”I’m Christian and lean right politically, so while I’m not opposed to being in a liberal environment since I think I’d be ok, a Christian/not super liberal school would be a plus. I have a 35 ACT and am taking most of the AP classes offered at my rural high school, so I want to shoot high in terms of reputation and rigor.”
The truth is, if you are mainly driven by reputation, then you are looking at liberal schools. The top schools in the country are liberal. That is the way it is. You can have top religious schools (Notre Dame) or historically religious schools (Georgetown), but they are most definitely not conservative.
If you are looking more for fit, then you should expand your list to include some other excellent but perhaps lesser known schools.
• The University of the South (Sewanee)
• Baylor (extremely well known for their med school placement and music)
• Belmont
• Colorado Christian
Also despite you being anti-California, there are several schools there that would be worth considering, including:
• Pepperdine
• Biola
There is plenty of rigor to be found everywhere, especially being premed. You can go to as conservative a school as you would like, but you might need to sacrifice prestige. You can go to a more prestigious school, but you might need to hide your beliefs.
IMO, there is nothing worse than having to be intellectually dishonest with yourself in order to fit in and to attempt to gain approval from those you disagree with. YMMV.
St Olaf and Baylor would be good fits (premed, music, Christian - though Baylor is much more conservative than St Olaf, St Olaf has a tradition of respectful dialogue; though Baylor is far from the Midwest, it has a strong reputation for what you want + football); if you start demonstrating interest, they’d be targets for you.
Consider Luther, Concordia Moorhead, Hope.
Notre Dame would seem perfect for your profile but won’t offer any merit aid so run the NPC and see with your parents.
Further away, Furman?
I would drop Oberlin. It will be relatively difficult to find your peeps in that specific liberal environment. Don’t apply/attend unless you can visit and spend some time there.
If you like BGSU and it’s affordable, that would be a great safety. Maybe look at Ohio University and/or Miami Ohio too. I second/third looking at Case, DePauw, Carleton, St Olaf. Run all the net price calculators with your parents to tee up the financial discussions and find which schools will be affordable for you.
The University of Texas has a combined music/business degree. Austin has a thriving running community. This past weekend they hosted the Cap 10K with over 26,000+ runners.
I’m at Bama, and it actually seems to check a lot of your boxes. It wouldn’t be very expensive for you! I’m premed, a chemistry major, and I take piano lessons from the music department, so feel free to ask me any questions. Definitely Christian/not super liberal, that’s for sure. You mentioned wanting to shoot high for rigor and prestige, so check out bama’s honors programs (Randall Research Scholars and McCullough Premed Scholars come to mind) and consider it as a backup. I absolutely love my piano teacher, and all of my science professors have been great. You’d automatically get about half off ($28,000). If you get National merit it’s basically free, and if you get a 36 ACT and a 4.0 GPA it’s basically free your first year, and full tuition plus a little extra after that. I also second ppl suggesting Baylor.
A couple people have mentioned Furman and i think it fits a lot of your interests.
Excellent premed advising and outcomes. Has a unique Masters of Community Engaged Medicine program so they are tuned into medicine in a unique holistic way.
Very collaborative environment.
Has fantastic music program.
Generous merit for someone with your stats.
Sits alongside the “swamp rabbit trail” with tons of opportunities to run, cycle and be active outdoors. This part of the country is pretty renown for its cycling culture and running is certainly celebrated too.
Furman is center right politically.
Furman was featured in the “Your college bound kid” podcast (episode 475, 1 hr 4 min in)
What about any of the midwestern Jesuit schools, like Creighton and Saint Louis University? Or Gonzaga, which of course is not midwestern, but also is not California. My D22 was admitted to both Gonzaga and SLU with decent merit aid, but found both schools to be too conservative for her liking. @Malsandhuskies has a D at SLU who I believe is also a runner? I’m not sure about the music at SLU. But there is a medical school there!
You are right that i have an avid runner at SLU! She had similar high stats to the OP and chose SLU over far more prestigious schools because she loved the non competitive friendly atmosphere, the location and the program (6 yr direct admit DPT). For a pre-med, I would look into SLU’s medical scholars program. I can say 3 yrs in that she has had an amazing and non stressful experience. If she were applying to PT school, she would be in a great position grade and activity wise. I think at a more selective school, she would have had a harder more stressful time staying at the very top academically so something to really think about for a premed who is aiming for a high gpa. My youngest is at Vanderbilt and her friends that are premed have had to work like crazy to maintain good grades in the intro science classes. As far as running, she is very involved in running club and finds it to be a wonderful community. She’s not a music kid so don’t have anything to say about that.
As others have said, research does not matter much for medical school admissions. However, some students get into the challenging premed university classes, excel in these tough classes, get into a lab, and then discover that they love lab work, are good at it, and would prefer to do research. Fortunately not only are there a huge number of universities that are very good for premed classes, but many universities also have good research opportunities, and it is generally the same schools (and is quite close to “all of them”, assuming that you avoid highly specialized schools such as music or dance conservatories and naval academies).
Most students who start university thinking “premed” end up doing something else. However, if you are serious about medical school, then you need to budget for a full 8 years of university where the last 4 years are expensive. Saving some money for medical school is a very good plan. If you end up not going to medical school, the money you saved could instead be used for a different graduate degree.
We have a daughter who was pre-vet and also a very strong musician. The pre-vet and premed required classes are the same classes (a few optional classes are different). She found that it was just too much to put a lot of time and effort into both academics and music. The premed classes are very demanding. Premed students need to get quite a bit of medical shadowing experience, which again takes up time and energy. One result is that she has been neglecting her music for a while (about a decade). She does however intend to get back to music once she gets her doctorate (which will be in just a few weeks). You are very likely to similarly find that you need to focus on your academics until they call you “doctor”.
The reputation of your undergraduate university does not get you accepted to medical school.
However, the hard work that you have put in during high school and your excellent results will help you to be well prepared to do well in tough premed classes. Also, the same excellent results in high school are likely to help you get merit aid at some very good universities, which could help quite a bit in terms of offsetting the potentially enormous cost of 8 years of university.
I think that you should very seriously consider your in-state universities, including OSU. You excellent results in high school I think will give you a good chance of getting significant merit there, and again will help you do well in the tough premed classes. OSU can prepare you very well for medical school, or for a career in research if you decide to go that way, or for a wide variety of other possible paths in life.
While I think a number of schools would match your interests, I concur with those recommending a closer look at Carleton.
Like many top LACs, it has a great track record with placing students into medical schools. This page indicates their student/alumni acceptance rate into med school is 82%, about double the national average. It’s also known for undergraduate research opportunities, in part because of its similarly impressive record for sending students into PhD programs. It’s worth noting that Carleton has many alumni connections at both nearby Mayo Clinic, perhaps the most famous hospital in the world, and the University of Minnesota, a powerhouse in both public health research and primary care medical training. In a typical year, Carls can be found doing internships at both.
One of the defining features of Carleton is its on-campus arboretum, which has 15 miles of running trails. “The Arb” is why Carleton was selected as one of the 10 best places to run in the US.
While music isn’t one of the most popular majors at Carleton, the department is large and offers an extensive collection of courses, perhaps because every student takes 6 units of performing arts. That can be satisfied by one full academic course (6 units), but is frequently satisfied by numerous 1 to 3 unit courses. For example, it is common to take private lessons in a musical instrument for either 1 or 2 units, the difference being the amount of time spent on the course per week. This term alone the Music dept is offering 155 courses across both private and group formats.
Outside of the classroom, the music scene is equally impressive. About 800 students (40% of the student body) are involved in some form of music performance, group or individual, each year. More casually, there are numerous performance venues on campus and walking distance away in town. There’s also several popular musical events each year, like Midwinter Ball, Battle of the Bands, Farmstock, and Sproncert. Lastly, the campus has a very popular 24/7 radio station where a whopping 10% of the student body DJ each year!
As much as I admire Carleton, I should point out that a mile away is St. Olaf, whose music program is even more well known. Cross-registration is possible, though it takes some planning as their academic calendars aren’t identical.
My impression is different. I had a student, classic string player, high school class of 2022, rejected by Shepherd because he insisted on a second major in pre-med fields. On the other hand, non-Shepherd Rice students can take lessons from Shepherd teachers and join the Campanile Orchestra. They are not as good as the Shepherd orchestra but still quite good.
Rice is generous with financial aids and merit scholarship. I have had several recent students very happy with what they offer.
Northwestern is more supportive to double major and dual degree. They even have an orchestra for the medical school. However, my impression is that non-Bienen NU students have very limited access to the practice rooms.