Yeah I know thats why I have back up options as well
Do you mean a backup major/career?
Will you have a chance in September or October? If not, I think it would be inadvisable to look for additional âEDâ options. If youâd be happy with one of the colleges youâve visited, pick one of those. If not, then donât ED.
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Yeah
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Iâm applying to fly ins so hopefully it works out! If not, then I probably cant visit
Have you found two sure thing colleges that you like that are affordable? Start there.
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Yeah and if things really dont work out I dont mind at all going to CC and transferring later.
I would do some research on schools where you stand a good chance for merit. A strong student within an honors college will have plenty of opportunities.
While there is nothing wrong with attending a CCâŠit doesnât have to be a choice between Williams (for example) and a CC.
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Yeah I get it thank you. Iâll look into it
I agree. Do you have any geographic preferences? Please let us knowâŠwe can give you some suggestions for decent merit aid.
ActuallyâŠlet me start.
I would suggest you look at University of Alabama https://mccolloughscholars.as.ua.edu/ and check out their honors college. If you apply when the application comes out this summer, you will have your admission results and merit aid results within a few weeks. Make sure to complete the scholarship and honors college applications.
University of Arizona and Arizona State are worth a look see.
University of New Mexico has great merit awardsâŠand easy access for clinical and shadowing and volunteering opportunities @WayOutWestMom can explain.
Miami University in Oxford Ohio should come in at your price point.
Check some of the SUNY campuses. If you get merit aid there, they would come in at your price point. I would suggest Buffalo, Binghamton and Geneseo for you.
Look at the Colleges that Change Lives list of colleges. Many of them give great merit aid. I think you could meet your price point at Rhodes, Juniata, or Ursinus. But look at some of the others too. Denison meets full need and is a great school. Actually read the whole listâŠsomething might pique your interest. https://ctcl.org/
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You donât need to find an ED. Youâre indecisive.
You ED if you have a favorite - and itâs affordable.
Thatâs it.
Many / most donât ED.
So donât feel forced.
Good luck.
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FYI - Colleges that change lives fairs will be in California this summer: College Fairs & Information Sessions â Colleges That Change Lives
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College of Charleston
University of South Carolina
The College of NJ (TCNJ)
University of Kentucky
My daughter got merit at Ohio State honors that brought the cost down to our state schools. I donât know if this merit still exists but itâs worth looking into.
You really need to find a few safety schools that you like, and build up from there. There are many strong students at all of these schools who are highly successful and move on to all sorts of careers and graduate/medical school programs.
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In that regard, Williams is a very heavy load and fast-paced. My son is enjoying himself there, but at the same time he spends lots and lots of time, including breaks, working nonstop to keep up. (Heâs a biochem major.)
Just want to make sure you are giving realistic consideration to the programs you will be in at NU or Williams.
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UNM attracts a lot of California residents because UNM can be less expensive than the California publics.
UNM has automatic merit
AMIGO scholarship gives instate tuition plus a $200/year stipend for 3.5 GPA and 23ACT (1130 SAT) OR 3.0 GPA & 26 ACT (1240 SAT). Scholarship is renewed annually if you maintain a 2.5 GPA.
UNMâs in-state COA (tuition, fees, meals, housing) is around $24,000/year.
If you belong to a URM group, UNM offers national achievement scholarships: National Hispanic Scholar, National Indigenous Scholar and National African American Scholar. All of these give FREE tuition and fees. Scholarships are renewed annually if you maintain 3.3. GPA and take at least 15 credit hours each semester.
UNM also has competitive merit. The Regentsâ Scholarship is a true FREE RIDE. It pays tuition, fees, living expenses, meals and offer special perks like special housing, honors seminars, and special access to research opportunities and early registration for classes. Scholarship renewed annually if you maintain a 3.3 GPA and take 15 credits/semester.
The Regentsâ requires a separate application, but itâs an easy application. (No long essays!)
UNMâs med school is directly across the street from the undergrad dorms on the main campus. Plenty of opportunities to get involved with undergrad research, to do hospital volunteering and community service.
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There is something that you might want to think about to help you decide what sort of university is a good fit for you.
I think that it is generally wrong to think of âtop 10â universities as âbetterâ compared to âtop 100â or âtop 150â universities. A lot of universities have very good professors. The biggest difference with the most highly ranked universities is probably that they are more famous. The next biggest difference is that the professors can assume that all of the students are academically excellent and motivated, and can pace the classes accordingly.
On the other hand, professors teaching premed classes at a relatively wide range of universities will be doing the same thing with one big reason being to separate the students who are going to get accepted to and make it through medical school and be good doctors from the students who are not going to make the cut.
Also, if you look at highly ranked graduate programs (including but not limited to medical school) the students will have gotten their bachelorâs degrees at a wide range of universities.
I did get my bachelorâs and masterâs degrees at highly ranked and academically challenging universities. It was a lot of work. There is a tradeoff here. Classes were designed for motivated and academically strong students. Some of the professors were famous for very good reasons (my undergraduate academic advisor for example was an excellent and very interesting professor, and later was the math advisor for the movie âGood Will Huntingâ). However, there was a lot of homework and the homework was tough.
Let me give you one example. In graduate school (masterâs degree) I was taking five classes at once. One class gave out one homework assignment per week. One homework assignment had five problems. The third problem took me six hours on a Saturday (from 11am to about 5pm, afterward I went out to dinner with my girlfriend who was a student in the same program). So letâs suppose that you were to similarly take 6 hours on a Saturday working on one single problem from a homework assignment. How would you feel when you were done? Would you be thrilled that you could solve it, or would you feel like you just wasted your Saturday afternoon? If you would be thrilled that you could solve it, then a highly ranked and academically challenging university may be a good fit for you.
But then premed classes will be challenging at a wide range of universities.
And if a highly ranked medical school has 100 students, they might very well have gotten their bachelorâs degrees at 50 or even 70 different universities. A few years back I for example got to hear the welcome reception for incoming students at a highly ranked DVM program. They said where each incoming student got their bachelorâs degree. It was rare to hear the same school named twice.
My two main feelings with regard to a very academically strong student (which you are) attending a highly ranked university might come down to two things: One is that you do not need to do it. The other is that you should only do it if you want to do it (this is all assuming that you get accepted and can afford it).
By the time that I got to my masterâs degree I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I was fine with studying on a Saturday afternoon and a Sunday afternoon and evening. At the time it was right for me. You get to decide whether it is right for you.
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If Northwestern is your favorite and you can afford the NPC, then I think applying ED is a really smart choice. You have the grades and stats and even a slight boost from ED is better than none! There are TONS of CA students applying to these schools, so take advantage of anything that can help your odds. When I went to the Northwestern info session they said they do give a boost for applying ED. You may also want to have an ED2 school lined up in case you get denied from Northwestern. With your interests and priorities I would consider Vanderbilt and WashU for an ED2. Good luck to you!
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