A top 30-40 school is NOT filled with B+ students so get that thought out of your head. If you look at that school’s GPA breakdown, I would be willing to be that most of incoming class has a 3.75+ UW GPA.
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has been my dream to become a pediatric neurosurgeon,
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Then be GRATEFUL that you didn’t get into a top 10-20 school. You wouldn’t be a standout at one of those schools. Why would profs write you an amazing LOR when you’re just a dime a dozen at their school?
Med schools don’t care where you went to undergrad. My son went to a state flagship ranked well below 50, and he’s a 3rd year med student at an excellent med school. That said, all US med schools are very good. It doesn’t really matter where you go to med school, either. As @happymom1 notes, your residency matters more.
Go off to college, work hard, get the A’s, do well on the MCAT, and go from there.
First of all, you need to take a deep breath and get over yourself. The top schools are crapshoots for anyone (except perhaps if you are a recruited athlete, your parents built a building on campus etc.) so it is unreasonable to “expect” to get in.
The fact is you are holding the “golden ticket”. You are going to a 4 year college and if you do well you can get anywhere you want to in life. Many people would give anything for your opportunity. And keep in mind that you are just one of a ton of people who end up at schools they hadn’t planned on for many different reasons (rejections, financial constraints etc.) Instead of sulking, be motivated to crush it in college and set yourself up for med school. Med schools want excellent GPAs so if you continue to work and achieve at the level you seem able to then you should do well there
But more than that, embrace the school you will attend. Start off with the assumption that you will stay for 4 years. Get involved on campus. Find people you enjoy being with (trust me, there will be a number of excellent students there). Meet with professors and see if you can eventually do some research work, TA for a class etc.
Thank you all. I agree with all of your replies. This has been a refreshing wake-up call.
Again, I am grateful. Sometimes you just need to hear what you already know deep down come from someone else, you know? I appreciate all of your input.
My daughter graduated #1 in her class of 400 and will be attending a school noted in post # 17. She considered those schools reaches ( some were big reaches), even with high test scores, major leadership positions, and straight A+'s in all AP classes. Those schools are NOT " filled" with B+ students ( and what if they are?). She feels privileged to be attending her chosen school and knows she will be working very hard. A family member just graduated from this particular school and said he found the work very challenging- and this relative graduated #2 from HS. You need to be thankful for the opportunity that awaits you and recognize that most students are not accepted to the schools at the top of your list.
but it does seem to be a college of B+ students, and that, in and of itself, simply does not motivate me.
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I wonder how you’d know all these students’ grades from attending admitted students’ day or even from FB?
If this is one of the large UCs, then be aware that the school at large will be different than the students in the premed prereqs.
What is your major going to be? I’m guessing it will be a challenging academic major. If so, then again, you’ll be surrounded by stronger students than the univ at-large.
^ Yet another very good point. My “B+” assumption was based more on the handful of people I’ve befriended so far; but, of course, I need to actually give the school a chance first. I realize I am fortunate – it’s just that I have worked under a few academic neurosurgeons (including pediatric), assisting them with their basic science research, and they have all graduated from tippy-top colleges. I suppose that just means I will have to work even harder to follow in their footsteps.
My major will be neuroscience, and I am organizing a research assistant position in the neuroscience department beginning in the Fall, which I am really excited about.
@PickOne1, I volunteered in hospitals in two Eastern African countries and two underprivileged Asian countries – full time, totaling 10 months. Of course, I did not do this for college admissions – I did it because I wanted to, and had life-changing experiences, too.
Are the neurosurgeons you worked with fresh out of med school? Because, um, I went to a university in that magic top 15, and I got in with a 470 Math. (Unhooked.) Assuming those docs have been on the job for a while, they went to undergrad when the field was way, way less competitive. (Maybe with me. I had pre-med friends. Including a future neurosurgeon. Hmmm.) Those of us who graduated from top 15 colleges back in the day were good students (and obviously the rest of my app wasn’t so low), but I can’t recall anyone who matched your stats – all those volunteer hours? Research papers? LOL, no way. If you can invent a time machine in your spare time, you’ll go to Harvard for sure. You’re just a guy living in a competitive time. It’s genuinely harder now. But you’re doing great, and so are your classmates, so keep it up and don’t compare yourself to folks who came from different contexts.
“they have all graduated from tippy-top colleges”
that was a long, long time ago.
Had you applied then you too would probably have been accepted.
You will be fine if you work hard and keep your eyes on the prize.
The goal is med school and graduating at the top of your UG class
will open doors that might never have even been available at a more competitive, “prestigious” UG institution.
Good luck!
B+ students making up the majority of the student bodies of the USNWR top 30-40 colleges. Goodness, you likely don’t even need to graduate to attend #300. What of the other several thousand colleges in the US? The horrors and catastrophes of education those must be…
Come off it and get over yourself. You are attending a school that likely thousands of other students would have called a dream school. You will receive a fine education. It could be worse - I mean, you could have had to attend a gasp school that isn’t even ranked on USNWR or a gasp community college.
OP, how fortunate you were to be able to travel and do so much overseas volunteer work! But how did you manage 10 months of FT work as a HS student? Did you take a gap year? Or are you adding up summer months? I didn’t realize there were organizations that take 14 yo kids for FT months-long volunteer work. My D and I searched hard for even PT opportunities when she was that age and they seemed to be very limited, even when sticking to those here in the US.
You will forget all this nonsense once you start school. Summers before freshmen year of college are long, hard, and you keep wondering if the college you are going to was a mistake/somewhere you will thrive. But everything will turn out okay if you apply yourself to find friends and study well. Also, if you are studying science, believe me, you will definitely be working hard at your school, so don’t worry about the supposed lack of challenge/academic intensity.
You did not mention your test scores, which in my experience is the number one factor in top achieving students not getting into the most selective colleges. That aside, from my own Daughters experience…she attended Cornell, which was a “dream school” for her, but also a “reach school”. She wanted to attend since her freshman year in college & it was a dream-come-true when she was accepted. On the other hand, she ended up being best friends with 3 engineering majors, none of which had Cornell as their first choice (MIT, Stanford, etc.). However after a short time they loved Cornell as much as she did, & never bemoaned the fact that it was their “safety school”. Just remember “things turn out the best for those that make the best of the way things turn out”
Lots of good advice. I’d wager a good 20% of the students at your college will all arrive on campus in late August thinking they really belong somewhere else. There will be kids with similar stats to yours who didn’t get in to the same schools you didn’t get into. You’ll meet them and bond. It’s truly brutal out there, more so these past couple of years with Common App and population peak of HS students. Give it your all at your college. You’ll meet peers. Don’t think about transferring until after first semester. If you’re truly miserable, mull it over and develop a strategy over winter break - but I think you’ll find you’re happy and that you will excel, setting the curve in many of your classes. Keep the end goal of getting into a top medical school in mind. Good luck.
Your feelings are understandable, but it will take about 15+ more years to become a pediatric neurosurgeon. You have the choice to make the next 4 of them miserable or not, and after that, there will be a lot of hard work ahead of you.
Your feelings are very understandable, but they are based on you not knowing much about the academic demands of the college that you are going to attend. At the moment, you are basing it on what you can see about the students. However, the level of challenge of the classes you will take is determined by the professor, and the classes can be very challenging, even at colleges ranked lower than the one you are attending.
You didn’t get admitted to a college that accepts <10% of applicants, many of who are quite qualified. Where do you think the other 90% are? Some will be at the college you will be attending. These may be your peer group. They may not be on the FB page because they are too shy to post, or are not active on social media.
There are partiers at every college, but you don’t have to be one. You will find your peer group through making friends in your classes and clubs. Since you have had a gap year, you may feel more mature than some of your peers who have not left home before, but if you follow your own goals and interests, you will meet others who share them along the way. Don’t underestimate your professors. They are intelligent and well qualified, and likely to appreciate a student who is genuinely interested in the subject they are teaching.
There will be opportunities for you to grow academically, socially and emotionally at your college, so go and make the most of them.
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it’s just that I have worked under a few academic neurosurgeons (including pediatric), assisting them with their basic science research, and they have all graduated from tippy-top colleges. I suppose that just means I will have to work even harder to follow in their footsteps.
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You don’t seem to understand. The fact that they went to “tippy top” schools had no bearing on them becoming academic neurosugeons.
No one learns anything in undergrad that prepares them for their specialty. Tippy top schools don’t “do” anything to make it easier for their students to get into med school. They don’t “teach” to the MCAT or anything like that.
Your undergrad isn’t going to hold you back in the least…only YOU can do that.