<p>Hi, i’m interested in pre-med and my stats are</p>
<p>3.45 unweighted (maybe around 3.8 weighted)
2030 SAT
740 Physics SAT2
5 AP Physics
taking AP Chem this year and AP Bio next year</p>
<p>e/c:
volunteered in Africa at an orphanage for a few weeks in the summer
will volunteer at a local hospital this summer</p>
<p>I’m just looking for a well known school… Not too interested in small LAC’s.</p>
<p>I live in the Northeast but i don’t care about location… and merit aid would be nice</p>
<p>I wouldn’t call you an average student (well, maybe here on CC). Those are great academics. If you are pre-med you might want to consider a good state school which would prepare you fine academically for med school. Alabama honors college is worth a look. I am not sure what you mean by “well known”. All state schools are well known. What about Tufts?</p>
<p>the problem is that although my parent makes a lot of money i have another sibling and both of us want to go to medical school… this is going to lead to a lot of debt and i’m worried that we won’t get a lot of financial aid because we’re upper class. so i’m looking for schools that meet your need if your EFC doesn’t cover the total cost of attendance and so I thought that big name schools would do that. however please feel free to list any that can help me with this</p>
<p>If name prominence is your primary concern, Wake Forest and Boston College are a couple of pretty good schools in your target range. If financial concerns are paramount, do you have any in-state publics you’d consider?</p>
<p>STATE Us:</p>
<p>Michigan</p>
<p>-slight drop-</p>
<p>UIUC
UCSD
Georgia Tech
Texas-Austin
Purdue
U of Florida
U of Washington
Penn State</p>
<p>The OP will need to have much higher stats for merit aid at an OOS public U. </p>
<p>OP, Check your in-state publics and see how competitive you are for merit aid there. The cost should also be lower than most other places.</p>
<p>RML, many of those state universities would be major reaches for OOS with the OP’s stats. Getting into a school like Michigan with a sub 3.6 unweighed GPA is highly unlikely. UIUC, GT, UCSD and Texas-Austin are almost as hard to get into. </p>
<p>I agree with Penn State, Purdue, Florida and UDub though. Those are great options for a 3.5 student. I would add Indiana, Georgia, Iowa, MSU, Kansas and Minnesota.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>At the tippy top of the public U sphere yes. But OP could get significant merit aid at other good public options (especially in the SE and SW it seems).</p>
<p>heyy, similar stats to me : ]</p>
<p>BU
U-Michigan
UW-Madison
U-Miami
U-Rochester</p>
<p>if u don’t mind my asking, which organization did u do your africa volunteering with? that sounds awesome.</p>
<p>Agreed, if you want a school that is well known but not too competitive admissions-wise, choose a state university (though almost always their rep is due to strong sports programs). Schools like Penn State, Pitt (my school), UConn, are examples. You might want to especially look at Pitt because the medical sciences are emphasized here. </p>
<p>Other schools to consider could be Drexel and GWU but they are private and likely wouldn’t give out merit scholarships for those stats.</p>
<p>You are sending a mixed message: you want a big name school but you also want money help. </p>
<p>You certainly can try for both – but you probably should decide which of the two is more important. If you have to have the dazzling bumper sticker, then be prepared to pay for it. </p>
<p>If you want money help, then you need to look for where you would be a big fish in a little pond (and don’t be snotty. Some small ponds are very lovely). Consider being a math or chem major in a school that hunts those. You aren’t interested in a LAC but that might be just where you might get merit aid. </p>
<p>So, merit aid or well known bumper sticker. Pick one.</p>
<p>thanks for your help everyone. also what do you think about rutgers</p>
<p>Olymom, in my experience, “big name” does not necessarily mean prestigious and selective. I have seen someone getting into Penn State being made into a bigger deal than someone getting into Johns Hopkins, Rice and Emory. In addition, just because a school is well known does not mean it will be expensive and stingy with merit aid.</p>
<p>As for the OP looking for input on Rutgers, I can’t really speak about Rutgers’ national reputation because I am from NJ myself, but if you are a NJ resident it is a pretty good deal.</p>
<p>If it has a “big” name, it may not have money for middle to upper income students (IMHO). We have the University of Washington in my neck of the woods. It is a fine and recognized university. It does very little for middle or upper income kids – it does not have to. There are far more applicants than slots. It is clearly the “big” name school in the region – but not an Ivy – it is selective but probably not “highly selective.”</p>
<p>So it is not about selectivity – it is about popularity. A popular school has lots of applicants to choose from – including applicants who will pay full freight or borrow for full freight. </p>
<p>In today’s economy, which schools ARE well known and not “stingy with merit aid.” ? The OP’s question. Only those with great endowments – which takes us to, say Grinnell (a LAC) or perhaps Swarthmore (perhaps a combination of well regarded and blessed that would do but still a LAC). </p>
<p>It will be interesting to see what others have to say!</p>
<p>The reason UWash and other publics offer little for middle and upper income students is because in-state tuition is cheap compared to private and OOS options. It’s true they don’t need to offer merit aid to most, but the reason they’re so popular is because they’re very affordable even without grants and scholarships and offer a quality education. </p>
<p>Private schools like Grinnell and Swarthmore are more dependent on endowment for providing financial aid, publics (well known, big name ones too) rely less on endowment because they are publicly funded.</p>