Wow, thank you so much for all of the advice so far. Some info that I didn't include is my daughter will be pre-med, prefers cell/molecular bio, but if the school does not have it, biology will do!

We have visited several schools (some of which did not make her application list after visiting), and she really would like a strong greek system WITH sorority housing. However, if there are suites/wings for sororities that may work. We did visit one school with that set-up and were dissatisfied.

I think we will start on the talking to recommendation-writers for schools, since I know it is not needed at some schools but is an extra bonus. At my school, we did not have sorority housing, and recs were "bonuses", so I do have some knowledge in this matter.

Since finances are a consideration, we do want to see if she will get any $$ from Michigan (although we are not counting on it). Some of the out-of-state options will actually be less expensive than in-state U of Michigan when factoring scholarships she will/may receive. I've compared the college search to sorority recruitment to my daughter on numerous occasions. She has been told to MAXIMIZE HER OPTIONS, which is why we are applying to reaches -Stanford, Duke, Vandy, WUSTL, Matches- U of Michigan and Alabama, and Safeties - a few Michigan schools which she may receive full-ride/full-tuition scholarships. When she needs to make a decision she will have choices.

I did not know about the Florida residency rule, I will check into those!!! THanks!

Yes, I have read AGDee's posts with her daughter's search, LOVE THEM!!

Can't wait for this search to be over, but it is exciting!! I am fairly sure we may not decide until March/April!!!

The University of Arizona has an excellent biology department, including molecular and cellular biology. We also have a medical school and one of the strongest Greek systems in the US with beautiful sorority houses. I highly recommend it!

My daughter is a Biology major at Univ. of South Carolina. She is Greek. She is also in the # 1 Honors College. She has a great scholarship. They have beautiful houses in Greek village and AGD just colonized and has a house already. South Carolina draws students from all over the country as they have the #1 International Business school as well.

She is NOT going to Ohio State. Just sayin'. LOL

^Oops! My bad, two schools. The general point remains true. We have many sports programs.

Lisa Simpson - "I will not be a Gamecock" ;)

If she's got a chance at Stanford, IU should throw some serious cash at her. We've got 21 sororities (19 housed!) and a strong strong strong basketball program!! Plus she'd be within driving distance of home :) She can also get involved in the second largest student philanthropy in the country--IUDM. The Cox Scholars Research Program also matches freshman students with research mentors for all 4 years, which is great for med or grad school (if her plans change)

If you're even interested in applying to IU though, the scholarship deadline is November 1st for the good $$!

IU Distinction - $44,000 ($11,000 per year)
Minimum SAT score of 1350 or minimum ACT of 31
Minimum GPA of 3.80 on a 4.0 scale

I'd be a little cautious about IU if your daughter really has her heart set on being in a sorority. I know many will agree that they have one of the most (if not the) brutal recruitments in the country. My own sorority colonized there last year, and a large pnm pool competed for a very limited number of spots. It was probably no different for the sorority that just colonized this semester.

All of the schools the OP listed have great reputations and some have very competitive recruitments, but none as competitive as Indiana. Good luck :)

I would agree about IU. Recruitment there is ridiculous. I just had my high school reunion and I ran into 2 girls who didn't get bids and they are still bitter about it--many years later. They both ended up transferring to smaller schools because of it.

Another thing to consider is if she wants to be pre-med, she'll want to get some research/volunteer experience under her belt while she's in college. I would strong recommend she consider schools with these kinds of programs and that she get involved in them right away. She will need to get recommendations from professors she knows well, and doing something like a research internship is a great way to do this.

And as AGDee said, no matter how much money they give her, there is no way she can go to Ohio State! I am pretty sure they don't have a biology program anyway :D

I don't know if you've seen this list. It's a little old, but it can't be THAT far off.
But possibly thinking ahead, the best med schools (according to US News) are http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsa...-care-rankings

I like the medical school list better because it lists a lot more schools that have good Greek systems. And while the biology programs might not be world class, graduates would generally be eligible for their graduate school. Using Iowa as an example (go Hawks!), it ranks 56th in biology, but 12th in medicine, all while having a vibrant Greek system and beautiful housing. And I think it is a bit more affordable than some other Big 10 schools. At least it used to be.

I actually got a good feel for Ohio State when I "drove by" this summer, but scholarships for OOS are small, and we are more looking at full tuition scholarships to be competitive with what she has already received. My daughter is very conscious of the prestige of the school, but I would like her to realize there are some very good schools out there that will give her good aid. Thank you for your help everyone...this board feels like a family!!

Maybe force feed her a bunch of Suze Orman TV shows when she talks about school. Although she says education is good debt, there is a big ole limit to that. Being able to get through undergrad for free or with less than $10K in debt would be a huge win, and unless she's looking at Liberty, a mid-prestige school will do just fine. A state school that most people have heard of or a private that most people in your region have heard of would, IMO, fall smack in the middle of GOOD ENOUGH. But I'm not a big fan of the need to go to an uber-competitive school to get a quality education. And I believe the stats are on my side. It seems to me I've read somewhere that many people never make up the difference in cost they incurred for ridic expensive school versus the school you can afford that pre-accepts you. Here's another scenario: the University of Northern Iowa is not at all hard to get into, is the least expensive of the 3 Iowa public universities, and at least at one point had the highest rate of passing the CPA in the first try of any school in the US. Never heard of the school? Who cares! If you can get a job right after you graduate because you passed the CPA while you were still in school, you will be all about the Panthers. I don't know if there is any sort of statistic published that would apply to medicine/pre-med. Maybe ask a few doctors you know if, to do it again if they'd go to the same school, one that didn't cost so much, or if they'd have fought harder to get into Harvard or Stanford. And I have a friend who is a very successful cardiologist who went to med school in the Dominican Republic. Seriously.

My sister and brother-in-law both went to flagship state schools, were very active in their GLOs, and met in med. school in the Caribbean. Now she's a pediatrician and he's a cardiologist finishing a one-year interventionist program (they do the catheter stuff, like stents). He's been interviewing to join cardiology practices around the country for $475,000 - $600,000 to start. Yeah.

As a current resident (doctor in my specialty training) I want to cut this train of thought off before it goes too far. In the past, people who went to med schools outside of the US had a shot at US residency slots IF they performed awesomely as students. That is steadily becoming no longer the case. The number of US med school graduates is increasing relative to residency slots. Foreign grads are ranked behind US MD grads and US DO grads in the competition for training spots. I would NEVER advise anyone just starting the process to even consider med school outside the country.

On the thread's actual topic, I can't really comment on the Greek systems of various schools. But if medical school is a consideration for the future, I advise choosing the undergrad that is free, or as close to free as possible. You don't want a lot of debt.

To be fair, Ohio State is not terribly generous with in-state students. Get X GPA, get Y ACT/SAT, get Z $. There are many other strong public and private Ohio schools which are much more generous financially for both in-state and OOS students.