LACs can be a strong option for pre-med. Rhodes in particular. Look at medical school advising and med school acceptance rates for any colleges you are considering.
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He already did shadowing last year & is expected to learn more in this coming summer. So by the time we start applying to schools, I am assuming he would be very clear on whether he wants to be an MD or choose another profession within healthcare. At this point, his interest is on MD and hence we are shortlisting the schools that are good for pre-med.
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And wisely planning a budget that covers undergrad + med school. 
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Another mid-size worth researching is Case Western. Great for premeds, with hospitals nearby.
They are known for tuition discounts, but high stat kids in particular need to demonstrate interest. They donāt like being a ābackupā choice.
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I donāt think Case will be in the budget because their COA is so high now. Best case scenario will likely still be above $50k.
Interestingly, our son was offered $100k in 2014 and showed no demonstrated interest. Not sure what did it. Maybe it was the Rensselaer Medal. I wouldnāt count on that happening now.
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Yep, and the merit programs at the schools specified by the OP are competitive and can require extra steps and levels of review: a specific supplemental essay, a priority application deadline, a special interviewā¦
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Pitt is excellent for healthcare. They offer a few, very competitive full ride scholarships. The also offer medical GAP with guaranteed admission to their med school.
The odds are slim but your son would be competitive. S20ās HS classmate went this route. He was a 4.0/1600/NMF type student. Apply early.
Is your son NMSF?
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Thank you. NMSF means National merit scholar Finalist?
With his PSAT score of 1510, we think he may become the finalist but we will not know until the senior year.
Thatās fantastic! This thread may be of interest.
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I would take a look at Pitt and Alabama. With some merit it is possible that Pitt will be at your price point. Alabama has a program for premeds that gets posted often and he would qualify for significant merit.
SUNY Binghamton is just over $50,000 right now for OOS students, but they typically give merit to OOS kids.
Lehigh has competitive merit as does Wake Forest. UDel would likely give merit.
The competitive schools mentioned in the above post have highly competitive merit awards. Itās fine to apply, but I would keep my expectations in check as the scholarships are extremely competitive.
Congrats to your son on his accomplishments!
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A couple āforum favoriteā LACs are quite strong for Life Sciences and pre-med, and are forum favorites in part because they can have generous merit for high numbers kidsāSt Olaf and Kalamazoo. Both claim well above average med school acceptance rates, and although that is a fuzzy number, it would probably be even better if you could isolate the people really good at standardized tests.
Again, some people might not consider these preferable to a quality public, but if your kid is looking for a realistic possibility of a cost within budget, and a college experience that will be very different (in potentially good or indeed great ways), these are a couple to consider.
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Thank you so much!
Of course, Pittsburgh medical school is probably about $45k more per year than in-state public Texas medical schools (which are relatively low cost compared to most other medical schools).
True, but a student whoās selected for med GAP at Pitt is probably a Nordenberg or Chancellorās scholar with a full ride, honors AND guaranteed admission to a very good med school. Not a bad proposition.
Plus I donāt think he would be required to attend Pitt med school. Kids change their mind. Take the free ride at Pitt. Do research. Shadow and then go back to Texas for med school.
The best thing you can do is go to each school and use their Net Price Calculator. This would give you a fairly good idea of how much financial aid the private schools might offer.
Regarding BSMD programsā¦just DONāT. Very few āpremedā hopeful students coming out of high school actually go to medical school. College is a time to explore passions, and chances are, heāll change his major more than once. Never choose a school based on āpremedā out of high school.
As far as public schools, thereās no need to go out of state and pay 3x the tuitionā¦unless he has a big scholarship from one of them, which is rare from out of state public schools. You canāt go wrong if you live in Texas. There are lots of options. He should easily be able to get into UT-Austin or Texas A&M. I personally would recommend A&M because theyāre more flexible with changes in major, and heās an auto-admit for that school, meaning heāll get a higher consideration for his choice of major.
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All those schools provide merit aid but itās very difficult.
If you have a school (and you will in state) that will get you to your price point and youād be happy to attend, the rest of your list doesnāt matter.
So the 5 privates you mentioned work - but know if you donāt qualify for aid, even if you get in, you are unlikely going - but itās not impossible. But to hit your price point, youād have other āsolidā schools with more reliable merit. Are you a National Merit Scholar by chance?
For that, thereās great schools from Alabama (who has the most and is near 60% OOS with more than 1K kids from Texas), Tulsa (the highest concentration), UTD, Maine, Texas Tech, Florida State, and more. While you have a budget, please plan for 8 years, not four - so perhaps going down in stature will help fund med school (unless you have that planned). Look where your doctors went - I did at our practice the other day - schools like Missouri Southern, Lipscomb and other lesser pedigree schools - sure the creme de la creme are great - but not the only way.
One interesting thing about Alabama in addition to a killer scholarship is they have the Mccllough pre medical scholars. Tulsa, btw, is a full ride - and as you know historically was a sub for Rice and SMU - very good school and they report 25%+ of students are national merit - so smart kids abound.
Schools that many on here apply to - Pitt, CWRU, Rochester and more are unlikely cost wise but not impossible - and really - so many great publis are out there - but you have great ones in Texas so donāt need them.
Bama National Merit Finalist:
- Value of tuition for up to five years or 10 semesters for degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate or law studies
- Four years of undergraduate on-campus housing at regular room rate* (based on assignment by Housing and Residential Communities)
- $3,500 per year undergraduate supplemental scholarship for four years**
- $2,000 one-time allowance for use in research or international study (after completing one year of study at UA)
- $500 per year Supe Store book scholarship for four years
McCollough Scholars ā Pre-Medical Studies at the University of Alabama (ua.edu)
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Has your son visited any college campuses yet? If so, has he discovered any preferences?
For instance, UT ā Austin, UT ā Dallas, and Texas A&M are all in-state colleges, but will have very different feels. Has he visited a smaller school? Depending on where in Texas youāre located, Southwestern (outside of Austin), Trinity (in San Antonio), or Rice (in Houston) would give you a sense of small, small to medium, and medium sized schools. Visits to Southern Methodist or Texas Christian would get you the feel of mid-size to large (whereas UT and A&M are definitely in the super-extra-large category).
So getting a sense of preference in terms of size of school, urban/suburban/small town/rural, the importance of intercollegiate athletic enthusiasm, Greek life, the vibe on campus, particular interests he wants to pursue, etc, can all help in providing suggestions of schools that might be a fit AND that offer big merit.
When chancing students, I usually use categories like this
-
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
-
Likely (60-79%)
-
Toss-Up (40-59%)
-
Lower Probability (20-39%)
-
Low Probability (less than 20%)
In terms of finding big merit aid awards, you have now inspired me to find another classification system. A system like this might help your family to gauge how it wants to craft the college application list in terms of trying to suss out the likelihood of a school coming back with a favorable result.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
- Schools that list big award packages for National Merit Finalists or otherwise list a big package for a student like your son. Examples include U. of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, U. of Tulsa, U. of Alabama, Washington State, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and others.
Low Probability (likely or extremely likely admit that has a selective number of big merit scholarships)
- Creighton (NE)
Very Low Probability (toss-up or lower probability school with very few big merit awards, or a more selective school with a higher percentage of students getting a big merit award)
-
Furman
-
Southern Methodist
-
Washington & Lee (VA)
Really Very Low Probability (lower probability of admission and then extremely competitive to get a big merit award)
-
U. of Richmond
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Wake Forest
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William & Mary
Extremely Low Probability (low probability to get into the school, and then extremely competitive to get a big merit award)
-
Davidson
-
Duke
-
Emory
-
Johns Hopkins
-
UNC
-
UVA
-
Vanderbilt
-
WashU
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Thank you. This is really helpful.
Based on all these comments, Texas schools are the best bet for us and we should focus more on them.
Regarding the college visits, yes we visited Rice, UT Austin and A&M. He liked Rice followed by UT Austin.
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Then you need schools that give a lot of merit. Alabama, Arizona, U of New Mexico, Miami Ohio should all come in within budget.
Is your son a national merit semifinalist?
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Vandy has some highly competitive merit aid.