Define better for medical or in your case pre med ?
Sounds like better is cheaper.
Some school, like Alabama with McCullough Pre med Scholars or FSU with its healthcare LLC might have special programs.
Otherwise you can take your pre med stuff anywhere. I was just treated at a top academic hospital. I looked at all the resident bios for radiation. Mostly #50-200 ranked plus several directionals and others I’ve not heard of.
I don’t know anyone who checks where their doctor went. They check who accepts their insurance.
You need schooling - any is better than debt. So if VT is affordable, it’s great.
Ps - VT has shadowing right on campus. That sounds GREAT to me!!
As I understand, VT has good pre-med/health career advising. What they don’t do is meet full financial need, although I entered a sample very low income scenario in the npc and they seem to offer fairly substantial need aid that is basically a full tuition (not full ride) grant. Worst case scenario, it would be doable with a good summer job and max fed student loans.
I am very familiar with the Jefferson selection process. Both my kids went through it. It is super competitive and has 2 rounds of interviews before even becoming a finalist. Walenta scholars are not in this pool but the process is the same. While not assured admission it is a good sign you were selected. W&M also has some scholarship programs
Not saying this will happen with your credentials but there are students who are selected to interview for the Jefferson Scholarship and don’t gain admission to UVA.
Extremely prestigious and great feather in your cap going forward
Yes this is true. Just trying to let OP know that the selection process is not a sure thing it is quite competitive. It is true that a few do not get in. This is because high schools usually nominate kids as candidates for this scholarship program. But it does mean that since you got selected to interview your application is competitive to get in.
MEDS-E targets freshmen, sophomore and junior undergraduates at Virginia Tech students who are members of groups Underrepresented in Medicine and are planning careers in medicine and research. A primary goal of MEDS-E is to expand the students’ network and increase their awareness of opportunities in the health professions, with a specific focus becoming a physician.
A partnership with three Virginia Tech Living Learning Communities (LLCs): Ujima, GenerationOne and Orion. This program provides experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate students interested in healthcare living in the partner LLCs.
A collaboration with HBCU’s that identifies and provides resources to prepare students underrepresented in medicine for undergraduate medical education.
Each year, VTCSOM accepts three students to an Early Identification Program that provides an intensive, paid medical school preparation during two summer sessions. Completing both summers of enrichment and maintaining all program requirements can help a participant become a competitive applicant to medical school.
How do you plan to prepare for the Jefferson/Walentas scholarship interview ? (What is your preparation goal / objective ?)
Interview preparation is tougher than one may think. I know of a few highly intelligent, accomplished professionals who failed simple & direct one question interviews due to either a lack of articulation skills or to a lack of common sense.
Curious as to why you did not apply for a full-ride Johnson Scholarship at Washington & Lee University in light of the fact that you applied to several LACs among the 51 targeted schools.
P.S. In answer to your chance-me for Top 20s schools, I cannot answer your question because I do not know how you presented your qualifications and interests in your application. Nevertheless, I do think that you will be offered admission to at least a dozen of the 51 colleges and universities to which you applied. I am looking forward to your response regarding interview preparation methods/goals/objectives.
Congratulations on all of your accomplishments in high school that has helped to make you a competitive candidate for a number of colleges! Becoming a QuestBridge finalist speaks really well of you, even if you didn’t match.
You have applied to an astounding number of schools. That takes a lot of stamina! How much did you customize your applications for each school, particularly the schools I classified as low probability? For many of those schools, the essays play an important role and they look to see that a student aligns with their values and priorities (and these colleges don’t all have the same ones).
Below are my guesses as to what your chances for admission might be, acknowledging that I am basing these guesses on limited information. Additionally, understand that the low probability category does not mean no probability. These are schools that receive far more applications from strong applicants than they can accept, so the vast majority of strong applicants are denied or waitlisted.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
Virginia Commonwealth
Likely (60-79%)
George Washington – if you showed demonstrated interest
Northeastern – but probably not starting at the Boston campus
U. of Maryland
U. of Pittsburgh – depends on when you submitted your application…the earlier the likelier
U. of Rochester
Virginia Tech
Toss-Up (40-59%)
Case Western – if you showed demonstrated interest. Your FGLI background with music could be very attractive to them.
William & Mary
Lower Probability (20-39%)
Boston College - QB
Boston U. – QB
Grinnell – QB
UVA: Could also see this as a toss-up
Low Probability (less than 20%)
Brown (less likely due to not matching)
Cal Tech
Carnegie Mellon
Claremont McKenna
Colby
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke – QB
Emory
Georgetown
Georgia Tech
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
MIT
Northwestern
Pomona
Princeton – QB
Rice
Stanford (less likely due to not matching)
Swarthmore
U. of Chicago
U. of North Carolina
U. of Notre Dame
U. of Pennsylvania – QB
U. of Southern California
Vanderbilt
WashU
Yale (less likely due to not matching)
Not Chancing as there is virtually no path to affordability
Florida State
Penn State
Rutgers
U. of Hawaii
U. of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign
UC Berkeley
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UC Los Angeles
UC San Diego
UC Santa Barbara
The schools that you applied to via QuestBridge might have slightly better odds than the lower probability schools that you did not apply to via QB, as QB apps can often get an extra look and/or might be pulled earlier if an admissions team is looking for someone with your profile, as QB has done a significant amount of vetting already. Did you indicate on your non-QB applications that you were a QB finalist?
My concern, like others, is about which schools will end up being affordable for you.
It’s great that you ran the NPC on ten schools. But “the top 10” schools are probably the most generous in defining need. As an example, here are the net prices (pulled from College Navigator, the feds’ website) for families at three different income levels at three of the schools on your list:
School
Net Price for incomes of $0-30k
Net Price for incomes of #0-48k
Net Price for incomes of $48-75k
Boston University
$11,453
$11,167
$13,639
Carnegie Mellon
$8,460
$12,600
$17,534
Harvard
$2,895
$2,496
$2,167
As you can see, they’re quite different. Are there any schools that you are within commuting distance of (as in, you could live at home and commute to college)? Depending on the school, that may end up being a financial safety.
Just to clarify for other readers (because the OP has enough colleges!) Washington and Lee is both need blind for admissions, as well as meeting full need with no loans. As someone who qualified for Questbridge I am pretty sure the OP would have gotten a full ride without the Johnson Scholarship.
I had to get interviewed for to be nominated at my school since I got nominated at my Magnet School, and not my poorer High School, which was super competitive (Think Thomas Jefferson HSST type of competition). I went in there with zero plan and was able to answer their questions extremely well.
Now I understand, this upcoming interview is high stakes, and in the upcoming weeks just intend to go over my full character, understand who I am and what i want to represent, do some mock interviews with my Nursing Teacher (UVA Alum) and go over basic questions.
I know its cliche but although I have some merit to my name, I know how to speak and know how to do an interview for sure.
As for Washington and Lee, I applied too late!
As for chance me; word for word, bar for bar that’s what I put on my application. But my essays and supplementals were superior, and I spent a lot of time revising and reviewing.
Yes, it is in my application for both Common App and Coalition that I was a QB Finalist.
About 70 in total, since I was mostly unsure about aid at the end of the day.
I can say for one school, especially for Dartmouth, I emphasized my love for snowsports and all things outdoors, and how I was a long time cinematographer hoping to do films on snow at Dartmouth’s ski complex
George Mason is the only university that I could potentially travel to, but at that point, I would rather head to CC and transfer
No - my question is - how do you define “better” - because cheap and can get me to med school - in and of itself - is the best.
And as I showed you above - Va Tech has shadowing on campus - so how do you get better than that?
My point was - and they’re not on your list - but schools like Bama and FSU have special pre-med type cohorts - which don’t necessarily give you better pre-med odds.
But Va Tech - or anywhere you can go affordably and take pre-med classes - is a FANTASTIC school.
I’m telling you not to minimize whatever option you get - it will be great - and most especially Va Tech.
Thankfully Virginia has a great system set up to help transfer classes from CC to its state colleges, and Virginia has some of the best public colleges in the country. Hopefully you will have additional affordable options, but you have this as a floor for affordability.
You might want to start running the NPCs for the schools in the 20+% chance of acceptance, excluding the out-of-state publics to see which, if any, come back as affordable.
@Publisher I would ask if this comes with any advice or is it just a declarative statement of opinion?
OP your accomplishments are impressive. The formatting of the presentation of these achievements is highly unlikely to determine your outcomes in my opinion. Stay confident and strong in what you have submitted.
There are at least two rounds of interviews before you become a finalist for the Jefferson in the MD/VA area filled with super competitive kids. So to prep I think seeing if you can find someone who has been through the interviews to give you insight. It is all about leadership, citizenship and scholarship. Think of concrete examples of what you have done that help you stand out in these areas. One of my kids received Jefferson but went to a HYP instead. The other got the Johnson at W & L.