Hello. My D26 starts thinking about colleges and crafting preliminary list.
Please suggest small to medium-size colleges in the NE area (PA/NJ/MD). Not super liberal schools (I guess Muhlenberg and Goucher are off the list?) and not Catholic (no required religious classes).
Intended major- biology with premed track.
We don’t qualify for financial aid, so merit is important.
So far her GPA is 4.0 but may potentially drop a bit after 11th grade (taking very challenging curriculum). We expect SAT to be a round 1400. Very strong ECs. Social kid with great leadership skills.
What colleges would you suggest for her to look at? TIA!
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Hofstra?
Stonybrook?
Drexel?
SUNY Albany?
What is the budget? Hard to make recommendations without knowing that.
It would also help if you define ‘super liberal’, but sounds like LACs may be of interest given the right fit (and budget)?
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Ursinus College in PA:
- Ursinus Offers Merit Scholarships • Student Financial Services • Ursinus
- pre-health info: Pre-Health Professions | Ursinus College
Allegheny College in PA:
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Susquehanna ? Juniata? Marist? SUNY Geneseo? Drew?
For premeds, majoring in something other than bio would be better - if bio is a passion, Biochemistry, Biological Anthropology, Bioinformatics would all work, otherwise any major she lives and can get high grades in coupled with the premed pre-reqs would work.
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There are quite a few students who start university thinking “premed”. As such this topic comes up quite a bit on this web site and we should be able to give you some help. When a student is thinking “premed”, three thoughts immediately come to mind.
The first is that there is a very large number of colleges and universities that are very good for premed students. This means that you will have lots of schools to choose from, particularly with an unweighted 4.0 GPA (or anything close to this).
The second thing that comes to mind is that the very large majority of students who start off with the intent to be premed end up doing something else. Some cannot keep up the premed-appropriate GPA in tough premed classes. However, there are plenty of students who do keep up a premed-appropriate GPA but who just decide that they want to do something else. Some end up doing something else that is medical related (as one example one daughter is currently getting a PhD in a biomedical field with the intention of doing research). Some end up doing something very different (computer science, engineering, business, anthropology, anything that you can imagine and more). One big benefit of university is that students are exposed to lots of fields that they had not even considered before, and some just find what they love, and go and do it.
The third thing that comes to mind is that medical school is expensive. You need to budget for a full 8 years of university where the last 4 years are likely to be expensive. It would be best, if you can manage it, to avoid debt for a bachelor’s degree. Even better would be to leave some $$$ in a college fund for medical school.
Also premed classes are in many cases very academically demanding.
My personal belief is that putting all this together applying to a university to be a premed student might in many cases be boring. There is a lot to be said for an in-state public university where your stats pretty nearly ensure admission. All that hard work in high school will nonetheless come in handy, in some cases by providing merit aid (save $$$), and in probably all cases by allowing the student to be well prepared to do well in very tough classes.
There are a number of public universities in New England that give some merit aid for out of state students. UVM is one example, but it is pricey unless a student qualifies for a presidential merit scholarship (which is likely with a 4.0, or even slightly less if this slips) and is also quite liberal. U.Maine is said to be relatively reasonably priced for out of state students. I have also heard of merit aid at some other schools (such as U.Mass Amherst). While New York is not strictly “New England”, I have also heard that the SUNY’s can be relatively affordable for out of state students. We do not know the schools further south as well but I know that many are very good.
By the way, both daughters had majors that overlapped a lot with premed classes, and had multiple friends who were premed. Both attended universities that were a good fit for them but where admissions was close to certain with their stats (implying probably not the highest ranked school they could have gotten into). Both found that this meant that they were able to keep at least close enough to the top of the class in very tough premed classes. Both found multiple friends in these classes who were very strong students (as one example one now former boyfriend had never had a B in his life – he has his MD now and is doing his residency). Both did very well in admissions to graduate programs and are currently in very good graduate programs that are a good fit for them. One is in the fourth and final year of her DVM. The other is in the first year of her PhD in a biomedical field.
So, I would say keep your budget in mind, and look for schools that are a good fit for your daughter. I would pretty much ignore “prestige”. A good fit is way, way more important.
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Will look at them. Thank you for your recommendations.
We have money set aside that would allow her to graduate with no debt. But we would ideally like to save some of it for medical school. I would say COA should be less than 40K (better if around 30K).
My student does not plan to be involved with politics at all (not her area of interest), but she is not a fan of ultra-liberal environment. LAC is totally fine.
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Will take a close look at both. Thank you!
Thank you for all your recommendations. Will look into them.
Does religious affiliation or environment matter if it is not Catholic?
Might help to name a price limit, so that others can suggest schools with a realistic chance of merit that will bring the net price to or below your limit.
Wow. Thank for your detailed reply!
Yes, we are aware that prestige does not matter much for premed student and choosing safety school is often highly advisable. Plus, it is often better financially. That’s exactly our approach. No reach schools, maybe a target or two, but mostly safeties.
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Those chosen as they are listed as sending several students to medical schools.
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I am not sure I understand the question.
Makes sense! Answered above. Limit is not set in stone. Keeping it close to $30K or below would be ideal.
You wrote “not Catholic”, but does it matter if the college is affiliated with a non-Catholic religion?
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This is the plan exactly.
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Can you provide an example?
DD does not want any religious classes to be core requirement. That’s why St. Joe (which often comes highly recommended) is probably not an option.
Examples would be Gettysburg, Muhlenberg, and Susquehanna (Lutheran).
They have no religious class requirements, so they are totally fine.