Chemistry-related majors will be better for professional ROI, prepare just as well for med school, and be slightly easier to access. 
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NC State has engineering majors that UNC doesn’t have, but this student doesn’t want engineering.
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NC State can be seen as the STEM university for NC (although it’s also strong in business and other fields) so would be a good choice for someone interested in the sciences, and since it’s less known OOS would be easier to get into than UNC.
This in particular should be of interest - smaller department, very good premed prep.
https://cals.ncsu.edu/molecular-and-structural-biochemistry/
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She
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I agree with these points, as an MD who moved into biotech and sees the various undergraduate backgrounds that have informed the various functions. Chem/Biochem/Molecular Bio are more informative fields than general bio
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I’ll reinforce that ANY major can put her on a premed track as long as she takes the required courses for medical school applicants.
There is NO “right major” for a premed track.
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As I always mention - because I think it is wonderful and quite illustrative - my radiation oncologist who got her MD from Harvard Med was an English Lit major in undergrad
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If you’re looking at schools like College of Wooster, St Olaf, Lewis & Clark, etc. then you might want to take a look at Southwestern. It’s ~30 min from Austin, TX, is an LAC in Georgetown, TX. Is walking distance to an adorable downtown area with a ton of cool shops & restaurants (seriously, it’s like Main Street, USA, with a town square & everything).
They have a GREAT pre-med/pre-health program. Internships, shadowing, volunteer work partnerships with a local hospital that’s 10-15 min from campus (St David’s hospital in Georgetown). There are Southwestern Univ alumni who have set up a summer biomedical research internship program in Houston. When my D24 applied at Southwestern last year, they said that the prior year, 100% of their pre-med seniors who applied to med school got accepted to med school.
And with your kid’s 4.0 UW GPA, she’d probably qualify for $33,000/yr merit scholarship. See First-Year Scholarships • Southwestern University for more info. That brings total COA to ~$38k/yr.
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Thanks.
I will stop reading this thread now.
Got some great input. For those with real input and advice on colleges. Thanks very much! Got some great stuff to follow up on.
And no… “We” will be applying.
She will be doing the actual
Apps and writing her essays but it’s an experience I will be going thru with her.
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I would find out if the school does committee letters and refuses to do them for students they don’t think will be accepted. OR how their attrition rate is for those thinking about premed vs those who actually apply to medical school.
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Here is my take.
3 or 2 on one AP is not that important. It means that teacher did not prep them well. However in combination with SAT 1420 (700×2 is great) and 4s on other APs, these screams to me that all your Super Reaches are just Super Reaches. Just drop them.
Even reaches on the list are too reachy.
Your daughter is great, do not take me wrong.
I would also reconsider premed path. Find maybe a bit simpler way, especially as twice cancer survive. Health is always priority.
The OP or the student could certainly inquire directly with the admissions office about that!
Southwestern University does have a pre-med committee that does committee letters.
https://www.southwestern.edu/pre-health/how-to-apply/letters-of-recommendation-the-committee-letter/
Note that even if a pre-med committee does not explicitly deny a letter to pre-meds whom they do not think will be admitted, it will certainly advise the pre-med of the futility of applying, and that it cannot indicate the highest recommendation in the committee letter. Of course, this means that only more likely pre-meds are encouraged to apply, boosting admission rates. It also means that pre-meds unlikely to be admitted are warned not to waste time and money applying, and switch to other paths earlier.
However, even before the point of applying to medical school, attrition of pre-meds is high. The process of attrition in pre-medical studies: A large-scale analysis across 102 schools - PMC says that “Only 16.5% of students who intended to major in pre-med graduate college with the required coursework for medical schools.” Of course, some of those do not apply (grades too low, MCAT too low, advised not to bother by pre-med committee, and/or no longer interested in medical school).
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You also need to find out what Southwestern includes in “medical school acceptances ”. Some colleges include any medically related post graduate study. This would include nursing, nurse practitioner (if the school offers nursing), vet school, dental school.
Really this data that 100% of all who applied to medical school got accepted is not a reliable metric. Colleges actually cook these statistics in their favor.
Hoping @WayOutWestMom is able to weigh in about this topic which has been discussed before.
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Really this data that 100% of all who applied to medical school got accepted is not a reliable metric. Colleges actually cook these statistics in their favor.
Besides withholding LORs from lower stats students, and discouraging students who struggle in pre-med weeder classes, HP committees also may count any health-related graduate or professional school as an admission AND count non-US medical schools admissions as admissions.
You simply can’t trust how they calculate their data. I also suspect the number of the 100% accepted will turn out to be a fairly low single digit number.
Also the 100% only includes the numerator since you have no idea how many freshmen entered the college as pre-meds.
If you have 75 freshmen premeds and only 4 apply to med school and all 4 get accepted–that’s still pretty lousy odds for getting into med school.
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Ok, I’m sorry I mentioned Southwestern.
The points that others have brought up could/should be applied to every other college being proposed…so that the OP & their child can make informed decisions on where to apply and where to attend once acceptance letters are in.
Southwestern is a very good suggestion - even if their claim is misleading and the med school acceptance rate is not 100%. Sounds like an environment OP’s child would benefit from, even if she doesn’t end up attending med school.
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UC’s are definitely her best bet, and have the bonus of likely being the most affordable.
I don’t understand why there are so many other schools on the list, especially reaches. Agree that she should only apply to reaches that are still test optional, which will narrow the list. Colleges seem to be particularly open to kids from California applying test optional with the UCs being test blind so that should work to her benefit.
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Note that the vast majority of pre-meds are weeded out before applying, and most of those who apply will be rejected everywhere. I.e. rejection will be the expected outcome for a pre-med, so dealing with it is to be expected (getting into a US medical school should be thought of as a pleasant surprise).
Medical school admission also includes needing to get a high enough score on a high stakes test (MCAT).
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The OP has left.
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