Band kid interested in chemistry and pre-med [TX resident, 3.87? GPA, top 10% rank, 35 ACT, 1540 SAT, <$80k]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Hi All,

I am a rising senior finalizing my college list. Could you please help me create a balanced list? I have loved sciences (AP bio, Adv Chem and AP Chemistry) and have done well in class as well as AP exams. I wish to become a doctor someday but, want to have a strong fallback career in case things don’t work out by the time I finish undergrad.

Thanks in advance for all your feedback, time and support.

Here are some details that may help:

US citizen
TX resident
Very Competitive high school
Cost: less than $80 K per year (including room and board)
Intended Major(s): Chemical Engineering or Chemistry or Biology, Pre-med
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Rising senior
UW GPA = 3.87; (school gives only a score out of 100; converted to GPA by dividing by 4)
W GPA = 4.13 (school gives only a score out of 100; converted to GPA by dividing by 4)
Class Rank: 67 / 712 (Top 10%)

  • ACT/SAT Scores: ACT 35; SAT 1540
    List your HS coursework
    3 years of Spanish
    Algebra 1 and 2
    AP Pre Calculus
    Geometry

Medical Terminologies
AP BIO
Advanced Anatomy
Advanced Chemistry
AP Chemistry
AP Environmental Science

Applied Engineering
Computer Science

AP HUMAN GEO
AP Us History
AP American Studies - History
AP American Studies - English
3 years of English

2 year of concert band - Clarinet
3 years of Color guard (Marching band)

Awards
All Region Band- Clarinet
Color guard Girl of the year - 2023
Various wins in state and national level Colorguard and Winterguard competitions each year of high school

Extracurriculars
Lt-Captain for Color guard varsity team (2024-25)
Guard representative in Band Board (2024-2025)
Lieutenant for Color guard varsity team (2023-24)
Logistics Manager for Color guard (2022-2023)

President - American Cancer Society Chapter (2024-25)
Operations Officer - American Cancer Society Chapter (2023-2024)
Volunteer (100+hours)- American Cancer Society Chapter (2022-2023)

HOSA - State competitor on Mental Health awareness campaign (2024, 2023)

Kiwanis Club - Web Administrator (2024) and lead designer (2023)

Tutoring - Tutor 5 kids in Chemistry and Algebra over last 2 years.

Shadowed various professions (ICU, Emergency care, Opthalmologist, Dentist, Hospice) in medical field to gain better understanding of professin and self-awareness.

T-shirt design selected for the Student Council (2022)

Bakes (a lot)

Essays/LORs/Other
Above average essays (being helped by seniors and English teacher)
Letters from Algebra teacher, tutoring
Loves the interaction of art and science (baking, guard)

Schools
Rice University, TX (ED)
Washington University, St Louis (ED 2)
UT Austin (EA)
CWRU (Reg)
Baylor
Duke University (Reg)
Emory University, Atlanta, GA
LeHigh
Drexel, PA
Texas A&M

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Congratulations on your accomplishments!

Despite having a generous budget, some of the schools on your list will exceed it. Have you used the NPCs to determine if your family qualifies for FA?

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UT Austin will be a reach outside of the top 6%.

Texas A&M auto-admits the top 10%, but that does not guarantee admission to your major.

You may want to add some other Texas publics for assured admission (including to major) and assured affordability.

Will you complete any physics course in high school?

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Yes. I am enrolled in AP Physics

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Given that you are seriously considering medical school as one possibility, you should budget for at least avoiding a major financial problem over 8 years of university. Your budget matters. You should avoid debt as much as your reasonably can. Do you know whether, if you reduce costs for your bachelor’s degree, any money saved can be applied to medical school? You should be able to find very good universities that cost quite a bit less than $80,000/year and that can prepare you very well for applying to medical schools.

As another answer has pointed out it is also very possible to spend somewhat more than $80,000 per year. There are a few universities that currently cost about $95,000 per year if you don’t get financial aid, many universities that are not very far behind this number, and costs are rising relatively quickly (eg, faster than inflation).

I like the fact that you are also considering a “plan B” in case medical school does not work out.

With a “top 10%” ranking in your high school, you have a lot of reach schools. It is not clear that these will prepare you for medical school any better than at least 100 and perhaps 200 other universities.

Rice, WUSTL, Duke, and Emory look like reaches to me. You might want to run the NPC to see whether they are likely to be affordable.

Texas A&M is a good option if you can get accepted to your intended major. Premed classes will be very demanding at TA&M (or any other very good university) and will be full of very strong students. I doubt that it is a safety but your guidance counselor might know better than I.

I do not know LeHigh or Drexel at all. Other than them I do not see a safety. I am wondering what they are likely to cost you but you might want to run the NPC and find out.

And I agree with @ucbalumnus that you might want to add a couple more public universities in Texas as safeties.

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I like ChemE as a fallback - because it’s a great major. Bio and Chem will be tougher if you don’t go to med school.

So through 12th grade, you’ll get through pre-calc? Or farther?

I think, if you have just pre-calc, it will be tough. And yes some of your schools are priced too high.

If you are ok bigger schools and you list the two in state, I’d add Delaware and Minnesota - tops for ChemE.

It could be Drexel and Baylor are the only acceptances on the list - yes, A&M but maybe not the major.

These majors can litterlly be done anywhere. And with your stats - for as low as $20K a year - Alabama, MS State. I put a link to McCullough Scholars at Bama below.

There are 186 accredited ChemE schools in the US, including 11 in Texas, and outcomes will be similar although UT is a leader in the field and might place at a different level. The 11:

Houston
Lamar
Prarie View
Rice
Texas A&I
Texas A&M
UT
UTSA
UT Tyler
Texas Tech

Choosing a Tech or Houston would be fine too - as would any surrounding flagships.

For smaller, schools, since you have Lehigh, you might look at:

RPI

But you might look at RPI. UAH, Colorado School of Mines (Target), Missouri Science & Tech, Rochester (Reach), Lafayette (Target), and UT Chattanooga.

The math would be my big concern.

Good luck.

Program Description – McCollough Scholars (ua.edu)

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My family does not qualify for FA. Thank you.

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I will be taking AP Calc, AP Stat, AP Physics in Senior year. Thank you for the detailed perspective.

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Then you should raise your budget or pull a few schools off your list:

Duke is $88,938 for the upcoming year - more for you.

Emory is also over budget - but it should come off for another reason. They don’t have engineering - it’s actually why my son eliminated it.

Similar Colleges would be Rice, WUSTL, Vandy (all too pricey but possible merit) - but for Chem E you’re better with Delaware, Minnesota…and Rochester would be another nice addition. Pitt too.

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I am planning to take AP Physics in senior year.

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One major benefit of Emory I will say if the budget fits is that they do a dual degree program in collaboration with Georgia Tech for engineering so you would do your engineering prerequisites at Emory and then do your major focused classes at Georgia Tech! You get a degree from both places and I think the program is a total of 5 years. If that’s something OP would be interested in

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If you are planning on med school, unless 800k total for your education is nothing to your family, you go to the best public TX university you can get into, then you go to a TX public med school.

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As an aside, to calculate your 4.0 GPAs you need to convert each individual course grade from a 100 point grade to a letter grade, then convert that letter grade to a 4.0 grade, and finally take the average of those. You can’t go straight from a 100 point GPA to a 4.0 GPA due to various anomalies in the 4.0 system.

Anyway, I agree you seem to be selecting a lot of private colleges that will likely exceed your budget. If you want alternatives to your in-state options–and a lot of savvy premeds choose in-state colleges even when they could afford more in order to save up for med school–you likely need to look either at (not too expensive) publics, or colleges that might realistically offer you merit aid.

There are many, so some guidance on what you are really looking for in a college experience would be helpful. But if Chemical Engineering is a serious interest–well again, TAMU and Texas are both obvious strong possibilities. But some relatively affordable OOS options would include Georgia Tech, Delaware, Minnesota, Illinois, Purdue, Ohio State, NC State, Iowa State, and Cincinnati.

For privates–honestly, ChemE is not necessarily going to be a really big area of strength for a lot of privates with merit. Maybe Case, though.

If you would consider privates with merit that are good at Chemistry, though, that is a much wider field. In fact you could look at LACs like St Olaf, Kalamazoo, or Hendrix, which would be VERY different from Texas or TAMU.

I would add Rochester as well, and maybe also Pitt as another public. I note in my circles, Pitt, Rochester, and Case are all very popular colleges with premeds, including because they all have a lot of convenient experience opportunities and very good related departments.

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I agree, the list is very reach-heavy. You’ll need a few more Texas match/safety schools. I would suggest UT-Dallas, UT-Arlington, Texas Tech, or Houston. These schools aren’t as ridiculously hyper-competitive as A&M and UT, just in case you decide to change your major to something like business or engineering, for instance. You’d have a realistic shot at an employable major if you decide to study something else.

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