Chance me for my college list! (Northwestern, WashU, Pittsburgh, Loyola University Chicago, etc.)

Chance Me / Match Me
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IM SO SORRY THIS IS VERY LONG

Would like to apply to: UCLA, northwestern, WashU, case western (pre med scholar program) , NYU, umich, Uc Irvine, university of Pittsburgh (GAP for medicine), university of Illinois at Chicago (GPPA program), Loyola university at Chicago (currently a rising senior)

Observer & Presenter | Human Memory Lab @ Illinois State University | 11th
(Presented an academic article on the effect warnings of false memory in young and old adults)
(Also read several articles on emotional expression, time based and event based prospective memory, etc.)

Intern & Research Scientist | SPARK Research Program | 11th - Present
(Basically working in a cancer biology lab part of UChicago pritzker and working on lipid droplets and testing chemo drugs for prostate cancer, may be a collaborator on an academic article, got the opportunity through my school but still needed to apply)

Volunteer at dental clinic | 8th Grade - Present
• Spent around 200+ hours for 5 consecutive school years
• Assembled dental care packages for 950+ patients
• Learned how to properly sterilize and package dental instruments for use on patients
• Set up a typical appointment room, and learned how to properly clean and dispose at the end of the day
• Observed general dentists and dental hygienists and learned about their daily responsibilities
• Updated health insurance profiles of 100+ patients
Volunteer at a Middle School | May 2019
• Spent around 6 consecutive hours working on an outdoor track
• Set up hurdles, recorded times for various track events
• Answered various questions from 10+ middle school students about track and field in high school
• Learned how to collaborate with others to organize a large scale event

EDUCATION
3.98/4.00 Unweighted GPA : 4.59/5.00 Weighted GPA
1530 SAT | 34 ACT
Activities/Clubs: National Art Honor Society, HOSA, Track & Field (may be JV next year)
Awards: 5 Time Gold Honor Recipient
Advanced Coursework: AP Physics 1, AP Human Geography, AP Spanish, AP Biology, AP Calculus BC, AP US History, AP English Language & Composition (will do AP lit, ap psych, ap chem next year)

EXTRACURRICULARS

Virtual Pre-Medicine Shadowing Hours (11th - Present)
• Accomplished via Pre-Health Shadowing, Virtual Shadowing and E-Shadowing, all of which are verified via certificates
• Shadowed more than 140 hours in total
• Watched doctors describe cases, diagnoses, and possible treatments
• Also learned about a typical day, academic pathway to that specialty, and specific procedures/technologies of that job
Volunteer for Pre-Health Shadowing (11th - Present)
• Part of the Diversity, Creative Design, and Student Mentorship teams

LEADERSHIP
Director of Outreach, Woolly Wishes (student-founded organization) (Summer before 11th - Present)
• Running social media platforms on Facebook and Instagram
• Spreading awareness for our volunteer program through personally designed flyers
Student Ambassador for Neolth (11th - Present)
• Part of the Immigrant & First Gen subcommittee
Mentor on the Medvocate Mentorship Program (11th - Present)

AWARDS
• 2nd at HOSA State in Extemporaneous Writing (11th)
â—¦ Qualified for HOSA Nationals
• Donator of sculpture to school’s permanent art collection
â—¦ Created a flat relief in art class (11th) and sold for $150
â—¦ One of ~10 selected from the entire school
HOSA State Top 10 Finalist in CPR & First Aid (11th)
HOSA State Leadership Conference Qualifier (3 consecutive years)
• Community Awareness
• Pathophysiology
• CPR & First Aid
• Extemporaneous Writing
High School Gold Scholar (5 semesters)

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I am also not sure if I should ED to northwestern or WashU, since I might be shut out of the accelerated pre med programs I want to get into. Please let me know if it would be worth to do so!

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Budget?
State of Residency?

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Why not UChicago?

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To answer your question, your list is fine because you have Pitt, CWRU, and Loyola and I believe you’d get into all. You’ve probably read that because med school is so expensive, you should keep cost down.

If money a concern, you might tap some of the public Honors Colleges - South Carolina, Arizona State, Arizona. You can get pre-med and even do research anywhere. Sometimes these programs are - I don’t want to say marketing ploys - but they could be.

You might as Rochester as a target school too.

Really it comes down to:

  1. what you can afford

  2. what you want to afford - or what your parents want to - are they prepared to pay $320K+ for four years followed by more school? Or do they want to pay $80K or $120K, etc.

So you need to run the net price calculators to see if you’ll get need based aid. If you are full pay, you have to answer #2 above.

Congrats on all you’ve accomplished.

As for Northwestern/WUSTL ED,

a) back to money - can you afford it or do you want to?

b) are you 100% sure you want to go to one

If not, you shouldn’t apply ED.

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Easy admit to Pitt. But Pitt GAP is one of the most difficult admits in the country. Likewise CRWU pre-med scholar will also be very difficult.

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I’m in illinois, and i’m fortunate enough that my parents can afford to pay for an expensive college. that being said, i’m concerned about having an expensive undergrad (nyu tuition is high to me), but i still want a quality education before i enter pre med

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considered it, but i think the undergrad focus is in humanities, and I’d like to focus on sciences. i am considering applying to their med school though after undergrad

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thank you for the advice, it’s really thorough. money (thankfully) is not a concern for my parents, so i’m basically looking to see how other aspects of campus life in those schools compare (student culture, housing, etc.)

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As for the UC’s, you will be paying $65K+, per year, as a nonresident for a public university.
If you really want to get into UC’s, then you need to have met requirement F, which a lot of out-of-state students forget about, or aren’t aware of, because they don’t read the UC websites.
Visual and Performing Arts-Requirement:
“One yearlong course of visual and performing arts chosen from the following disciplines: dance, music, theater, visual arts or interdisciplinary arts — or two one-semester courses from the same discipline is also acceptable.” This course needs to result in a grade on your transcript.

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Oh, thank you for letting me know! thankfully i’ve taken four years of visual art classes, so i don’t think that’ll be an issue

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As long as these were within the same discipline for a year, in a graded environment, then they would be accepted (ceramics for one year, photograph for one year, etc.)
A number of OOS students are rejected if this requirement has not been met.
Also, the UC’s do have humanities requirements, so you need to be aware that they expect students to do well in all subjects.

Apply, but know that they prioritize in-state residents and the conditions have recently changed to increase more resident spaces.

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Personally, I’d take UCLA and UCI off the list. Spend the money on a private school with smaller class sizes.

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I don’t understand why kids want to go to UCs as OOS. They are still public schools with large class size and most likely taught by TAs. Your in-state college will be more cost effective and you will get the same undergraduate education.

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would you say that the research opportunities and things of that nature are outweighed by the class sizes?

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I’m not sure you will get more research opportunities at UCs comparing to UIUC. You can do your own research on that though.

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I’ve heard horrible stories about UCB’s undergraduate class size, something like 1000+ students in one class.

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I haven’t heard that before, but I did hear that UCB is extremely stressful, at least for pre meds.

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I agree! We are CA-instate and felt that the class sizes/registration issues potentially was a major risk for my premed kid. We ultimately went private with merit.

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Absolutely agree with @Transfer20212025!

@redbrickroad the UC’s have very large entering freshman classes. They also have very large lecture halls (think 300-500 students).
A large amount of students enter the UC’s with the intention of becoming medical school entrants.

Every Fall and Spring, the UC’s graduate full classes of anatomy, bio, biotechnology, neurobiology, neuroscience, and science undergrads. (In my daughter’s class, there were 1000 graduates, most vying for med schools. That’s at just one UC).

Now add 7 other UC’s. (Also, consider new graduates every year.)
Now, consider the possible research opportunities in the regional environment and the competition for those limited research opportunities. Not enough and too competitive.
Most med schools only have about 100+ spaces for new entrants.
See the issues?
Yes, the UC’s are great schools, and the costs for instate residents for these high caliber schools works well. They are however, extremely competitive and impacted. Paying high non-resident fees, just doesn’t make sense if you think about what you have to pay for med school.

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