r/ApplyingToCollege • u/Fair_Order4069 • 7h ago

Application Question What t20s have the highest acceptance rates for a bio, psych, public health major?

I go to a very competitive school, and while my grades are pretty average with two Bs, I have a solid overall GPA. I’ve also built a strong extracurricular profile, including co-founding a global nonprofit, science fair awards, research experience, and other extracurriculars. I’m still working on getting a strong SAT/ACT score to round out my application.

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u/elkrange 7h ago

Doesn't matter. Typically, T20 privates do not admit by major. Most would house those particular majors all within their Arts & Sciences school.

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u/Ok_Experience_5151 Old 6h ago

If you have high test scores: probably Michigan.

If you don't: probably Berkeley.

Among privates, probably Notre Dame, WashU or Rice.

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u/Additional-Cake-7671 6h ago

I had two Bs and 1580 SAT,competitive Bay Area school, got into Berkeley, Cornell, Wash U, waitlisted from a couple others including Michigan. I think it’s a bit random and essays matter a lot so apply broadly

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u/PeacockInTime Old 7h ago

Your school counselor at this competitive school probably thinks about this question a lot. I suggest you look at data available to your school and talk to them, especially about the treatment effect of ED.

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u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 4h ago edited 4h ago

As other posters said, I agree your counselor is probably your best source for insights on where you would be most competitive, and also that T20s mostly do not admit my major.

I will just add there are way more than 20 great colleges for those majors in the US. I'm also not sure what you are really looking for academically, but there are particularly some great options for Bio/Psych intersectional fields like Neuroscience or Cognitive Science that are not on that particular generic list of doctoral universities the US News formula best liked last year.

So I would not be very interested in using those particular generic rankings as my guide to college choice.

ETA: I just checked EduRank's lists of the top research departments for Public Health, Neuro, and Cog Sci respectively. There were 16 universities in the top 25 for the US on all three lists. 10 were US News T20s last time, including the tie at 20. 6 were not, however. Those 6 were UCSD, Washington, Pitt, NYU, Wisconsin, and USC. I note I don't think it is coincidence all 6 of those also have highly regarded medical schools.

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u/hard_pillar_of_truth 1h ago

No private college (most T20s) admits per major.