What colleges should I consider?

You need to know what your EFC is for these schools and what your parents can afford to pay. Duke and Stanford are great schools with terrific financial aid for those who qualify. Run the NPC for these schools to understand if you can afford them. $65,000 per year is a lot of money for families who don’t qualify for aid.

Duke has limited and very competitive merit scholarships. With your excellent stats, you are well positioned for college admissions.

@txstella Thanks for the quick reply. I’ve been looking more into the costs and expenses of college, and have also been discussing this with my parents lately. I feel that they’ve been hinting at the idea that they would prefer to send me to a school that maybe isn’t as prestigious or great, but where I have a better chance of getting more financial/merit aid, than to send me to a school with prestige and “wow” status, but where I wouldn’t receive as much/any financial or merit aid. And to be honest, I’d prefer to save that money for if/when I go to med school.

That being said, are there any schools (still pretty decent/good schools) out there where I would be able to receive a good amount of merit aid (maybe 70% or above) with my stats?

You have some terrific in-state options in California. Consider yourself fortunate.

You should look over the list of National Merit Scholarships. Someone posted the link for you. Schools like Oklahoma, Alabama, and Arizona State would give you a full ride. Drexel would give you full tuition.

Then look at top rated schools where you might be competetive for merit scholarships. USC (NMF is half-tuition but there is a competetive merit scholarship that is worth more money), Duke, UNCH, etc. These scholarships are hard to win, but you might get one. There is a list of competetive scholarships pinned in the financial aid forum of College Confidential.

@txstella Thank you for your help and the very quick replies, your posts were very helpful!! :slight_smile:

At least some of the schools listed by @txstella may no longer offer full rides but full tuition. Look at each school’s web site to verify.

^ He is right. I should have said full tuition plus. My DS received a letter from the University of Oklahoma that detailed a lot of benefits, but I can’t remember all of the details. Full rides are pretty rare.

Any reason UCI isn’t on your list?

And Michigan is really expensive for OOS. Hard to justify the additional expense for pre-med when your in-state alternative is likely to be a very good UC.