Want to take kid to visit schools in summer. Present Junior interested in STEM/pre-med?
Not applying FA. 1540 SAT one sitting. Hi AP and SATII exam results in chem, bio. Nice community service, leadership EC’s and 3 sport athelete all 3 years. NO knockout hook.
His REACHES are usual suspects, Ivy’s BS/MD etc…
Understand those are EVERYONES reaches
What target schools should he review?
Looking for high placement into competitive graduate professional school or solid engineering with good job placement.4 hour drive from NYC.
What is he looking for in a college? Knowing his preferences for size, location (urban or rural?), etc. will help posters provide better recommendations.
In the meantime, take a look at U Rochester and some of the LACs with engineering (Union, Bucknell, Lafayette).
WPI, RPI, and RIT are also worth a look if he’s sure about going into STEM. Merit aid is a possibility with his stats.
Can be urban or rural…BUT near a medium to large city…“dont want to be in middle of nowhere”
Size of school not important…not interested in Greek or party scene.
^^^excellent suggestions. I’ll go the extra mile on WPI. Beautiful campus in a nice part of Worcester, mid-size school, that does have bioengineering. We loved the campus vibe. It has a unique hands-on, project-oriented approach. Students do lots of internships/coops, and do very well in the job market coming out of school. A friend’s neighbor went to an Ivy and did not enjoy it. They transferred to WPI, did great, and had a high-paying job coming out of school.
Rochester and Bucknell have very nice, traditional campuses, and are really more traditional schools. And I think one could same the same about Lafayette. Bucknell probably has the most preppy, affluent student body, maybe Rochester next (just based on observation). RIT has more of a modern, post WWII look. RIT is also very hands-on. You could research it, but I think RPI and RIT, in particular, would have the most male-heavy student bodies, if that is a positive or negative. WPI has a female president, and the gender ratio has become much more balanced in recent years. I really liked Union College and will note the fairly high % of male students who were varsity athletes (small school, large # of male team sports), again if that is a positive or negative. Good luck!
if he doesn’t want a greek scene, union, bucknell, and lafayette should be knocked out. uofrochester does have a greek scene, but i don’t think it’s as prevalent as the former three. nearly all colleges will have a party scene. if he is sure he wants to go into engineering, has he thought about looking into the 3-2 programs some liberal arts colleges offer? many students end up not taking advantage of them, but they’re still worth a look. it’s not a match/target, but i would add swarthmore to your list.
also, WPI, RPI, and RIT are excellent suggestions.
You should take a look at University of Rochester. The River Campus is right next to the med center, which makes taking advantage of clinical and/or research opportunities really convenient. Their premed counseling is good, although it is necessary to be pro-active in dealing with them. Not an entirely bad thing; I tell my daughter it’s good training for med school and beyond. If he’s interested in med school, he might also want to look into the REMS BS/MD program. I think his stats would at least put him in the running for that as well. In addition, from what I understand, UR’s engineering program is particularly well-suited to an engineering student who is looking into graduate school after undergrad. It’s a great school. My daughter’s a junior majoring in microbiology and public health. She has enjoyed her three years there and the school has provided lots of opportu
nities in terms of work, travel abrod, campus involvement, etc.
Why such a hard major if he wants med school? Grades and MCATs are everything for a med school application. It is extremely difficult to maintain a tippy-top GPA in any engineering field. Med schools are not known to take that into consideration. IOW, he won’t get evaluated on a curve because he majored in biomedical engineering. If his GPA is 3.5, and a pre-med music major’s GPA is 4.0, the pre-med music major has surpassed him. He should do whatever he can to maintain the highest GPA possible.
Also, with such a demanding major that includes required projects, it’s much harder to find the time to study for MCATS AND maintain the GPA.
Muhlenberg College is in Allentown PA. So it’s in a small city and driving distance to large cities NYC and Philly. The local airport (ABE) also has cheap flights to a variety of places. It’s strong for premed and they have several connections to med schools including I believe Temple or Drexel and a brand new agreement the year with BU. Was just there last week. It’s on the smaller side (2,200) with older looking bldgs on the outisde but the same newly renovated feel as TCNJ science bldgs on the inside. Their grad/med school placement is solid. Look for their list of student outcomes. With his stats he should get serious merit and they have three different honors/scholars programs for different goals, each carrying an extra $4,000 of stacked aid.
We love WPI (my sons #1 choice) but two things to keep in mind. It’s a tough curriculum with 3 full semester courses crammed into 7 weeks. That will take over the top effort get top grades for pre-med. Second, they have been very open and vocal about balancing the enrollment for gender. As a result some merit aid has shifted. Go read the WPI threads. Just be aware. But, yeah, it’s a very strong overlooked school. And kids just love it.
Stony Brook - was there on Saturday! Similar academics to Bing but a more suburban campus 1+ hr train ride from NYC Penn Station and connections to NJ. Has downstate medical / Dental center in campus. Tour guide was premed and said APs / coerollmemt will count so you can cut time and cost and get to med school faster. Probably true elsewhere as well. Not big sports or Greek culture but has both. My S17 got full tuition offer last week with 35ACT / 3.9 GPA and is waiting on honors/scholars which have nice amenities. New workout bldg, renovated pool, and indoor Stadium were very nice additions brand new upper class dorm with suite-singles. 25000-30000 students on campus during the day/week drops to perhaps 10,000 living on campus for weekend but might be an advantage if not looking for a giant state school and book-centric. Go visit on a weekend.
UCONN - so…in the Middle of the woods… but “centrally located”…can get to NYC and Boston easily. Express bus to Port Authority. Drive 20 min to the nearest mall. Academics are getting better and better. Min 1400 for honors. Used to be a party school when my siblings went - no more. It’s all about books now. S19 says it’s all smart kids. Bio and pharmacy have always been strong (also biz and education). My S19 gets $15k merit, OOS NJ and his NJ friend gets similar. Campus itself is very nice and they just added a mini ‘town’ next door just like TCNJ (severla blocks of apts over shops, CVS, Moe’s, Blaze Pizza, restaurants, etc). But you gotta be social enough to get involved with something / clubs to enjoy it. He said “I’ll never join a fraternity!”…he pledged last week. Oh, and ridiculous basketball right on campus. And hockey. Go Huskies!!
I know someone now in the medical school portion of her combined bachelor’s/MD program at U of Rochester. She is loving it.
Also, I second the suggestions for Union, Lafayette and Bucknell as match schools. Also add Lehigh.
Northeastern may be an unreliable match. I know 6 students, 5 of whom were future engineering or comp sci majors with great stats, who were deferred early action from Northeastern this year.
For reaches, you mentioned “Ivies,” but Swarthmore, Carnegie Mellon and Johns Hopkins might be good possibilities as well.
So you said ‘not applying for financial aid’, right? So full pay is an option.
Lehigh is expensive but has excellent STEM programs in luring bioengineering on a beuatiful Princeton-esque campus close to NJ which is larger and and not so far out in the sticks as Bucknell. (I went to Bucknell - great school but out in the corn fields). Need aid is good but merit aid is weak to non-existent. Lehigh is big on interdisciplinary majors too.
6). Delaware. I mention Delaware because of their very high ranking in chemical engineering and related fields (due to decades of DuPont money). Very affordable, mid size, close but not too close. UDel may not be the first school that comes to mind - many NJ kids think of it as a safety- but if you want to do ChemE or BioChemE for a premed, those programs are absolutely top notch. A nationally ranked top 10 Chem/BioChemE school. No kidding.
Push the 4 hour limit to 6-8 hours and think about Pitt and Case Western. Both right in cities. Pitt is very affordable and gives OOS aid, has tremendous health sciences, and has various Guaranteed admission grad programs (GAP) for medical, etc. we visited Pitt and we were astonished how collegiate the area is - complete 180 and shot right up my S17’s colllege list. I know less about Case but it is private but gives aid, is in the fun/touristy part of Cleveland, next to the Cleveland Clinic medical center, and has again great health sciences.
Wesleyan?? If your S is interested in a liberal setting, kind of earthy-crunchy, think about Wes. Just a very very good education and not far (north of a new Haven). What’s unusual is that they also have doctoral programs in the sciences. They even get NIH funding. A very unique thing to find at a small LAC - likely to offer cool opportunities. So, no engineering but very strong science.