Sharing a link to this recent post by aunt_bea. Her daughter could have gone to a nice variety of “dream-rank” programs (including her own in-state publics) for pre-med but chose University of Buffalo because of the great opportunities there (and a cherry-on-top full ride). She changed majors, BUT this post is great example of parlaying high stats into a full ride at a great university and having no regrets about that choice.