Chance me for Pre-med reaches| 22 schools, 1480 superscore, 4.0 unweighted | Deferred Brown [RI resident, need significant FA]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • US citizen
  • State/Location of residency: Rhode Island
  • Type of high school: Public, ~300
  • Other special factors: Male, Not first gen, however father did not go past middle school (first gen on his side). Hispanic on father’s side.

Cost Constraints / Budget

  • Family income this year was 80k, I’ve applied for financial aid at every college I applied to

Intended Major(s): Biochemistry at most schools, premed with goal of med-school.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.16/4.3, this is a 4.0 unweighted as the rest is the difference between A and A+.*
  • Weighted HS GPA: No weighting system, some calculators estimated 4.6 or so
  • Class Rank: N/A
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1450 (750 RW, 700M), 1450 (720R, 730M) = 1480 superscore
    I wasn’t practicing for the SAT until schools announced requirement my junior year, unfortunate but I’m proud of my improvement.

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: American Lit, AP Lang, AP Lit, Language and Literature
  • Math: Alg 1, Alg 2, Geometry, Pre-calc
  • Science: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, AP Biology, Anatomy and Phys
  • History and social studies: US History, World History, AP Macro, AP Psych
  • Language other than English: Spanish 3
  • Visual or performing arts: Chorus + Woodshop
  • Other academic courses: AP CSP, Python

Awards
AP Scholar
All-state Esports

Extracurriculars
Work: Production manager for 2 years at local shop. Negotiated pay raise, train staff. 20hr per week

Club Sport: Senior leader for varsity eSports team. Led team through tournaments, awarded all-state, grew to largest club. All 4 years

Sport: Tennis, began playing tennis junior year as JV, I play roughly 14hrs a week now and love it, hoping to try for varsity this year.

Summer: I was part of a cohort of students last summer at the Warren Alpert Medical school. This program was free, application required/selective, and meant for underrepresented students in medicine. 2 weeks long

Volunteering: I was an aid to a former paralympic athlete for three years, I helped assist with training, pacing, and safety guiding. 3 hrs a week, 25 weeks a year.

Volunteering: I shadowed an acupuncturist, checked patients in at the desk, prepped and cleaned beds, furthered my interest in medicine

Club: Hosa member for two years, participated in exams and first aid events, helped obtain materials for suturing and first aid practice.

Research: Independent research on biology topic that interested me, 3 hrs a week for 10 weeks.

I was a participant in a marine biology conference at mystic aquarium, I attended lectures on animal behavioral training and marine biology; furthered interest in research on biodiversity and protecting coastal habitats.

Essays/LORs/Other
LOR from AP Lang teacher. We had a great relationship and he is an excellent writer, I assume this was a strong LOR.

LOR from physics teacher, similarly we had a great relationship. I assume his writing won’t be as in depth as my AP lang teacher, but still solid.

LOR from counselor, she’s on top of things and I provided her with an in depth resume.

LOR from med student at Brown, mentor last summer and we had a great relationship.

Schools applied to
Brown ED > Deferred
Northeastern EA > Defered
Wheaton MA EA > Accepted
UMass Amherst EA > Accepted
Boston University
Duke University
CMU
Colby College
Lehigh
Swarthmore
Tufts
URochester
Wesleyan
Williams
Amherst
Cornell
UPenn
UCLA
UC Berkeley
Princeton
Harvard
UMich

Unfortunately my AP’s and SAT are definitely sub-par, I had some pretty serious mental health issues from middle school into sophomore year that left me without purpose and stopped me from being on a path towards honors and lacked rigor as a result, I explained this in my additional info section.

2

Congratulations on your acceptances. I hope they will be affordable.

The remaining schools on your list…most are reaches as you know.

You can take the required courses for medical school applications at just about every four year college in this country, arts conservatories excluded.

Why isn’t URI on your list as a possibly an affordable option?

It’s possible you will get accepted at one of the colleges that meet full need on your list…but they are reaches.

Have you done the Net Price Calculators for these colleges to see if they will be affordable for your family?

Berkeley and UCLA will be $75000 a year or more. They don’t provide financial aid to out of state students. How would you be able to pay for these college if your family income is $80,000 a year. That just won’t work.

3 Likes
3

Thank you!

And yes UCLA and UCB are probably not the best ideas in the slightest. I applied to them as my dad really wanted to be a part of the college process (he was a homeless teen on the streets of LA and never got the school experience). I don’t think I’ll be able to attend either or should, but I applied to them mostly for him.

Our income should be higher in the coming years, my mom makes more than 80k, however my father lost his business in the past few years and the debt has decreased our tax bracket and income to 80k.

URI was originally going to be on my list, I toured and was relatively fond of the campus, however I was accepted to Wheaton ( with great scholarships yay! ), and prefer the size and location to URI.

Thank you for taking the time to reply!

1 Like
4

Would Wheaton be affordable and less expensive than URI’s net price calculator suggests?

5

Yes I believe with the scholarships provided it was less than URI.

2 Likes
6

Between admissibility and affordability, I don’t think any more come through. If any, Lehigh and/or Rochester.

Your 1480 SAT is excellent (not subpar) and well within range of many.

Your math at pre calc is a hinderance to me. And some like Michigan won’t be affordable even if you get in.

You can be pre med anywhere. And you have fine admits.

Be proud.

Good luck.

Ps Wheaton may be less than URI but is it affordable ??

7

Does your school have any history with the colleges you are waiting on? If so, where do you fall in terms of class rank? Although your school does not rank, generally, how do you fall with regards to the other students in your school?

Looking at your schools, I agree, it will be unlikely at all the schools, but there’s a definite chance at Lehigh and/or Rochester.

The others are so extremely difficult, expensive (UCs), and unlikely. However, if your school admits 10 students a year historically at Brown and you’re in the top 5….then you might have a chance.

One other possibility could be NUin for NEU. That’s possible since they do not consider that as part of their acceptance rate. But the cost will be probably over $90K.

8

That’s great.

Is UMass affordable also?

9

Am I the only one who looks at the Brown deferral as a good sign that a possible NESCAC (Wesleyan, Amherst, Williams) nod could be in the offing? I’m thinking at least a waitlist. They all have heavy investments in STEM and, at least at the top ones, those departments don’t appear to be impacted. Admission to any one of them would be a probable financial safety, IMO.

2 Likes
10

Your academics are fine.

I have a daughter who is studying for a DVM. She is very solidly on track to be a doctor in May (in three months). Admittedly her patients will be large animals. However, the process is similar to the process of becoming a doctor for humans, and the difficulty of getting accepted to an MD or DO program is similar to the difficulty of getting accepted to a DVM program. The required undergraduate classes are the exact same classes. Her SAT was very good, and was only slightly lower than yours. The same is true of her high school GPA. I think that she had about the same number of APs that you have (if I have remembered correctly).

I also note that you have taken AP biology, and have taken a high school course in both physics and chemistry, and up through pre-calculus. All of these will be helpful. Speaking some Spanish is also helpful for someone going into health care. Speaking Spanish close to fluently would be helpful if you can get there (although this is of course not necessary).

I have said a few times that my daughter’s academics were strong, but it was her determination and experience in a relevant (veterinary in her case) environment that got her accepted to multiple very good programs, and that has so far has gotten her through the program that she is currently in.

Your academics are fine. Finding the determination to make it through 8 years of university, and finding a way to pay for it, are going to be the two main challenges.

You need to keep the cost down for your bachelor’s degree. If it is possible then you should avoid debt, or at least keep your level of debt down to the federal government subsidized level (which I think might be $5,500 for your first year of university).

I was wondering why URI was not on your list. Wheaton is also a very good choice for a premed student. If you costs are the same then it would just come down to which school you feel would be a better fit for you, and I guess that you decided Wheaton is the answer to this question. I just took a very quick look at the premed program at Wheaton and it looks solid to me.

I do not think that I would go anywhere that is more expensive compared to Wheaton, unless you can do this with no debt. You should find out pretty soon whether you will get other equally affordable options.

My other daughter (the one is is getting a PhD in a biomedical field, rather than a DVM) attended a small university for her bachelor’s degree. One thing that she mentioned was that she had small classes and got to know her professors. This can be quite helpful in multiple ways. In her case it helped her get research opportunities. Of course the same advantages of small classes will be true at Wheaton. I would expect this might also help you get other types of opportunities (possibly including premed shadowing opportunities).

You have a very long list of schools that you have applied to. I expect that you will get some other acceptances. Most likely you will get some acceptances that are just not affordable. If you get an acceptance that is not affordable, then just say NO and do not be tempted to go there. Wheaton or U.Mass can prepare you very well for medical school, or for a PhD in a biomedical field, or for a wide range of other careers.

Premed classes will be tough at any school on your list. Some classes will be tougher than others, but which classes you find toughest might be different compared to some other student. As one example, my daughter who is getting a DVM found organic chemistry to be quite tough, but breezed though calculus and physics and considered them to be solid A’s to help offset the B and the B- in organic chemistry. Some other student might be the other way around. A different student might breeze though organic chemistry and find biochem to be tough.

At any school on your list, these premed classes will be full of very strong students. It is not clear that coming into Harvard or Princeton in the middle or bottom half of the incoming students will improve your chances at all compared to arriving at Wheaton or U.Mass coming in as a student in the top half of the incoming class, and you will need to work very hard to stay in the top half.

The students in very good MD programs, and DO programs, and biomedical PhD programs, come from a very wide range of undergraduate universities. You can do very well with a degree from any university on your list. You should plan to work very hard in university and make a very strong effort to stay well ahead in every class. Choose a school that is affordable and that is a good fit for you, and do not pay any attention to rankings or “prestige”. Rankings and prestige will not get you accepted to MD programs nor to any other graduate programs. Doing very well at a school that is a good fit for you will help you get accepted to good MD or graduate programs, and picking an affordable university to attend will help you to be able to afford to pay for all of this.

Best wishes.

2 Likes
11

Thank you for your reply,

Yes I’m definitely proud of my SAT! I wasn’t prepared for it at all but I really studied hard as soon as some schools announced test-required! It’s just difficult seeing students who’ve been prepped all 4 years with 1590’s, but I shouldn’t let that make my efforts seem less than!

Only going up to pre-calc definitely doesn’t feel good, I wasn’t really ever “ahead of track” in middle school and never doubled up on math, thus I’m in pre-calc. It’s a shame too because besides raw sciences, I really seem to do okay in math.

I guess I dont really understand the distinction between affordable and “less than”. The package Wheaton offered me left it to around 10-12k per year.

Thank you once again for taking the time to write a thoughful reply!

12

I was accepted EA and don’t believe I’ve recieved my AID package yet, however I did recieve 18k per/year which I believe is the most that scholarship scaled up to.

I enjoyed the campus but I’ve been hearing some not so good things about the safety at umass, I’ll likely have to tour again and do some serious thinking. But unless the aid package is good I don’t believe the price would be best for me.

13

Your math is fine - it’s right on point for 12th grade - but maybe not for the other higher level schools. You’ve done as you should.

And very few kids get a 1590. And I can’t imagine you know any or more than one.

If Wheaton is $12,000 - and your parents can afford to make that payment each year, then it’s affordable.

You noted you got merit - but let’s say it brought it to $30K and they can only afford $20K, then it wouldn’t be affordable and you’d need to find others. You just mentioned merit but not affordability - but it sounds like it is.

So sounds like Wheaton is a home run!! Congrats - and if that’s where you end up, it’s great and best of luck.

1 Like
14

Thank you for your reply,

The Brown deferral definitely gives me a little bit of hope for the NESCAC schools, as I feel they share similar values/structure (exactly why i love them all!). I’d be very happy at any of the NESCAC schools I applied to and hope it works out.

Thank you once again for your thoughtful reply!

2 Likes
15

Yes, my counselor provided a website which lists the statistics of acceptances in our school, and it seems that lots of kids from my school are accepted and attend each year to these schools.

I’m not entirely sure where I would fall in class rank; I know other students who similarly have good grades, but many of them have very similar profiles to eachother which makes me wonder if they might not all be accepted to the same school (if that makes sense I’m not sure how to word it).

Thank you for your reply!

1 Like
16

Wow, what a thoughtful and detailed reply, thank you!

I’m definitely going to try and minimize my debt so I’m able to pursue MD programs. It’s been difficult to not fall for the prestige trap, but as I’m maturing in this process I realize that I can excel regardless of prestige.

Also I’ve just learned I can quote reply and @ people in a single post, apologies for spamming the thread with individual replies.

4 Likes
17

I also thought the deferral from Brown is a good sign. My son was rejected from Williams ED and got into a bunch of nescacs in the regular round and will attend Colby. Best of luck to you in the next round of admissions decisions. He really enjoyed attending accepted students days and it helped him make his decision where to attend.

2 Likes
18

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. If you’d like to reply, please flag the thread for moderator attention.