What is the most likely plan with a bachelor’s degree in biology or biochemistry?
If medical school is likely, then you should be planning on helping him pay for a full 8 years of university. Even doctors do not make enough money to easily pay off the cost of medical school. In this case it is far easier to save $$$ by reducing undergraduate costs rather than by finding a low priced medical school (generally getting accepted to any MD program is highly competitive). Given your son’s excellent stats plus in-state status in New York if you wanted to it would be feasible to save significant $$ for the bachelor’s and leave money in the bank for medical school, while still getting an excellent education.
If research is the plan, then PhD’s are typically fully funded, which suggests that you might only need to pay for 4 years of university. One daughter with high school stats not all that much less than your son’s went with this path, and did get accepted to a very good biomedical-related PhD program (on the level of the schools on your list) with just a bachelor’s degree. She also had extensive research experience, which was probably a necessary part of what got her accepted to her top choice PhD program, but that is something that a student can get a start on at a very wide variety of undergraduate universities. The stipend for a PhD student is typically barely enough to live on, and a small amount of parent help can make it easier for a student to live comfortably for as long as it takes to get a PhD, but “small amount” is key here.
Sometimes students need to get a master’s before getting accepted to an appropriate PhD program, so being able to help a child pay for 6 years (4 year bachelor’s plus 2 year master’s) is not a bad plan.
Other than this, my first reaction to your son’s list is that there is no safety on the list
(except that I do not know Lehigh at all). The SUNY’s are obvious. UVM is another possibility, and is in an attractive small city.
My second reaction is that Northeastern is another good option to consider.
I like the area around Tufts. It is a bit quiet and suburban. It is however not all that far from Harvard square, and just a subway ride from Boston. Their graduate school of biomedical sciences is in a different location, in downtown Boston near Chinatown. Your son is however at least four years away from worrying about this.
Both highly ranked MD programs and PhD programs typically have students who got their bachelor’s degrees at a very wide range of universities and LACs. You really do not need to attend a university as highly ranked as the ones on your list in order to get a PhD at a school on the level of the ones on your list. There are lots and lots of universities that are very good for biology and biochemistry.
