Any suggests for colleges to apply to? I’m interested in genetics/biology.
Gender: F
College Class Year: 2020
High School: Public
High School Type: rarely sends grads to top schools
Academics:
GPA - Unweighted: 3.96
GPA - Weighted: 4.12
Class Rank: 1
Class Size: 120
Scores:
SAT I Math: 640
SAT I Critical Reading: 770
SAT I Writing: 770
ACT: 33
Extracurriculars:
Significant Extracurriculars: FFA, 4-H, Spanish Honors Society, CSF, Public Speaking Competitions, speech and debate teams
Leadership positions: Secretary, Treasurer and Presidencies in various clubs, Camp Director
Athletic Status - list sport and your level: Soccer ~ Varsity four years
Track JV one year, Varsity two years
Volunteer/Service Work: Taught swimming lessons for underprivleged youth,
Honors and Awards: State Finalist in three separate public speaking contests, numerous county and regional speaking victories, Coach’s Award in Track, State FFA degree, 4-H All Star, potential valedictorian
College Summer programs: University of Montana Schwanke Honors Institute
I would come East. I assume you are from Montana?
Actually, I’m from Californnia.
How much can you and your parents afford? Are you in need of financial aid and/or merit aid? Since you are in-state CA, look at UCI/UCD/UCB and UCLA. With Genetics/Bio, you can look into Molecular and Cell Biology in addition to specific Genetics majors. UCD has many majors that would encompass both Bio and Genetics:
https://admissions.ucdavis.edu/majors/major_view.cfm?major=bgen
Here is a list of majors in the College of Biological Sciences:
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Biological Sciences
Cell Biology
Evolution, Ecology and Biodiversity
Genetics and Genomics
Marine and Coastal Science - Marine Ecology and Organismal Biology
Microbiology
Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior
Plant Biology
Undeclared – Life Sciences
I just looked up two lists: “best colleges for genetics” and “best colleges for biology” and found lists on USNews. Here are the results:
Genetics:
1 (Tie): Harvard University and Stanford University
3 (Tie): University of California—Berkeley and University of Washington
5: Washington University in St. Louis
6: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Biology:
1 (Tie) :Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University
4: University of California—Berkeley
5 (Tie): California Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University
7 (Tie): University of California—San Francisco and Yale University
9 (Tie): Princeton University and Scripps Research Institute
11 (Tie): Cornell University, Duke University, and Washington University in St. Louis
So take that as you will, really. My best suggestions are to make sure you have a variety of reach, match, and safety schools. Also make sure to research each school to see if you would be willing to go there. Good luck with your search!
Thanks for responding. My parents can spend 40k per year. What colleges back east would you recommend?
Colleges in the West:
Stanford
UC Berkeley
California Institute of Technology
UC San Francisco
Scripps Research Institute
Washington University in St. Louis (well, Missouri is more middle of the country than in the west).
Duke is in the southeast, but any more “eastern” colleges leaves you with Harvard, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, and Duke.
Here are the total costs for colleges w/o any financial aid, living on campus:
Princeton: $61,850
MIT: $63,250
Cornell: $65,494
Yale: $65,725
Johns Hopkins: $66,646
Duke: $67,399
Harvard: $69,900
Keep in mind that all of these colleges are the “top” colleges/Ivy League colleges, which means they are all high match/reach for EVERYONE who applies, no matter how great you are. (We actually have a lot of similarities in our stats, kinda weird.)
Keep in mind Gumbymom’s mentioning of applying to the UC’s. You really shoudn’t just apply to top-tier schools, and you have a better chance applying to state schools in your home state than in other states. If you want to find other colleges that are within your reach (along with other specifications like major, cost, etc.), try using places like College Board’s College Search or even Collegeboard’s SuperMatch.
Bear in mind, however, that you’ll need to submit 2 SAT II scores for most top schools.
As you’re considering genetics/bio, consider the bio SAT II. And I see that you’re in the Spanish honor society, so maybe that’s your second SAT II.
Try to get your math SAT I as close to 700 as you can.
UC San Francisco is a graduate school so no undergrads accepted. The school rankings from USNews for best bio/best genetics schools are for graduate level rankings, not for undergrad since UCSF is on the list.