What Schools Should I Apply To?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Ok, so I made a post in the Chances Thread and realized that was probably not the best place to ask my question. So here's my x-post. What schools should I apply to? Chem + History is not exactly a common combination :/</p>

<p>High School Junior here, I'll try and keep this short and sweet. Given my scores, what schools are my reach, safety, and matches?</p>

<p>Long Term Goal - Med School
Major - Chemistry
Minor - History
Home State - Indiana</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<p>AP WORLD - 4
AP EURO - 4
AP COMP SCI - 4
AP CALC AB - 5*
AP CHEM - 5*
AP PHYSICS B - 5*
AP MACRO - 4*
IB English - Irrelevant?* - See below
IB History - Irrelevant?* - Exam taken well after college admissions</p>

<p>SAT - 2120, will retake and expecting a 2200 at least
ACT - Not yet taken, projecting a 33
PSAT - No National Merit Stuff</p>

<p>EC'S:</p>

<p>250+ Hours of Volunteering at Physical Therapy Center
1 Year as Robitcs Team Website Co-Lead
3 Years as Advisory Board Member of Politics Club
Work Experience as a Website Designer
3 Years Model UN Co-President
60 Hours Peer Tutoring Math
Potentially Summer Research at Project SEED or comparable program*</p>

<p>*Not yet taken, but based on class performance/my mystic ball of fate</p>

<p>Freshman Year - All Honors w/ 1 AP, mostly B+'s first semester and about 50/50 B+ A- second
Sophomore Year - All Honors w/ 2 AP, mostly A-'s both semesters
Junior Year - 4 AP, 2 IB, All A's and 2 A-'s first semester, targeting all A's second</p>

<p>Brief summaries of my courses for each year, as I'm low on time and from what I can tell, it is the general trend that matters most</p>

<p>Finally, I've traditionally had A's in math/science classes with, with Honors, AP, and Organic Chem under my belt</p>

<p>Thanks for your time!</p>

2

<p>As pre-med you need to minimize undergraduate loans. IU and Purdue would be your best choices. </p>

3

<p>@TomSrOfBoston</p>

<p>How do you know that OP’s family cannot pay the full cost?</p>

4

<p>It may not be a usual combination but most colleges are strong in those core areas. So too many schools out there just to start throwing out names, except for the excellent suggest already made. You didn’t say anything about preferences or funds available.</p>

5

<p>Right, so this looks like that funding is an important factor. My parents are willing to throw whatever money I need for college my way, at any cost, and I could take out student loans if I need to. </p>

6

<p>Erm, talk with your parents - do they have that money in a college account for you or do they think they’ll take on loans on your behalf? The situation would be quite different.</p>

<p>Based on your profile, Allegheny College would be a low match hence possibility of merit money - and history/chemistry would not be an unusual combination, since their specialty is what would be “unusual combinations” elsewhere.</p>

<p>Look into Grinnell and any top 40 LAC, Indiana Bloomington’s Honors program (probably a safety with these scores), and find 2 safeties + 3-5 matches with 40+% admit rates, then add as many dream schools as you wish/can afford.</p>

<p>I don’t think Purdue would be a good choice for a minor in history - it’s strong in engineering, which is different from chemistry, and isn’t a school where liberal arts subjects are as strong as engineering.</p>

7

<p>“Long Term Goal - Med School
Major - Chemistry
Minor - History
Home State - Indiana”</p>

<p>Talk to your parents. Are they willing to pay $55k+ per year for college? If not, how much.</p>

<p>Ask your parents…many do NOT know how crazy expensive colleges costs have become! (I still chuckle at my next-door neighbor who thought Room and Board would be about a $1000 per year. He nearly passed out when I told him how much those costs are today. At many instate publics, the room and board costs are higher than tuition!!).</p>

<p>YOU DO NOT want student loans if you want to go to med school. You’ll need big loans for that. If you had undergrad loans and med school loans, those loans will be huge by the time you get out and have to pay those back.</p>

<p>Definitely apply to Purdue and IU, but also apply to some reaches, and some schools that will give you large merit for your stats. </p>

<p>what is your likely major? </p>

<p>“Organic Chem”</p>

<p>You’ve already taken college-level Ochem? What did you get? Was it at a CC?</p>

8

<p>To answer, my parents are willing to sell their house, their clothes, and the shirts off their backs if that’s what it takes to get me through med school. In a phrase, dedication to cause. That said I’d rather not make them do that, hence taking out some loans. For “Organic Chem”, it is college level (classified as an “Advanced Science” ie College Difficulty but no weight/cc - take it if you really want to, and I got an A in it. </p>

9

<p>but HOW are they going to pay for your education? They cannot take out an infinitude of loans, as in, it is not possible to borrow money forever. There are limits to what they can borrow. Nor should the do so, as you point out. Furthermore, your ability to take loans is similarly limited, before someone will have to begin co-signing and thereby accepting responsibility for those loans. Loans are generally made against investments, such as a home. </p>

<p>Be prudent about where you go to undergrad and save as much as you can of your parents’ money for grad school.</p>

10

<p>NaixNaix: but that’s not how it works because finances are part of designing your college strategy.
You’re only allowed to take $5,500 in loans freshman year BTW.
Are your parents lower-income (they make roughly less than 60k/year, 75k for the most elite schools that are also the most generous financially)? If so, your academic profile makes you at least half the schools on that list with reach (either as a reach or as a match) - note that they’re among the most competitive schools in the country (some are most competitive, others highly competitive, others still very competitive, but bottom line, each one is hard to get into and provides excellent financial aid):
<a href=“Colleges with Need-Blind Admission for U.S. Students”>Colleges with Need-Blind Admission for U.S. Students;
If you are first gen (neither parent has a 4-year degree) some colleges take that into account, for instance Hamilton College (even their president is first-gen).
If your EFC is zero you could get a full-ride scholarship at some of these colleges, or very near, in the sense that they’d cover almost all costs, and some colleges don’t even require loans.
On the other hand, if your parents make more than 150k, you’ll need merit scholarships to decrease costs. Go to the Financial Aid forum on this website, and at the top you’ll see “automatic full tuition/full ride scholarships” and “competitive full tuition/full ride scholarships”.
BTW these are available even if you need financial aid - you could earn a full ride at some of these schools and thus you’d save your money for med school.</p>

<p>Getting an A in Organic Chem will certainly impress colleges :slight_smile:
(even if, as a premed student, you will need to retake that class once in college… but that’ll be much easier than for the others, and that’ll be very good for your med school application/science GPA because it’s the course that tends to trip premed students.)</p>

11

<p>Op, you will be taking out enough loans in med school, minimize them in undergrad. </p>