I’m a rising senior at a public high school in the suburbs of Chicago. I’ve been thinking about the colleges that I will apply to and wanted to get some insight on which other schools I should consider.
My information is:
-35 on ACT (36 E, 34 M, 35 R, 34 S, )
-800 on Chemistry SAT II, 730 on Math II
-1460 on new PSAT
-3.96 GPA
-I will have taken 8 AP classes by graduation, including chemistry, physics, biology, calculus, and English
EC:
-NHS, Tri-M
-Marching band, jazz band
-Math Team
-Scholastic Bowl
-Varsity Track
-6th place at state for a chemistry academic competition
-Eagle scout
-Some other small clubs
I’m interested in studying something in the physical sciences, such as physics or organic chemistry. I also am interested in becoming a doctor, so I would want to attend a college that will allow me to get into a good medical school. So far my safety schools will be University of Minnesota and University of Illinois. The other colleges that I am thinking about applying to are:
Northwestern University
University of Chicago
University of Pennsylvania
Cornell University
Washington University in St. Louis
Vanderbilt University
Do you think that these colleges are good reach and target schools for me? Are there any other similar colleges that I should look into? Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions.
Your choices seem perfectly fine as target and reach schools. For physics, I’d give the edge to Cornell from your group.
For possible addition options (and confirmation on a few from your current group), you may want to view “The Experts’ Choice: Colleges with Great Pre-med Programs.”
In terms of similar schools, I’d say WUStL and URochester are fairly similar, with the sciences perhaps being stronger at UR.
For similar schools, look at Emory and Tulane (note that Tulane really likes demonstrated interest). They’d both be matches/low reaches. Maybe Case Western as a match? Also, if you can actually afford UMinn full price OOS, then maybe Consider UMich as another reach.
Minnesota is a decent buy OOS, somewhere in the neighborhood of $35k all-in. I think UMich is quite a bit more expensive, though of course it is an outstanding school.
Anyway, the schools you listed are all very good. The privates are reaches (of varying difficulty) while UMinn OOS and UIUC in-state are likely matches or low matches – I wouldn’t quite call them safeties, but I’d be pretty surprised if you weren’t admitted to at least one.
Emory (low reach/high match) and Tulane/URochester/Case Western (high matches/matches) are all nice schools. To them I’d add Lehigh, Wake Forest, Northeastern, maybe Boston U – additional solid, private high matches/matches. Check out those eight schools (and others like them) and maybe send a few apps from that group.
It can’t hurt to add this third layer of apps, to go along with your true reaches and the two public schools.
Is your GPA weighted or unweighted? Every one of those colleges is a reach for everyone, except your safeties. Not sure why the first poster thinks they are targets. If they didn’t have acceptance rates in the teens and below, a couple might be targets. I would say U Rochester is a good choice as a match school that you would most likely get into, but be sure to express interest. I would add another match school with an acceptance rate above 25% so that you have some options.
“Not sure why the first poster thinks [the listed schools] are targets” (#4)
Because when considered as a group, he has a greater than 50% chance of getting into at least one of them, therefore the “target and reach” designation I loosely gave them, with no particular differentiation, is appropriate for this Eagle scout who has tested in the top 1%. He should think about excellent schools such as Rochester not mostly because he will need them as admissions safeties, but because they may offer him a greater range of choices when his acceptances do appear.
Thanks for the answers so far. I think I will look at Rochester, Case Western and some of the other schools you mentioned. I am not applying to a school like University of Michigan because I probably would not get any financial aid and can’t afford $50k a year.
I listed the schools as target and reach schools because my ACT score puts me in at least the 75th percentile for all of those schools. I understand it’s not guaranteed admission but I still think I have a pretty good chance at most of those colleges.
cdhxyx, a lot of people in this site say that the two most important factors for getting in medical school are your undergrad gpa and your MCAT scores. In other words, the excellence & prestige of your undergrad school might be important for some careers, but if you are certain you want to be an MD, a whole different set of priorities is in effect. Also, while there is significant financial aid for some graduate fields, med school is not among them.
Bottom line is that the best option for future doctors is often a college that will give them a solid education, a high gpa, and leave them in a financial position where they can afford med school.
Should you not have already considered the class, some purely undergraduate focused colleges (such as NESCACs and Claremonts), would be excellent for chemistry, physics and pre-med. From an admissions standpoint, several would overlap with the schools you are already considering.
Are you serious about wanting to go to med school?
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I also am interested in becoming a doctor, so I would want to attend a college that will allow me to get into a good medical school. So far my safety schools will be University of Minnesota and University of Illinois. The other colleges that I am thinking about applying to are:
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"“Want to go to a college that will allow me to get into a good medical school.”
ALL US MD schools are excellent. We don’t have any med schools that are “so so” or “not good”. They’re all excellent.
Med schools don’t care where you go to undergrad unless it’s not accedited by the recognized regional accreditation entity (like SACS, WASC, etc).
Med schools care about GPA (both cum and BCPM), MCAT score, and medically related ECs. So, it can be a big risk to go to a top school (even if you’re a top student), where there will be many top premeds all vying for the limited number of A’s in the “weeder” classes…and ALL schools weed their premeds… ALL of them.
That’s why only about 25% of freshmen premeds ever end up applying to med school.
How much will your parents pay each year? Ask them, please don’t guess. We see later posts from a lot of disappointed students who thought their parents would pay more.
UIUC and UMinn OOS have costs around $30-35k per year. Is that ok with your parents?
What mom2collegekids and i are saying is something that needs to get through to more pre-meds: even though all your classmates might be fixated on the same handful of elite colleges, and your parents might be measuring their performance by how elite your college is, ironically it might actually HURT your chances of becoming a doctor to attend the types of elite colleges you are considering. In other words, the rules are different if an MD is the goal , rather than if you were headed for a career in something like business or education.
One way to perform to one’s potential on the MCAT might be through the intentional development of cognitive capacity: “How the instructional and learning environments of liberal arts colleges [vs. research and regional universities] enhance cognitive development” (Pascarella, Wong, Trolian and Blaich).
