Help a Sophomore with his College List

Applying to College
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Hello Everyone.

I am a current junior and am having trouble making my college list or more worried actually.

I am dead set on becoming a neurosurgeon. Before some of you say “think of the hours” “you don’t understand what you’re getting into” I have been reading and understanding what it is like to be a doctor and I can’t imagine my self any where else. Maybe the speciality will change but I know I will become a doctor.

The reason for Neurosrugery is because I recently had a car accident while riding my bike and had a brain bleed. They had to an emergency operation where they drained the blood out I am not sure exactly what it was but after the surgeon came to see me I asked him many questions about the brain and my surgery and instantly fell in love. So there’s my story.

Now here is my application so to speak:

GPA: 3.7 (messed up, but will improve on hopefully, I have straight A’s as of right now) ACT: 35 SAT: 1540 Aps: my school doesn’t have APs, but took the test for AP psych,AP Calc BC, AP physics 1 and 2, and all 5s exxept Calx BC with 4.

ECs:

  1. Volunteer at the hospital (100 hrs, trying to get shadowing)
  2. Principal Clarinet at High school band and state flagship youth orchestra
  3. Non-profit (sorry :neutral_face:) raising 35,000 with my friends for autism research by teaching STEM camps, chess and tennis camps, and a daughter club teaching STEM at elementary schools, 35 members
  4. Varsity Tennis, 5-UTR (hopefully will be captain junior year)
  5. Sci-Oly (3rd place in disease detectives at Brown comp)
  6. Boy Scout (Eagle)
  7. Cook Food for Classmates at Lunch every Friday, mostly indian food and sell for 2$, don’t make profit mostly break even just enough to cook again next week, do it just because I like to cook
  8. Debate (went to States, Hope to quali for nats soon)
  9. Summer Program at prestigious uni(trying to not doxx) Awards:
  10. Work at a lab as a researcher where I am working on a patient and making and running simulations to find a viable treatment to destroy a tumor, will publish a paper

(Ignore the order of my ECs)

Awards:

  1. USABO semifinalist
  2. Regional Sci Fair 3rd Place, Honorable Mention At States, hoping to quali for ISEF
  3. Presidential Gold Volunteering
  4. All State Clarinet, and district level
  5. Concerto Completion winner and performed with flagship state orchestra
  6. CPR Certified
  7. Top 20 at National Brain Bee

Essays: Probably about accident

Recs: lead research professor I know very well and I think they think high of me since most of the lab is grad students, but only spent one year so RN not too good but will continue (8/10)

Math Teacher: Know very well, had from 6-8, and then he came to high school(I like to think because of me) and we are good friends (10/10)

Hospital Volunteer Coordinator: mid (6/10)

Now I am middle class not looking to apply for Ivies in-state for massuchussets and so need schools that give good merit aid because I think I will get school list so far:

  • UMASS AMHERST
  • UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
  • UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON SEATTLE
  • CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK
  • FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
  • UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI
  • WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST LOUIS
  • UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE
  • UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
  • UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINA (UVA)
  • BOSTON UNIVERSITY

Please let me know if this a good college list or whether I am even a good applicant. I am very stressed about this and how my life will go. I put CCNY on their because look at albert einstein school of medicine class list many went from CCNY.

thanks in advance everyone

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sorry i wrote junior by accident it is sophomore

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Congrats on your accomplishments!

Can you please explain the work you are doing on a patient?

Have you run the NPCs on these schools and if so, are your parents ok with the costs?

Added: I agree you are early- I just realized you are a sophomore.

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So you are way early. My suggestion - have mom / dad take you to some nearby schools - I don’t care the rank etc. go see some urban like BU and northeastern , rural like UMass. a Brandeis, Clark, Wheaton, Connecticut, URI, UNH. See a mix of urban, suburban, rural, large, medium and small.

One great thing you’ve noticed is that college is pricey - I need merit.

So I think you have lots of time to form a list but you seem to only have large except WUSTL. Are you sure that’s what you want ?

Given your career path, the where won’t matter. But you’ll have 8 years of cost.

So your parents will have to give you a budget. A U of Alabama, with its McCullough Medical Scholars, will be $20k a year. Others like UNH and URI more but Michigan / UVA / UCI $80k plus a year by then.

So if you have a tight budget, the where you apply matters. And the med schools won’t care where you went. But your ability to pay for med school will be impacted.

Now you have Michigan and WUSTL. These schools and others on your list are different in so many ways.

So no need to panic AT ALL. It’s a great topic and you have lots of time. But over the next months, on weekends, have your folks take you to a school or two within driving range.

You might find UMASS too big and Brandeis the perfect size.

You might find you like the more suburban/urban feel of Unc vs the urbanness of BU.

Your time now should be set in exploration and during the next summer, working with your family on a budget - an eight, not four year.

Then you have plenty of time to do visits and build a proper list next year. I am guessing that while your list is fine, it’s not attuned to your finances or other needs.

Good luck.

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Keep up the good work. It’s way too early to actually formulate a college list. Is the 35 on the actual ACT? If so…terrific! You are doing fine so far…just keep it up.

It’s fine to think about colleges, but you really don’t have enough info to actually choose your application list…now. Plus, many students really do change their minds over their high school years.

UMass is a terrific university. And if you keep it up, you will very likely get accepted there.

It sounds like finances might come into play for you. This is a conversation to have with your parents. Please have that conversation.

If you see a little pencil in the lower right of your post,you can click on that and edit your post to say you are a sophomore.

I think it’s great to have a goal. But you can’t possibly know for sure that you will even get accepted to medical school.

Most colleges want teachers who have had you as a student in class…one humanities and one STEM. You have the math…but the others would likely be viewed as additional recommendations. Check the colleges for the details.

A number of the colleges on your list cost $90,000 a year or more and don’t give much in merit aid…at all. The out of state public universities…you are unlikely to get significant merit aid at any of them…unless you score a Jefferson at UVA or something like that.

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Thanks for the reply!

Yes, the 35 is on the ACT, and yes I was looking to score full rides like Cooper or Jefferson which are extremely competitive I know. Thanks for your advice!

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The patient is not 18 yet, and is terminally ill with a grade IV tumor on the brain stem. I don’t really want to say what I do since my name is on the lab website and the techniques we use are fairly unique. But I do a lot of hands on work in the MRI visualizer and find it very interesting.

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I am sorry for what this young person is dealing with and I hope the research you are involved with is successful.

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I think this school needs to be removed from consideration. The CA public universities don’t give need based aid to out of state students, and the merit you might get would be a drop in the bucket on the $75,000 a year or so cost of attendance.

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First of all, you are a sophomore. You have plenty of time to figure this out.

It also sounds like you are doing very well. Keep up with your class work, and keep doing the ECs that make sense for you. This will work out.

There are a LOT of universities that are very good for premed students, and that can set you up to do well on the MCAT and medical school admissions. Getting accepted to a university that is good for premed is the easy part. Doing well in the tough premed classes, getting appropriate medical-related experience, getting strong references, getting into medical school, completing medical school, …, there are lots of hard parts.

Medical school is expensive. Paying for the whole thing is one of the hard parts. However, this often means that a student might want to attend an in-state public school where admissions is easy and merit aid is possible, which might make the initial university admissions less stressful.

I think that I just figured out that you are in-state in Massachusetts. U.Mass Amherst is very good overall and very good for premed students. Some of the other out of state public schools on your list are likely to be pricier, with no significant advantage. BU and WUSTL are private. You might want to have your parents run the NPC for them at some point and see whether they are likely to be affordable. If you can it is a good idea to find an affordable university for your bachelor’s degree and leave some college $$$ in the bank or 529 fund to help offset the price of medical school.

If you are interested in medical research a PhD is another alternative to an MD. However, PhD’s and MDs do not do quite the same things, even when they are both involved in medical research. Which to go for is something that you do not need to worry about for perhaps 6 years, and many students get a bachelor’s degree and then get some work experience and then figure this out (so you might have even more than 6 years to figure this out).

For now I think that you are doing very well, and you just need to keep doing what you are doing, keep your grades up, get enough sleep, and have some fun from time to time.

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So I think it is OK for sophomores to start gathering ideas, but at this point I would be thinking very broadly and not trying to narrow things too much–except as to budget.

I do not think it is too early to have a serious conversation with your parents about exactly what they are willing to pay for college (and I agree keeping in mind med school is very expensive is typically an important part of that conversation). Depending on your budget it may end up there are only a few good options for making that budget, or many, but that is important to know.

In terms of specific colleges, if UMass Amherst would be affordable for you and you do in fact end up with the grades you need a couple years from now, that may well be the obvious choice. And that is not at all a bad thing!

In terms of other publics, they may struggle to compete with UMass Amherst on cost.

But I will just toss out that a lot of premeds we know take a look at Pitt because it is a really nice school for premed–excellent related departments, and an extremely high density of experience opportunities in close proximity. And in fact they are particularly strong in Neuroscience. Not that these lists are definitive, but this gives you some idea:

They also have some merit available, although it may or may not be enough depending on budget. Subject to budget, though, it could be worth checking out.

Another public along the same lines you might want to consider would be Minnesota. Nice location in the Twin Cities which again makes it very convenient for experience opportunities, very strong related departments including Neuroscience, and they have merit (in fact their Net Price Calculator will tell you how much merit you will get).

In terms of private research universities, again this will very much depend on how your grades go. But one you might want to keep in mind is Case Western. Again, very good for premed academically and in terms of experience opportunities, excellent for Neuro, and has a robust merit program.

Finally, I would suggest you keep in mind the possibility of going to a Liberal Arts and Sciences college. There are many which have strong med school placement records, and many of those also have robust merit programs.

Way too many to mention, but to give you an idea, Rhodes College is popular in premed circles with a very robust merit program and a very popular Neuroscience major:

They also have a relatively low full cost of attendance, so it is possible Rhodes could actually be cost-competitive with UMass.

Again, all this is subject to budget, and your eventual grades. But I think exploring some of these various options, and maybe thinking ahead to some possible visits, is appropriate for a sophomore.

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Oh, and to get a snapshot of costs of attendance and merit availability, this is a handy list (derived from Common Data Set entries):

Ultimately you need to investigate each college of interest in detail, but at this exploratory stage I think it is fine to take a quick look.

To give some examples:

WashU is definitely a great option academically, but it is a hard admit to begin with, and then while it has a few good merit offers, it is VERY few and the competition is super intense. And it is expensive full cost. All of that is reflected in its entry on that list–COA of over $88K, and only 2% of undergrads without need get any merit (on the plus side, the average award was over $29K, so that is helpful for that 2%).

Of course this is not necessarily fatal for WashU, particularly IF you really get great grades over the next couple years AND you could get enough need aid to make your budget. But if you would really need big merit to make WashU affordable, well, it probably does not make sense to apply.

Case, in contrast, has a full COA of a little over $82K, then 41% of students without need got merit. Much, much more realistic. The average award for such students is over $26K, which again is not bad, particularly if you qualify for any need that stacks with merit. Really depends on your budget still, but maybe more realistic than WashU if these would not be affordable based on need aid alone.

Then Rhodes is $71.5K full pay, already significantly less, and 48% of students without need got merit, which is now really promising, and the average award was over $30K. So you can see why Rhodes can be an attractive proposition for a lot of kids, not least premeds.

Anyway, just wanted to point out this tool is available. Again, it is really just a starting point, but as such I think it is useful.

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