Yes exactly. It is also not uncommon to apply 2-3 times before matching (although plenty match the first time). Most take some time first to work, volunteer etc.
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Many places welcome students who would like to shadow, although most I know did this in college or in the 1-2 years following. It’s not about accumulating a lot of hours….its more about understanding the career and what it entails.
There are organizations that offer recorded sessions to watch, interviews etc.
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I’ll look for some recorded sessions! Thanks.
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One more thing…
She can be involved in research in all of these career paths/majors - during undergrad, grad school, and career.
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The University of New Hampshire is not too big compared to other universities, has merit scholarships for OOS students, has the communication disorders and sciences major and a major/minor in genetics if that is of interest.
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On this thread, this was one of the last posts talking about the college application list, and then there was a discussion about whether Conn College or Brandeis should be added.
In today’s Parents of the C/o 2026 thread, you shared this:
From the schools I mentioned upthread, I’d still look at Ithaca, Marquette, and West Chester. The two privates have been known for generous merit aid, and West Chester has a lower sticker price to begin with that may be able to get within budget. I’ll be back after giving your post some more thought 
.
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@Ali-ice, can you let us know if she prefers larger schools or whether she simply likes the variety of multiple bio/health-related options? Below are some east coast options that I think have the potential to meet the budget that have a variety of bio and health options. I still tried to find some smaller schools as that had been a previous preference, though I don’t know whether the smaller size is still preferred.
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Duquesne (PA ): About 5200 undergrads at this Jesuit school in Pittsburgh (and can cross-register at other Pittsburgh colleges)
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Elizabethtown (PA ): About 1900 undergrads
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Mercyhurst (PA ): About 2300 undergrads and less than 4 miles from Lake Erie
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Moravian (PA ): About 2k undergrads (and can cross-register with other Lehigh Valley colleges like Lehigh, Lafayette, and Muhlenberg). Moravian is 1 mile from Lehigh.
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Nazareth (NY): About 1900 undergrads at this school in a Rochester suburb that has a mix of bio/health-related options.
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Salisbury (MD): About 6300 undergrads with nearby water options, including Ocean City that’s less than 50m away
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Simmons (MA): A women’s college of about 1800 undergrads that is part of the Colleges of the Fenway consortium that allows students to cross-register for classes and participate in clubs together.
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Slippery Rock (PA ): About 6800 undergrads and would fall within budget before any merit aid received
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Springfield (MA): About 1900 undergrads
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SUNY Brockport: About 5400 undergrads and less than 13 miles (23m) from the Hamlin Beach State Park on Lake Ontario
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SUNY Plattsburgh: About 3900 undergrads and less than 2 miles from Lake Champlain (and 1h11m from Montreal, per Google Maps)
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U. of Scranton (PA ): About 3700 undergrads at this Jesuit college
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York (PA ): About 3300 undergrads
I’ll be back with some options from other parts of the country, but if you can let people know what appeals (or doesn’t appeal) about various suggestions that have been made (by me or others), that can help us to better fine-tune our recommendations.
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HEY OP HERE with an update – I can’t remember the last full list – so I’ll put the newest working list here and then add some details!
Safety
University of Kansas - both affordable AND should get in
LIKELY (with caveats)
Miami University (Ohio) - applying Early Action - her GPA should give her a good auto merit but also hoping for Honors college
Loyola University Chicago - likely to get in, may NOT get enough $
DePaul - likely to get in -may not get enough $
University of Rhode Island - likely to get in - may not get enough money
Mulhenberg College - applying EA - good shot at getting in and NPC is GOOD!
TARGET
(Net price calculator is good but whether she gets in - we will have to see!)
Brandeis
Mount Holyoke
Union College (applying Early Action)
Dickinson College
Connecticut College
MAYBE adding to target list?
Syracuse (NPC is GOOD), Juanita College
HARD TARGETS/MORE REALISTIC REACHES
Skidmore -need aware
Macalester (applying EA) -need aware
Smith
REACH
Scripps
Washington and Lee (for Johnson)
She loves the IDEA of going to Ireland -but when I explained that University of Limerick made you pick a major (or major area) and stick with it - she was really nervous about that idea
We also have some Canadian schools: Mount Allison, Dalhousie, Acadia
TO answer the question above -she wants to have MORE options regarding biology related and health related majors - she’s afraid she will start in biology and then will want to switch (as happens to many, many students) – other options like Animal Behavior (a big interest), or Healthcare Administration (if she hates organic chem) might be good alternative options — knowing her she would still thrive at a school where she has close interactions with her instructors. But an honors program could do that. (She’s also very self-motivated and will likely seek out opportunities)
Hope that update helps
ETA: I just feel this list is REALLY LAC heavy -and well, they don’t have a TON of majors related to Biology or Health fields --thinking some of the LAC should go and be replaced with other options. (Mount Holoyke and Smith are good because they have the consortium - same with Scripps)
I think I am struggling with the concept of a “health related” major. Many health care professions require a graduate degree- is that ok? Is she looking for something such as health sciences or biomedical engineering, for example?
Maybe focus more on shadowing opportunities, internships and research positions in public health, etc?
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I’ve seen some colleges with Health Science majors and others with Health Administration. Also some allied health fields like Communication Disorders. For biology - a wider breath of options -so Biotech, Animal Behavior, Animal science, maybe aquatic or fisheries or marine biology. I have seen some that break it down into concentrations within biology -so then there are good paths for the pre-med people and other paths for other biological focus areas.
Probably clear as mud -but I’ll try to give an example. When we were looking at University of Rhode Island - she was thrilled to see Biology and also Animal Science and Technology, Aquaculture and Fisheries, Biotechnology, Cell and Molecular Biology, Communication Disorders, Environmental Sciences, Marine Biology --and that was only half way through the alphabet! She just felt like that had some many more choices if she wanted to change her mind to something similar but different.
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Below are some other possible schools in the Great Lakes area that might be of interest:
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Bradley (IL): About 3900 undergrads
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Carroll (WI): About 2600 undergrads at this school in a suburb of Milwaukee
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Central Michigan: About 10k undergrads and the sticker price will fall within budget as well
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Northern Illinois: About 11k undergrads and since there’s no separate out-of-state tuition here, this school’s sticker price falls within budget.
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U. of Minnesota - Duluth: About 8500 undergrads and less than 2 miles from Lake Superior. Sticker price is close to budget, and I suspect that your D would receive merit aid.
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U. of Wisconsin - Eau Claire: About 9300 undergrads and the sticker price falls within budget already (source), and it appears as though she would get at least an additional $8k off automatically (source), making this option a little over $20k (or less, if she gets honors or other scholarships).
As you may be able to tell, I’ve also been trying to find some options that will be sure things financially so that she is guaranteed to have more than one option.
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Central Michigan comes up so often! 
I put it on the list -then take it off -then put it back on.
Things are SO WEIRD with the NPCs – Marquette doesn’t make it. Which is a bummer because it has a lot to offer. I think Ithaca is more art focused than STEM? But I was thinking about it (AGAIN) today.
I looked at Simmons (because can we say LOCATION?) but I think it had really limited majors. I’ll have to look again. Also, I wanted to give her options that I think are at least as strong as Mulhenberg . MAYBE she won’t get in -but I think she has a REALLY good chance -and assuming the NPC is good - that should be a really good choice where I think she would be happy. I’m not saying anything on this list is BAD - at all - but is it better than Mulhenberg? Better than KU? Or at least offer something unique? But there COULD easily be something like that on your list -so I’ll have to do more investigating!
The University of Vermont has a lot to offer.
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I love UVM for her. But even with a Presidential scholarship it’s 40K. Completely out of range.
Sorry if these were mentioned before, but if you are looking at URI, what about Roger Williams or Salve Regina? I am not sure what the cost would work out to but we know many kids who had amazing merit offers. My son did not apply to Salve, but we really liked Roger Williams as a safety and they were very generous with merit. Similar UW GPA as your kid.
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I think Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan (very close to Grand Rapids) would fit the bill. It is a large school, but most lectures are either fairly small or have a discussion/lab component that involves a smaller class size. In my experience, even in a large class, it is easy to make connections with the professor. In addition, Grand Valley has a wide variety of both biology-related majors health-related majors. It should make budget with your daughter’s stats as well. I am a current Radiation Therapy major there (and bounced around between biology- and health-related degrees), so let me know if you have any questions!
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The NPCs are important, but at schools that offer merit aid, there are some that can be very generous, providing larger scholarships for strong students than would have been provided via need-based aid. Is Marquette’s NPC including an estimate of merit aid, or just need-based aid?
It definitely has strong arts programs, but that should not be mistaken for weakness in other fields. Not to say that everyone needs a doctorate, but here are the number of people who earned doctorates between 2010-2023 by undergraduate institution (just looking at NY here):
BIology
Chemistry
Math
I don’t have the time to do ratios to undergrads or the number of Bachelor’s recipients for the various fields/colleges, but I strongly suspect that your D will be well-prepared for whatever she chooses to pursue in the science/health fields from Ithaca.
Its majors are more limited than they were a few years ago when they did some reorg/streamlining, but for the areas of interest for your D, I thought that they would have been plentiful. And because of the consortium (where the colleges are all quite close together), that also expands the options.
How are you evaluating the strength of Muhlenberg, and as compared to other schools?
It’s great that Muhlenberg’s NPC is coming back as affordable and that it’s a likely admit. But I thought you were researching more schools because you were seeking schools that offered more bio/health-related majors than most liberal arts colleges? Though Muhlenberg does offer public health, I wouldn’t say it has far more majors in those areas than most other smaller schools. Additionally, I wouldn’t lay all my eggs in a basket based on an NPC. The NPC should hopefully be accurate, but I have heard of too many instances where a school’s financial offer came back different from the NPC and the school won’t budge despite the NPC results being shared. It doesn’t necessarily happen the majority of the time, but it happens often enough that I wouldn’t want my kid’s option to have a choice be contingent on that happening.
I can’t say whether any of these schools are “better” than Muhlenberg or KU. But they are different from those. They were largely selected based on having an assortment of bio/health-related majors that were relatively popular, which I am using as a proxy for strength in the area. I was leaning towards smaller schools because of the desire for small classes, and I was looking for schools where I think there was a good to excellent chance of the school making the budget. But I readily admit that I am not intimately acquainted with the majority of the schools I suggested, so I would love for you to share anything you learn during your investigations!
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Can you please discuss your budget again? I am not convinced that most OOS schools would provide enough merit, other than possibly SUNY- which has a lower cost to begin with for OOS students.
Adding: SUNY Geneseo has a variety of majors, COA for OOS students before merit is about $36,000 a year, and they give merit scholarships (even for TO) to OOS students.
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