I just started my first day of senior year, and I am trying to make some serious decisions about where I am hoping to go to college. I have applied and been accepted to University of Alabama already. I am in the middle-low range of many ivies accepted students, and I am trying to decide if I should spend time applying to ivies (I don’t want to waste time if I will not be accepted.
I have not taken SAT II tests, which is mostly why I am starting this thread. I don’t want to waste my time studying for Sat IIs if my other stats rule out any chance of getting into the ivies/Stanford. (Stanford/Harvard/Yale are my top choices).
[ *] ACT: 33 (34, 31, 32, 34)
[ *] SAT II : Haven’t taken
[ *] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
[ *] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/203
[ *] AP (place score in parenthesis): Comp (4), Calc AB (5), Gov (4), APUSH (4), Chem (3)
[ *] IB (place score in parenthesis):
[ *] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): 4 years backstage plays (stage manager, won awards), 3 years language club (treasurer), National Honor Society, National Art Honor Society, Varsity Tennis all four years
[ *] Job/Work Experience: All junior and senior year worked at pizza place. 30 hours per week during school year, full time+ during the summer. Became a manager/shift lead and was in charge of training new hires and opening/closing cash drawer
[ *] Volunteer/Community service: Projects mainly organized though my NHS, SNAP Club to help mentally impaired
[ *] Essays: Strong
[ *] Teacher Recommendation: All strong recs
[ *] Intended Major: Biology/Microbiology
[ *] State: Michigan
[ *] Country (if international applicant):
[ *] School Type: Public
[ *] Ethnicity: White
[ *] Gender: Male
[ *] Income Bracket: $115,000
Nothing in your post tells us what you’re looking for in a college, besides being a possible Bio major, so it is hard to give any advice as to which schools might be best for you.
First did you run a NPC and parents can/will come up with the cost. Those 3 are so long shots for all applicants with stats in range, which you are, you have to decide that yourself really.
@BrownParent is it my ACT score/extra curriculars that make you say it’s a looong shot? @snarlatron I’m planning on going into medicine. Preferably Stanford. Harvard, too, has a great program. Most ivies have great programs. I’m just wondering if I have any chance at schools of this caliber.
Note I said long shot for everyone. And you don’t have a big hook. No one can say if you should go for it except you and your parents, possibly with advice from GC if your school regularly sends to those targets. And as an undergrad you aren’t going into medicine yet!
Your ECs don’t have the “pop” needed for the very top echelon. But you might have luck at Cornell or Dartmouth. But you are lucky enough to have U if Michigan as your state flagship, and there are a lot of similarities between Cornell and Michigan. In that case, you should save the money and take the world class education at Michigan (which also seems a far superior choice to Alabama – not dissing Alabama, but Michigan is a much stronger school and in-state for you).
Yes, what @intparent said. Go to UofM if you have an eye towards med school. Save your parents some $. Hopefully you didn’t go to Huron or Pioneer HS and feel it’s too close.
You have the numbers. So it comes down to subjective stuff like extracurriculars. And you did not write much about that. Maybe you thought it was not important? It is. So maybe there is more to your profile than you realized. If so, post more stuff for a better answer. Cos right now, you seem pretty generic.
I’ll share with you a not commonly known fact. Kids from MI who turn down HYPS offers-- mostly b/c they’re lured by UMich. It’s too good of an inexpensive education —
If you are serious, look at a combined BS/MD program. Brown and Rice have guaranteed admission to medical school. Rice is particularly attractive since the campus is across the street from the Baylor medical school and hospital complex (largest in the world), and will let you participate in research as a freshman. You don’t have to take the MCAT with either program.
Otherwise save the money and go to UMich or Alabama, both in the honors program, unless you get awesome financial aid. If it were me, I would prefer the guaranteed admission route. You have the stats to qualify.
Do you guys think that I would be almost guaranteed at UMich as an in state student? And what really appeals to me about Alabama is that I have automatic free tuition (through my stats) and will almost 100% be in the honors program. I am also applying to their CBHP which have avg ACT 33 and GPA 4.3, only accepts .5% of students and gives wonderful research opportunities
You don’t have to decide until you have all your admission results in hand. You are not guaranteed admission at Michigan, but think about what it says that the same stats guarantee admission and a big discount at another school. But the cost is cheaper at AL and that matters to you a lot, it could be a reasonable choice. I personally would rather be a “regular” Michigan student than an honors student at most other state universities, though.
I agree with @intparent, but maybe also consider the costs of going 800 miles back and forth to Alabama several times a year for 4 years, vs. going to U of M (OP lives close to Ann Arbor).
Note that UMich guarantee need met to all in state students, What is your EFC? With $115k family income, you are not likely to get much need based aid though. On the other hand, getting into LSA Honors is not that difficult with your score.
For your 30hr/week job at pizza place, are you saying you are working 6 hours a day during school year? Even if it is possible, this is a very bad idea particularly for junior and senior year.
For Harvard, Yale, Stanford, nothing in your app really says: “I want to do biology” in the future. Maybe something occurred when you were helping the mentally impaired…I don’t know. You’ll have to emphasize why you chose biology out of all the majors.
If you’re aiming for med school, I’d just go for U Mich. I’d think you’d have a strong chance as you are in-state.
Med school can cost up to 80,000 a year which your parents likely cannot afford. Med schools I believe aren’t too generous with financial aid either, so I would suggest that you save as much money as possible now to fund your med school education.
But, I still think 20,000 a year at U Mich is still better than Alabama as in my opinion, they are two schools on different levels. It is certainly possible to get into a great med school by going to Alabama, but going to U Mich will help a bit more.
If you really need that money, then you have no other choice. But your $115k household income does not justify that. Junior year is most important for college application. If you put half of that hours into school work and test prep, you may increase course rigor, get better AP scores, spend more time on essays for college apps and scholarship, and get an ACT score in the range for merit scholarship at UMich.
You haven’t mentioned any hooks, and the chances of getting into HYPS even with a hook are tiny. From what I’ve heard, your grades and MCAT scores are far more important to getting into med school than brand name – and Michigan is no slouch in that department anyway.
A lot of people on CC love UAlabama for its affordability, and it’s got some good things to offer. My daughters considered it briefly but it’s definitely not for them. Do consider that it will be far easier to get a 3.5 at Alabama than Michigan (or Harvard or Stanford) and that’s very important.
A bit of trivia – I have friends who went to Harvard (and got near perfect grades and scores) but didn’t get into Harvard Med, and family who works at Johns Hopkins (also a respectable school). The consensus is that schools are LESS likely to accept you into med school if you went there for undergrad. Apparently it’s talked about behind the scenes quite a bit, although that’s just anecdotes.