Pre-Med college search

College Search & Lists
21

<p>Take off UW…won’t be affordable. And if you are applying because of its med school, it wont likely accept you. UW SOM takes few OOS students except the MD/PhD students and some AK students because of an agreement. </p>

<p>I dont see any financial safeties on your list. Those would be schools that you know FOR SURE will have a remaining cost of what your parents will pay. You should have 2-3 of those since you have an unaffordable EFC.</p>

<p>Your “factors for consideration” needs to be tweaked. You dont just need FA (which is need based), you need a school that will give you MORE than need, since you have an unaffordable EFC.</p>

<p>A school can be known for giving great FA, but that wont help you unless the school is a HYPS univ because those give super-aid. </p>

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<p>With $25K, price should drive down to below $20K, including air fare.</p>

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<p>According to C’s website, that $25k award is competitive…not assured. So, no assurance this student would get it. But, he should apply and see.</p>

<p>Tuition and fees $35,360
Room and board $10,022
Books and supplies $1,200<br>
Estimated personal expenses $2,000
Transportation expenses $800<br>
Estimated Total $49,382 </p>

<p>need to add 1200+ for Hawai’i travel…so COA would be over $52k - 55k during time of attendance…if given $25k in merit (a frozen amount), then remaining costs would be $27k-30k. </p>

<p>He should apply to Creighton, just to see, but there is a decent chance it wont be affordable. I dont know if the fact that C is a “premed mill” makes it rather cutthroat as they have to weed-out a bunch of those contenders.</p>

<p>No matter where the OP goes, he needs to avoid debt as an undergrad because he will have to borrow a LOT for med school…especially if he goes to a private SOM like Creighton. When my son was looking over the costs of his med school acceptances, SLU SOM (another Jesuit SOM), would have cost over $70k per year. If borrowing, that would be around $300k. If a person also has undergrad debt (which will grow during med school), the student could graduate with nearly 400k in debt. Yikes. </p>

22

<p>@mom2collegekids I know that UH Manoa and Temple are financial safeties for me. I may add Alabama to my list I’m not sure yet.</p>

23

<p>All I know is that the UCs are not good for pre-med. Look at this list:
<a href=“The Experts' Choice: Superior Pre-med Programs | CollegeXpress”>http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/lists/list/the-experts-choice-colleges-with-great-pre-med-programs/199/&lt;/a&gt;
The list gives you ideas, but don’t take it for science. Do your own research on the colleges that it provides and see if you find any matches to your description.
You need to look at colleges with strong endowments for great financial aid, but the thing is that most of the schools with strong endowment per student are ultra-competitive. </p>

24

<p>Of your listed factors, Rice has all but one (I am assuming that Houston weather is too warm too be “good weather”).</p>

<p>For pre-med, being next to the largest medical center in the world is very cool, and lots of joint research.</p>

25

<p>@2018RiceParent and Rice got honorable mention on that list, so the OP should definitely consider it. I’m not really sure why it didn’t get top-choice, but then again, lists are not scientific facts and the site doesn’t provide its methodology. </p>

26

<p>“not cutthroat environment”</p>

<p>This may eliminate a number of schools that have a lot of high stats premeds. All or nearly all schools do a good bit of weeding (limiting the A’s and B’s) to force weaker students to move on to other career goals. </p>

<p>Every spring, in the premed forum here on CC, there are premed students posting who are upset that their frosh or soph grades are no longer med-school acceptable.</p>

27

<p>not cutthroat environment is not a make it or break it factor, but rather a preference</p>

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<p>A surprising number of the “happiest” schools (Vanderbilt, Rice, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna etc.) also have high (unfiltered) med school acceptance rates. On the other end of the spectrum Illinois Tech, Clarkson CalTech etc. (among the “least happy” schools as rated by the Princeton surveys) would apparently be high pressure enough even without being premed.</p>

29

<p>Your best bets for pre-med in a non-cutthroat environment would be LACs, which also meet many of your other requirements, but unfortunately you also want an urban environment and good weather, which pretty much eliminates all the top candidates.</p>

<p>You never can get everything you want when you start having too many requirements, so what’s truly important to you? (If money is an issue, that’s usually #1) Prioritize, add on one or two requirements at a time, and see what you get. Once you get down to about 10-15 schools, you can start looking to see what really fits.</p>

30

<p>I want to second what Mr.Mom62 said. Many LACs will meet your requirements except the city and weather. </p>

<p>Check those LACs that will meet full financial need, like Bowdoin, Carleton, Grinnell, Macalester, Washington and Lee, & Trinity. There are ways to make up for the less desirable location and weather. Grinnell offers paid summer internships. Some people in this forum think students can study more with less distractions in colder weather areas and they can always be creative and have fun in the cold weather. </p>

<p>Being Asian and coming from Hawaii, you may add geographic and racial diversity to an LAC. There are much more Asians in national universities than in LACs.</p>

<p>USC and WashU probably won’t give you very generous FA, and WashU is highly competitive among the pre-med students. You may have chances to get a good merit scholarship at Rhodes, Rochester, Tulane but you may still need to pay $20-30K. Rice and Vanderbilt usually give good FA but the admission is becoming more and more competitive in recent years. Applying ED may bring better chances. Vandy has a no-loan FA, which is very attractive (especially for pre-med students) and there is a hospital right on campus.</p>

31

<p>I would say my most important factors are

  1. money
  2. strength of program
  3. social life and city</p>
32

<p>Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford (“HYPS”) are not the only colleges that grant generous need-based aid. Approximately 60 colleges claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need. That doesn’t mean all 60 will be equally generous. The very most selective schools do tend to offer larger grants than the less selective of those 60. </p>

<p>Colleges that claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need base their needs assessments primarily on family income, assets, and a few other factors, not including your family’s spending levels. If you cannot cover your Expected Family Contribution, then somehow you’ll have to make up the gap (or else choose another college). Merit aid may or may not be enough to close the gap. </p>

<p>Use the online Net Price Calculators to estimate your net costs for several kinds of schools.</p>

33

<p>Holy Cross has great pre-med program with distinguished med alumni base includung Nobel Prize winner, current president of AMA, med school deans etc. HC also meets 100% of demonstrated financial aid, has beautiful campus 1 hour from Boston. Holy Cross has one of the most loyal alumni netwoks all over the country including alumni club in Hawaii.</p>