<p>Hi, everyone, </p>
<p>By the end of this year, a lot of class of 2008 high school students will have applied to MIT. As you look at MIT's rather daunting base admission rate, what "safety" colleges are you planning to apply to, to be sure you get in somewhere if you don't get into MIT? What's a good fit, with good admission probability, for a student for whom MIT looks like a good fit?</p>
<p>Michigan engineering-it's number 7 in engineering, better than pretty much all the ivies. Maybe carnegie mellon, cornell (assuming you want to do engineering of some sort). Caltech (not as a safety, but should apply simultaneously).</p>
<p>Case Western (maybe not safe), RPI, Drexel...</p>
<p>Georgia Tech and Rice are not safeties, but good alternatives.</p>
<p>For any Californians, UC Berkeley is great, especially if you are top 4% of your high school class in California, w/ ELC, Berkeley becomes a lot easier to get into.
UCLA and UC San Diego both have pretty decent engineering schools as well -- UCSD has a merit-based full ride + stipend program called the Jacobs School of Engineering scholarship they offer to something like 50 kids every year. If I hadn't gotten into any of my reaches, I probably would have either chosen Berkeley or the SD full ride.</p>
<p>me going to apply to the UCs( in state), Caltech, CMU,Cornell, Harvey Mudd as of now</p>
<p>CMU is a targety-safety kinda place if you're not going for computer science - if you are, then it gets a little tougher. I also recommend Harvey Mudd - it looked really cool from when I was looking at schools... Georgia Tech is pretty soul-crushing, from what I've heard.... Illinois Institute of Technology would be a good safety-type place, too, methinks.</p>
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Michigan engineering-it's number 7 in engineering
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<p>I'll agree that Michigan is an excellent school, and UC Berkeley should be on the list as well, probably above Michigan (although they have their individual merits. IMO, the Wolverines > the Bears, but oh well ;)). However, realize if you're out of state you're shooting for a scholarship or no financial aid at all, so this could backfire.</p>
<p>At least, I think so. I didn't get merit-based aid from Michigan, and didn't get need-based either, so I'm assuming that's fairly common practice. So while it was a safety in a sense, it wasn't much of an option, at out-of-state prices.</p>
<p>So a caveat there.</p>
<p>Also, I'd recommend Case Western Reserve University...in my college search, I had a very high impression of CWRU, and I think they have a good program there, in engineering and beyond. My opinion is probably not the most informed, so back it up with your own independent research, but it's definitely worth a look. They were generous (at least to me) with merit aid, and at least at the time I applied, stats showed something like a 70% admit rate, so I'd say it's pretty safe.</p>
<p>Jumping on the finaid bandwagon, a friend of mine got a full ride (merit-based) to IIT, and she wasn't really a super-genius (not saying she wasn't smart, just telling you she wasn't one of those people who cured cancer at age 13, or something ;P). So, yeah, IIT looks good in that department as well. Also Chicago > Ohio, ehehehe.</p>
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I also recommend Harvey Mudd - it looked really cool from when I was looking at schools...
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<p>Harvey Mudd isn't a safety for an MIT applicant. However, many people who apply to MIT do also apply to Mudd.</p>
<p>That depends on what qualifications you have...maybe not if you just have great stats from a regular public hs.</p>
<p>But some magnet/privates hs have such a great track record that if you are a star there, many tech schools become safeties. Also, there are a few national distinctions (USAMO) that make your stock go up such that all you need is grade/stats after that. 10 years ago (before admissions became more unpredictable), MIT was effectively a safety for the top 10 people at my (magnet) hs. Caltech was pretty much assured for the top 5 and a match for the top 10 or so.</p>
<p>So you shouldn't be offended when some people say Harvey Mudd can be a safety. It just means that Harvey Mudd is doing their admissions process in a way that makes sense. If you reach a certain level of achievement, then you gain admission.</p>
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Harvey Mudd isn't a safety for an MIT applicant. However, many people who apply to MIT do also apply to Mudd.
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Ooh, no no no, I wasn't saying it was - it's just a tad more get-in-able than MIT, and still really awesome.</p>
<p>someone who's a good fit for MIT, but doesn't get in just because of the shear number of applicants would probably get into:
CMU
Vanderbilt
Case Western
UCSD (if you're from CA... I think only 6% out of state get in)
and Caltech :]</p>
<p>Just my opinions</p>
<p>your state university.</p>
<p>RPI was my safety many years ago, but my world was a small radius around NYC.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech would seem to be the ideal safety for the MIT applicant. They accept 69% of applicants, its inexpensive even for out of state, and from what I gather, it's so hard that many people can't hack it and are thus miserable. I've met a lot of excellent Georgia Tech engineers over the years, both at MIT grad school and in industry. </p>
<p>For the MIT-qualified applicant who wants that "drinking from the firehose" education, the rigor may be just what the doctor ordered.</p>
<p>This year I did: UC Berkeley, UCLA, Boston College (this is odd - I didn't realize it was like a liberal arts colleges) as my safeties. I got into all of them.</p>
<p>My matches were UPenn (College of Engineering and Applied Sciences), Northwestern and Brown (applied for med programs though, not for the school), Rice, Duke, Columbia (Fu School of Engineering), Caltech. I got into all of them too. </p>
<p>I think some of them (not all) are pretty solid safeties for MIT.</p>
<p>Preempting this I should mention my counselor seemed to be crazy, so this all might be a bad idea:</p>
<p>I had CMU and NYU (I would have done business) as safeties. MIT and Columbia were matches. And Harvard and Princeton were reaches.</p>
<p>He guaranteed me admission to MIT, so yeah, he's crazy, but the safeties were good, and I did get into all of my non-reach schools, so maybe he was crazy like a fox.</p>
<p>From a CA school where 60+ kids a year go to Berkeley each year (and perhaps 75 get in), with a class size of ~550, I was positive I'd get in, so I considered all the UC's safeties. Then, I looked at my list of privates: HYPMS. Uh, none of those could safely be considered matches, so I ended up with 9 schools. Four safeties (UC Berkeley/LA/San Diego/Davis) and five reaches.</p>
<p>I'm surprised no one has mentioned WPI yet.</p>
<p>RPI is good, too - I have a friend going there next year.</p>