If you’re an unmarried undergraduate under the age of 24 and your parent(s) are not California residents, you must be able to verify financial independence for one full year immediately preceding the term you wish to enroll. Graduate students are presumed to be financially independent.
If you are thinking this will make you instate for tuition purposes, you are wrong. Your whole family would need to relocate to CA. As an undergrad and not an independent student (you are not an independent student), your permanent residence is where your parents reside and that is NOT CA.
While you are in the brainstorming/add to mailing list stage, you are above profile for Wofford and Furman. Both have strong pre-med, similar weather as Emory, and there are a dozen direct flights a day between GSP and ORD.
You are likely to get lots of merit.
(Colleges with Acceptance Rates Above 20% & Strong Pre-Med Programs)
Hey y’all! Hope it’s going well. Lately (which has only been for a little bit but anyway), I’ve been having some interest in going to an LAC which may totally different than attending a huge public or private. I think smaller class sizes might be good so professors are more likely to know you better and of course, other small factors also contribute to this newly sparked interest. Anyway, if any of you have any not so pricey suggestions, I’d appreciate that so much !! Currently looking and might learn more about Wofford, Bates, Macalester, Juniata, Occidental, and Davidson.
Be sure to check out nearby Elmhurst University and Wheaton College. Both smaller colleges with good academics that are closer to home for you.
There’s tons of LACs and so many at different price levels. Again the NPC will be your friend but lower ranked will = more merit - typically.
So a Davidson is a reach and likely will lack merit but meet need.
A Juniata will throw money at you but will it be enough ??
Has your family done the Northwestern NPC yet ?
You can’t really build a list without knowing where you stand financially.
Investigate Berea College, University of Minnesota-Morris, Keene Stare College, and SUNY Geneseo. Check the scholarship and financial aid options and these should meet your requirements.
Lake Forest, Kalamazoo, Wooster, Denison, Gettysburg, Hampden-Sydney (all-male), Hollins (all-female), Rhodes, Furman
These are in a variety of geographic locations but should all offer some merit. Until you run NPCs (edit) and confirm your budget we won’t have any idea if it may be enough.
I believe you are in the Chicago area. If you’ve never visited an LAC campus it may help you confirn this newfound interest in LACs by visiting one. I listed Lake Forest as an example I’m familiar with in your area, but any LAC will do as the intent is to see if you like the “feel” of a smaller campus. Wheaton would be another good one. It’s right across the street from the train station so very easy to get to from the city.
One caveat wrt Wheaton (IL) is that it’s an evangelical Christian college - if OP is mainstream Christian or non Christian s/he would need to accept the creed etc.
Another caveat: Berea only accepts applications from students whose families make less than 75k for a family of 4.
Lake Forest is an easy visit from the Chicago area and will give you a decent idea of a LAC. Knox is another good LAC to visit. Hopefully you can visit UIC and UIUC, too.
Not knowing whether you’d qualify for enough financial aid or would not qualify for aid and would need merit complicates your task.
In addition, since very few premeds make it to med school - most discover new subjects, new professions, or are weeded out, and then out of those who made it through the premed pre-reqs only 40% nationally are admitted to one med or do school - you also need a Plan B and thus a college where that Plan B can happen.
Here is a thread you should read. There are descriptions of many schools that have been suggested to you.
plan B is BME or getting a PhD in biomedical sciences (but I heard this is harder than going to med school so this might be Plan AAA)
plan C is to become an ultrasound technician
plan D is to go into business (there are multiple things i would want to do if i take this path)
uhhh idk honestly i’m still figuring it out but i just want to do something that would have a purpose/be impactful and where I can be somewhat financially stable. medical research is my #1 plan atm.
so i’m now aware of what my parents’ income is but i don’t know about the combined assets etc so i still can’t fill out the npc thing yet 
They, not you, should fill out.
Is theur income larger than expected ?
well original income is lower than expected but there’s been a pretty large raise just for the year which might not be that great. also, i realized and have accepted that the likelihood of me getting a full ride may be very low but of course, i would still like to get some sort of scholarships. i saw the schools that some of you have mentioned which give out great merit and could possibly give me decent need-based aid. though i’m also planning to have a part time job or do work study in college as well even if it might not help much with the expenses and i realized that states such as Georgia, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and some others have the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr or under which is significantly lower than $16/hr (which I’m so very grateful for) and unless the wages increase to some extent within the next year or so, I am now unsure if I will consider schools in these states. But I will still apply for the automatic scholarships and see if I can win small external scholarships to help in case I have no choice and one of the schools there happen to be the best option.
Just because a minimum wage is something it doesn’t mean that’s what you’ll earn.
My daughter has a flexible banquet job in South Carolina that pays $18 an hour. Dunkin, by me in TN, pays $18. Kroger up to $18.
Why do they pay ? Supply and demand.
So don’t assume - research each area but the cost from the college itself should be your first line of defense.
Since income is lower than what you assumed, running the NPC on a meet-need college is very important. If the number is lower than you thought it’d be, it’s worth running the NPC on every meet need college of interest even if you’d previously assumed you wouldn’t qualify or get much.
Work study is typically awarded through the college’s financial aid package and is linked to the state’s minimum wage but you’re allowed to work off campus where jobs may be offered above that threshold.
And work study hourly pay does vary from job to job even on campus. For example, lifeguards and campus EMS workers typically get paid more than minimum wage. One of my kids worked for the admissions office at her college and got paid twice what the minimum wage was. So…you need to check the jobs.
My other kid found a good off campus job that paid well, and also was well suited to college students.
My son gets paid minimum wage for lifeguarding on campus, but it’s around $15 here in NJ.
I see Wofford is on your list. They have great premed opportunities and outcomes and give good merit. Great professors, beautiful campus, and walking distance to downtown Spartanburg with outdoor beer gardens, multiple coffee shops, bagels, bookstores, art galleries, restaurants etc.
Specifically with premed they have January term with shadowing. This is great because the school sets up the rotation, you don’t have to rely on your own connections or “cold-emailing” physicians. Students usually get more than 100 hours of shadowing with a variety of specialities. This is great exposure to the diversity of medicine.
The airport GSP has multiple direct flights to ORD (and elsewhere).
Good luck with your list building!
State of residence is important. For in-state residents, the directional schools often provide full-rides if the flagship doesn’t. For Illinois, UIUC is the flagship with a lot of money available at NIU, EIU, WIU, ISU multiple campuses. Same with Michigan.
If you don’t have any parent money and want to go to med school, then you should try to get a 4.0 at your home state public, and then go to med school in state.