Chance and Match me plz (rewritten) [PA, pre-med, 3.8UW/4.2W, 1510, PSAT 1490 possible NMSF, <$60k]

BS MD unlikely.

You will get into Pitt. For any Honors, do it for yourself. It doesn’t help with employment in most cases. Every honors College is different so apply of what they offer work for you. At some schools it may not.

Unless something has changed in the last two years, you needn’t even be in Honors to take Honors classes.

If Pitt is your school, you can be done.

Drexel would be less likely to make budget.

Given you like urban, you might check College of Charleston and the Charleston Fellows Program. You could get a large scholarship. It’s an invite only subset of Honors.

U of SC is urban and has arguably the top Honors college in the country. Far more robust than Pitt and would easily make budget.

Pitt is almost a sure bet (not Honors) so you can play with others. But if you’ll get no need aid (do the NOCs to be sure), no point in wasting time on schools with no merit like Tufts and the Ivies.

Good luck.

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Dang i thought UF would be more on the likely end. Im really confident in my writing skills and my recommendations are going to be really good I think. Their acceptance is pretty high though. Also from what I saw in all these schools’ common data sets I am either within the ranges or higher for both GPA and SAT score. idk thanks for ur advice though

For UF, you have to figure your gpa. Give yourself 4 for an A, 3 for a B etc.

Any Honors class add .5

Any AP +1

That’s thriugh Junior year so your 5 APs next year won’t be captured.

Toss up doesn’t mean no btw. I called it a target.

You over estimated your groups but honestly, if going to med school, why choose 40s UF over $20k Bama. And if you get NMF, it’s $20k over 4 year Bama plus you get grants.

Remove US News and selectivity, they’re basically the same school - string in business and engineering, great football and spirit. For a pre med Bama has the McCullough Pre Med Scholars Program.

The schools are similar but neither like Pitt.

But no one said UF is not possible. But if you like UF, add Bama and UGA. Or since you like urban, U of SC. Even an FSU.

Their gpa range is 4.5-4.7. I’m guessing you’re a bit short but tell us. Your SAT is great for them.

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I was looking at their “GAP” program and it was looking really selective but since only freshman undergrads can apply for it I dont think its completely unattainable especially in-state and higher than the ranges. LMK if im completely wrong though thats just what my thoughts were. Also drexel i am pretty confident that I could land merit scholarships. thanks for the advice on the ivies and tufts I was thinking that i prob shouldnt apply since i cant really afford it esp for undergrad. Im also looking at some UC schools which tend to be less expensive. but I think I am going to apply to a bunch of reach schools just to see what offers there could possibly be even if the chances are slim

Thanks, I didnt mean to sound defensive or anything so sorry if it was like that. Im going to do some more research I guess

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  1. UCs are nearly $80k assuming you mean U of California
  2. Schools are hard to apply to - reach schools. You get burned out.

You need a smart strategy. You need to plan for med school. If you think it might not happen, then fine. Why Drexel - it’s very different.
You’re a bright student but kids like you are at most every flagship in America. My daughter at Charleston had a better gpa and rigor (close on test). My son at Bama better overall. And yet they are not close to the top at their schools.

So don’t let the ego stand in the way of budget and your long term goals. US News is to sell magazines. It’s not necessarily representative of the real world.

Good luck.

The large majority of students who start university thinking “premed” end up doing something else. Some struggle to maintain a medical-school-worthy GPA in the tough premed classes. However, quite a few just decide that they would prefer to do something else. Some for example might find that they like lab work and research, and go for a PhD instead. Some might decide they like math, or computer science, or just about anything. This is entirely reasonable. University is an opportunity to try multiple things and get a better idea regarding what you want to do.

However, if you are starting university thinking “medical school”, then you do not want to start at a school that will make it difficult to afford to pay for medical school if you decide to stick with that path. As such, you need to budget for 8 years of university. You would be best off to avoid debt for your bachelor’s degree, and it would be even better if you can keep some money in the bank or college fund in case you want to end up using it for medical school (or for some other graduate program).

With a budget of 50-60k I am pretty sure that some of the schools on your list will fit your budget, but some other schools will not. As one example, I do not think that Cornell gives any merit based financial aid (nor Dartmouth nor any other Ivy League school). While Tufts has some national merit scholarships, my understanding is that this is for a very small amount (and Tufts is quite expensive if you are full pay – probably over $100k/year by the time that you get to university). I would be very surprised if either Cornell or Dartmouth or Tufts will fit your budget, and quite a few other schools on your list are similarly likely to be well over budget.

You can major in anything, complete the premed requirements, get many hours of experience in a medical environment, and apply to medical schools. A number of years ago I for example saw a video on-line of a surgeon who specialized in robot-assisted surgery, who painted a very small picture of the hospital where he works using a robotic surgery system (if you Google “Da Vinci robotic surgery” the video might or might not still be available). His bachelor’s degree was in art, and he had then gone on to medical school. I think that a major reason why some premed students major in bio or chemistry is that you are going to need to take some tough biology and chemistry classes anyways to complete the premed requirements. You might want to major in something that you are good at and that you like. Public health does seem like one reasonable option.

The ability to speak Spanish will be helpful to anyone who works in health care in the US with direct patient contact.

These are all very good universities in general, and very good for a premed student.

For the rest of your list, I really do not know which of them are likely to be affordable. You have a long list of reach schools particularly if many of them will be over budget even if you do get accepted. You might want to have your parents run the NPCs for them, and/or search their web site and see which of them offer merit aid and at what level.

The last thing that I might say: I think that you are doing very well. Your stats are very good. Your ECs are very good and seem to be relevant to the path that you are considering. A 3.8 unweighted GPA might not amaze admissions at some of the most selective universities, but there are definitely many people called “Doctor” who had about the same unweighted GPA in high school (and in many cases probably a lower SAT and PSAT score).

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This ?? Or what is Gap? Sounds near - makes it sound like anyone can. It says:

“After completing orientation, you will be able to volunteer!”

Or do I have the wrong program ?

Are we referring to the same school?

For entry in the fall of 2023, the admission rate overall was 24% with the 75th percentile SAT at 1480. Your SAT is above the 75th percentile, but you’re also an out-of-state student. For fall of 2024, the 75th percentile was 1500 (source). And looking at trend data over the last ten years, it’s only gotten harder to get into UF each year. My quick internet sleuthing did not pull up the fall 2024 admission rate (or the most recent admission rate for fall 2025), but I’d be surprised if the admission rate is increasing. Their weighted GPA is between a 4.5-4.7. Use their formula to find out what yours is, but I’m not hopeful that a 3.8UW/4.2W is going to put you in the target GPA zone.

But when trying to figure out what your chances for admission at a school are, I’d recommend you start not by looking at your stats, but at looking at the college’s admission rate. That is the biggest limiting factor. There will be students with 4.0UW GPAs and 1600 SAT scores that are rejected to Harvard and other Top X schools, even though their stats are above the 75th percentile. Why? Because far more highly qualified students are applying to those schools than they can accept. It’s not that the students they reject/waitlist aren’t qualified…there’s just not the space.

UF’s admission rate is significantly higher than the 3% or so at some Top X schools, but it’s still not a high admission rate. If both your SAT and GPA end up being over the 75th percentile, then I’d think about moving UF into the toss-up category, but a lot depends on how much priority in-state students get over out-of-state. Perhaps @kevi2900 has some thoughts on UF for you?

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GAP is the guaranteed acceptance program for medical school. It is very, very competitive.

My daughter was invited to apply but she decided not to.

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This student does not have very generous Princeton on their application list. As I suggested above, they should run the net price calculators for all of the schools on their list if possible colleges.

Knowing the aid at Princeton is not going to give them info about the aid at the schools on their list.

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the GAP program at Pitt is their Guaranteed Acceptance Program for med school so if you get in then its a 7 year bachelor and med school combined. And you dont need to take MCAT.

As I mentioned above…any BS/MD program should be considered a reach. Very low acceptance rates. You have a good application, so certainly try. But you also can apply to medical school the regular way…and yes, you will need to take the MCAT. But I want to add, if you do go to medical school, you will be taking test, after test, after test, after test…forever. The MCAT isn’t a bad thing. @WayOutWestMom your thoughts?

Do you want additional college suggestions?

Are there geographic areas you prefer?

Do you want info about lower price options. Or have you and your parents agreed on your college costs (and can they help you with medical school costs if needed)!

Please let us know the answers to these questions.

You have some sure things on your list already…and that is terrific.

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Thank you so much. I was really just listing reach schools that I want to apply to in case I get in since my budget is a little flexible. Other than that my main match is probably UPitt or Drexel since Pitt is in state and pretty inexpensive compared to the other schools and Drexel I should be able to receive some money or scholarships.

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Yes I understand that BS/MD programs are reach. Almost everything I am applying for is a reach school since I want to see kind of where I am able to get into. I think this is called the shotgun method or something.

Could you please give some additional college suggestions? I prefer somewhere either on the east coast or Midwest. I dont think I really want to go south Midwest like Alabama or Louisiana but I think I would be fine with Texas and the south east coast states. My parents are able to pay for my undergrad but I think I will have to take out loans for med school unless I get a scholarship or something which seems highly unlikely. My budget is a little bit flexible for undergrad especially for reach schools but I would much rather just go to Pitt than a similar school that is out of state.

Also I dont really mind standardized tests it would just be more convenient and ideal to be in a guaranteed program obviously but I know that it will also be very difficult to get into it and am not expecting to get in it at all. Im just going to take the chance since it’s there

I dont think I really want to go south Midwest like Alabama or Louisiana but I think I would be fine with Texas and the south east coast states

Thank you for the guidance on possible college options for you. Let me think about it. You need to be happy where you go to college, and for some students, the geographic location is important to them.

Honestly, Pitt is such a great option, and you are likely to get accepted :crossed_fingers:t2::crossed_fingers:t2:, you can look at other places that are more reachy because it’s very possible you could be accepted to Pitt very early in your senior year.

It is nice for some students to have options.

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Yes I am just putting schools like BU, BC, Umich, UVA just to see some options pretty much. While they may not be the most realistic, you never rly know what could happen

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My GPA using the UF calculation (i plugged everything into ChatGPT) was a 4.44 excluding senior year since I am a Junior. My lowest year was sophomore year which dropped me significantly (3 As 3 Bs). Does this change much? Wouldn’t my SAT score somewhat make up for the slightly lower GPA

Another suggestion…have you considered Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland? You need to demonstrate interest, but it might check a lot of your boxes. If you get some merit aid, it could come in at your price point.

Another option is University of Rochester.

Yes I have considered both but at that point I would rather go to Pitt since it is a strong option, probably less expensive, and I like the campus/city environment

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