I want to go to college as a biochemistry major and eventually become a doctor so Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MIT, etc. are all really good schools for me but I do not think that I can get into them. I was wondering what colleges I should be looking into with my resume. Currently I am a junior. I have a 3.8 GPA unweighted. I take all honors and AP classes, thus far I have taken AP Physics 2, AP Human Geography, and AP U.S. Gov and Politics. I got 4’s on all three exams. This year I am taking AP Chemistry, AP Language, and AP Calculus AB. I go to the magnet High school Bergen Tech, ranked 4th in the state of New Jersey for public high schools. For extracurricular activities I have over 200 hours of community service, have has two summer Internships (one with the DEA Survivors Benefit Fund and the other at a Hospital in medical records), worked part time for a house sale company my freshman and sophomore year some weekends, am in Student Council (no officer position), and Chemistry club (also no officer position here). I am also a certified, practicing EMT on the volunteer squad in my town. I am waiting on my ACT scores but I do not think I scored exceptionally well or awful.
“eventually become a doctor”
Save your money for medical school. There are a lot of universities with very good premed programs, and you don’t need to spend big bucks for undergrad to get to medical school. You do however need to go to a university where you can get a high GPA, and preferably be in the top 1/4 of your graduating class. Premed classes will be very challenging at any good university.
To me Rutgers looks like a school that you should put high on your list.
By the way, thanks for your volunteering as an EMT.
I agree. Go to Rutgers. You’ll likely be in the honors college. Get all As, all four years. You don’t have to go to a top-tier college to be a contender for medical school. You just have to get pretty much a 4.0 GPA and an excellent MCAT score.
Rutgers Honors, TCNJ, Rowan Honors should be on your list. Add Drew +very supportive for pre-meds, lots of good opportunities).
Will you need financial aid? Merit I’d? Do you know your EFC? Have you talked about college costs with your parents?
If like most NJ students, you hope to escape the state, look into Muhlenberg, Lafayette, St Lawrence.
Knowing your financial situation would be helpful. Have you run an EFC? If your family can meet that, then consider schools that meet need. If not, you’ll want to be looking for merit aid.
What type of school you prefer is also helpful. Do you like larger schools like Rutgers or LACs one of which I’ll recommend, esp if you can meet your EFC, is Franklin & Marshall? Either type works just fine. It’s all preference and finances TBH.
I would not suggest even trying for a school where your stats are in the bottom 50%. You want to know you’ve had as good of a foundational education as the other students. ACT/SAT/GPA aren’t everything, but they can instill confidence. Work ethic is needed after that.
Biochem is a super hard science major, and MIT/JHU/Harvard are not “good” schools to get high GPA as pre-med because they are full of genius (MIT in particular) and super-smart gunners. Schools such as your state school or LACs are much better choice.
Creekland I have not done an EFC for myself yet but when my sister applied to college she received no aid. My family cannot actually afford the high costs but I am willing to take on loans and work through college as an EMT (getting clinic hours and above-minimum wage pay at the same time). I would prefer a smaller school for the smaller classes and student to teacher ratio but at the same time would rather go to a large school with better research and clinic opportunities than have the smaller classes.
I’m not sure your plan is viable.
You are limited in the amount of loans that you can take out. Only $5500 as a freshman ($6500 sophomore year and $7500 junior & senior year.)
Working as an EMT may not pay you what you’re expecting–assuming you can even find a job. Urban areas have an oversupply of EMT-Bs, and full time employees are usually preferred. In more rural or suburban areas where most LACs are located, you’ll need a car on campus so you can get to your employment site. In very rural areas, EMT squads are often fire dept volunteers.
How many hours per week were you expecting to work? Are you sure that you will be able balance working 20+ hours/week and doing well enough in college to have a med school-worthy GPA?
It’s not advisable for freshmen to work until they have learned how earn good grades in college.
How much can your parents contribute each year toward your college costs?
Go online to a college like Rutgers and Franklin & Marshall (or another LAC you like - perhaps Union in NY) and see what you get when you run their NPC (Net Price Calculator). Using the loan amounts WayOutWestMom gave you, are these affordable?
If not, then let us know when you have an SAT and/or ACT score. You’ll want to be looking for significant merit aid. The higher the score the easier it is to find merit aid.
How is your sister paying for college? (loans, job, savings, grandma, whatever)
You definitely want to make sure you get the grades needed, so be careful how much you sign up to work. My med school lad worked through college starting freshman fall semester, but not oodles of hours and it was an on campus job so he could more easily adjust hours to study time, etc.
Earlham College. Top 1% in the nation for med school placement. You should get in with decent merit money, even with a 3.8.
The more experiences I have with Earlham, the more impressed I become!
My sister is paying for college through a combination of loans from the bank, my grandmother, some help from my parents, a lot of loans. She plans on joining the national guard to help cover her college costs (she does ROTC). I feel like I could probably juggle the work since if I were to go to LAC in the suburbs I would be able to do some work on my downtime during shifts (if the schedule is anything like the areas near me 3 calls every 12 hours would be standard, maybe 4) and I know WayOutWestMom said getting a job might be hard but in my area there are currently 12 listings in different towns near me for EMT-B’s all paying 15+ an hour starting salary (more if I worked up to a Crew Cheif) so I think it would have to depend on the area I work in. I calculated my EFC and it is about 11,000 dollars a year so if I went to a place with need-based financial aid I could probably leave school with only a couple thousand in debt. Rutgers, however, said tuition would be about 22,000 dollars a year. Would you recommend I study to compete for the merit scholarships offered through the PSAT?
@mystia Focus and put your best efforts for PSAT and try to become National Merit Finalist. Still there are few colleges which give very decent merit aid for NMF. My D who is a NMF got free tuition at OU. Though there are some fees and changes every year, still it will cost a lot less. Like OU, there are few other schools. All these schools still great for pre-med. Cost of living is also cheap (in college towns than big cities).
1st year net is $7k including R&B (Mandatory dorm and meal plan). 2nd year $1k + Outside apts rents ($400/mo).
But she got $1k, $5k awards and works in school ($10/hr) and that paid back and pretty much $0. 4 round trip air fares / year is the actual expense so far.
Yes, it is not top ranked school but still gives a good college experience and if you remain focused, still can get in to MD .
Check out some of the Pennsylvania Liberal Arts colleges. I heard some of them give a lot of scholarships to applicants at your level, especially for Bergen Tech graduates. One of them came to mind is Ursinus. I heard its a pretty good pre-med school. Perhaps @MYOS1634 can chime in about LACs in PA. Its close to home, if that is what you wanted. Other schools have been mentioned are Muhlenberg, F&M and Dickenson.
Its much better to get merit scholarships and go to a lessor known LAC than pay full price for Rutgers and work your ass off for tuition. You should not look down upon those schools, one kid I know went to Elizabeth, because he did not do well in HS, but he is a late boomer, upon graduation from Elizabeth, he was hired by Google. Now he has left Google and started his own software company.
Some other eastern PA LACs to check out–Lafayette, Allegeny. and Gettysburg. Maybe Ursinus. You’d likely qualify for merit at all of them.
University of Scranton is a smaller college with a strong pre-med program. Geisinger Commonwealth SOM is located nearby so plenty of opportunities there.
Study every day so that your PSAT score is the highest you can get, then do the same for the SAT. Also try the ACT in case you score higher (some students like the SAT better than the ACT, others the reverse - for instance, the ACT rewards speed and good reading skills, the SAT rewards students who do math without a calculator quickly and decipher the tricky wording.) Scholarships often depend on test scores.
As a freshman, you shouldn’t work more than 8-10hours. You can increase that starting sophomore year but will need to limit yourself to 15h (students who work 15 hours or more inevitably see their grades go down - there was research on this whereas 6-8 hours makes them more efficient.)
I second Earlham: their biochemistry major is excellent and they don’t weed out. Another good option for students interested in the Health Professions is Juniata (good record and good merit aid).
UScranton, Susquehanna, Allegheny, Elizabethtown, Drew, Ursinus, Marist are likely to provide you with merit aid.
Lafayette, Franklin&Marshall, Dickinson are all excellent options with strong financial aid, but run the NPC to see whether it’d be affordable. For the last three, if they’re affordable, make an official visit, choose your favorite or the cheapest according to NPC, and apply ED - it really helps.
I’ll mainly second what MYOS said except I’ll admit to not knowing anything personal about Earlham. From my experience (well, students I know), in PA Juniata, Allegheny, Elizabethtown, Franklin & Marshall, Dickinson, and Lafayette are all terrific options to look into with your stats.
I’ll add Washington and Jefferson.
Spend some time looking at these schools online and keep running their NPCs. Ditch any that don’t look like they fit cost wise and start lining the others up based upon what you think you will like. See if you can do any college visits. Compare a lot online.
PLUS, keep studying for the PSAT/SAT/ACT. Imagine it’s akin to studying for the MCAT and dedicate time/effort to it. The better your score(s), the easier it is to get admitted and get aid. Good scores can provide far more money than any part time job.
Check into the Questbridge program: https://www.questbridge.org/ Rice just announced free college tuition under certain parameter: Rice University announces free tuition for middle income undergraduate students
Update: I got my ACT scores back I got a 32.
WOW, congratulations!!! 
That opens a lot of honors colleges with scholarships!
Definitely look into Questbridge. If your family income qualifies, you could be an ideal candidate. That score should be a nice asset for many, many schools.