I have no idea what to do. I am a junior in high school, with a 34 act and 4.25 (weighted) 4.0 (unweighted) GPA. I am taking a lot of AP classes and I am planning to major in biochemistry or neuroscience.
In my college search, I am looking for academically minded schools with good premed and med programs that are pretty selective. The problem is, I don’t gave the funds to pay for it. My parents make good money, so I will not recieve any money for need based, but I don’t have a lot of money to pay for school.
I don’t want to indebt my parents because I have good enough scores to go to a state school for free, but I want to go somewhere to get a good education. What some some selective schools that offer good merit scholarships ?
What can your parents pay each year for college? Are you a National Merit Semifinalist? What state are you from? You can certainly get a good education at state schools.
I barely missed the cutoff for national Merit, and may be commended but not counting on it. I am from Missouri, and I know I can go to University of Missouri or Kansas for pretty cheap.
If you intend to focus on med school, then you have to go to the cheapest options available.
Right now, that’s instate for you. Get the best grades that you can, study for those MCATs and worry about being in a prestigious location, LATER.
Med school students pay huge fees. Most use large loans or the “Bank of Mom and Dad”.
You’ve already said you don’t have money. Where do you think you would get funding for medical school? @mom2collegekids and @WayOutWestMom can alert you to the realities of funding for med school.
IMO, it’s a mistake to go to a “pretty selective” school if your goal is med school. It’s best to not have to compete with other really smart students for GPA. Med schools won’t care about the prestige of your undergrad. University of Missouri or Kansas is fine.
How will you pay $50-70K per year at the “prestigious” schools? Have you even checked the prices?
A number of OOS programs are extremely expensive and are very competitive.
Public schools, like the UC’s, are funded by state taxpayers, and don’t give a penny in aid to non-residents, such that your fees would amount to $65K per year. Plus, these school have more “premed” students than available seats and places.
There are a finite number of med schools. Put yourself in the best position possible by doing well at your in-state schools and saving your quarter of a million dollars for med school fees.
I agree with some of the other posters. I would go to a cheaper option. KU or Kansas State both have good pre-med advising departments. S’s gf is pre-med at Kansas State in Biology and is very involved in Cancer Research, has good jobs getting experience with a doctor and still has time to be in a Sorority and love school. Go somewhere you will not have dept and will not be burned out before you begin med school!
Congrats on your success and hard work in high school!
Full tuition and/or full ride scholarships at highly selective colleges that are merit-based are very hard to get. And since you have med school in mind I think going to an affordable public makes sense.
If you don’t want to go to your instate publics, then you should look at merit auto-admit full tuition scholarships like University of Alabama, Utah, Kentucky, etc. Though you’d still have to pay room and board, books and transportation which would be in the $15-17k per year. (But remember, they’d presumably feed you at home, right, so total out of pocket is not this full amount.).
Look at CC’s financial aid / scholarships forum for more info on auto-admit scholarships.
What’s important to med schools are your GPA, MCAT, evidence of traits schools expect MDs to have (altruism, compassion, leadership, etc), good interview. Most colleges will provide you with resources and opportunities you need to develop a competitive app. Whether you are successful is pretty much on you, not the school you attend. Going to a prestigious school and having to compete with nothing but top notch students for the few crumbs of As college profs hand out often results in lower GPAs and the end of many premed dreams. And as med school is crazy expensive and paid for by loans which have to be paid back and can saddle you with debt for years to come, it’s best as a premed hopeful to save money for med school. making state schools a top consideration.
Attend an affordable school where you can achieve a high gpa that is med school worthy. You have been given good advice.
Remember you will also need leadership, volunteering, work with underserved populations, shadowing etc… Nothing will be handed to you, regardless of school. Your success will depend on…you.
Will your parents spend $70,000 a year on a highly selective school, if you get in? There is nothing wrong with state schools…my D’s stats were higher than yours ( congrats on your success!) and she attends one.
As others have said, there are a lot of very good universities with very good premed programs. If you attend your in-state public university, you are going to find a very good premed program. At pretty much any in-state public flagship, there are going to be some very strong students who are very serious about their education. Strong and motivated students will be particularly common in what are typically premed classes.
“If you intend to focus on med school, then you have to go to the cheapest options available.
Right now, that’s instate for you. Get the best grades that you can, study for those MCATs and worry about being in a prestigious location, LATER.”
Exactly. Keep your eyes on the goal. If the goal is medical school, then you need to (i) save money now; and (ii) get a very high GPA for undergrad.
Also, if you do go to your in-state public university, be aware that classes and exams are going to be harder than you expect. The professors know that of the students who enter intending to be premed, the large majority will not ever make it to medical school. The sooner they can show students that they are not cut out for medical school, the sooner these students will be able to work towards a different goal. As such, you will want to show up on day 1 ready to work very hard and keep ahead in your classes. There will be exams where the class average is less than 50, and it is entirely okay to be getting 85 or 90 on these. Your superb high school grades suggest that you can succeed, but understand that you will need to work hard.