Best Place to ED (low act, solid everything else)

College Search & Lists
1

I have visited many top 20 universities this past summer from attending all expenses paid competitions, summer programs, and through scholarships. I loved basically everyone of them. I can see myself anywhere tbh, but as a pre med, I hope to go to a college with lots of research funding and opportunities. I will be applying for financial aid, which schools do you think I have a good shot at getting in if I ED (top 20-30)

Major: psychology/neuroscience

Stats:

Asian Male

Income: <65k total

5 member household.

Act: 31

GPA: 4.0 unw, 4.5 w, 4.8 UC w, 4.6 UC capped.

Duel Enrolled, finishing 25 credits by senior year.

APs: Bio, Euro, APES, CSP, Lang, USH. (Mostly 4/5s)

Senior Year: AP Chem, AP Lit, AP Psych, AP French, Calc 2, Culinary, TA for AP Bio

Rank: 1/~300

SAT2: 740 Bio, 770 USH, working on math 2 (Prob 780+)

EC:

Founder & President of a Health Club

Debate (Captain)

Academic Decathlon

Science Olympiad

Volleyball (2x League Champs, starter both years, won most improved player)

Research (2 x Publications/ Co Author, Research Assistant, 1 WIP)

Write for fun (Written a few articles for neuroscience journals)

Stanford CASP

Awards:

Gold Congressional Award

Brain Bee National Finalist

Bronze PVSA

UCLA Pre-Med Scholar

USC Camm Jr Fellow

Recs:

Bio teacher (10/10): we literally play clash of clans and clash royale together, chill dude.

Spanish teacher (8/10): performed really strong in her class, she offered to write me one for college, and has written me ones before for my summer programs.

Counselor (11/10): shes new, i helped her get to know our grade better (super complicated), she loves me.

Please be brutally honest.

2

Apply ED only if the school is a no-regrets top choice which is affordable (see its net price calculator). Do you have any preference of school characteristics or between schools, or are your only preferences ranking/prestige and affordability?

3

Is your home state CA?

4

Inferring from what you’ve written, you seem to have included in your search schools that in most likelihood would not consistently appear within the top 20-30 (by admission standards) across the spectrum of U.S. colleges (https://amp.businessinsider.com/the-610-smartest-colleges-in-america-2015-9#aoh=15641610194886&csi=1&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s). However, if you’d like to attend an ~top-80 college, then you will find quite a few that would be in reach. As a recommendation, you may want to consider the opportunities that might be available at undergraduate-focused colleges such as Bates (or other NESCACs) or Vassar. Or you may simply want to emphasize in your search colleges that are noted for their faculty-mentored research opportunities: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/undergrad-research-programs. This resource can be convenient for estimating the costs of a range of excellent colleges: https://myintuition.org/.

5

I dont really have a preference for schools, as long as there aren’t any cut throat competition for research or shadowing, which I doubt exists anywhere tbh.

I was torn between 3 schools to ED, all of which I have visited whether it be through fly in programs or other things: Williams College, Dartmouth, Cornell.
I love all of them. Where do you think I got the best chance?
I plan to ed 2 to tufts for sure, could you chance me there as well?

6

yes it is, why?

7

Pre-med anywhere will be competitive.

8

Thanks for the tuition calculator! Through applying for financial aid, I will definitely have enough money for 4 year under grad + med school.

Could you go in depth on what you meant by "Inferring from what you’ve written, you seem to have included in your search schools that in most likelihood would not consistently appear within the top 20-30 (by admission standards) across the spectrum of U.S. colleges (https://amp.businessinsider.com/the-610-smartest-colleges-in-america-2015-9#aoh=15641610194886&csi=1&referrer=https://www.google.com&amp_tf=From %1$s). However, if you’d like to attend an ~top-80 college, then you will find quite a few that would be in reach. As a recommendation, you may want to consider the opportunities that might be available at an undergraduate-focused college such as Bates (or other NESCACs) or Vassar. "

what is NESCACs?

9

oh definitely. Where do you think I have the best odds at though?

Being a california resident, UCLA and Cal are looking like top choices if I dont get in… How are my odds there?

10

That “610 smartest colleges” link is basically a ranking of colleges by SAT scores of incoming frosh, under the disputed assumption that SAT scores = intelligence.

NESCAC is the New England Small College Athletic Conference, an NCAA Division III conference: https://www.nescac.com/landing/index . Colleges therein are often recommended by posters who favor prestigious small liberal arts colleges. But note that athletes tend to make up a higher percentage of a small college’s students than of a large college’s students.

11

To which school(s) were you accepted to a fly-in program? That school(s) would likely represent your best chance of admission. All T30 schools will be a reach, and your ACT is low for most, if not all, T30s…what that means is you need to have at least 4-6 target schools and 1-2 affordable safety schools on your list.

Run the net price calculator (NPC) at the schools on your list to make sure they will be affordable. You may need your parents’ assistance to do that, as they will require your family’s financial information–salaries, tax returns, etc.
https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/williams
https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/dartmouth
https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/cornell
https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/tufts

Edited to add: there are many CC threads about pre-med strategy, it may be helpful for you to look at those. Some people will advise that pre-meds be certain to be in the top 25% of GPA and test scores at their ultimate school…the thinking being to be more toward the top of the class academically speaking. Med school required courses will have competitive curves anywhere and it’s probably more pronounced at the more selective schools.

12

I seem to have been wrong in that inference. What I’d meant, though, was that many college aspirants define “top-x” by one category or another. But the colleges you listed span categories.

NESCACs comprise a group of highly selective colleges – defined by an athletic conference – of which Williams as well as nine other LACs and Tufts belong. If you like these examples from the group, you may like others.

At some point you may also want to consider Carleton.

13

Two things stand out to me. You say you are applying for financial aid, yet you have enough to cover 4 years of UG and medschool. So you can cover between $600,000 and $800,000? You say your family income is 65k for a family of 5, so you must have HUGE assets which would seriously hamper your getting any need based aid, which is available at the schools you are looking at. Secondly, Williams, Dartmouth and Cornell ED would all be a BIG reach for you. Lastly, don’t worry about research funding and shadowing opportunities. You could get research at LAC’s but at Universities, those opportunities are mostly going to grad students. As a pre med, you will be responsible for your medical EC’s, most that will not be school based. Good luck.

14

This assumption places too much weight on the title of the analysis in my opinion. The list has been included for the OP as one of the few sources that compare the selectivity of colleges across categories (and which can therefore help him organize his college choices), in this case by the rough measure of standardized scoring.

15

Note that the OP stated he plans to finance his educational path “Through applying for financial aid . . .” (Italics added.)

16

Through running tuition calculators for financial aid at the colleges I plan on applying go, I will be paying anywhere from $3-12k per year.

17

And thanks for the honest reply! What things would you consider I do to better my odds? I have talked to some cornell students and they said that I have solid chances. Idk if theyre trying to make me feel better, but I wonder why there is such a big difference chance wise you and them.

18

Ah, thanks for clarifying. Wdym by span categories and top x? Still a bit confused…

19

@merc81, I missed that tidbit. UG could be potentially be very cheap, assuming he gets into a school that meets full need. OP, med school is basically loans if you dont have a family to help you. Very few med schools offer grant money, so by the time you go to med school, expect prices to be anywhere up to over 100k per year, easily. When my kid was applying years ago, UChicago Pritzger was ~ 75k for year one and went up to over 90k for year 4. You can only borrow ~ 43k a year for med school ( not sure of the number now). I just mention this as there is no med school money fairy.
ETA: my kid did not choose U Chicago, but the prices when she was accepted made me choke.

20

My parents have saved close to $400k since their immigration. We live in a studio apartment, which is really hard for a household of 5, but it allowed us to save money for my education.