Looking for a research school

College Search & Lists
1

<p>I am looking for a college with abundant research opportunities for undergrads, a strong science dept, a strong reputation, but a place where I’d excel and have a high GPA competitive enough for top medical school admissions (3.7-3.8+). Money is a factor and COA should be less than $20,000. I can apply for scholarships if necessary. Right now I have very good scores and grades for any school (barring Ivies, I guess). My app might become stronger come senior yr if I am recognized in Siemens/Intel, but I do not expect that to happen.</p>

<p>Very basic stats:</p>

<p>2140 SAT superscore
4.0 GPA (98.56/100)
730 Bio M</p>

2

<p>Additional info:
My ultimate goal is medical school, obviously. I am aiming for Stanford med.
As far as undergrad location goes, I prefer to be out of my home state, NY. I will apply to Stony Brook as a safety</p>

3

<p>SUNY Binghamton is better for pre-med.
Here’s my suggestion:
You should not be looking at any out of state public schools because most of them don’t give much aid. Save your money for med school. Stay in-state and get a high GPA.
Look at
Case Western Reserve University. They are somewhat generous with aid.</p>

4

<p>Other Alternatives</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>I’ll agree with trying Case Western.</p>

<p>You also could try Pittsburgh.</p>

<p>Both have great research options for undergrads and are well-known for pre-med (esp Pitt) + might offer merit aid for your stats.</p>

6

<p>For UPitt merit scholarship, it says successful applicants have “1450 CR+M.” I do not have this score, but I meet their other criteria. Is it still possible to get a substantial scholarship?</p>

7

<p>^^^ Probably not at that point. Sorry… They are very competitive.</p>

<p>However, they often offer free apps in the summer, so you could always try and see.</p>

8

<p>Oh well, I am going to give it a shot anyway; maybe they will make an exception! How do my scholarship chances look for Case?</p>

9

<p>Based on what little you’ve told us, your stats don’t look special enough to warrant the kind of merit aid needed to get down to $20,000 COA at most good schools. Look at Alabama or Alabama-Birmingham, or stick with the major SUNY schools. Stony Brook and Buffalo are major research centers, Albany has it’s strengths, and Binghamton is generally considered the best SUNY. Any of them can launch you to med school, as can Geneseo and some smaller SUNY’s. I suppose mom2collegekids will pop in soon to tell of her son, about to start med school after graduating Bama. Whatever she says about merit aid and med school, take her advice. She has already done all your homework.</p>

10

<p>Schools often will NOT superscore for merit scholarships.</p>

<p>What is your M+CR from ONE sitting.</p>

<p>Alabama has recently announced that it’s scholarship offers for the next app cycle will be the same. So, you’d get free tuition if your single sitting M+CR is a 1400+</p>

<p>*My ultimate goal is medical school, obviously. I am aiming for Stanford med. *</p>

<p>Don’t “aim” for any particular med school. Getting accepted to ANY US MD school is an achievement. They’re ALL excellent. There are no “so so” US MD schools. The education is flat. They all are req’d to teach the same things.</p>

11

<p>* On the SAT I got a 1390/2140 *</p>

<p>Is that your best sitting? If so, then you need to retest. You won’t get free tuition from Bama, and there’s no way you’d get much from UPitt.</p>

12

<p>If the 1390 is accurate, bite the bullet, get one of Barron’s test books (they focus on the hard questions more than other books), spend time with it, and retest. You’ll only lose $50 and some time. You could gain quite a bit…</p>

<p>Good research schools are quite popular and often have higher stats - esp for their merit scholarships.</p>

<p>Or, the SUNYs are still worth considering.</p>

13

<p>Listen, guys. I am not retaking the SAT. I studied for a long time and will not waste any more time on one stupid test. IMO, this is the only “weak” part of my application. I have a good GPA. I have good ECs. I have what I believe to be good essays. My teachers know me very, very well. I also have a very unique story that can perhaps excuse any lack of merit on my application. If I am gonna miss a full tuition scholarship by 10 points from my SAT, so be it. On my first one, 4 math questions wrong was a 710. On my second one, 3 questions wrong was a 710 also. I also took the Math level 1 subject test which should be higher than 710.</p>

<p>To be honest, all of these scholarships say "MOST successful applicants have…(insert statistic). If Pitt or Case or whatever school likes me, they will make an exception. If they don’t, I don’t think a 100 point score increase will have made a difference. </p>

<p>By the way, here’s my college plan as of now. I tried to cast a wide net…</p>

<p>Reach (I can dream, right?) : Harvard, Yale SCEA, Stanford
Target : Vanderbilt, WashU, Emory, Rice, Case
Safety : Northeastern, Pitt, Stony Brook, BU (?), Wake Forest (?), UMiami (?)</p>

14

<p>“Based on what little you’ve told us, your stats don’t look special enough to warrant the kind of merit aid needed to get down to $20,000 COA at most good schools.”</p>

<p>This is the most absurd thing I have ever heard. At my school, a girl with a 1740 was accepted to Yale (she was an Intel STS semifinalist). I know someone with a lower SAT score and GPA than me who received full tuition scholarship at Northeastern.
Obviously, these scholarships are very subjective. I highly, highly doubt they will toss my application as soon as they see 1390</p>

15

<p>Case Western offers some aid to almost everyone accepted. The amount of aid depends on your EFC and stats. You will probably have to pay around 10-15k a year.</p>

16

<p>Your list looks fine. As long as you have a safety or two, I always recommend trying places you like. One never knows what will happen.</p>

17

<p>

</p>

<p>I don’t mean to offend, I just speak the truth from experience (isn’t that why you’re asking here?). I didn’t say they would toss your application. You will likely be admitted to several great schools. They just will not give you enough merit aid to get you down to $20K total cost. You’re talking about needing scholarships of over $30k per year. Think how extraordinary one needs to be to earn the few of those that exist at top schools.</p>

<p>FYI, that full tuition scholarship at Northeastern is not automatic. It is highly competitive, with only 50 awarded each year, based on academic and other factors. Maybe you’ll be one of them. You do the math.</p>

<p>Xtreme, Case does give merit aid to seemingly everyone, but I have not heard anyone getting enough to bring COA down to 10-15k as you suggest. That would require full tuition scholarship. Does Case offer those, and who might qualify?</p>

18

<p>I’ve been out working in the field (school’s out) thinking about this thread…</p>

<p>OP, you might want to give some serious thought to where you want to do your undergrad. You’ve said you want to get to med school as your #1 goal. Med school requires a high GPA, nice extra curriculars, and a decent MCAT. You can get a decent MCAT and nice extra curriculars from pretty much any school. The GPA, however, can vary.</p>

<p>You’ve admitted you studied a ton to get your 1390/1600. Do you really want your peers to include those who rather easily get into the 1500/1600 range? This is what will happen if you go to top schools (IF you somehow afford them). They will also be your competition for the scholarships, and like for athletes, schools tend to give their top scholarships to the TOP contenders - not just any contender. The competition is tough.</p>

<p>If you shift your focus to schools where your 1390 is a top score (you are comfortably in the top 25 or even 10% of students entering), then you are more likely to get a high GPA. You’ll still have to study and put in work, but you’ll be working among peers rather than trying your hardest against students who perhaps are a little more naturally talented at it.</p>

<p>I’ve seen many pre-med students head out from our school. Those who do the best head to schools where they are in the top 25% (at least) of students. Many who head to schools where they are “average” or “barely get in” usually report they “aren’t good enough for med school” and end up dropping out of it. If med school is your #1 goal, it bears some caution (why I came in to type this up). Those students likely could have done well in med school. They could not do well against higher level undergrad competition… Undergrad and med school are two different things and freshman year of undergrad can be a huge challenge for many students.</p>

<p>There are schools where 1390/1600 is a terrific score. They won’t be top research Us, but many will have research options. You also might get good merit aid. (One such kid went to LaSalle for free. I’m not recommending that school to you as it wouldn’t fit, but just using it as an example.)</p>

<p>Go to the college search site and put in your scores checking the box saying you wants schools where you are likely to get a bit of merit aid. Then start seriously looking at them. Ask you guidance counselor. You could still try your dream schools, but keep a clear head about the possibilities/probabilities when you decide.</p>

<p>ps You are aware that Ivies don’t give any merit aid, right? Do you just need merit aid or is need based aid an option?</p>

19

<p>@Creekland: To be fair, the SAT doesn’t test any biology/chemistry/physics/biochem/etc that are tested in courses premeds take. These are my strongest subjects in school. My peers who scored better than me on the SAT 1 do not do better me in these classes, either. Also, I have been told on this site that my grades are too high to have a low SAT score. I think I am just yet another example of how these tests do not measure any sort of academic prowess and instead are more like IQ tests.
I also know a lot about science subjects that are taught at the graduate level, such as immunology, cancer biology, etc.
My main point here is everyone’s main concern about me is my SAT score. Let’s pretend you didn’t know that now. Am I still a weak applicant?
Every college will admit SAT is not the BIGGEST factor in admission, as it is (supposed to be holistic). Also, I don’t know if you caught it but I have some rather extenuating circumstances in my life that definitely forgive any lack of merit on my transcript. But still, I think the adcoms will get a good picture of my story and who I am as a person. However, maybe you guys are right and the SAT is such a huge deal. We’ll see.</p>

20

<p>You should also take the ACT. We New Yorkers are so conditioned to SAT that most don’t realize there’s another test out there. Different type of test than the SAT, including sections on science. Some say ACT is more of a knowledge test, while SAT is more of an aptitude test. Not sure if that’s true, but many people do better on one or the other. With your strength in science, you might do much better on ACT compared to SAT. That could land you more merit opportunities.</p>