Barnard definitely likes people with interesting stories who have made real impacts on their communities, and they like high scores. You have both of those, which is good. They do also prefer near-perfect GPAs, so that bit is challenging, but it’s worth the application.
My d22 is a senior there this year and has really loved it. She is not pre-med, but one of her majors is chemistry, and she spends an inordinate amount of time tutoring pre-meds in organic chemistry. Barnard has a LOT of pre-meds, so take that into consideration.
The research opportunities are great, but as with all schools at this level, be prepared to be surrounded by brilliant people. A lot of Barnard students are really shaken when they are suddenly average. If that inspires you, apply. You definitely have a shot. If being average bothers you, choose somewhere else for ED.
You can take the required courses for medical school applicants at almost every four year college in this country, arts conservatories excluded.
If you do end up going to medical school, it will likely cost $100,000 a year or so. New federally funded loan limits for students are $200,000 for professional schools, and that includes any loans taken for undergrad. IOW, you no longer will be able to fund medical school with federally funded student loans only.
So keep costs on mind.
As a disclaimer, we were also a calculated full pay family for undergrad, but we welcomed the merit scholarships our kids received. If your parents are willing to be full pay, please give them a big hug and a huge thank you. Some families won’t do this even if they can. It’s a wonderful gift your parents are giving you.
That being said…I would discuss costs with your parents for every college on your list. Do the net price calculators, and ask your parents if they will pay for each college on your list.
As a NMSF, you do have some lower cost options you could consider, as noted above.
I guess I’m wondering why no CA public universities are on your list. CA has a lengthy list of great public universities that are a decent cost for instate residents.
ETA…I missed your comment about the UCs applying above. You will likely have some good choices there.
If you are not accepted to schools such as NYU or BU, would your parents be willing to pay full cost for Penn State? If not, I would remove it from your list.
Fordham no longer earmarks the full-tuition scholarship for National Merit students. Now any excellent student is in the running for Fordham’s full-tuition scholarships (and there are even some true full ride scholarships with tuition, room, board, fees and a stipend.)
No guarantees of course, but this student is strong and I imagine she would be considered. Fordham just got a $100 million donation to expand STEM, so this student might be especially attractive to them.
You are applying to a lot of schools on top of 10 UCs and CSUs. To be honest, some of the choices not making sense to me. Especially, paying $100K/y for Northeastern, NYU, USC… paying $80K for uMich, $60K for Penn State for Pre-Med? You have a very good chance for UCR, UCSC and SDSU based on your stats, no need to pay $200K more for undergrad schools above. Save the money for medical school. Good Luck.
I think you have a decent chance at an ED acceptance at Barnard, but I’m also confident that you will have great options if Barnard doesn’t work out.
It doesn’t appear to me that you need much advice at this point; we’re at the wait-and-see stage now! The one thing I would suggest is that as you work on your UC apps, you consider applying to the College of Creative Studies at UCSB. You strike me as a great candidate for their “grad school for undergrads” model. CCS requires a separate application, with an essay and recommendations, in addition to the UC app, but the priority deadline for the CCS app isn’t until January 6th, so you can wait for Barnard’s response before doing that additional work. Available majors include bio, chem/biochem, and computing, among others, and CCS students can also do minors or a second major outside of CCS. I feel like you’d be able to write a pretty compelling essay about your research work, that would make you a great candidate for this program. But at this point, the only action item would be choosing a CCS major as one of your two major choices for UCSB, when you do the UC app.
It is a new change. Fordham offered the National Merit full tuition scholarships for the entering class of 2025, but they no longer list it for the entering class of 2026 (those currently applying.)
Actually it was previously awarded for National Merit status or National Recognition Scholar status (e.g. Hispanic, African American, Native American etc.) Perhaps because of its location in the Bronx and its historic mission of educating the children of immigrants (and others that the Ivys would not take or placed tight quotas on), Fordham cared a lot about National Recognition Scholar status. So it is theorized that when the Supreme Court did away with scholarships designated for certain race/ethnicities, Fordham decided to scrap the National Merit requirement/designation as well.
When you say that “Fordham decided to scrap the National Merit requiremen/designation”, does that mean that NMSF is ignored or that it is still considered relevant but just one of several factors?
That’s true, but since OP is applying to all UC’s regardless, the prognosticating would be more for entertainment value than to actually guide OP’s process.
I would swap out Trinity for Wesleyan (not to be confused with Wellesley.) They are both in Connecticut and have the same COA, but Wesleyan has a ton of tax-supported research for its size (among the top R&D expenditures per student among LACs) as well as a hospital next-door for shadowing opportunities. The founder and ex-CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals is an active alum. Very West Coast friendly due to its film school.