Demographics
Nationality: US Citizen
State: North Carolina
Type of High School: Public Charter
Special Factors: FGLI (First Generation Low Income), Dependent people (My mother and sister have disabilities that I need to take care of)
Cost Constraints / Budget
Low Income: 31k earn per year, so budget is 15-20k max.
Intended Major(s)
Biochemistry or Chemistry or Biology separately
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.86
Weighted HS GPA: 4.52 (5.0 scale)
Class Rank: 16/44
ACT/SAT Scores: 1380 SAT (I’m a horrible test taker)
List your HS coursework
English: AP English Language, Honors English 3 (I believe)
Math: AP Calc BC, Honors Pre-Calculus, Math 3
Science: AP Environmental Science, Biomedical Engineering (NCSSM class), Honors Introduction to Neuroscience, Pre-AP biology and chemistry.
History and social studies: AP US History and Honors Civics
Language other than English: Spanish 2 and Spanish 1
Visual or performing arts: N/A
Other academic courses: AP Seminar and AP Research, Research Experience in Computational Science (NCSSM Class)
College Coursework (Transfer Applicants)
Dual Enrollment Classes:
Calculus 2 and 3
British Literature
General Chemistry VI and Lab
Concepts of Biology 1 and 2
Speech
General Psychology
Ideas and their Expressions I and II (English credits)
Introduction to Probability and Statistics Awards
1st Place HOSA Regionals in Medical Spelling 2021
8th Place HOSA Regionals in Medical Terminology 2024 Extracurriculars
Coach Catalyst- Currently in an internship at Wake Forest University where we conduct research studies and co-founded a club within internship to help other researchers. Originally came from a research program I was admitted to over the summer and got an award for.
President of Red Cross Club
Hospital Volunteer
HOSA competitor
Youth member of a Religious group where we engage in social service
Shadowing Orthopedic Surgeon
Paid math tutor
Unpaid internship as an editor for a newspaper to help support rural children in India by getting others interested in donating and helping the education of the rural children of India.
Civil Air Patrol Cadet Airman
Essays/LORs/Other
LORs-
1st- 8 or 9/10, One of my favorite teachers, her and I are very close and I have done well in all her classes and think she wrote a good LOR.
2nd- 8/10, Another of my favorite teachers as I have been very close with her.
Personal statement- 9/10, pretty confident in had multiple people including a person who got into Vanderbilt review it (ik that’s not a great deciding factor but after reading it I think it looks great)
If your family income is $31,000 a year, really, your family can’t afford to spend any money on college expenses. Where would that college money come from?
With that income level, you should be eligible for the maximum Pell Grant plus the federally funded Direct Loan which is $5500 for freshman year. That totals roughly $13,000 so that and any income you have from a job would probably be your annual budget for college.
Is there any public college within commuting distance from your home with a tuition cost at that $13,000 price point?
It sounds like commuting would be best for you if you need to continue to assist your other family members (and what a blessing that you are able and willing to do so).
Browns PLME program has a sub 3% acceptance rate, so while you have a lot to be proud of it is a tremendous reach.
If you were to be accepted it would likely be affordable given Brown’s generous financial aid…
“ Families with parent total income less than $60,000 and assets less than $100,000 will not be expected to make a parent contribution toward the cost of a Brown education .”
Assuming this to be an accurate statement your family would have use of the money budgeted for your college.
CWRU and Brown BS/MD programs (not really that serious but to see if I get in)
If you are not really serious about these programs…then don’t apply to them.
Anyone who is considering becoming a doctor should want to do that profession and nothing else. If you aren’t “serious” about this, then apply to college, and decide about medical school later.
No I have great interest in medicine, it’s that if I don’t into these program’s I’ll be fine as I have other colleges that I’m more interested in.
Very low chance at BS/MD programs because the acceptance rates at these programs are in the sub-5% range for everyone
Your SAT score is low is for BS/MD programs (median at Brown PLME is 1520+; median at CWRU BS/MD is 1540)
Medicine is a career filled with high stakes, future-determining standardized tests. The MCAT is the first and easiest of these tests.
During college, be sure to seek help at your college’s learning center to find out why you have difficulty with standardized exams. (Test anxiety? Lack of test-taking strategy skills? Slow reading speed? Lack of foundational knowledge in test material? Slow computation times? Poor pacing?) Once you know why you have difficulty with standardized tests, you can work on developing strategies to improve your test scores.
Also realize that med students and even pre-meds need to be selfish. Your studies need to take priority over any family responsibilities you may have.
I understand, thank you for the information. I also wanted to ask, do you think I may have a chance at Duke University? I applied test optional because of my low SAT score, do you think that I would get the same quality of education as a BS/MD if I get in but without the medical school? Please let me know, thank you.
You don’t need a BSMD to get a quality education to prep you for medical school.
You need to find an affordable, attainable college that has the pre med pre-reqs.
You have UNCC on your list as an example - that will be attainable. Affordable I don’t know.
Have you looked at less competitive meets needs schools - from a Lafayette to a Union to a Sewanee to a Franklin & Marshall and others like it? Others may be Kenyon, Occidental, Trinity, UNC, UVA, Miami (FL), etc.
You don’t need to go to Duke or to a BS/MD to get a top notch education. You can get a quality education at many schools–public and private. You can even get a quality education at a local community college.
Your educational success depends on the effort YOU put into it.
Med schools accept students from huge range of educational institutions–including students who start at community college and go on to graduate from a regional state university.
Med school admission committees really, really do not care where you go to college. Prestige is a very minor consideration and other factors are 1000X more important than where you attend for undergrad. (Like your MCAT score and sGPA.)
(You don’t need to believe me. Data on p. 15 of Using MCAT Data in Medical Student Selection shows the result of a survey of med school admission officers about what factors they considered when making decisions about who to interview and accept to med school.)
P.S. I don’t chance students because admission results are unpredictable.