Any advice for chem major applicant on private schools to apply for?

College Search & Lists
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My child’s details are given below; any advice on the private colleges he can aim for with chem major?

Details:

Rising Senior at a Public High School in TX.

Key acad stats:

GPA: ~4.5/5, Rank: within top 20 of ~500 students
PSAT/NMSQT: 220+, SAT: 1550+

AP Courses: Physics1, Physics C, Chemistry, Biology, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Human Geography, World History, US History, English Lang & Composition, Statistics; 4+ in every AP course.

Senior year: AP Literature & Composition, AP Govt, AP Economics. (As in all of them)

College Courses: Organic Chemistry I & II, Economics I;

Senior year: will take Multivariable Calculus, Economics II, Linear Algebra, Organic Chemistry Lab courses in senior year.

Additional coursework from AoPS: Intro to Number theory, Intro to Counting & Probability, Programming with Python.

Academic Extracurriculars:

Summer 2021: Welch Summer Scholar Program (Chemistry), Rosetta Biomedical Camp (Cancer), Volunteer at a hospital, UT HSRA (Genomics Stream), local STEM Camp, Stanford Cardio-thoracic surgery skills program.

Fall 2021 & Spring 2022: Research with a prof. at a local university in Chemistry/Biochemistry

Prior extracurriculars:

National level award winner in Social Sciences (Geography+History etc) at the JV level; participated in school’s science, math, robotics and other clubs; won a few regional UIL competitions; volunteer at MATH summer camps for four years.

My son will also apply to UT-Austin and TAMU.

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He’d likely get $30k per year from SMU and maybe more from Dedman for chemistry. Need strong leadership for Hunt And Presidential scholarships.

Emory would be awesome. LAC or bigger private school? Wants big sports?

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With UT as a likely large-school option, your son may want to research smaller schools with a strong (or exclusive) emphasis on undergraduates for his private school selections. Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Princeton, Brown, Haverford, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Reed and Carleton represent some to consider.

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Auto admit to TX-Austin and TAMU are great options to have…will they be affordable?

Looks like he will also be a national merit finalist…which would get him full tuition + another $6K or so at UT Dallas (plus Honors college), and a full ride at U Alabama.

What is his budget? Do you expect to qualify for need based aid? Have you run the net price calculators at any schools to get cost estimates?

Beyond that, additional info on what he wants in a college would be helpful (size, geography, etc)…there are many schools with excellent chemistry offerings.

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What about Rice, TCU, or Baylor if he wants to stay in Texas?

Will there likely be graduate or professional school for your son? If so – or if there otherwise will be significant financial constraints on undergraduate college attendance – then a different list of colleges and universities might be appropriate.

What does your son’s guidance counselor suggest?

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Thanks for your suggestions! As of now, he wants to aim for MSTP programs; however, he is not sure about medicine entirely. He is not committed to BS/MD programs as of now. He likes chemistry and would pursue an advanced degree either in chemistry or medicine or chemical engineering or any related fields such as pharmacy etc

Geography or financial aid is not a limitation as of now! He wants to try to get into a program which nurtures his interests in humanities as well.

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brown!!! We have a fantastic chemistry department, especially our organic chem faculty! They are literally some of the nicest people ever, and we have quite a few advanced orgo classes so he wouldn’t run out of them if he loves orgo. Literally anything I would ever want in a chem program–I hated chem before college but I briefly thought of switching to a biochem concentration because I liked our intro courses so much. Ofc open curriculum is a big deal so all sorts of opportunities for humanities/a second concentration/interdisciplinary stuff.

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He is likely a T25-20 admit. Beyond that, it’s hard to say. Any academic/EC national awards in STEM?

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With respect to his intended major, has your son expressed a greater interest in chemistry or biochemistry / molecular biology?

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Thanks for your suggestions! He liked organic chemistry and chemistry in general. He is not sure yet about biology although he likes genetics (DNA/CRISPR stuff). He doesn’t have any national awards in STEM but has awards at national level in humanities.

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Your son’s interests may lead him, eventually, to focus on certain molecules associated with biochemistry / molecular biology (generally those composed of atoms of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur). As an opinion, however, an undergraduate major in general chemistry may, irrespective of your son’s most likely direction, be preferable to a biologically oriented major for the rigor, broad foundation and versatility a general chemistry major provides.

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12

I couldn’t agree more with @merc81 about checking out liberal arts colleges and would add Swarthmore and Franklin & Marshall to his list of suggestions. Chemistry departments tend to be noticeably smaller than biology departments, but he’ll still get much more attention at a liberal arts college than at most universities.

Trinity U in San Antonio would be a match and offers pretty good merit aid.

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13

Thanks for your suggestions! Our son got into Duke (ED), UT & TAMU.

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Congrats!

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