Hi! I am currently a junior in a fairly small high school in Missouri. I want to go to college for premed, as I want to later go to med school and be an OB/GYN or neonatologist. Here’s a little about me:
ACT: 30 (this is the only time I've taken it and was during sophomore year. I just took it again and am confident that I can get it up quite a bit)
GPA: 3.93 UW/4.24 W
I have taken all honors classes that are offered at my school. My school doesn't offer AP courses, but by the end of my senior year I will have taken adv bio, adv chem, anatomy & physiology, physics, and math up to calc. I also will have 5 years of Spanish. My transcript so far is all A's.
Rank: 3/348 as of last semester
ECs: Medical Explorers (shadow healthcare professionals), ACES (local healthcare organization for students interested in healthcare), DECA (officer; director of missions; competing in BOS with a project on employee engagement in the hospital), FBLA (healthcare administration and personal finance), Leadership Team, Science Club, Math Club, Foreign Language Club (officer), 3 year varsity volleyball player (currently being recruited), senior rep for a photographer, prom committee, and I am a biology tutor. As for volunteering, I do various things for the different clubs I'm in; for example, I organized a walk for autism. I also am beginning to volunteer at my local hospital. I also sometimes coach young volleyball players.
I am planning on starting a medical club at my school, as well as potentially getting a job as a PCA (aide) over the summer in my local hospital.
So, that’s me so far. My dream school is WUSTL, but I know how elite of a school that is, so it would be a stretch. I would just be curious to hear any opinions on what schools I should be looking at? More importantly, what are some things that I could do to boost my chances of potentially going to WUSTL? Like I said, I am being recruited for volleyball, and I have demonstrated interest in their school by visiting this past summer. Where should I go from here?
bump. My GPA is now almost a 4.3 with the end of semester. I also will be shadowing an ER physician who said he would be happy to write me any recommendations. Again, just curious what would make me a good candidate for acceptance into WUSTL and similar top notch schools.
The only other thing you can do is apply ED to indicate that it’s your top choice.
You might also want to take a look at some LACs. They offer a more supportive, less competitive atmosphere for pre-meds. The ‘weeder class’ mentality doesn’t seem to be as prevalent as a way of cutting down the pre-meds. And getting to know your faculty is important for that committee letter.
If you want to stay in the midwest, check out Carleton, Grinnell, Oberlin, Macalester and Hendrix. But any of the LACs in the top 30+ (to pick a totally arbitrary cut-off) would have strong enough basic sciences to get you where you need to go.
You should be checking the Common Data Set for any school to which you are considering applying. You can google it. Then scroll down to Section C to check your stats against those of admitted students.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply ED. But I would start working hard on finding some low reaches, matches, and most important of all, safeties. Once again, I suggest you check out the LACs.
Be aware that medical schools are much less prestige sensitive than other grad schools. They care about your GPA and your MCAT and the competition can be fierce at some schools, so you want to attend a school where you are comfortably in the top 25% - definitely not in the bottom quarter. I know of two students who were both at the top of their classes from very demanding high schools, who gave up their pre-med aspirations at WUSTL when they realized just how much work was going to be involved, especially when compared to the other options available. So even if you do get into WUSTL, think hard about whether this is your best fit given your aspirations.
