College Rankings

I agree with @Jael_S238, as most of these schools you have listed are not “prestigious”, but still good schools nonetheless. Pre-med should be done at an accredited school with research opportunities and patient-care training available, but there is another aspect to pre-med that many people miss, the social aspect. I’m not talking about parties and football games, but rather clubs, intramural sports, and ways that your daughter can meet different people. When the time comes that your daughter applies to med school, she should have either a well-rounded resume or a focused one, much like an undergraduate ivy-applicant’s. What matters is that your daughter is happy with where she is. Considering that you’ve already decided that you want to go to med school, your daughter should pick your school for its opportunities that you’ve looked at and for the chance to network with her peers for possible internships and opportunities (worst case scenario, she makes a good friend).

Second, please think about the cost of college. If your daughter plans on paying for med school, she will go into her residency with over $200,000 in debt, probably more with her undergrad loans. Check out CV’s financial profile. They’ll ask you about your finances (I recommend rounding to the thousands for privacy), and then you can look at the estimated out of pocket expenses and your estimated need based scholarships. Please don’t put your daughter in too much debt prior to med school, so think about in-state colleges, more affordable schools, or some more competitive ones with more financial aid too. Also, search up fafsa estimate on google, plug in some rounded numbers, and look at what you might get. Try to network throughout high school by volunteering at local events, you might end up meeting a VERY generous rich person.

Lastly, although CV’s chancing simulator is not that accurate, you should still consider it. Your essay can be assumed by your test scores and your gpa (for the most part). If you have a perfect gpa and sat score, you’ll have either the most interesting essay or the most boring one, but if you aren’t so good academically, a good essay will only help you by a little bit.

I am not sure how they update rankings...I recommend holding the rankings loosely. Besides, it is far more important to choose what is best for the particular student, not the best ranking. Different students have different goals and needs. For example, I could attend some competitive schools for my major of interest. However, I found a non-competitive school that would provide the hands-on training I need for the direction I am aiming to head. There are many reasons why this school is the best fit. This makes it better for me than higher rankings. Also, I will be happy at this school. If your daughter is not happy, it will not be best. She may not do well and it can affect mental health. My advice is to sit down and look at the colleges' websites. Find pictures, videos, get a tour if you can. What environment does she like? Where does she think she could fit in and not feel too homesick? I discovered I have a strong fear of large crowds, so a big school is NOT a good option to say it mildly :) Consider the smaller things like that and talk about it together.

I will say Collegevine's chancing system is way off...they cannot predict much without essential parts of the application. Like the essay- the essay is weighed very seriously at most schools. CV account does not have you put in your essay. So I do not pay any attention to the chancing system here on Collegevine. It is better to compare my GPA and test scores to the schools' averages to see if I will be a competitive candidate or not.

Hope this helps a little and please let me know if you have any additional questions!