Now that all the decisions are in, I’m wondering if anyone has any helpful insight about comparing the following acceptances for a domestic female student who intends to be pre-med and to double major in biochem and sociology.
D26 likes fairly small and not urban. For the first time yesterday she expressed a desire not to go somewhere where everyone is either an athlete or “weird” (I thought she was fine with an alternative vibe, and I probably would have steered her differently on applications if I knew this, but oh well). She is the kind of kid who would do well wherever (very self-motivated), but I think she would love to be somewhere where the kids around her are bright and take school and learning seriously. She has a fully funded 529 for undergrad but how much we/family members will chip in on med school is undecided at this time). We will be visiting the OH, IA, MN schools in the coming weeks.
Bates
Carleton
Colby (Presidential Scholar, no merit involved)
Colgate (Alumni Scholar, which seems to involve a special dorm and first-year seminar)
Franklin & Marshall (Presidential Scholarship, $40K/year merit)
Grinnell ($36K merit)
Kenyon ($35K merit)
Macalester ($35K merit)
Oberlin ($36K merit)
Occidental ($40K merit)
St. Olaf ($37K merit)
Wesleyan
College of Wooster (Presidential Scholar, full tuition merit)
She is also waitlisted at Bowdoin, Vassar, and Williams, and was rejected at Pomona and Amherst. Of the schools she’s seen, the ones she seemed to like the best are Colby, Bowdoin, Amherst, and Vassar. She didn’t like Wesleyan when we visited, and seemed neutral-to-positive on Bates.
FWIW, a close friend’s d had an amazing experience at St Olaf and they raved about their pre-med supports. She chose it over some of the same schools on your D’s list. She was the val of her HS so a very strong student and definitely found her people at St. Olaf. She was accepted to med school without a gap year.
I don’t think Oberlin is the vibe your D is looking for.
Of potential note, with St. Olaf, Wooster and Grinnell as options, your daughter has acquired a few acceptances from among schools that appear to be especially highly regarded for “classroom experience”:
As an opinion though, your daughter has some excellent options in general, of which all should be considered.
No point in pushing a school she doesn’t feel strongly about, but Bates has excellent pre-health advising and admissions rates to medical school. But everyone is an athlete and almost no one is weird.
Congratulations on the great admits, merit offers and honors.
Academically all will be fine for pre-med. She might look at which schools use committee letters and which don’t, if that’s of concern to her.
If you have to eliminate and can’t visit all…I would say drop Grinnell and Oberlin.
If she doesn’t want a prevalent Greek Life that affects the social fabric of the school, drop Colgate.
How does she feel about intense academics? If she wants relatively less intense drop Carleton (trimester)
After that, I think she could like and thrive at many of these schools. IMO the athlete/non-athlete divide isn’t necessarily as cliquey at any of the schools left on the list. Some people might say that about Colby and Kenyon, but the reality at these small schools 25%-40% of the students will be varsity athletes. When you add in club and intramurals obviously that proportion is higher.
I don’t think you need to worry about the pre-med piece. She’ll get into whatever med school that will take her regardless of her undergraduate college. The important thing is that she chooses a place where she’ll be happy enough to thrive academically.
DS had several friends at Colby who went to med school. Not his path, so I don’t know details. His friends were a pretty good mix of athletes, outdoorsy types, and musicians so your DD’s sense that the student body is pretty “not weird” tracks. IiRC, they do a pretty good accepted students event, so that could be a valuable data point.
Similarly, I’m not going to push Wesleyan (ha! Who am I kidding!), but it is bigger and the athletes seem to at least co-exist with the weirdos. Every end of the year Dance Dept. concert has at least one tongue-in-cheek performance from a member of the football team.
I have a prehealth student at Carleton. The STEM teaching is fabulous - my kid even enjoyed orgo! The pre-health advisor is excellent. She meets with students often and advises on classes, applications, everything and will advocate for students. They have a pre-health student group where upper classmen mentor freshman. My student has remained in contact with their mentor even after the mentor graduated and is in their top choice program. There is no gate-keeping; every student that wants to apply to med/vet/dental is supported and their success rate is fabulous.
The other students are friendly and hard-working. Everyone takes school seriously, but my student has not experienced a competitive atmosphere. It does not have an athletic or weird vibe - though your daughter can gauge for herself when she visits. Northfield is a great little town - hopefully you enjoy your visit!
She can take the required courses for medical school applicants at any of the colleges on her accepted list. Congratulations to her!!
You might want to keep in mind the new limits on federally funded student loans. The total amount including any undergrad federally funded loans is now $200,000. Add to that, for professional students (medical school students are) the annual limit is $50,000. Medical schools will likely cost $100,000 a year or more. If your student saves money on undergrad costs, can some of that be then used for medical school, should she get there?
In terms of choosing…these are all good options. Hopefully your student can figure out where they can see themselves doing well…and being happy for four years.
IMO fit and vibe are very important for LACs. Hopefully visits will help to clarify.
The second piece is finances. Since the student is pre-med, can the money saved through some of the scholarships help to fund med school (or any other grad school if the path changes)?
I think you need to decide this now because if the answer is full pay, we can’t help or we can but there will be big loans, that might be a sign of how you should act.
But if we can reduce the price today, we can pay more later - then I’d focus on the merit schools because having loans is never good - and med school loans are onerous.
If it’s we can help with both regardless of cost today, it’s different - so that’s question 1.
I wouldn’t say Oxy and F&M are urban but more urban than the others. F&M is in the center of things but a small town. Is that a reason to remove them ?
I would personally figure out the possible grad school contribution now - to see if you can use that to slice the list.
If not, then you need to visit and get a feel for each you’d consider.
The problem with so many choices - is well, you have so many choices. Great success.
You might consider things like travel access - and distance from home if you have concerns with home sickness.
You might think about where you want to be if med school didn’t happen - and figure out (for you) is a bigger name worth $140k more or $250k + more than Wooster ? Besides a higher listing in a magazine or on some websites, what do the full cost schools give you that Wooster doesn’t or one of the heavily discounted don’t ?
Fully funded doesn’t mean you need to use it all now - that’s a personal call. It can also ($35k) be moved to a Roth IRA to support your child in their future retirement.
Congrats on the incredible success. And best of luck.
What is COA after merit for each school? Note, unless merit is full ride, or connected to particular portion of tuition (like school states that scholarship covers 1/2 of tuition in award letter) expect tuition and housing go up every year but merit stay the same.
College of Wooster. We visited with my DD for premed. I told her not to apply. It is very Ohio school. Majority of students are from the state. I could not imagine DD be happy there with our background.
We also dropped immediately Oberlin. This was very weird place to her… Unless you are LGBTQ member, musician, artsy or athlete, I can’t imagine to fit there. I am sure there exceptions, but in that case DD said “no” herself and we walked away during tour.
Congratulations to your D on lots of great acceptances and wonderful merit aid at a number of the schools!
If she doesn’t like urban, then Macalester and Occidental seem like they should be on the chopping block. But since a MN trip is already planned for Carleton and St. Olaf, then maybe it makes sense to see if her thoughts about urban-ness change for Macalester (which I believe is in more of a streetcar suburb part of Minneapolis).
Those seem like two to eliminate then! She can only go to one college, and she’s visited and liked Colby, which is in the same price range as Wesleyan and Bates. So if she was going to pick a $$$$ school, it doesn’t appear it would be either of them.
I agree with those who discuss the possibilities of what else might be done with the money in the 529. Most seniors in high school have little sense of the amount of money that is being discussed here. So it could be that you could explain the anticipated 4-year costs of each college and what the delta would be from the 529 and how those funds could otherwise be spent (as scholarship amounts can be withdrawn from 529s without penalty, though gains will be taxed if not spent on eligible expenses).
Money for grad school
Monthly allowance for college fun (vs. her needing to have a job to cover those expenses)
Retirement contributions
Assistance with a home down payment
Vehicle
Support during unpaid or low-paid internships or jobs
Participation in study abroad opportunities
So your D might understand that if she attends college X that she could then get A-G, or attend college Y and get A-C, or go to college Z and forego A-G. That might help her to understand how much more she prefers one college to another. Also, for something like medical school, you may want to have her look at a loan calculator to see how much she would need to be paying, for how long, and how much she would need to pay back in interest on top of the principal (i.e. she’d need to pay back a lot more than $400k for a $400k loan).
Congratulations. These are all excellent schools that would prepare your child well for med school. I’d eliminate any she didn’t care for as much (i.e. Wesleyan) and then your big question is whether or not you go for one of the options that offered merit. Obviously, with med school on the horizon (although many kids change their minds) that is a future (big) cost and most medical student have to finance some (or all) of their medical school education with loans (which are now limited).
I’m not sure I agree with this assessment of Oxy, but I would cut Oxy because it is in LA and she doesn’t want urban. Yes, the campus does not feel city, but the surrounding area does. As others have said, I would cut Oberlin for the “weird” concern, and surprised Colby is not to athlete heavy for her recent expression. But, if she really liked Colby than I’d keep it on since it is the one she’s seen already and really liked. If my kid were pre-med with these offers and uncertainty about what help we could give for med school, I’d prioritize the merit schools as others hafe suggested. F&M, Grinnell, Kenyon, St Olaf would rise to the top for me. I don’t know Macalester location well enough to know if too urban for what she prefers.
Great acceptances and great choices. We may consider weather but that may not be a factor in your case since all IA and MN schools were in your original list.
Macalester feels more suburban than urban to me, and by “suburban” I mean streets with character, cool dining and shopping, but small-scale (not beige box-store suburban). Given the merit offer, it’s worth checking out if you’re looking at St. Olaf and Carleton.
All of these schools are wonderful. You might want to look at med school admission rates. Any shred of doubt might be good reason to cross a school off the list, and if med school is in the future, it might be a good idea to focus on the ones with merit aid – but of course that’s a family decision, and most kids who think they’re going to med school end up choosing another path.