Would going to a community college for my first 2 years then transferring make my med-school application less appealing?Answered
I'm a junior in high school and my grades are pretty good (97 GPA throughout all of high school --> my school doesn't participate in the 4.0 scale) and I've taken 10 APs so far and plan to continue. I'm not a huge fan of dorm life and I don't believe that my family or I would be able to pay for room and board as well as support myself and save up for future years. A choice that I had was that I could go to a community college for free (scholarships) and live off-campus for my first 2 years as an undergrad (since I was informed that the first 2 years of undergrad are really just full of completing prerequisites rather than pursuing your major). I would then transfer and graduate from a more prestigious school (where I could live off-campus there my last 2 years); then apply/ go to med school. However, I'm worried that going to a community college for the first 2 years would cause my future med-school application to be looked down upon compared to someone who went all 4 years during undergrad to a higher school.
More info:
- A community college would also be more likely to accept my ap courses as credits
- I would also have to find a community college whose credits other schools would accept and I feel that that would reduce my choices of more prestegious undergrad and med schools.
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2 answers
Before you consider community college do the following things okay.
1.) Enter all your information and stats into the CV profile and then make a list of colleges to run the CV chancing against them. After you make your list using the tips from 2.) then learn what your realistic chances are to get into some of these schools. You may surprise yourself.
2.)Since $$$ is the primary drive behind this inquiry look at schools that both have a.) need blind admissions (because they are going to provide more overall need based financial aid) and b.) meet 100% of your financial need in most cases without loans. All 8 Ivys are in this category, Elite colleges like JHU, Rice, ND, Vandy, UChicago, NWestern, Duke also. More importantly you will find a vast list of top liberal arts colleges that are excellent feeders into Top Medical Schools as well. These will be schools like Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona, CMC, Hamilton, Colgate, Vassar, Skidmore, Wellesley, Davidson, Bowdoin and the list goes on. Contrary to your understanding, if you qualify to get admitted to these types of schools the Net Price to you and your family will be less than attending community college or a state college.
3.) If your family household income is on the lower side of $70,000, you may qualify to apply to top schools under ED through a community service organization like Questbridge or Posse or others. These non-profit orgs. match high achieving lower income students with Top 50 colleges including 7 out of the 8 ivys, most elites and most top liberal arts colleges. They have been around over 20 years and are real deal. If you apply and get matched, you get essentially a "full ride" for 4 years.
4.) If you don't qualify for Questbridge or Posse, you can still apply for various scholarships which start opening now through the summer and fall of your senior year. These are high value scholarships.
Coca Cola
Jack Kent Cooke
Cameron Impact
Horatio Alger
Gates Scholars
Reagan
Dell
5. Also consider applying for mentoring programs that will not give you money but will help you get into a better college.
Matriculate
Alexander Hamilton
I don't think you have done enough research to make the assertion that you and your family cannot afford to attend college because of cost. Therefore use your time during the summer productively and find out what all the income cutoffs are for great colleges and continue to work on improving your chances of getting into college that offer fantastic financial aid.
Don't rely on YouTube videos because most of the kids are applying to schools nilly willy without a strategic plan. It seriously pains me to watch videos of kids who apply to a bunch of State Colleges out of state like UCLA, UVA, UMich, etc thinking that they'll shoot their shot at big state college because they think they are good enough and cheaper. In fact going to a public state college as an out of state applicant still might cost $50-60,000 per year whereas if they just applied to the best financial aid schools they might have had a $10-15,000 bill.
Good luck.
It would make your med application less appealing because they would ask why you were going to community college of all things. If money is the problem, I would suggest going to a college that meets financial need 100% such as Vassar, Smith (if you're a girl), and UNC. However, I only think some of these schools let you live off campus. Your AP classes would suggest that you could get in if you also have good extracurriculars, test scores, and essays. You could also apply to a less prestigious college near you home and get scholarships to cover most expenses while staying with your family. That's what my sister did. After two years, you could transfer to a more prestigious if needed.
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Thank you so much for your advice! I did get a letter for questbridge and submitted an application. I truly believe that I can get a lot of financial aid. I did put all of my stats into CV and found that my ivy legue/ higher up college chances are between 15-30% (which I can get up with my SAT score which is now 1310 because I only took it once and didn't study beforehand). I just think that I wouldn't enjoy dorm life personally because of certian living situations that I've been in.