Hi, I am currently a high school senior from New York. I have been deferred from two of my reach schools so far and I am worried to hear back from some others. So far I have made Hofstra with the Presidential Scholarship and SUNY Albany. My ultimate dream is to become a physician after medical school, looking for the best possible route to that goal. The reason my GPA is so low is mainly due to the fact that freshman and sophomore year I put no effort into my work. Junior/senior year I have tried my best to redeem myself, went from 88/91 to a 94 by Junior year.
Some info:
SAT - 1900 (600/600/700writing)
ACT - 26
GPA - 3.7
ECs:
-Varsity Bowling Captain/JV Bowling Captain (1st place) Captain of 2 other teams/Coach/Sergeant at Arms of Youth Leaders+Bowling League President
-130+hours volunteer at hospital
-MMA High-brown belt (7 years) help teach children’s classes
-2 jobs (busboy/bowling alley worker)+ 1yr camp counselor+math tutor
-Summer medical internship (5 weeks/5days a week)
-Service Award
-summer baseball player/coach
-help fix computers in school each morning in tech club
-volunteer at various veteran based events/snow shovel for senior citizens
-Intramural Basketball captain 3 years
-Wrestling freshman year
-National honors society
-Math Team
-Senior Year APs (my only AP classes that I’ve taken unfortunately) AP Chemistry, AP Calc AB, AP Lang
I have applied to:
-SUNY Binghamton
-Stony brook
-Buffalo
-University of Miami
-Villanova (Deferred)
-Northeastern (Deferred)
-Macaulay Honors College
I plan to apply to:
-UNC-Chapel Hill
-NC State
-Cornell
-NYU
-Sophie Davis
Generally looking for some suggestions of where to apply if all else fails. I know it is late in the year by now so I would need to go through regular decision. Not looking for a safety, more like an equal match, could be either in-state or out of state. My primary goal is to reach medical school. Thank you in advance!
Muhlenberg and Scranton have incredible science facilities and send lots of kids to medical school. You are high in the middle 50% or low in the top 25% for these two.
Agree with the above poster UNC-Chapel Hill out of state is one of the most dfficult acceptances in the country. NYY and Cornell are major reaches and NYU even if you got in is very pricey with poor financial aid and you are not a merit candidate.
You will do well at any of the SUNY’s you are accepted at. My younger daughter’s best friend’s sister is a freshman in the Honors program at SUNY Albany in environmental science and is very happy with the program, the advisor and the honors housing.
I would not bother with schools not within reach such as UNC and Cornell. As a pretty big reach you still have NYU. You might look into Fordham, SUNY New Paltz, Muhlenberg, Union to name a few. Try using the Supermatch function on CC under Find A College.
What is your proposed major? You can reach med school from any major, you just have to take the med school requirements. The reason I ask is because you don’t seem to be strong at standardized testing, and a high MCAT score is essential to med school admissions. You want a major that is employable if your med school dream does not work out. Bio doesn’t have great employment opportunities, for example.
If you want to go to med school, your best bet is state school. Otherwise, if your parents can pay for a private school then go to a liberal arts school
The 4 years of college should not be just about getting into the next level of schooling. I’d choose the school that will give you a quality college experience if you can afford it. Why go to one far less likely to be satisfying in the hopes that in 4 years you will get into med school?Muhlenberg and Scranton seem like excellent choices. If you have to attend a public school, choose one in a state known to have excellent public universities. They are not all utilitarian bare bones institutions. Some flagships are outstanding and regional/directional schools in states that have good systems can also be very good. The problem is that they are all out of state for you and therefore expensive. chapel Hill and UC are obviously excellent but hard to get into. But instate public schools for you are very different from any of the others discussed here. The other schools seem like much better choices.
This online list, “The Experts’ Choice: Colleges with Great Pre-med Programs,” can be a useful source for suggestions. St. Olaf, Muhlenberg, Knox and St. Louis University could be options for you.
Thank you for all of the responses! I will definitely researched the suggested colleges, but will still throw out some applications to the places I listed. Just feels like the right thing to do. I am not sure of a major honestly, my initial career plans involved computer work and I planned to major in computer science possibly, but I have drifted from that. I do need a backup, but if I can not reach medical school I would still love to do something in the medical field itself.
@Danxiety You are a bright kid but your application strategy is terrible. The two schools you have been accepted to have terrible 4 year graduation rates and not so great first year retention rates. You need more realistic schools with high graduation rates and better retention rates. The schools you want to apply to are like flushing money down the toilet and worse your remaining options are relatively poor.
And that is the exact reason this post is alive! Do you agree with the previously suggested colleges or have any others that I should consider applying to? @TurnerT
The suggestions are very good. Get a better core of schools where you are comfortably in the middle 50%. If you want to take risk a school like Lafayette is about all I would take.
Thank you @TurnerT . I am doing more research at the current moment, and the next question would be do you have any suggestions for that middle 50% school based on my statistics? And opinion on SUNY Binghamton/Stony Brook?