Where should I look? Premed

College Search & Selection
1

So far I have looked at:

Harvard
Wash U in STL
Duke
U Chicago
Northwestern
UC Berkeley
Stanford

My problem is that these are all reach/high reach schools for me.

I have also considered:
UNC Chapel Hill
UVA
Boston U
Tufts

These seem more match, but I’m not sure.

My Stats

Currently a high school junior at a mid size public school, one of the top schools in MN

GPA: 3.865/4.0 UW 3.923/4.2

ACT: Composite 32 one sitting, no study, I will be taking it again in April through school, hoping for a 34/35, otherwise I’ll take it again in June

ACT breakdown: 31 English, 29 Math(I have no clue why math is my best subject typically, (34) Reading, (34) Science

SAT: Taking in December, shooting for above a 2200. I have been scoring between 2220-2300 on practice tests.

SAT Subject Test: I will take Chemistry, Math 2 and Biology eventually, probably in March

AP Classes (9 total by graduation): APUSH (4), APLAC (this year) AP Calc AB (this year) AP Chem (this year) APLIT (Next year) AP Calc BC (Next year) AP Macro (Next year) AP Stats (Next year) AP Physics (Next year)
I am expecting mainly 5s on the tests but APLAC/AP Macro may be 4s

Advanced/Honors/Dual Enrollment: By graduation I will have 4 Dual enrollment classes through the UofMN. All classes except for 4 have been advanced/honors/AP/dual enrollment. (the classes that weren’t honors were only offered as ‘regular’ classes

Ethnicity: Caucasian (First Generation)
Gender: Female

Extracurriculars:
Basketball 10th grade, couldn’t play in 9th due to ACL injury, never healed properly so i can’t continue
Softball 10th-12th, injury 9th grade
Science Bowl Junior-Senior
Interect Club-10th-Senoir, will have a leadership position next year.
Jazz Band-self taught the saxophone in 7th grade
Symphonic Band-have played the clarinet since 5th grade
Volunteering at local hospital
Shadowing an orthopedic surgeon( I want to be an Orthopedic Surgeon)
I will be able to join NHS at the beginning of second semester this year, hopefully I will have a leadership position.

Recommendation Letters
Next year I should receive great recommendations from my AP Chem and AP Calc teachers, Possibly dual enrollment Anat&Phis teacher.

I think My safety schools would be UofMN and UW Madison but i really don’t want to stay in MN or WI.

Please tell me if I have any shot at my any of my reach schools. Also if you could, please suggest more match and safety schools.

My intended major would be biology or biochemistry, on a premed path.

2

First you need to talk to your parents about how much they’ll pay each year for college. Then have them run the net price calculators on the websites to see if they’re affordable.

If your parents will pay all costs, then that is great. If not, then some schools may not be affordable for you.

UNC and UVA are hard to get into as an OOS student, so those are reaches as well.

UCBerkeley is very expensive for an OOS student, so your parents would have to pay all costs.

If you’re serious about going to med school, then it’s not wise to target reach schools…because your chances of getting weeded out are higher.

Include schools where you’ll likely be a top student and you’ll shine. Med schools expect a high GPA and a strong MCAT score. They don’t care where you went to undergrad.

How did you pick your list???

3

Just about any college is suitable for premeds. My personal preference is for universities with large research facilities, but anything will do as long as you can get the required courses.

Why do you want to be an orthopaedic surgeon?

4

Note that no specific major is required to do pre-med, although you need to take the pre-med courses.

Also, college courses taken while in high school and their grades do count toward your GPA when applying to medical school.

5

These colleges offer a range of selectivity options comparable to some of the schools you are already considering, but include a few where your odds of acceptance would be somehat higher (most should still be considered reaches, however):

Amherst
Brown
Hamilton
Colgate
William & Mary
Emory
Bates
Franklin & Marshall
Bucknell

(From, "The Experts’ Choice: Colleges with Great Pre-med Programs.)

6

Any reason why you’ve ruled out the Liberal Arts Colleges (LACs)? They are often terrific places for pre-meds because they tend to have strong cooperative, rather than competitive,social norms, and you get to know your faculty really well in smaller classes (which is important for the committee letter).

The schools you list all have medical schools attached but that isn’t a major plus for you. You don’t get preferential admissions just because you were an undergrad - maybe a second look, but that’s it. And a 3.5 from Harvard is not going to boost you over a 3.9 from State U - med schools are pretty prestige insensitive. The brand name isn’t worthless, but all it get’s you is perhaps a second look. Without the GPA and MCAT score, you aren’t getting in, which means a strategy of picking schools where you are confident of being at the top of your class is a good idea.

You can do research and medical volunteering anywhere. There are few colleges in the country not located near some kind of medical facility - other than hospitals, there are clinics, nursing homes, hospice, ambulance corps, rehab, etc…all of which offer volunteer opportunities. (And frankly, more interesting opportunities - hospitals in our area have so many volunteers that the volunteers end doing boring stuff in the gift shop or greeting arrivals. And the liability and confidentiality issues mean students don’t see as much as you’d expect.) Most reputable schools also have undergrad research opportunities as well - and if those don’t satisfy you, there are many places where you can do that too.

7

N’s Mom I have ruled out the LACz because they are typically small schools and I really don’t want to go to a small school. I know that the GPA and MCAT is what is really important for med school. Right now I just need to know which schools are good match and safety schools for my stats.

8

Run the Supermatch engine on the left side of this page.

9

U of Tulsa
U of Rochester
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Vanderbilt University
Case Western Reserve University
U of San Diego
Rice University
Texas Christian University
Ohio University
Michigan State University
Georgia Institute of Technology

10

Go someplace where you are comfortable, seems to be a good fit in ways that are important to you. It needs to be someplace where you can maintain a top GPA.

Not saying you couldn’t do that at “reach” schools, but if everyone there is as smart as you, or smarter, it might be more difficult to maintain that all-important GPA.

A lot of non-reachy schools would be thrilled to have you. You also may find more opportunities for research, special projects, interaction with professors, etc. in a less hypercompetitive environment, things that will strengthen your overall credentials.

Good luck!

11

Looking at the list of reach schools I find it hard to come up with a coherent set of preferences that fits these schools. You know, thinking about things that matter such as number of undergrads enrolled, advising system, where students live, type of student the school attracts, etc. How is it you came to choose this set?

12

@mikemac as of right now might criteria for looking has really been where I would fit in academically. My GPA will only increase from where it is and my test scores are decent. I like to be constantly busy with either school work, clubs, work, or volunteering, so I am looking for places that have a lot going on. As for the undergrad enrollment, my only requirement is that is that it isn’t too small, 5,000-15,000 would probably be my ideal size, but I wouldn’t mind a larger school as long as it felt right. I have toured the majority of the schools on my list and have truly enjoyed the majority of the ones I have toured. As far as advising system and where students live, I really have no preference.

13

@Erin’s Dad I have run the super match and my reach schools come from there. I know it is called SuperMatch, but the schools that show up when enter my info are all ones that seem like reaches, not many mach or safety schools.

14

[QUOTE=""]
I know that the GPA and MCAT is what is really important for med school. Right now I just need to know which schools are good match and safety schools for my stats.

[/QUOTE]

Safety schools must be 100% affordable either thru family funds or assured scholarships/grants.

No school is a safety if you can’t afford to go there, right?

Have you asked your parents how much they’ll pay each year? If not, please do.

Yes, GPA and MCAT are really important for med school. Every year we see kids mess up their GPAs by thinking that they should attend their reach school…because they wrongly thought that school would somehow help them get into med school. Top schools don’t have any magic that gets students into med school. Their premed prereqs aren’t better than other schools.

Ask your parents how much they’ll pay each year. And, do you have a non-custodial parent? if so, will that parent help pay for college as well?

15

@mom2collegekids My parents say they are willing to pay for any school i desire. I know this will probably change so I would say they would willingly pay up to $40,000 a year. I do have some funds put away through family and my own savings of about $15,000 that would go towards college. When I use the net price calculators for any of the schools on my list, they typically come back with very little financial aid given, so I don’t have much need based financial aid.

Since I live in MN, most of the state schools in the midwest offer reciprocity with MN residents, so they could be possible safety schools. Unfortunately, I would consider any of these as my very last option, as I really don’t want to stay in the midwest, besides Chicago or St Louis areas.

I truly feel that I wouldn’t allow myself to mess up my GPA as I am a very hard working student and I am very diligent on keeping my grades as high as they can be. Reason for my low GPA in high school as of right now is because of an ACL tear/surgery that kept me out of school for about 2 weeks with additional appointments and the death of my grandparents who were very close to me during my freshman year.

16

Good! It’s probably wise to set a budget around $40k. Your parents may not know that some colleges now cost $70k per year! That might make them faint!

Are you sure about the “reciprocity” with other midwest schools? I think Minn and Wisconsin have some sort of arrangement, but I am almost certain that you wouldn’t get any midwest discounts at schools like UIUC, Purdue, Indiana, and so forth.

I think there is some reciprocity between midwest lower-tier schools…like maybe Ball St and other midwest states. But, I’m nearly positive that a Minn resident doesn’t get a discount at UIUC or Purdue or UMich or other big name midwest schools.

I wouldn’t say that your HS GPA is low, but just as some of “life’s problems” affected your GPA in high school, there will be other “life problems” that will occur in college…whether it’s mono, the flu, a family issue, a serious relationship breakup, or whatever.

I don’t think you realize how hard the premed prereqs are.

17

I’ll put a plug in for U Rochester merely because my middle son is there, doing well, and having a blast…

But then I’ll also add Pitt, Case Western, U Miami, & Wake Forest because I know pre-med students at all of them and they enjoy their schools (or at least they were enjoying them at the last contact I had).

18

Here are a number of schools that can be considered safeties: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/

The unfortunate thing that might happen with high performing students is they have safeties and reaches because the schools that match their stats have a low acceptance rate. With a $40K budget you can apply to a number of good schools as match/safeties like tOSU.

19

And to support the truth that terrific med students can come from pretty much any decent undergrad, the (sole) winner of this year’s Cadbury Award did his undergrad at Hope College in MI. He’s at U Rochester’s Med School.

https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/4450/smd-student-david-paul-m.d.-16-wins-national-cadbury-award–for-academic-and-volunteer-achievements.aspx

You really don’t need uber top rankings for pre-med. There are plenty of solid schools out there. Then YOU need to put forth the effort.

20

^^

Right…at my son’s White Coat Ceremony, I think the dean of the med school said that the students had come from 57 different undergrad schools.