My son is a current junior in high school (class of 2020) beginning his college search. He is our firstborn so this is brand new to us.
He is currently interested in pursuing a pre-med track and would like a school with a strong science department. His GPA is an unweighted 4.0. He is taking numerous AP classes and has multiple ECs with leadership roles. His ACT was a 33 although he intends to take it again and hopes to improve his score. His PSAT score was a 216 which was the class of 2019 cutoff score for NMSF in our state (WI).
He is interested in attending a school with a strong academic reputation, that offers merit based scholarships for in and out of state residents. Size and location are not huge factors, although closer to WI is better.
We would love any insight and suggestions you can offer!
Thank you.
I think you should take him to visit a few different types of schools. Maybe your state flagship (or UMN Twin Cities, where you have reciprocity), someplace like Carleton (higher ranked LAC), and maybe someplace like Oberlin (LAC that offers a fair amount of merit, has good premed prep, and isn’t too far away). This will help him think about size and type of school he is interested in.
The way merit works is that it is (1) rarely given by the very top schools, and (2) a student typically will get merit if a school offers it if the student’s stats are on the high end of the stat pool. So there is a trade off, higher ranked school, typically kid is less likely to get merit.
You should run net price calculators on any schools he is looking at (on the school website) to see how the costs look for you. You might be surprised at some “meets need” schools and see that you might get some aid.
If he is serious about premed, you will want to keep the cost and any loans down. And going to a school with grade deflation isn’t a great plan. Premed is tough everywhere; it is pretty easy to get “weeded out” by some of the science courses required for pre med.
Focus on finding a couple of safeties where he is pretty sure he can get in, you know you can afford it, and he’d be happy to attend. Then focus more on match and reach schools.
Have you given thought to how you will pay for his education? Do you have a plan for this yet?
Each college and university has a Net Price Calculator on its website. If you have an uncomplicated financial situation, these are likely to give reasonably accurate estimates of aid.
There is a lot of useful information in the Financial Aid Forum, so go take a look there.
The most important part is what is mentioned above about understanding cost.
Lawrence University is a good place to visit to understand if he would like a LAC.
If you look at the grade distribution report here https://registrar.wisc.edu/grade-reports/
you can see the actual grades for each class for the pre-med requirements at Madison.
Thank you for this insight thus far. I don’t think he will qualify for aid. We have a 529 for him that will probably disqualify him for need based $. We are hoping to keep his undergrad costs as low as possible since he has a long road of education ahead if he remains decided on medical school.
Great advice. I’ll add that Wisconsin residents are eligible for MSEP, which caps out-of-state tuition at participating public colleges at 150% of in-state tuition.
Truman State (~$20,500 for MSEP tuition/fees + room/board) is worth a look in particular, I think. Along with U Minnesota-Morris (~$21,600 for in-state tuition/fees + room/board), it’s one of the few public liberal arts colleges in the Midwest.
If he does end up qualifying for NMSF status, check out the thread of automatic scholarships available. A free four years at ASU, U of A, Central Florida, etc. could really help if he needs to pay for med school.