a change in attitude and to look & search for all the reasons to be grateful for a Univ. of Rochester UNDERGRAD program. It is a great school and needs a shift in attitude. Please do not go in to college with the attitude of transfering. Go in with the attitude that you will be happy, work hard, make friends, get involved in clubs and activities and you will make it work!</p>
<p>I do think she should take a gap year because I don’t think she can change her attitude soon enough.</p>
<p>The problem will be that with a bad attitude, she’s not going to get the grades that she wants, and then she’s going to be even more upset that her med school plans are screwed up.</p>
<p>She needs to accept that she will NOT find a higher ranked school that is more affordable than URoch. Either she go to URoch and do her best…or she needs to take a gap year and apply to LOWER ranked schools that will give her enough merit.</p>
<p>She needs to accept reality of her choices and decide. </p>
<p>She can’t go to a better school for about that same cost as URoch. </p>
<p>Premedgirl…what are your stats?</p>
<p>BTW…do you realize that for med school, you need the highest GPA you can get? Going to a more difficult school could backfire on you. Frequently, there are kids posting in the pre-med forums that they went to an elite school and now their GPAs aren’t med-school worthy. Your plan may backfire on you…and getting a high GPA at URoch won’t be easy either.</p>
<p>I can’t take a gap year, for I have no time to waste. I am still deliberating with my parents whether they will allow me to take on private loans to attend Rice.</p>
<p>University of Rochester will not be hard because I received a 20,000 merit scholarship, meaning I am one of their best students. I didn’t apply to any schools below Emory and above U of R, which was a mistake. I could have won merit scholarships there.</p>
<p>Stats?
I have a 3.97 GPA a top-ranked high school, I got a 2290 on the SAT, president of 3 clubs, editor of newspaper, I speak 6 languages, I have over 800 medical volunteering/shadowing/interning hours. So yes, I will get into medical school at all costs. And I would excel at Rice.</p>
<p>You will not being doing yourself and your parents any favors by taking out private loans for undergrad - premed or not.</p>
<p>You are a smart girl, run a loan repayment calculator and see for yourself.</p>
<p>I am still deliberating with my parents whether they will allow me to take on private loans to attend Rice.</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>Crazy! You want to borrow $150k+ to go to Rice? and, then what? Borrow another $300k for med school? Are you serious? Do you have any idea of how life-strangling that debt would be?</p>
<p>I hope your parents are smarter than you are and say no. That is an insane plan.</p>
<p>A gap year would not be a waste of time if you would end up at an institution that you can be happy about and that your family can afford. Med School is all but certain to land you in a boatload of student debt. Do not take on one cent more than absolutely necessary to get through your undergraduate degree because your ultimate debt load will be all that much worse.</p>
<p>Please remember that you cannot borrow more than the Federal/Stafford limits without a co-signer. Even if your parents would be foolish (and yes I do mean that because they have to think about their own futures not just yours) enough to apply for the first year and did manage to qualify, there is no guarantee that they would be ready, willing, and able to apply and qualify in any future years. Once the debt is co-signed both you and your parent(s) are jointly responsible for it. If you would not pay it back, they would have to. If you were to suffer a disabling accident or die, they would still be responsible for the loan - unlike with the federal loans. So in your conversations with them about just exactly how badly you need these private loans, be sure to include in the budget enough money to cover decent life insurance and disability insurance polices for yourself.</p>
<p>Check the Resources thread on the Transfer Students forum, it has a link to a thread with merit for transfers. Don’t know if any are top 40 as I don’t pay that much attention to rankings.</p>
<p>OP:</p>
<p>My S1 had a higher GPA than yours and slightly lower SAT score…he happily applied ED to Tufts even though his GPA was IVY league quality. Why? He wasn’t aiming for the top, top…he was aiming for the right fit.</p>
<p>In your case, you can easily make this a right fit. It’s all a matter of ATTITUDE. Do the very best you can at URoch with the highest GPA you can attain and you will have doors open up for your med schooling.</p>
<p>You don’t see it now, but as a teenager you just have to trust that your parents are guiding you as best as they can and giving you URoch as an undergrad experience is really an awesome way to begin your long college career.</p>
<p>Not to mention saving the $ for more important things down the road. Maybe Rice is yOur dream school, well get it out of your mind since it’s not at all affordable. And really, who’s to say you’d have a superior experience there anyway? IT’S ALL WHAT YOU DECIDE TO MAKE IT.</p>
<p>btw: URoch may not be as easy as you’re making it out to be. Your GPA and SAT scores were good but we know that they have become a much more competitive school the last several years and you will definitely find your intellectual equals there.</p>
<p>Change your attitude and you will view URoch in a whole different light.</p>
<p>btw: URoch may not be as easy as you’re making it out to be. Your GPA and SAT scores were good but we know that they have become a much more competitive school the last several years and you will definitely find your intellectual equals there.</p>
<p>URoch will NOT be easy at all as a pre-med student. My pre-med son had nearly the same SAT (2280 not super-scored) and a 4.6 GPA, and he’s working his fanny off at a lower ranked school…a flagship.</p>
<p>I understand; medical school is expensive. The only catch is that if I went to Rice, my parents would move to Texas (they’ve wanted to move back for years) and I’d be eligible for in-state tuition for a Texas medical school, such as Baylor, UTSW, UT Galveston, etc. Although college would be more expensive, I would not pay 300,000 for medical school (I will get no help from parents for medical school).</p>
<p>OP (Premedgirl):</p>
<p>You posted these threads for advice, right? Everyone is trying to give you the best advice they know how to. If you are so set on Rice, then ask Rice to defer your application for a year while you get yourself settled or help your parents move back to TX.</p>
<p>If not, go to URoch and have the 4 best damn years of your life. Give it your all. Then pursue med school in TX or wherever.</p>
<p>Or take a gap year and work toward paying some of your tuition. Or ask Rice for a better FA package if at all possible. Not sure what else to tell you. Sounds like you have your mind made up for Rice. Going into that much debt so early on seems to be a huge shame, but you seem determined to do that. Not sure how else to help. Good luck, hope whatever you decide works out for you.</p>
<p>The only catch is that if I went to Rice, my parents would move to Texas (they’ve wanted to move back for years) and I’d be eligible for in-state tuition for a Texas medical school, such as Baylor, UTSW, UT Galveston, etc. Although college would be more expensive, I would not pay 300,000 for medical school (I will get no help from parents for medical school).</p>
<p>Med school, even at instate publics can be very expensive. COAs can easily be $50k per year. So, you could have $200k in med school debt.</p>
<p>Thank you chochipcookie. The only catch is that if I go to U of R, my parents cannot move back because I will not be eligible for an employee tuition waiver anymore (meaning I’ll have to pay around 50,000 if my mom moves). Thus, I’ll have to pay much for medical school… :(</p>
<p>^^I don’t know enough about the cost of medical school, so I cannot advice you on that at all. However, speaking as a parent, you will have sooo many expenses to incur as you get older, it really makes no sense to incur large debt for undergrad school. There are probably thousands of kids just like you that have a “dream school” to go to that cannot go for whatever the reason is. Usually it’s cost, sometimes it’s distance or a host of other reasons.</p>
<p>Think realistically. Go to URoch and do the best you can…hopefully you will get lots of research experience, internships, whatever. You can set yourself up for getting better scholarships for med school if you prove yourself in undergrad.</p>
<p>Financially it makes sense to go to URoch, right? So why even think about transferring? Just give it your best, make yourself and your parents proud and you may even surprise yourself and come out of there with a very positive experience. My son is way more conservative than his college peers, but he’s having a blast! It’s all in your attitude. You can tell I can’t stress that enough, huh? :)</p>
<p>The campus is lovely and has a great reputation from our area(I’m from New England) Maybe you’ll go to med school in TX or maybe you’ll go to a different one…just try to take one step at a time and try to incur as little debt as you can…until you get to the big leagues…med school itself!</p>
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<p>That’s not what it means. Academics are only part of those scholarships, and at the $20,000 level, they’re certainly not the most important part. Rochester likes your story, but you’re not going to be the sharpest student in the class. Sorry.</p>
<p>One of their “best” students would have gotten you a full ride scholarship. That’s how many private universities do it. Sorry too.</p>