Match Me: High School Student involved in Community Service

Chance Me / Match Me
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Hi everyone!
I hope everyone’s summers are doing well as we anticipate and get ready for college application season by writing our essays.
I was wondering what you all may find are good colleges for me to apply to. Here are a few of my stats:

  1. Indo-Caribbean high school girl attending a public magnet high school in New Jersey. I was born in the US.

  2. Intended Majors include pre-med. If the college does not include pre-med as a major, I’ll major in biology and minor in public health. If it is offered, I will double-major in public health and biology.

  3. The last unweighted GPA that I had was 4.326/4.5. So about a 3.85 unweighted. My class has no class rank. My best SAT score has been a 1380. I hope to study this summer to raise it to a 1540.

  4. I do not have many awards except for a poetry one during my freshman year.

  5. My extracurriculars include
    Junior State of America (Grades 9-12) In Grade 12, I became the club’s Director of Activism.

  • I founded and became co-president of a community service club. This club has done many events to stop food insecurity in our area. (Grades 10-12)
  • Model UN club (9, 11, and 12) In grade 11, I was apart of the club’s leadership team.
  • Pre-Med Club (Grade 10)
  • Future Health Professionals Club - HOSA (Grades 11 and 12)
  • Passion project which I started to spread medical education to high school students and to help students tutor each other.
  • Student Council (Grades 9-11): Grade 9: Administrative Liaison; Grade 10 + 11: Academy Representative
  • Exploring Program (Grade 10): Program at hospital that helped to educate about medicine. Allowed participants to help get involved in treatment to a safe degree. (1 out of 5 volunteers chosen)
  • NJ Science League (Grade 10): Competing was halted because of COVID-19.
  • French Honor Society (Grade 11 + 12)
  • French Club (Grade 11 + 12)
  • Hospital Volunteer (180 Hours)
  • Work Assistant at Cancer Institute of NJ (RUYES Program)
  • Interned for Teacher at High School
  • Columbia University Summer Immersion Program
  • NSHSS member
  1. Schools that I plan on applying to include:
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • Columbia University
  • Caldwell University
  • New York University
  • Rutgers University (New Brunswick)
  • Georgetown University
  • Swarthmore College
  • Colgate University
  • Cornell University
  • Brown University
    Hopefully this helps get some grasp on what my interests are.
  1. Course Load
  • 10 APs (inclusive of AP Physics 1 and 2/AP Micro and Macro being considered different APs)
  • PLTW Biomedical courses
  • Accelerated two years in math (Calculus in junior year, Calculus BC senior year)

Anyways, I hope you all are well! Please let me know what you think are schools that I would be a good fit for.

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Congrats to you on what you’ve done. Do you have any cost constraints? In other words, will you qualify for need based aid - run the net price calculator on a school like Swarthmore.
Regardless of what it shows, ask your folks what they’re willing to pay?
If they make less than $65K, you might apply via Questbridge.

So you’re going to major in Bio with a PH minor - as pre-med typically is not a major but rather advising. I see your list as perhaps too top heavy but then you have Rutgers (match) and Caldwell - not sure where it came from. But being as you have two catholic schools, you might check into Villanova - target, St. Joes, Fairfield or Scranton which are safeties.

I’d also add American (FDDS Scholars), Washington & Lee (Johnson Scholar), Case Western, and some public universities where you’d get great tuition - U of SC (Honors), Florida State, Miami of Ohio, Arizona, Arizona State, and Alabama or if you want smaller UAB for urban and UAH for suburban…if you want great aid. These are all safeties.

Since you listed some liberal arts schools, you might look into Bucknell. Holy Cross (Catholic), Skidmore, Lafayette, Franklin & Marshall, Dickinson, and Trinity. These are all match schools I believe.

Anyway, that gives you a lot to think about - I just think your list is too top heavy so subbing some of these in would help.

A lot depends on your:

  1. Financial need - hence you need to run the net price calculator

  2. what do your parents think - even if they can afford expensive it doesn’t mean they want to.

I added some big schools (you just have Rutgers and likely because it’s your flagship. NJ has other solid schools that are smaller if it’s too big. The public colleges I gave you have great colst (after merit) and Honors Colleges which reduce the size - but I also gave you smaller in UAH.

In the end, why did you choose the schools you did - what are you looking for in regards to money, size, environment (rural, suburban, urban), social life, weather, etc.

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If you need financial aid, Skidmore, Bucknell, F&M, and Lafayette all become reaches because they are need aware in the admissions process, along with many of the schools already on your list.

Medical school is very expensive so the general advice is to do undergrad for as little money as possible so you don’t have a lot of debt before starting medical school. You may want to look at some less selective schools that offer merit aid (which means your stats are at the higher end of applicants). Med school admissions are determined by GPA and MCAT test score. Prestige of undergrad degree is not as important so don’t get sucked into that mindset.

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At most colleges, pre-med is an intention, not a specific major. You can be a pre-med student while majoring in anything as long as you take the courses required for medical school admissions consideration.

Your list is very filled with reaches. If it were me, I’d reduce the number of reaches and find some more sure things and matches.

If you will be happy attending Caldwell University, then I guess the rest of your list is OK.

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Check out Univ. of Pittsburgh’s public health, life science, guaranteed admission programs,& diversity merit scholarship. Has rolling admissions.
https://admissions.pitt.edu/guaranteed-admissions-programs/

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:joy:

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I know. They constantly send emails and mails to my son, like spam.

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it’s actually quite ridiculous how much they send! unfortunately didn’t know about the truth until recently.

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I think that in the end, I’m looking for a smaller school that is very prestigious in research and very science based! It would also have to be one that allows me to stay connected to local communities and do service work. I’m looking to mainly stay close to home so not anywhere that deviates far from the tri-state area. as far as weather goes, I don’t really have any preferences. I do like a little sun, however!

thank you so much for your advice!

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thank you for the reassurance here! I really do appreciate it as it is so easy to get sucked into that mindset. for under graduate admissions I’m aiming to get into a research university, but also think that is emit going to specific liberal arts colleges.

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Well if you’re looking for a small school in the tri-state area, you can line them all up and then see which are science based.

I mean will it be a Fordham, Marist, Fairfield, Quinnipiac, College of NJ, NJIT, Stevens, or Seton Hall.

Hopefully you can go out a little further - deeper in CT or PA, etc.

I’m sure you can find service opportunities anywhere.

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ahh i didn’t know that! thank you for providing me with this information! there are a few other colleges that are considered targets in a much more comprehensive list that I am making but I really do need advice on possible safeties.

thank your so much for your help!

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I have been looking at both Fordham and Seton Hall as options, too. Fordham would help provide a big city, and I know Seton hall does have many opportunities that I am interested in. thank you for suggesting the others on that list, as well.

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@cauerries

Maybe I missed it…but do you have financial considerations or can your parents fully pay for these colleges without loans.

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For a safety…are you considering Rowan?

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We hope to be able to pay $50k at the very most! I am considering Rowan, as well.

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$50,000 per year? This implies a decent income. Most of the colleges on your initial list give only need based aid. Does your family even qualify for that? Of the ones that give merit aid, it is highly highly competitive and not automatically awarded.

If your budget is $50,000 a year, you should be able to find a college within budget…even in the northeast. Have you considered any of the SUNY schools?

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$50K per year?

Run Cornell and JHU’s net price calculators along with your parents and let us know the COA estimates.

https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/cornell
https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/jhu

What are your AP scores so far?

Regarding your list, can you share why Brown and Swarthmore both appeal to you? Or Columbia? Or Colgate? This list is disparate enough it does not help us understand your interests and college preferences. It seems you may have chosen schools from a website that said ‘here’s a good list of pre-med schools’. The list is reachy and at some of these schools you would probably apply test optional, unless the SAT score comes up.

Are you interested in adding more LACs to your list? If so, look at Hamilton, Union, and Vassar.

Are you interested in all women’s colleges? If so, I would add Bryn Mawr to start.

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The Cornell one says this:

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The Johns Hopkins one says this:

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Columbia’s location in New York, along with the fact that they are very active with activism is what truly drew me to them. I like Brown and Swarthmore for their academics. I also like Swarthmore for the fact that it is rather small and diverse. With Colgate, I enjoy the fact that it is also small. I also really liked their campus. I prefer that the colleges I apply to are in big cities with a lot of resources, but I know that that’s not really an option for me, so I’ve looked at various colleges that are in small towns.

My AP Lang, AP Chemistry, and AP Seminar scores have not come in yet, but I got a 4 in AP Biology.

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So…can your family afford these schools? They are above your price point.