College selection help please! [TX resident, 3.97 GPA, top 10%, 1580 SAT, <$40-50k, pre-med]

College Search & Lists
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I’m glad you found it helpful but that was just a system I created…but others may disagree with it! I would probably wait to hear if others have a different perspective.

Earlier you indicated that your family was willing to spend $40-50k, and that you were anticipating Texas schools to be $35k or less. If you’re only willing to pay $40-50k if it’s a school like Emory, Johns Hopkins, WashU, etc, then I think you are right.

If you’re open to other schools that would be $35k or less (or $40-50k or less) that don’t have quite the same degree of cachet (but that still provide an excellent education and good results), then there are certainly many other schools that the board can recommend.

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He has auto admission to UT Dallas and Texas A&M. Why not visit those first, and then only pursue others if he clearly prefers them?
I see you have been to college station already

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Yes. Auto admit to UT is a huge leg up. Enormous. It’s really an elite level school. With that being affordable and guaranteed, you are freed up to take some big swings at “fancy” schools that offer serious merit aid, even if it’s hard to get. Knowing that you can pick a few you really like and carefully tailor your apps, without having to worry about developing a roster of safeties, is a great position to be in.

And at the end of the day Texas might be first choice anyway. It’s a great school.

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Rhodes also admits a lot of kids from Texas – especially those who are shut out of the automatic admits at UT-Austin and others.

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UT Austin is definitely an elite level school & my son would get auto admit into it. However, there are two caveats though:

  1. Getting into the major that he wants is always a known challenge at UT
  2. UT is great for Engineering majors but have not heard much about in the Biology/premed space. It’s world-class in Chemistry though
46

He is top 6%?

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As of now, yes.
Fingers crossed after junior year grades!
Safe to assume top 10% for sure.

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The percentage of students who receive non-need merit awards and the average awards for those schools are as follows:

Duke: 4%/$74k
Emory: 9%/$28k
Johns Hopkins: 16%/$24k
Vanderbilt: 21%/$26k
WashU: 4%/$29k

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Also consider the Med School acceptance rate data:

UT and Texas public schools: 45%-50%

Vanderbilt: 74%

WashU: 76%

For Vandy and WashU, those are first-time application acceptance rates. If you factor in re-applications, the acceptances rates jump into the mid-high 80% range. If you examine the WashU data, it includes student with GPAs as low as the 2.3 to 2.79 range getting into Med School.

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My guess is merit at Duke is going the way of the dinosaurs? Latest trends?

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Data is for the Class of 2026 so relatively recent. My guess is that they are trying to attract a few choice students from HYPSM, a path they may wish to continue.

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But it’s decided after matriculation, so seems to be less for recruiting?

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The Robertson full ride merit is definitely to attract top students. It’s highly competitive, which the data posted above demonstrates (Duke: 4%/$74k). It is awarded in late March.

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I think most, if not all, of these scholarships are offered before the matriculation decision. All of my kid’s merit scholarship offers were definitely extended to them before they decided.

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