No Loan Colleges
No Loan Colleges provide access to Top Quality education. Most colleges that offer no-loan packages offer wonderful undergraduate programs at a cost of next-to-nothing for you and your parents/guardians.
Remember, No Loans = No Debt.
Being debt free gives you the freedom to pursue whatever career you like since you will not be held back by pressure to make money right away to cover loan payments. Having debt right out of college can result in settling for jobs not aligned with your study/experience, and anxiety spent wondering how to get back in "the game." In addition, having no loans after your undergraduate career makes you more flexible and open to getting loans that you would need for a graduate program.
Click on the link below to see a listing of No Loan colleges, and consider them as you work on creating that "Smart List" of colleges to apply to in your senior year.
SCS College Application Guide
High school students: Please stay tuned as SCS develops our first-ever guide to the college application process. Our guide will walk you through the fundamentals of picking the right schools to apply to, understanding financial aid, writing a great college essay, and acing your interview. Check back in Spring of 2009!
What You and Your Parents should Know
What Every Parent of a Pre-Health Student Needs to Know
New Student Orientation 2005
William McClure
Department of Biological Sciences, College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Courses to take:
Pre-Med:
2 semesters General Biology 1 semester Biochemistry
1 semester Molecular Biology 2 semesters Physics
2 semesters General Chemistry 2 semesters Math (calculus, statistics)
2 semesters Organic Chemistry 2 semesters English Composition
Pre-Dent:
Same, plus a 3-dimensional art class.
Nursing/Physical Therapy/Occupational Therapy/others:
Similar; usually also require anatomy, physiology, psychology.
What?s the best major?
Biology is the most common major, but is not necessarily the best for a given student. Bio majors have the lowest acceptance rate into medical school, but still provide the majority of the students (there are lots of bio majors applying). Philosophy, for example, has a 90% rate of acceptance (for 9 students, 97/98).
Rule of thumb: go where the student?s heart is, but away from science if there is an aptitude and interest elsewhere.
AP Credit?
Useful to gain admission to college, and provides university credit toward graduation. Some professional programs do not recognize AP credits, and the courses must be taken again (Biology, Chem., for medical schools). Need to check with each school of interest; we recommend taking them again to keep the student?s options open.
What should they do other than classes?
Lots.
Get to know faculty members (nice people, letters)
Clinical exposure (relevant to discipline; we have many programs)
Social or community work
Research experience (this campus; health sciences campus; local hospital)
Extracurricular activities (emphasize leadership if possible)
Student organizations
Take the necessary professional qualifying exams (MCAT, DAT, etc)
Great letters of recommendation
When and how to apply?
For medical and dental school, in spring of junior year. This is very early, and will necessitate some planning on the part of the student. All the required courses need to be taken by this time, and a refresher course is often taken as well. We provide a Pre-Health Committee Process through the College Advising Services (CAS); student should take advantage of it. Better to work carefully with CAS and faculty advisors.
Application Process.
Lengthy, expensive. Typical evaluation at a medical school involves two steps: an initial screening to reduce the pool to about 10% of the applicants, and a second screen to pick those to whom admission will be offered. The initial screen is based almost exclusive on quantitative criteria (usually MCAT scores and GPA); the second screen is a very thorough evaluation in which every aspect of the application is scrutinized. Receiving a request for a ?secondary application? from a medical school does not necessarily mean the applicant has reached the second level of consideration, although it implies it. Other professional schools have similar procedures, but are less overwhelmed with applicants.
Prospects for success.
For the class matriculating in 2003: 34,786 applicants (392118) applications thus an average of 11 schools/applicant) for 16,365 spots (overall acceptance, 47%). 122 medical schools in the continental US; 15 in the 6 western states, 9 in California. This acceptance rate is remaining steady over the past few years (in 2001 the rate was 46.9%). Acceptance rate in California in 2001 was 48.0% and in 2003 it was 48.2% (counting both residents and non-residents). Percentages in other health professions are usually higher, for their poor of qualified applicants approximates the number of available slots.
When should they re-evaluate?
Continually. Some specific points at which careful thought should be given:
A. At college entrance. Not too important; aim for medical school, since it?s the hardest. It?s important to keep your options open.
B. After freshman year (6 of 12 required courses probably done).
C. After sophomore year (10 of 12 now done)
D. After medical school application (go to Plan B, or to a post-baccalaureate program).
What are Plans B?
There are many. Start by asking why Plan A has been so important for all these years (humanitarian/scientific/prestige/security/admiration/family?)
Health care: medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, PT, OT, nursing, NP, PA. There are many technical fields in health. Salaries are good in all, especially in NP and PA.
Social care: psychology, social work, genetic counseling, teaching, the ministry, environmental work politics.
Science: biomedical research, biotechnology, engineering, computer science
Other: business, law, entertainment, journalism, publication industry, etc.
Residence:
The state of residence is very important. If you are an out-of-state student at USC, you may be a student without a state: neither your state of origin nor California may acknowledge you. This varies with the state agency, and is probably most restrictive with regard to the professional schools (especially the medical schools). To be a resident of California to the satisfaction of the medical school at UCA (which is superb, contrary to our feeling during the football season), you must have: lived in the state at a non-university address for a year; have utility bills in your name for the year to prove this; worked in California; and filed an income tax form in California. A student at USC can do this during his or her education, but must plan to do so: live off campus in an apartment during the senior year, work here a summer, etc. The situation may be equally bad with respect to the state of origin. For example, students from Washington by the UW medical school if they choose to apply there. Since acceptance rates at the state medical schools are usually much higher for residents, and tuition is cheaper than at the private schools, this is a problem worth careful consideration. A student may have to move back to her or his state of origin and live there for a year in order to regain their residency.
Further information:
Medical School Admission Requirements. Published annually by AAMC. Lists each medical school, and has excellent information and statistics to guide the admission process. Required reading in the junior year.
www.aamc.org Superb source of information of all aspects of medical schools and admission. Many statistics are given on http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/start.htm.
Other agencies have their own sites: American Dental Education Association (http://www.adea.org), Association of American Dental School Application Service (http://www.aadsas.org), American Dental Association (http://www.ada.org), American Physical Therapy Association (http://www.apta.org), American Dental Hygienists Association (http://www.adha.org). Search for more; they?re all there.
Dr. Bill McClure's Not-So-Subtle Hints for Succeeding in College.
1. Never miss class. Never be late. Never leave early. Period.
2. College is big business for you. Run your time and you4 career as though it were.
3. Practice time management. It?s a critical skill for survival, promotion, success.
THIS IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT POINT IN YOUR FIRST SEMESTER!!!
Do a time audit: 15 minute blocks, 3-5 days. Be honest.
4. Choosing courses:
Choose those you like; you?ll do better.
Choose good professors over bad ones; talk to your friends.
Choose professors over course material when you have a choice.
Can?t get into a full class? Use registration tricks. Everything is negotiable. Be courteous, interested, excited; be there for the first class. Talk to the prof.
5. Get started early. The first week is the most important.
Get your textbooks early. You can sell them back for full price for a while (a short while) if they?re not going to be used by the class. The last edition is often fine, and usually very cheap.
Read the first chapter, or 50 pages, before the first class.
Hit the ground running and well organized.
6. Use your brain effectively.
Read out loud if you can; mouth words if you have to be quiet.
Write, write, write. Writing is magical for learning.
Learn early.
Learn overnight.
Study in short bits of time. 50 min study, 10 min break.
Set study goals at the beginning of each study session (each hour).
Avoid stress. Watch for it; respect it; reduce it. Stress is deadly. The best defense is knowing the class material, and knowing that you know it.
7. Become an expert test taker.
It?s important. We live in a very competitive society, and good test-takers do better than poor ones.
Pretest yourself. Old exams are best. See the course home page, or the reserve desk at the library.
8. During the course:
Plan on about 10 hr/four unit course each week. You should do school about 50 hr/week for a normal schedule (class, labs, study; everything). I want these hours during the week; study each course on the same day that you go to lecture. It?s better than flipping hamburgers at McD?s.
Never turn in homework late, messy, or unedited. Don?t forget to use your spell checker.
Sit in the first few rows. There?s about a 1 letter grade drop between front-row sitters and back-row ones. Sitting in front automatically reduces big classes to small ones. The faculty only really see the students in the first few rows.
Don?t sit with your buddies. They?re really nice, but they?re distracting and you need to concentrate.
Concentrate on the lecture. Think about the relation between this lecture?s material and other parts of the course.
Take good notes, but don?t be overly burdened by note-taking.
Set up study groups of 2-4 others. Rotate note-taking among the group.
9. Study tips.
Bright light.
Single place; study only there. Make it your own.
Use study groups.
No music.
10. Memorization.
Absolutely necessary for excellence.
A learnable skill. Don?t be put off if you?re not good at it now. Anyone can learn to memorize.
Many tricks: use all of them. Chunking; mnemonics; remembrance lists; loci method; stories (the more ridiculous the better; only you are thinking of them, and you don?t have to share them).
11. Grades.
We all hate them, but they?re very important in competing for your first job after college (after a few years, experience and performance count more).
Your freshman year counts: don?t blow it off.
Have freshman forgiveness at your school? Nice idea; I hope you don?t need it. Use it if you must. If you need it, you?re already in trouble: GO SEE SOMEONE!
Grades are negotiable (up to a point). If you?re near a grade boundary, talk to your TA or (better) your professor. Use your social skills: be pleasant, courteous, concerned; ask for explanations. It helps if you?ve been to office hours and have clearly made an effort, and that the professor knows this.
Grades are sometimes (actually, unpleasantly often) given in error. Check with your TA. Save all your exams, papers, etc.
DON?T BE A LONE RANGER! SEE SOMEONE BEFORE YOU CRATER!
12. Get to know your faculty.
They are really nice people; most of them (unfortunately, not all) truly like students.
You?re going to need letters of recommendation. You?ll feel silly and embarrassed in a couple of years asking people whom you?ve never taken the time to meet.
Use office hours. Be there; ask questions about the material. Find out what the faculty member does: in research, for hobbies, etc. No questions about the material? Read more deeply; none of us cover things so well that there are not points of interest further to explore.
Talk to them after or before class, if the room and the timing permit.
13. Find a mentor.
More letters of recommendation!
Get career counseling. You?ll need it when you become an upperclassman, and consider what to do when you grow up.
Find a faculty member whom you like, and ask them to be a mentor.
Take them to lunch. Many universities have take-a-faculty-member-to-lunch programs. We love free lunches (we were all graduate students once).
Change mentors if your change majors, or find a new mentor and keep both.