Do you think my 6 APs are weak? For UGA the average was 8 but I really don’t know how I could fit more in without making my schedule insane. Unless I dropped Spanish 3 ACP next year and did AP micro/macro instead. But would only 2 years of spanish be bad? Also, do you have any recommendations for strong pre-med schools that aren’t on my list already that I’m more likely to get in to?
Does it also help that I will have taken 4 ACP courses?
I understand. My kids weren’t interested in some colleges as well. And that was fine with us.
Please please give your parents a huge hug and a big thank you for supporting your college education at just about any college to which you get accepted.Some families won’t do that even if they can.
You could be looking at $800,000 in overall costs for undergrad and medical school. Please ask your parents if that is possible.
Then…just do the best you can for now…and come back here after the middle of your junior year with your ACT score. Folks will happily give you college suggestions.
Since you attend a small private school, you should speak with the college counselor there as well…for ideas.
3 Likes
This is a common concern, especially for OOS students. UGA uses a holistic admissions review. Your number of APs will be evaluated in the context of what is available in your high school. For example, my D’s high school restricted APs to 11th and 12th graders so the top kids had 5-7 APs. Other high schools allow APs starting in 9th grade so those students may have more APs. (Side note: The latter scenario is not unusual at many of the metro Atlanta public schools.)
Use the admitted students stats as informational but not as a requirement.
1 Like
There are some med school experts here and they may chime in. The sad story is, the majority of kids who enter into college premed, never make it to med school. And it has nothing to do with the name of the school they did their undergrad at.
As for colleges you have visited or seen in person so far, what have you liked and not liked about them?
2 Likes
Please take a look at the admission requirements for UIUC. Only two years of foreign language is a minimum standard. 4 years is recommended. Assume your other schools would have similar recommendations. Or better yet, look it up at each school.
A “strong premed school” is a place that you like, that you can see yourself being at for four years, and where you will be happy. In your case, it sounds like cost isn’t a factor.
So…look for colleges that you think you will like and be happy at. Happy students do better than unhappy ones. You will need to be at the top of your game regardless of where you attend undergrad school…if you plan to apply to medical school.
The name and prestige of your undergrad school will not be a needle mover in terms of your admission to medical school.
As noted above…which college can you also see yourself at if you decide NOT to pursue premed…as many decide.
There are doctors and parents of doctors on this forum🙋🏼♀️. The doctors or kids have attended a wide variety of undergrad colleges.
5 Likes
You say this in your OP, but ask if two years would be bad? My suggestion, take at least through level three of the same foreign language in high school.
5 Likes
I would keep Spanish 3 as planned.
As long as you are happy to attend any of the schools on your current list, I have no doubt you will have choices next spring. You have a balanced list with a reasonable number of applications. If that isn’t the case, let us know which schools are not the best fit and why so we can suggest others.
Plan to apply EA to any schools with that option and apply to the Honors College and any other enrichment programs of interest. These often have earlier deadlines so keep a spreadsheet to help keep track. If you haven’t already done so, create an email to be used only for college related communications and check it regularly.
Just to weigh in on the Tulane component of the thread.
Last year their acceptance rate through ED was 59% (1,156 of 1,946) and through EA/RD it was 11% (3,402 of 30,657). Applicants that it’s their tippy top school they want - and they can afford it - the guidance is to do ED. If you’re not going to do ED make sure you engage with the school to show tons of interest and focus on the school specific essays to help bolster your chances through EA.
2 Likes
No one has talked about UNC Chapel Hill, and why it’s so challenging, so I will. The problem is that you are out of state. The out of state admittance rate is something really low, like 8% because they are required, by law, to have a very high percentage of in-state students and when you combine that with a large number of out of state applicants, chances just drop for out of state - the math is not in an OOS applicants favor. There are a large number of very well qualified applicants, applying for a very small number of slots. If you love it, then shoot your shot, you never know, but coming from out of state it’s very very hard to get in to Chapel Hill.
To give some data points, I know of a good handful of seniors at our HS applied this year, and none (including my son) got in. Here are my son’s stats - UW GPA 4.0 (I won’t bother with weighted, because our scale is different). This represented 11 APs and all other academic courses were honors. 35 ACT. Eagle Scout. Captain of Varsity track team (and four year member). School representative to a regional council on HS athletics focused on leadership, ethics, best practices, and policy proposals. Regional award winner for his photography. Four years of volunteer service at local food pantry (avg service per year about 100 hours). We do live in Virginia, which sends a lot of great applicants to Chapel Hill, so I’m guessing with the limited number of OOS slots, and wanting to only have so many VA residents, he just didn’t make the cut. He applied Early Action and wasn’t even waitlisted, just outright rejected.
3 Likes
Thank you for these tips! I’m also considering adding VT to my list
1 Like
Yeah I’ll probably take UNC off of my list. It’s just so difficult OOS so I might as well not even bother. Your son’s stats are great, where is he attending?
I’ve visited UIUC. I love it, I’d just have to get over the fact that a lot of kids from my HS go there. Also USC and UCSB last summer. I liked UCSB the best, I might apply there.
Thank you for the kind words, like every student, my kid has had some challenges but he made a good list for what he wanted and schools that could offer that and Chapel Hill was his only rejection. He’s going to Clemson next year - and he’s stoked! Perhaps similar to what you’re feeling, he just wasn’t excited about our excellent in state options (he got in to VT also, and they arguably have a better program for what he wants; he got huge merit aid at JMU, but it’s not as good for what he wants; he refused to apply to UVA because of the type and number of students from our HS who attend).
I’ll tell you from a parent point of view, I wasn’t thrilled at paying for the more expensive OOS option when VT would’ve been a great choice. But, and it’s a big one, he was just so happy every time we visited Clemson. He lit up on campus. It was clearly obvious to me that he found the place that felt right to him, and that made me more comfortable with spending the money. Not everyone has that kind of experience - my older child never had an “aha” type moment - so at the end of the day, his choice came down to a very clear balancing of factors (this also sort of describes my boys, one is all heart, the other all head). I think you’ve got a number of really good programs on your list. When the day comes that you are deciding between acceptances, if you end up picking something appreciably more expensive than another choice, just be ready to help your parents understand your “why”, that makes the extra cost easier to swallow.
I’d suggest that unless there’s some reason you are in love with Chapel Hill, it may not be worth your time to do their essays. It’s a great school, no doubt. But it’s so hard to get into OOS that if you aren’t passionate about it, why spend the effort there when the same energy could push you over the top at a school that you care about more?
1 Like
Define academically better. In most cases, a flagship is a flagship is a flagship.
Did you know Alabama, as an example, has more National Merit Scholars than any other school - or is very close to the top. It’s far more geographically diverse than UGA and yes, more than 1500 of your fellow Illinoisans go - likely for money.
With a 30 ACT, you’d get $24K off a year.
They also have, what other schools don’t, a small pre-med special cohort - see attached.
Your UGA issue is the 30 ACT - in my humble opinion - and could be rigor too.
You might get in - but you might not - then who’s next? That’s why you apply to an entire list - but for all intents and purposes (forget a US News, etc.) there’s no difference between 60 and 150, etc. A flagship is that - some are harder to get into than others but it doesn’t make one better or worse - and some use $$ to attract top students (Bama).
Here’s the other thing - people choose safeties every day - my son chose Bama engineering over Purdue. My daughter chose College of Charleston over schools like W&L, UF, UMD, etc. Her best friend there chose Charleston over Rice, Vandy, and Penn.
So find the right school - not one that US News says is better.
Speaking of Charleston, you have MUSC (Medical U of South Carolina) down the street - so it’s a place where you can research.
Here’s the link to McCullough Medical - of which you may have an interest.
Back to your initial list, I only see IU as a sure thing. Auburn is likely. Apply early. U of SC is likely too. But closer to not. UIUC too.
The rest is lean unlikely to high reach.
Good luck.
“Academically better” is very tough to measure or define . Students can get a great education at a lot of schools based on their effort and grit. What I think is more relevant is academic reputation and geographic reach.
Certain schools (correctly or not) like Alabama are synonymous with sports and fraternities in a lot of people’s minds and it can have an impact.
For example a kid in my local northeast community can’t find a job consistent with his communications degree from Bama. Not sure of what is behind his inability to land a desirable job but he expresses his frustration that he has no local connections beyond family contacts. According to him he is basically stuck checking members in at the local gym. His brother who graduated a year earlier from an Ivy is working for a prominent consulting firm.
I wouldn’t let this anecdotal example dictate a decision but I understand and respect your families perspective. “Better” is a personal decision.
6 APs are fine. University admissions is not about piling up the longest list of APs (and your grades are very good). However, being able to speak a second language, even a bit, can be a big help for anyone who works in health care in a customer-facing role (which obviously includes doctors). Also, of all the second languages that you could pick, if you work in the US (and assuming that English is your native language) then Spanish might be the most useful in most locations. I would stick with the third year of Spanish. I also would not try to distort your schedule in any strange way just to try to add another AP class.
There are huge numbers of schools that are very good for premed students – hundreds of them. One doctor I know said that the other students in his MD program came from “all over the place” (he was referring to their undergraduate schools). Another MD I know said pretty much the same thing. Three family members who studied in very good biomedical-related graduate programs said pretty much the same thing.
Regarding major, you can as others have said major in pretty much anything and go on to medical school. As one example, a number of years ago I was looking at robot assisted surgery (it went well) and looked for information on-line. I found a video from someone who had majored in art as an undergraduate student, went on to medical school, and became a surgeon who specializes in robot-assisted surgery. In the video he uses the robotic surgery system to paint a very small picture of the hospital where he works. Some students can apparently major in art and go on to medical school. Biology and psychology however both have the advantage that they might seem to have more relevance to medicine.
However, the large majority of students who start university thinking “premed” end up doing something else. Some cannot keep up medical-school-worthy grades in tough premed classes. Quite a few however just find something else that they would prefer to do. Some forms of “something else” are related to biomedical fields, some are not. This is perfectly reasonable. University is an opportunity to explore a number of possible subjects and to figure out what is interesting to you.
And wherever you go, expect premed classes to be full of very strong students and to be academically demanding. You will want to make a very strong effort in university to keep ahead in your class work. You might be surprised at how strong the other students are in your premed classes at any one of a very wide range of universities.
If you do make it to medical school and then graduate, the ability to get to the point where they call you “doctor” with little or no debt is a huge advantage. Even doctors have trouble paying off the debt that many of them need to take on to get to this point.
To me it sounds like you are doing very well.
You have received great advice here already and I’d add one thing…do you have access to prior year admission info for applicants from your school?
At my child’s OOS private school the 5 year acceptance rate for Georgia and Clemson are 45% and 41% , respectively. However students with your stats from our school the acceptance rate is approximately 80-90 percent. (90 percent with 3.85+ and ACT of 31+). Our acceptance rate is MUCH lower (about 10 percent) for students below 3.75 and below ACT 28. There are a lot of selective schools where our schools admission data is more scattered…but in the case of these two schools a student with your stats would be a likely/very likely admit. May be worth checking your own school’s admission history, if that’s available to you.
2 Likes