Can I ask why you estimate your letters of recommendation being not that great?
We don’t really have report cards here, so I’m mostly estimating it on the fact that a lot of them have a template that they use (and they’ve disclosed to me, and they’re pretty generic). Also, the main teacher that I know would write me a solid recommendation taught me freshman/sophomore year and I feel like it’s too long of a period between her teaching me and now that it would seem like a good letter. Not sure though, would love advice! LORS were one of the hardest things of my application.
Pre-med can be done with any major alongside the pre-med courses.
Admission to any US medical school is a reach, and requires demonstrated commitment to clinical work and serving the disadvantaged who will show up for medical treatment. Hence there will be expected extracurriculars in those areas in addition to top college grades and MCAT scores. Medical school is also very expensive.
Engineering is more attainable, but only if you have sufficient interest in it to go through the rigorous curriculum. The volume of major requirements limits the number of out of major courses you can take, although some will be required.
Is there a way you can plausibly have an ongoing relationship with the great teacher from 9th/10th? For instance, does she advise a club you’re in, or could you volunteer TA in her class, something like that? Then that could be a standout letter. (And you can manage with just one standout letter.) Do you have a coach/pastor/etc. who could write a second letter if needed?
Are you sure that you’ve calculated your weighted GPA correctly? If you have an unweighted GPA of 4.0 (i.e. all As) and you’ve taken 7 honors classes (4.5) and you’ve taken 3 AP classes (5.0), I would think that your wGPA might be higher. Also, what have your AP scores been like so far?
My weighted GPA shows up on my transcript! It’s mainly because there was no honors Spanish (or any elective), 9th grade basically forbade us to take honors (I only got leeway for math because I took it higher than my grade level), some dual credit classes (ex: A&P) are considered “normal”, summer classes I took that affect it (government, etc) + my biomedical classes are considered normal classes. I got a 5 on AP Stats/USH & 4 on Bio!
Do you have any interest in the science field? You are likely to do best when you are studying what you want to study and doing the work that you like to do. It’s one thing if you prefer international relations but also like science, but quite another if you find science to be drudgery that you’re good at.
I’d say that I love international relations, but I find science something interesting when I’m invested in it (biology specifically). However, I find the other sciences (physics especially) to be kind of a bore haha.
Also, have you given any thought to a degree in something like global health? Denison has strong academics and this major might be of interest.
Actually, I didn’t even the major or college existed. I will do some more research on it! Thank you!! It seems like a good mix between healthcare and the world. I haven’t thought about GWU, John Hopkins, or Tufts either (I’ve never heard of Tufts) I will do my research on all 3 of them! Thank you so much again!!
I’d be happy to hear any suggestion you have! And don’t worry, I’ve given them many hugs because of it I’m so thankful that they’re giving me this opportunity, which is why I want to see what options I have before I go somewhere and then change my mind and waste their money haha
I asked the teacher I volunteer for at the elementary school to write me a letter, and she’s working on that right now, but I have no idea how I’d rate it. For the 9th/10th teacher, I wish I could TA, but our schedules clashed as you need for them to have a class to TA for, and her plan periods are right when I had free hours to TA. No clubs, though I did ask my NHS Sponsor for a letter (and I contribute a lot, but she’s so busy I have no idea how the letter is like).
What do you want to do? I noticed uou mention Georgetown for IR and UPenn Viper. My D is in UPenn VIPER. It is two full degrees in 4 years: a bachelors in Engineering and a bachelors in the Colleges of arts and sciences (that degree has to be math or sci). It requires 6 courses essentially every semester. A Biology degree is 4 occasionally 4.5 courses a semester. VIPER is a lot of Stem: you have to love and thrive in science and math courses. There is also paid guaranteed research for 2 summers —but it is required! Of course one can swap out of the program and just do a single degree, but I am curious why are applying to such a heavy and difficult stem program if you are not sure about science in general? Penn is quite interdisciplinary so there are non-stem courses but there is less room to explore many different subjects if you are part of viper. Applying to Penn College of Arts and sciences would be better. They do not admit by major(neither does viper, it is just admittance to SEAS and the College of A&S), so you could explore a lot as a freshman at Penn then pick what you like, and probably be able to combine Biology and IR interests. Penn is a wonderful challenging school with a wide variety of arts and clubs, with a beautiful campus adjacent to a fun city; best of luck to you.
While I agree grad school is almost surely needed for non-med school bio majors, typically that will be phD which are fully funded (free tuition and health insurance) with generous stipends to live off of (many are 50k with more available funding in summers). Some Stem masters at schools with big endowments have full funding as well but phD always does, and phD opens more doors in industry /research labs/academia than masters.
As far as being realistic….PhD programs are very competitive, and many change their mind once they develop other interests, gain knowledge about the stress level and time commitment etc .
As far as grad school for bio majors…depending on the career path there may be some merit, but much of the time there is not.
great resume - I think you are going to have a tough time with SFS at Georgetown with only 3 years of foreign language. I think you’d be good in one of the science majors there given your stats and Kansas.
