@El_2025 which UW are you talking about? Washington or Wisconsin?
I originally meant Washington, but I wouldnāt be opposed to Wisconsin.
I think University of Washington would be a reach for an OOS student. @AustenNut your thought?
Both are budget misses. Wash low target. Likely in given the major. Wisc could go either way.
I just threw out vcu - late edit on last message.
The UWs - great but neither $50k. Purdue - under $50k and large Asian but in a smaller but has everything city will work. Ohio State and UMN meet the Asian and city criteria and likely work budget wise.
Add the 3 SUNYs and maybe VCU for safety and itās a great public school list for what OP is seeking. Those 7 schools on the large public end. And Ga Tech as an 8th super reach.
Others hit or crush budget but not the Asian population.
The privates a bit tougherā¦
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What are the other schools that donāt have as many asians? Iām curious about all my options.
People are helping you come up with good options to add to your list.
As you investigate these schools, if you are interested in continuing to play the violin, research the playing options for non music majors. My son wanted to sing in college but not major in music. One of the top things he looked at in schools was the opportunity to sing. Heās at a school where he is in a 100 member menās choir, and he loves it. The school is a perfect fit for him. On most school websites you can find a list of ensembles.
Iām not an expert on music supplements, but that would be something to include with your application. It might not lead to extra merit, but if the music department is impressed, that may (or may not) give you an admissions boost.
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Yes, I am planning on submitting a music supplemental. Thank you for the advice!
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I put above - schools as low as $20k - had 3 links. Even UTK has over 1k Asians so it wonāt be hs.
I noted Brandeis with a large population of Asian but then you said 7k itās smaller.
You have BU. I think Case Western and Rochester both work as better odds than Vandy / Emory. Donāt think youāll get to budget but likely better odds than BU and certainly than the Vandy / Emory. SMU has the Presidential but also merit. The Asian pop is a bit smaller but still sizable - 578 of 7106.
@AustenNut mentioned easier to get into privates with stats b4 in her note.
I get you want a top tier school but you have great stats and when you have a budget - thatās where the stats come in - you get $$$ to attend. Thatās why some schools are $20k for you but more than double that for others.
They need you to boost the overall profile. And in reality, not all schools that have the Asian population you seek, but some privates may reward your ethnicity if they are trying to grow their Asian population.
Btw that you want a city is helpful to know. They didnāt hit budget but youād not have liked Cornell or UIUC
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My daughter is a musician who didnāt want to major in music. She reached out to the orchestra directors, music department chairs, and private instructors on her instrument. She asked about options available for those not majoring in music. They were a LOT of help!
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Pittās sticker price is about $54k (tuition and fees plus room & board). Ditto for Wisconsin. Being from rural Tennessee with good stats and not heading for business/CS/engineering, I think that OP definitely has a shot at sufficient merit aid to bring those schools into budget. A guarantee? No. But certainly a much better shot than at all the schools I classified as low probability.
U. of Washington I would probably classify as a lower probability school. Itās test blind, so OPās scores wonāt be seen. Additionally, SO many of its majors are capacity-constrained, including almost anything that is bio- or health-related. That means that even after getting in and even if OP met the prereqs, she would still be competing against other students to get into a major. And it has a sticker price of $60k. All in all, it wouldnāt be at the top of the list of schools Iād recommend.
If OP is interested in the west coast, I think that San Diego State could be a possibility. Sticker price is about $42k, so itās within budget. There are about 32k undergrads with 13% identifying as Asian (3rd highest).
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Three things come to mind when I see āmedical schoolā.
One is that most students who start off thinking āpremedā end up doing something else. There is of course a huge range of what āsomething elseā could be. Some are also medical related, such as various types of research related to biology or biochemistry or whatever. Some types of āsomething elseā are of course not medical related at all, although I suppose that even software engineering or law could be medical related (robotic surgery systems must have been programmed by someone, for example). This means that you should attend a university that is good for a range of possible other majors. However, there are of course a huge number of schools that are very good in this regard.
The second thing that comes to mind is that there are a huge number of universities that are very good for premed students (including pretty much anything that is not a specialty school such as a music conservatory or maritime academy). You do not need to attend a highly ranked school (such as Duke) to get into a very good medical school. Duke might get a higher percentage of their undergraduate students into medical school compared to UTK, but a lot of this, and some might suspect maybe even all of this, is due to the consistently strong level of freshmen who arrive as incoming students at Duke and other highly ranked schools. In terms of medical school admissions you might be better off, or at least just as well off, arriving on campus in the top 1/3 of incoming students at UTK compared to arriving in the middle 1/3 of incoming students at Duke or Emory.
The third issue is that medical school is insanely expensive. If you are thinking āmedical schoolā right now, then you need to budget for a full 8 years of university. You do not want to start on day 1 at university at a place that is so expensive that medical school is going to be tough or impossible to pay for. Even doctors do not make enough money to pay back education loans that are as large as some students take on to get through medical school.
Putting this all together, I think that your in-state public options are ones that you should take very seriously.
For each of the schools on your list, there are therefore perhaps two questions. One is how likely you are to be admitted. The other is how likely the school is to be affordable and worth the cost for someone who is trying to save $$ for medical school. My guess for BU is that admissions is likely, affordability is quite a bit less likely. The second part of this might also be true for UW assuming that āWā is either Washington or Wisconsin. Cornell seems like a reach for admissions and quite unlikely for affordability unless you qualify for need based aid.
Another thing that I could mention is that we have some experience with a variety of graduate programs, including some highly ranked ones, and know a couple of doctors. All of us have the experience that students at the programs we are familiar with come from a very wide range of undergraduate schools. What you do as an undergraduate student is going to be much more important than where you do it.
Premed classes are tough. Both daughters had majors that overlapped with premed classes and had multiple friends who were premed, and I have heard quite a bit about how tough some of these classes are. For applying to medical school you will also need quite a bit of medical experience. Both studying for premed classes and medical shadowing will take quite a bit of time. I am not sure how you are also going to find time to continue your music (or your tennis). It is possible that you might need to put these on the back burner until they call you ādoctorā.
While I am not particularly familiar with schools in the south, I am suspecting that your stats might be a bit higher than what is needed to get into your local in-state public universities. That is okay, and is in fact a very good thing. Your premed classes will be full of very strong students and will be tough. You want to be near the top in these tough classes. Coming in with high stats will help you to be well prepared to do well in these tough classes, but they will still be tough.
And to me it looks like you are doing very well.
@DadTwoGirls has given you some great advice. I also understand the desire to spread your wings and fly away for awhile, particularly if UTK doesnāt feel like itās the best fit for you.
Unless your family is planning on paying for all of your medical school expenses (about $100k/year), then saving money on college is a very wise decision.
Several of the schools I mentioned are likely to come in below UTKās cost (after their merit, but before UTKās). So you can still get many of the financial advantages of staying in-state while still being able to experience a new city elsewhere.
The schools I mentioned may not have the cachet of the Top X schools of USNWR, but theyāre all good schools where you can be well-prepared for whatever the future holds for you. You would likely be offered entrance to honors at most of the public colleges, and the Jesuit schools are very well-respected for the education they provide. All of that to say is that I would investigate the schools fully before nixing them off your list. Look at their majors, the opportunities for research, the research interests of the faculty, the living learning communities, the benefits of the honors programs, etc. When you look at the Net Price Calculator, see if it asks for your academic stats (i.e. GPA and test score). If so, it will usually indicate the minimum amount of merit you can expect. Additionally/alternatively, look at the merit aid page and see what scholarships you may qualify for.
Basically, give each school a good look. After doing so, you may be like, yep, that oneās a big no. But you may find, hey, this school actually looks really interesting. And do you know whatās super fun? A spring with lots of admits from schools that really want you and are throwing money your way in the hopes that you will choose them.
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Curious why you put Vandy and Emory at the same level. Vandy seems to be a much harder and more desired school to get into than Emory.
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In my mind, schools like Vandy, Emory, WUSTL, and Rice are in a similar vein. One could argue Vandy is more like a Chicago or Dukeā¦but itās really splitting hairs at that level.
What Emory offers is a second crack at the target - with Oxford - but OP wants 7K and city. Vandy likely has more merit opportunities at the level OP needs.
I wonāt disagree with anyone who puts Vandy as more competitive - but in some ways itās like comparing Florida and Georgia. Yeah, Florida is higher ranked and yeah, itās likely a tougher admit - but theyāre both in a similar bucket.
To me, OP can use these schools (Vandy and I might add WUSTL instead of or in addition to Emory) - as a Hail Mary type program. In many of these schools, the OPs ethnicity may work against them in regards to a top scholarship.
Back to your premise, I wonāt disagree - but I do think Vandy gives opportunity to achieve cost and even if a tougher admit, that might put it above Emory for OP (in my mind).
I think OP should think away from these schools and find a budget powerhouse or at least a school well under $50K - like a UTK or even a UTC. Or one of the SUNYs or Purdue.
btw - @El_2025 had Florida on their original list - and OP itās another public that would work for you. Gainesville is more large town than city - but has everything - Jax and Orlando arenāt far drives, itās under $50K (low 40s), and Asian is the 3rd most populous group at 11%.
Thanks
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Okā¦I donāt disagree, and you are obviously sharing a lot of opinions, nothing wrong with that. Would be helpful to know though if are you basing these on knowledge acquired through professional experience or just through helping with your childrenās application pursuits. I see you on every thread thatās why Iām curious.
Definitely opinions.
None of us are AOs.
The only thing I can say assuredly for example - is OP could go to a school like Alabama, UAH, UAB (city school with a med school) or Ms State for $20K a year-ish (some a tad less, some a tad more) because they have auto merit - meaning the OPs stats alone provide an assured level of merit - thereās no ambiguity about it.
And certain schools, like the Arizona or Iowa schools have admission minimums that OP surpassesā¦thereās many like that.
Some schools have possible scholarships - but the first group of schools are auto merit - so we know in advance what the student will receive (at a minimum) - some like Alabama, thereās a chance for more, so my daughter received auto merit of $24K but after filling out the scholarship app, it was raised to $28K. The OP will autmoatically get $28K given their GPA and test.
But really, everything is best guesses based on historical info.
I helped both my kids - and others on here and in my community.
Feel free to research what info I provide further if it would be helpful to you or you are more than welcome to completely ignore. No problem.
Ultimately, my goal is to help students on here - as I believe itās the goal of all posters (although I donāt want to speak for them).
Thanks
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For your awareness there are numerous posters on CC with professional experience in various aspects of college admissions. These include essay readers, former financial aid counselors, AOs, etc. If first hand experience is something you care about certainly worth asking.
You will also note some posters have designations as specific subject matter experts below their user names which are put there once CC vets them as valid. I would trust these members to have extensive professional experience in the areas noted.
Hope this helps.
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Thanks, it helps, although tsbna44 specifically said ānone of us are AOsāā¦
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We have MITās Chris who often joins conversations as an example.
The President of University Of Tulsa also frequently posts. Most recently he highlighted that this year Tulsa will have nationally both the highest concentration and largest number of National Merit Finalists in attendance.
Those are just a few examples off the top of my head.
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Even if they were AOsā¦the applicants from one year to the next change at every college, as do the needs of the college for accepted students.
But there are folks here with recent experience of students who have attended these colleges, have certain stats, etc. Those can be helpful data points.
I think you have gotten a good variety of feedback on this thread. Now itās up to you to figure out the rest. You are going to be fine.
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