Future MD/PA looking for a medium sized city school on the east coast with a strong public health program - 3.85uw, 1350 SAT, 5 APs, lots of volunteer hours + admission to allied health

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student: Permanent Resident
  • State/Location of residency: PA
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Public High School
  • Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.): First Gen

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)

30k a year maximum

Intended Major(s)

Public Health on pre MD or pre-PA track

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: (calculate it yourself if your high school does not calculate it): 3.85
  • Weighted HS GPA: (must specify weighting system; note that weighted GPA from the high school is usually not informative, unless aligned with the recalculation used by a college of interest, such as CA, FL, SC public universities): 4.8041
  • College GPA: (for transfer applicants)
  • Class Rank: not given
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1350 –> 1410 superscore ( will be retaking)

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: AP Lang (5)
  • Math: (including highest level course(s) completed)
  • Science: (including which ones, such as biology, chemistry, physics)
  • History and social studies:
  • Language other than English: (including highest level completed)
  • Visual or performing arts:
  • Other academic courses:

Awards –> least impactful section

  1. Honor Roll

  2. College Board First Generation Recognition Award

  3. College Board School Recognition Award

  4. National Honor Society

  5. AP scholar with distinction

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

  • Tutoring/ coaching at local community center (100+)
  • Varsity track athlete
  • Co-pres of club ( raised over 1000 dollars for local families)
  • Writer for drug safety and awareness blog
  • Class officer (1 of 4) raised over 30000 for school wide events + planning fundraisers, dances, and orientation
  • Choir - Bel Canto Soprano 2
  • Retail worker ( over a year) + retail job before that ( over a year)
  • Family responsibilities
  • School board council
  • Allied Health - specialized high school pre-health program ( 10% acceptance) –> will complete over 27 rotations, learn bio + med terminology + end with certificates ( maybe CNA? not sure)
  • There are more but these are the most impactful

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)

  • Letters of rec are likely to be strong –> close connections with teachers
  • Essays are a work in progress( probably need the most work)

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if unsure, leave them unclassified)

Fordham University
George Washington University
New York University
Temple University
Drexel University
Penn State University ( Apply Early)
Pittsburg University ( Apply Early)
Georgetown University
Rutgers University- New Brunswick MAYBE
UMass Amherst
UPenn
UC Irvine
University of Florida maybe
USC ( carolina)
UCSD
Spelman?
Johns Hopkins for sure
Emory University??

If a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below; also, for colleges that admit by major or division, consider that in chance estimate.

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability):
  • Extremely Likely:
  • Likely:
  • Toss-up:
  • Lower Probability:
  • Low Probability:

Definetly need scholarships but unsure to which degree they’re necessary

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I’m just now realizing i filled half of this out wrong incorrectly, sorry I’m new to posting on forums, i’ll leaving the missing info below:

  • English: AP Lang (5), Accelerated Honors English 10, accelerated honors english 9 ( all weighted as AP) –> will take APLit in 12th

  • Math: (including highest level course(s) completed): Accelerated Geometry, Algebra 2, + Pre-calculus ( weighted as AP) –> will take Honors Calc and APStat in 12th

  • Science: (including which ones, such as biology, chemistry, physics): Accelerated Biology and Chemistry, AP Physics –> Allied health program counts as 2 science credits so no space for science in 12th

  • History and social studies: Accelerated Afro-Asian History, AP Euro ( 4), APUSH (4) –> will take APGOV in 12th

  • Language other than English: (including highest level completed) Accelerated french 3,4 +5 ( Weighted as AP) –> no room for AP french so no language 12th

  • Visual or performing arts: Band (9), Choir ( 10,11) –> will take 12th

  • Other academic courses: APSeminar (5), PE

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): Not sure

  • Extremely Likely: Temple, Drexel

  • Likely: Penn State, Pitt, GW, Rutgers

  • Toss-up: USC, UCSD,UCI

  • Lower Probability: UF, UPenn

  • Low Probability: Georgetown, JH Emory

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Pay attention to your budget. Saving money and finding a good fit are both way, way more important compared to the ranking of whichever university you end up attending. If you look at students at very good MD programs, you will find that they come from a huge range of undergraduate schools. I expect that the same is true of PA programs.

The various Universities of California are going to be way over your budget unless you are involved in some kind of special program that I do not know about. I am unsure about other out of state public schools on your list with respect to whether they will meet your budget.

I expect that U.Mass Lowell is likely to provide better merit aid for an out of state student compared to U.Mass Amherst. There are also hospitals quite convenient to U.Mass Lowell for medical shadowing.

For the private schools on your list, have you or more likely a parent run the NPCs?

Premed classes will be very demanding at any university on your list, and will be full of very strong students. You do not need to attend a school ranked on the level of Emory or Johns Hopkins to find very good premed program, nor to find very tough classes full of very strong students.

I like the fact that you are already getting some experience in a clinical setting. Also, I know someone whose high school stats were very similar to yours who is currently a veterinarian (the required undergraduate classes are the same), and someone else whose high school stats were very slightly lower than yours who is currently a PA. All of this makes me think that you can do this. Becoming an MD is a long and difficult path, and determination to do it might be as important as academic strength.

Best wishes.

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The California UC’s offer little to no financial aid (need-based or merit) to Non-CA residents. If admitted expect to pay over $80K/year to attend.

You should run the Net price calculators on all the schools of interest if scholarships/FA are needed to attend.

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Thank you! I’ll be sure to check this out

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Thanks, I’ll look into Lowell

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If you’re open to the public universities on your list, it may behoove you to include more publics in your search. Links in school name lead to school’s medical school site. These schools all have long-time respected medical schools, and have their own hospital or affiliation with a nearby hospital.

East Carolina University

Virginia Commonwealth University

University Maryland Baltimore

University Connecticut

I believe all these will meet (or come very close to) your desired cost. UConn may require merit aid, but you look good for that

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Welcome to College Confidential, @mm3005! Based on what you’ve shared, you look like you will be well-prepared to be successful in college.

This will probably be your biggest constraining factor unless you qualify for sufficient need-based aid. Have your family run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) at the private schools on your list. If the schools don’t come back as affordable, then they should be removed. And for the out-of-state public schools on your list, I don’t believe any of them offer need-based aid for out-of-state students beyond what is federally available (i.e. potentially a Pell grant and a federal loan). Thus, with the possible exception of U. of Florida and maybe U. of South Carolina, all of the out-of-state publics will be unaffordable.

I will second @EconPop’s suggestion of East Carolina. Since in-state pricing for VCU and UConn are higher than your budget, I’m not as optimistic about those being affordable for your family.

Since you’re wanting to be by a city, have you thought about West Chester? Because it’s a PASSHE school its sticker price is lower than any of the PA publics you’ve listed and it’s in the Philadelphia metro. I’d also look into St. Joseph’s in Philadelphia.

Once you let us know if need-based-aid from universities will be sufficient to meet your family’s budget, we can then have a better idea of what type of colleges to suggest for you.

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So I agree a critical piece of information is what the NPCs are looking like at the private colleges on your list.

I also think it would be very useful to do that for Temple and Pitt.

If Temple and Pitt are looking comfortably affordable . . . realistically, OOS colleges are going to struggle to really be competitive. Maybe, but those are such good fits for what you are describing, which is not surprising–many prehealth students end up choosing their favorite in-state offer. Also an early answer from Pitt could really set a nice high bar, again assuming it would be comfortably affordable.

And then sometimes privates will be competitive on cost, or indeed even cheaper. In which case we can help you put together a reasonable list. If not, though . . . again, lots of prehealth students just take their favorite in-state offer, which is fine.

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UConn is in Storrs. John Dempsey hospital (affiliated with medical school) is in Farmington CT. You would need a car.

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I don’t think UConn will be affordable, but if it is not a hardship to apply you can see what happens. I think the other schools listed with UConn are good options.

I would run the NPCs, especially for the privates.

Take a look at SUNY Buffalo, as it might be affordable with merit.

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Sounds like UConn may have been too much of a reach and not be near enough to its affiliated hospital.

I had assumed the Provost Scholarship would make VCU affordable, but now I realize that seems to be available only to in-state students. If so, VCU might also be out of reach.

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UVM - hospital is literally on campus; school is in a small city… run NPC - but school has more OOS than in-state, they do give merit and I get the impression it is very integrated into the hospital…. https://www.uvm.edu/cnhs/bhs/program/public-health-sciences

BU- big city, HUGE MPH program and PH school - that said known for pre-med course grade deflation and need to run NPC for your fin aid (merit is scarce and it would be a reach). Don’t have pure public health BA/Bs, but have “Behavior & Health,” which has a lot of overlap..(depending on your interests in public health….

GWU - huge public health grad school - (though not sure about merit/costs)

Also, Penn is harder to get into than Emory/Georgetown for your list…(or certainly as hard..)

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Just want to note that Fordham has non-binding EA so that is an option.

Other Jesuit schools might work as well (ex. St. Joes, Loyola MD) UScranton has a particularly strong presence in healthcare fields.

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I know you mentioned both MD/PA in your initial post but have you considered 5-year accelerated PA programs that you could apply to as a HS student? Schools such as Arcadia, Alvernia, DeSales, Kings, all in PA.

ETA: Duquesne is another one in PA.

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great idea if OP is sure! Quinnipiac or RIT - Dual-Degree BS in Health Science Studies/MHS Physician Assistant (ELMPA) - Quinnipiac University Academic Catalog or Physician Assistant BS/MS | RIT

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I have not! I’ll look into it but im still not sure whether I want to pursue an MD or become a PA so im not sure if I should be applying for PA programs straight out of HS

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Apply to Pitt, Temple, and Penn State as soon as you have your SAT scores.

Apply to the Honors colleges. Temple’s guarantees 4years housing in the Honors Dorm, which is very nice, in addition to other perks.
Schreyer is among the best Honors colleges in the nation (apply to a HHD major, probably BBH?), you need to start working on the essays if you haven’t yet (I listed them on the Penn State page).
All 3 should be within budget and will be the ones to beat, especially if you get into one of the Honors Colleges.
Add West Chester for a financial safety.

UCs will not be within budget. Don’t bother applying, it’d be a waste of money, alas.

USC Columbia - make sure to spend time on the Honors college essays (being admitted increases your odds of scholarships) although it’ll be tough for them to beat Pitt/Temple/PSU.

Can you run the NPC on St Joe’s, Fordham, Holy Cross? What about Skidmore (Saratoga springs), Bates (Lewiston), Macalester (Twin Cities), is any of those affordable?

If you like Spelman, what about Mount Holyoke? Agnes Scott? Bryn Mawr?

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Thank you! I’ve noticed the consensus about the lack of aid from the UCs and have scrapped them and begun considering some of the other schools recommended to me.

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For $30K, check your in state and PASSHE school. Pitt and Penn State likely don’t achieve $30K but PASSHE will. You might check WVU and Marshall too in neighboring WV.

Most your list is either out of price for your budget or for the meets need (if you have need), your stats aren’t close to strong enough. So applying to the UMASS, UCs, UFs are a waste of time.

Budget is your issue here - a Millersville type will be wonderful. You might also look at Salisbury - but it might be a bit over. Central Michigan and W Carolina are two others worth a look for your budget.

Good luck.