Thinking About College...

Well, Columbia University sent me some information yesterday about their school and potentially applying there in my Senior year of high school. I never thought about applying to Columbia University. I forgot it is an Ivy League school. That’s sad to me because in the 8th grade a few of my classmates and me went on a Spring Break field trip to visit many Ivy League schools and prestigious schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Georgetown, Howard, and Columbia. Columbia wasn’t typical like the other Ivy League schools. The atmosphere was more relaxed and it wasn’t as big as the other schools. It was really nice, especially since it is in New York City.

This brought to my attention that I need to make a college list. Fortunately I have. The colleges and their programs that are in my list currently is as follows in order of which ones I like:

1. Harvard University
2. Northwestern University HPME Program (BS/MD Program; 7/8 years)
3. Yale University
4. Princeton University
5. Brown University PLME Program (BS/MD; 7/8 years)
6. John Hopkins
7. Cornell University
8. Columbia University
9. Penn State (BS/MD; 6/7 years)
10. Dartmouth College
11. Emory University
12. Georgetown University
13. Boston University (BS/MD; 7/8 years)
14. Howard University (BS/MD; 6 years)
15. Georgia Tech
16. Georgia State
17. University Of Missouri: Kansas City (BS/MD; 6 years)
18. Valdosta State University

I know that it is a long list, but at least I made a list and I have until the spring of my Junior year to the beginning of my summer Senior year to condense this list down. Hopefully I can get it down to less than 10 because admission application fees average about $50 each (high estimate), so $900 just in application fees isn’t so exciting. I’ll post my stats since the end of Sophomore year when I officially get my report card in the mail. Though if I’m accepted to some schools, I could get free tuition because my family makes less than $60,000 a year, so schools such as Harvard, Yale, Cornell, John Hopkins, Northwestern, etc. either pay most to all my tuition, fees, room & board, etc. Colleges like Valdosta may give me a full ride due to my academic achievements, such as a 3.8+ GPA, top 5% ranking in my class, etc. A lot of decisions to make in the future!

-Samuel