Match Me- 3.95 GPA 33 ACT Junior, Biology/Chem Major, MN [<$15-20k]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US Citizen
  • State/Location of residency: Minnesota
  • Type of high school: Public
  • Other special factors: Not sure this counts, but I’m a transgender man

Cost Constraints / Budget
-15k-20k per year or less,

Intended Major(s)

-Microbiology, Cellular Biology, I want to double major in Chemistry + a Biology

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.95
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.03
  • Class Rank: N/A
  • ACT Scores: 33 ACT, 30 math, 36 reading, 35 English (should I retake this?)

List your HS coursework

I did include senior year classes!

  • English: English 9+10, AP Seminar, AP Literature
  • Math: Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Preclac
  • Science: Earth Science, Ecology and Evolution, Biomedical Biology, Enriched Chemistry, Medical Interventions, AP Chem, AP Biology, Physics
  • History and social studies: World History, US History, Economics, Civics, Intro/ AP Psychology
  • Language other than English: Spanish 2, 3
  • Visual or performing arts: Comic Arts, Ceramics, Graphic Design, 1 year of orchestra
  • Other academic courses: Human Anatomy

Awards (My school personally does not give out rewards besides valedictorian and salutatorian )

-Outstanding Volunteer Award

-Elite Volunteer Award

-Finalist for state mock trial competition

Extracurriculars

I volunteer a lot so I’ll list all that together : )
-Volunteer for 3 years, 250+ hours, one of 30 leaders managing over 800 students, on 3 boards, in charge of 3 partner locations, won multiple awards

-Art Club Member for 4 years, 2nd in charge/ Board member this year

-Youth In Medicine, Chem Club, HOSA, Crochet Club general member

-1 Part Time Job at a craft store

-1 part time job in fast food

  • Donated 10 flowers I crocheted to local hospitals/ charities (Just started summer, so I definitely will make more!)

Essays/LORs/Other

-Haven’t started essay, I think it’ll be average?

-Good LOC from my favorite chem teacher

Other: As stated before, I’m a trans/gay man. I’d really prefer a blue state or a blue city to feel better, and one where my rights/ healthcare can be protected. And I really do not like rural areas. I’m fine with suburban or city like places, small or large colleges!

Schools

-I’m not going to share here since I’m pretty indecisive on it + need to change it since chem lowered my gpa a lot more than I thought ! I think I’m a pretty average student so I’m very thankful for this help !!

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What happened in chemistry? It seems a bit unusual to want to major in a field that “lowered my GPA”. However, when you have nearly all A’s, one single B does indeed make a significant difference to a GPA. That does not mean that university admissions will care much about a single B somewhere along the way.

I doubt that you will need to double major in both biology and chemistry. It will most likely work just as well to major in one and take the classes in both. This is however something that you can figure out when you are part way through university. Quite a few of my family members (everyone except me) had a major that had something to do with biology, and they all took quite a bit of chemistry as required classes.

Biology and chemistry are areas where your required classes will overlap with premed classes. Quite a few of these classes will be academically challenging, and a few B’s and maybe a C or two are very likely to happen somewhere along the way. Plan to work hard and do your best. There is an old saying “C’s get degrees”. Of course A’s and B’s do also. Anyone who cares about your grades will know how challenging these classes are.

Microbiology and cellular biology are areas where some form of graduate school is relatively likely. This makes it even more important to keep your budget in mind when picking a university to attend. One daughter is currently getting a PhD in a field that is rather closely related to this, and the other students in her program come from a huge range of undergraduate colleges and universities. A LOT of them come from schools that are ranked lower compared to UMN. Students coming from “all over the place” is of course common for a rather wide range of very good graduate programs.

The same daughter did manage to get a decent job with just a bachelor’s degree in biology. This appears to have been helped by having a LOT of lab experience while she was an undergraduate student. Lab experience is something that will be available to you at a wide range of colleges and universities.

To me the obvious thing that comes to mind is that UMN Twin Cities is a VERY good university, and you are fortunate to have such a good public university in-state. Whether or not it will meet your budget is something that I do not know. Of course you also have tuition reciprocity with Wisconsin, and the University of Wisconsin is also an excellent university. Between these two excellent schools, I would be inclined to choose based on budget, and perhaps on your perception of which would be the best fit for you. Unfortunately I am not as familiar with your other in-state public universities.

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Yea, I had mostly straight A’s so it lowered it more than I was hoping. My school switched to a new curriculum for our ChemX class so some units like Gas Laws, Molarity, Thermochem, and Equilibrium were only 2/3 days long (instead of a week) so it was pretty crammed! We had usually 2-3 tests a week in my second quarter, so it was rough! I’m definitely looking at the U of M since it’s so close and so good, and I’ll check out some Wisconsin schools. The only Wisconsin school I’ve toured is U W Madison. Thanks for the help!

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Congratulations on making yourself academically prepared for any college!

Before matching, will your family qualify for any need-based aid?

Will your family qualify for a Minnesota State Grant?

In addition to tuition reciprocity with Wisconsin publics, MN also has reciprocity agreements with North Dakota and the Canadian province of Manitoba. Additionally, it participates in the Midwest Student Exchange Program (MSEP) which allows students to pay reduced rates (as compared to other out-of-state students). Per the MN State Grant, however, those funds can only be used at Minnesota universities.

Radware Captcha Page (link is related to reciprocity programs)

ETA: The U. of MN has additional info on some of the programs for financial accessibility to MN students.

Promise Programs | University of Minnesota System

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While waiting to hear about whether your family would qualify for need-based aid, I decided to start by looking at the two states where you would receive in-state pricing that are classified as safest or low risk states on this anti-trans legal risk assessment map, namely Minnesota and Wisconsin. I also expanded it to look at private schools in those states, as many of the MN grants would apply to MN privates, and the Wisconsin privates are known for generous merit aid.

There is no need to go on for a doctoral degree in any field. But my working theory is that if students are going on to be successful in relevant doctoral programs that the undergraduate education must be adequately preparing them. Additionally, I think it says something about the student population, whether it’s a focus on academics vs. pre-professionalism, or intellectual curiosity, or something. Do I have any empirical evidence for this? No, but it’s an educated guess. (And before anyone bites my head off, there are tons of academically-focused, intellectually curious people who never earn a doctorate and have no interest in doing so…myself included!)

Additionally, I would not use the ratios as a ranking or absolute truth but more of a sense of which schools might have more similar proportions of student populations that pursue that path than others.

With that caveat provided, here are some data that you can value as much (or as little) as you desire.

The first image shows some of the schools I researched based upon having higher numbers of students majoring in a bio-related science or in chemistry. It includes the undergrad enrollment as well as the number of doctoral degrees that alumni earned between 2010-2023 using this source. I also did the ratio based on the number of bachelors conferred, something I haven’t done previously. I have a hypothesis that it may be a more accurate reflection of the students who are successfully completing their degree as compared to people in the total undergraduate population who do not make it past their first year or so.

The subsequent tables are for biological sciences (anything classified that way in IPEDS/College Navigator), Chemistry, and Biochemistry. The snips are above for easier viewing with the tables below for improved accessibility. As this post is becoming ridiculously long, I’ll share some school-specific thoughts in a separate post.

Snip of Table 1: Total Population View

image: Snip of Table 1: Schools with total population view. The snip shows the lines in alternating colors for each row.
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Snip of Table 2: Biological Sciences Information

image: Snip of Table 2: Schools' biological sciences information. The snip shows the lines in alternating colors for each row.
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Snip of Table 3: Chemistry Information

image: Snip of Table 3: Schools' chemistry information. The snip shows the lines in alternating colors for each row.
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Snip of Table 4: Biochemistry Information (includes ratio of biochem doctoral recipients to combined bio and chem bachelors awarded)

image: Snip of Table 4: Schools' biochemistry information. The snip shows the lines in alternating colors for each row.
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Table 1: Schools with total population view

School Undergrad Enrollment Total Doctoral Recipients 2010-2023 Ratio of Doctoral Recipients 2010-2023 to Undergrads Total Bachelors Conferred SY23-24 Ratio of Doctoral Recipients 2010-2023 to Bachelors Conferred in SY23-24
Carleton 2,128 1,213 0.570 424 2.861
Macalester 2,138 735 0.344 513 1.433
Beloit 1,004 297 0.296 168 1.768
St. Olaf 3,124 851 0.272 646 1.317
Lawrence 1,417 341 0.241 364 0.937
U. of Minnesota - Morris 981 227 0.231 189 1.201
Gustavus Adolphus 1,905 342 0.180 557 0.614
U. of Wisconsin-Madison 38,040 4,437 0.117 8,269 0.537
Marquette 8,045 642 0.080 1,566 0.410
U. of Minnesota - Twin Cities 41,303 2,978 0.072 7,215 0.413
U. of St. Thomas 6,270 333 0.053 1,423 0.234
U. of Wisconsin - Eau Claire 9,351 483 0.052 1,960 0.246
U. of Wisconsin - La Crosse 9,501 385 0.041 1,966 0.196
U. of Minnesota - Duluth 8,426 330 0.039 1,781 0.185
U. of Wisconsin - Milwaukee 18,288 692 0.038 3,207 0.216

Table 2: Schools’ Biological Sciences Information

School Biology/ Informatics Doctoral Recipients 2010-2023 Biological Sciences Bachelors Conferred SY23-24 Ratio of Biology/ Informatics Doctoral Recipients 2010-2023 to Bio Sciences Bachelors Conferred in SY23-24
Carleton 219 39 5.615
St. Olaf 183 81 2.259
Beloit 49 29 1.690
Macalester 100 66 1.515
U. of Minnesota - Morris 40 30 1.333
Lawrence 66 59 1.119
U. of Wisconsin-Madison 990 1,029 0.962
Gustavus Adolphus 57 61 0.934
U. of Wisconsin - Milwaukee 79 125 0.632
U. of Wisconsin - Eau Claire 82 138 0.594
U. of Minnesota - Twin Cities 493 880 0.560
U. of St. Thomas 54 136 0.397
U. of Minnesota - Duluth 70 179 0.391
Marquette 95 252 0.377
U. of Wisconsin - La Crosse 84 260 0.323

Table 3: Schools’ Chemistry Information

School Chemistry Doctoral Recipients 2010-2023 Chemistry Bachelors Conferred in SY23-24 Ratio of Chemistry Doctoral Recipients 2010-2023 to Chemistry Bachelors Conferred in SY23-24
U. of Minnesota - Morris 36 5 7.200
U. of St. Thomas 38 6 6.333
Macalester 44 7 6.286
U. of Wisconsin - Milwaukee 40 9 4.444
Carleton 93 26 3.577
U. of Wisconsin-Madison 158 54 2.926
Lawrence 29 10 2.900
U. of Wisconsin - Eau Claire 44 19 2.316
St. Olaf 62 27 2.296
U. of Minnesota - Twin Cities 130 65 2.000
U. of Wisconsin - La Crosse 23 15 1.533
Gustavus Adolphus 35 24 1.458
Marquette 11 12 0.917
U. of Minnesota - Duluth 20 31 0.645
Beloit 8 17 0.471

Table 4: Schools’ Biochemistry information

School Biochemistry Doctoral Recipients 2010-2023 Biological Sciences Bachelors Conferred SY23-24 Ratio of Biochem Doctoral Recipients 2010-2023 to Bio & Chem Bachelors Conferred in SY23-24
U. of Wisconsin - Milwaukee 10 125 0.075
U. of Minnesota - Morris 2 30 0.057
Gustavus Adolphus 4 61 0.047
St. Olaf 5 81 0.046
Carleton 3 39 0.046
Lawrence 3 59 0.043
Beloit 2 29 0.043
Macalester 3 66 0.041
U. of Wisconsin-Madison 42 1,029 0.039
Marquette 7 252 0.027
U. of Wisconsin - La Crosse 7 260 0.025
U. of Minnesota - Twin Cities 24 880 0.025
U. of Minnesota - Duluth 5 179 0.024
U. of Wisconsin - Eau Claire 3 138 0.019
U. of St. Thomas 2 136 0.014
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St. Olaf is very good for financial aid.

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All the schools I mentioned in the previous post are in states that are considered safe or low-risk and the towns the colleges are located in went blue in 2024 by fairly significant margins (as seen in this map).

U. of Minnesota – Morris had too many positives for me to not mention it for you to look into, even though one might argue that Town: Remote (IPEDS classification) is not too far off from rural. It’s one of your in-state publics (so MN grants would apply, if you qualify), I think you could be competitive for one of their full tuition scholarships, and the cost of living is lower than in the Twin Cities. And it has a relatively high number of graduates going on to earn doctorates, especially in chemistry and biochemistry (however much you value those ratios). On the con side for you, Morris is small and surrounded by areas that went very red in 2024.

U. of Minnesota – Twin Cities: This could be a very hard option to beat. Depending on your family’s income, this school could be tuition free based on items in the Minnesota Promise program I linked above. It is strong in so many areas and you’d have access to tons of healthcare options.

Some of the private colleges I included were members of Colleges That Change Lives, an association of schools that joined together after they were highlighted in a book of that name. The profiles are marketing info, but I think they generally give a good sense of the schools.

https://ctcl.org/beloit-college/

https://ctcl.org/lawrence-university/

https://ctcl.org/st-olaf-college/

St. Olaf is definitely a forum favorite…a quick search will provide numerous results, including posts #5, 8, & 47 in this thread! @AnonMomof2 and @UTmeritseeker have students there now, I believe.

Posts #93 & 94 in this thread speak to Gustavus Adolphus.

I’m going to tag in some others for additional insight:

@fiftyfifty1 has a lot of familiarity with the region’s schools and can provide additional insight.

@2plustrio is familiar with Marquette and might have insight on the availability of significant enough scholarships at the Wisconsin publics to make them affordable for you, as I think you may only qualify for federal grant aid in those states (rather than state-based grant aid like in MN).

@Knowsstuff had a kid at Beloit, I believe.

And here’s the city population for the various schools per the auto-AI search results in Google, sorted by largest to smallest. Please note these are city (rather than metro) populations.

image: Snip of city population table below
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School Undergrad Enrollment City City Population
U. of Wisconsin - Milwaukee 18,288 Milwaukee 563,000
Marquette 8,045 Milwaukee 563,000
Macalester 2,138 Minneapolis 430,000
U. of Minnesota - Twin Cities 41,303 Minneapolis 430,000
U. of St. Thomas 6,270 Saint Paul 306,000
U. of Wisconsin-Madison 38,040 Madison 288,589
U. of Minnesota - Duluth 8,426 Duluth 88,000
Lawrence 1,417 Appleton 75,367
U. of Wisconsin - Eau Claire 9,351 Eau Claire 74,000
U. of Wisconsin - La Crosse 9,501 La Crosse 51,000
Beloit 1,004 Beloit 36,650
St. Olaf 3,124 Northfield 22,268
Carleton 2,128 Northfield 22,268
Gustavus Adolphus 1,905 St. Peter 12,290
U. of Minnesota - Morris 981 Morris 5,150
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Wow! Thanks a lot for all this information. Sorry I got back to you so late! My family makes 160,000 annually (not sure how much with taxes and everything), so I doubt I’ll get federal aid or state aid. My parents might have some money set aside, they’re pretty private about finances though. I’ll try to visit Morris, considering it actually seems pretty nice and it’s fairly close to me! I’ll check out the others you sent, thanks so much for your help!!

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UMN Morris is a good school, and worth a visit, but it is in a very rural part of the state. The school itself will be a “blue” bubble, but the surrounding areas are all “red.” That said, I do know one transman student who went there and had a decent experience (but he did transfer after a couple of years because he wanted a bigger school.)

UMN-Twin Cities is just a great choice if you are able to afford it. Mpls/St. Paul is really trans-friendly. UMN was actually a pioneer in providing gender-affirming care (going back to the 1960s actually.) UMN-TC also has really great Bio and Chem. For example there are some terrific Biology majors to be found not just in the college of biological sciences, but also in the college of liberal arts, and also applied biology in the college of agriculture. So tons of options from biochemistry, to ecology, to genetics, to neuroscience, to forestry, to plant breeding, to wildlife management. Really excellence in any biological area you might want. Pretty much the same thing with Chem.

If you want a smaller city, UMN-Duluth is also good. And Duluth is a fun LGBTQ+ friendly town. It would end up being cheaper than UMN-TC probably.

Augsburg is in Mpls and is very LGBTQ+ friendly. You would get huge merit there, and tons of mentoring. You would be a top student there. Augsburg students can cross register at other liberal arts colleges in the Twin Cities including at Macalester.

St. Olaf and Carleton are in a town about 45 min from the Twin Cities (Northfield.) It’s a blue area. Excellent Bio and Chem at both. Not sure if they will hit budget. Might be worth checking the Net Price Calculator.

Macalester is in St. Paul and very queer friendly. Again, not sure about budget.

Best wishes!!!

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One other fun thing is that UMN-TC, UMN-Morris, UMN-Duluth, Augsburg, and St. Olaf all belong to National Student Exchange. NSE is an exchange program that allows students to study at any of the other ~200 participating schools, paying no more than what they are paying already at their home institution. Credits transfer pretty automatically. Lots of cool schools participate, including University of Hawaii, CUNY Queens in NYC, A bunch of schools in California. Also some schools in Canada. This link shows all the participating locations: Campuses

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I’ve never heard of the National Student Exchange before, but it sounds really cool! Thanks for the suggestions! : )

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Check out the website UniIQ- it’s rather new & has a short quiz you can take that will match you up with potential schools, it’s fun to play around with. UMN and UW-Madison are obvious choices, but are you open to moving away from home? Some smaller schools that you might consider: Oberlin- very LGBTQ friendly, easy access to Cleveland (but it is in OH) & excellent Bio program, Brandeis University- very strong STEM and just outside Boston w/a very inclusive culture, Kalamazoo College- in Michigan, strong STEM, trimesters and diverse students, Beloit College- in Wisconsin, strong sciences and very liberal, welcoming students. Of course, check out Carleton and Macalester, both would be good matches in MN.

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If you would like to consider potential choices by the quality of their science lab facilities, this site may be worth viewing:

Inclusions such as Lake Forest, St. Olaf and Bates may be of interest.

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The following may be useful in this context:

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But the state law on bathrooms applies to private colleges and universities, including Oberlin:

Not sure if trans men practicing malicious compliance with such laws is what Ohio and some other state lawmakers had in mind…

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You don’t need to know how much your family makes or how much it has in savings. You do, however, need to know the family’s budget for college per year for you (without loans). Was the $15-20k what they’ve told you was the budget or was that a guess on your part? Also, you may want to share the cost of schools, including UMN-Twin Cities, as the current budget will primarily be able to cover room & board expenses and would need you to get get a scholarship for full tuition or pretty close to it.

Ask your family to run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) at Princeton. If your family doesn’t qualify for aid there, then they likely won’t qualify for aid anywhere. And if they qualify for aid, but not enough aid to make the school affordable, then that lets you (and us) know that your path to affordability will need to be through merit aid.

In case you’re wondering why I’m harping on the budget, it’s because that’s what a college list is built around. It’s no use coming up with ideas that don’t have a path to affordability. Once you get more clarity on the financial aspects from your family, then we can start brainstorming more options that will be financially feasible that meet your preferences.

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Marquette (as all Jesuits) value volunteering and community service. They have the Pere Marquette and Lovell Memorial Scholarships. Half off tuition is relatively common for high stats students.

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