<p>Stats:
- white male, small private school in Boston
- 620/670/680 (1290, 1970 total)
- GPA 3.66 weighted, 3.4ish unweighted maybe?</p>
<p>This is what I have so far...</p>
<p>REACHES: Dartmouth (family ties FTW), Davidson, Emory, NYU, Rice, Villanova, Wake
MATCHES: American, BC, Clemson, Conn College, Elon, GWU, UMiami, U of Richmond, Tulane
SAFETIES: College of Charleston, U-Mass Amherst, Salve Regina (eek)</p>
<p>Other than C of C, I'd probably die if I had to go to the other safeties... they just aren't for me. My counselor added a bunch of safeties in upstate New York and in the boonies... I have no interest in going to them so I deleted them right away :-D She brought that up and is stressing how I need safeties. I'm obviously not going to choose a safety that I don't actually want to go to. Do you have any suggestions that I might like based on my other lists? </p>
<p>Oh, and as you can see my list is pretty long still... but I have no idea how to narrow it down any more. Help?</p>
<p>If I didn't have so many safeties, I would have been able to apply to schools like Georgetown and Yale, and have had more chances with reaches. I was pressured to include safeties as well, and I've ended up being admitted to one of my high reach schools.</p>
<p>Does your school have a limit as to how many colleges you may apply to?</p>
<p>1)a safety is not a safety if you don't want to go to it.
2) There are lots of good schools for safeties, but we can help you a lot more if you tell us your intended major and what you're looking for in a college
3)Don't listen to kwu. You need safeties. Full Stop.</p>
<p>A safety, by definition, is a college/university where you are assured of admission, and that you can pay for. Of the options that fall into that category, you need to find at least one that you would be happy to attend if it turns out that you aren't admitted anywhere else, or are only admitted to schools that don't offer enough financial aid/scholarships so that you can actually afford to attend them.</p>
<p>Find your safety, love your safety, apply early action or rolling admission or at least in the very first round to your safety. That way you WILL have somewhere to go in the fall of 2009.</p>
<p>Don't even think about your list of matches and reaches until you know which school is your safety.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
Does your school have a limit as to how many colleges you may apply to?
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>No... but I'd like to apply to about 12 schools.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
1)a safety is not a safety if you don't want to go to it.
[/QUOTE]
Completely agree with you... C of C is the only school on that list that I really would not mind enrolling in. </p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
2) There are lots of good schools for safeties, but we can help you a lot more if you tell us your intended major and what you're looking for in a college
[/QUOTE]
I'm thinking I should apply to 1 safety in the Boston/RI area...just in case I suddenly change my mind and want to be close to home (I'm not planning on changing my mind). I'd like a school out of the Northeast, and with a good sailing team. I'm not sure about majors yet but I'm interested in French. So the school has to have good study abroad opportunities. </p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
3)Don't listen to kwu. You need safeties. Full Stop.
[/QUOTE]
haha ok, yeah.. would 3 safeties be a good number?</p>
<p>If there is a school that you know you are guaranteed admission to (such as a state university that HAS to take you because of your stats), and that you know you could be happy at, you only need 1 (yup, you read that, o n e).</p>
<p>If there is any chance at all that you might not be admitted, you will need more than one. Just be sure that for each school on your safety list, you are:
1) pretty sure you will be admitted
2) confident that you can pay for it
3) know you can be happy there</p>
<p>Thanks happymom. I'm pretty sure I've found my 1 safety that I would be happy at, but I'll keep looking for another one just to be safe (no pun intended)</p>
<p>With your stats, BC and Richmond are not matches, they're reaches. And I'm assuming you're a MA resident, not a boarding student. Conn College does not require the SAT I, but it does require 2 SAT IIs or the ACT with writing - your chances of admission there will depend in some part on those scores once you take the exams.</p>
<p>Washington College in MD may be one to look at; they're near the Chesapeake and have a sailing team.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
With your stats, BC and Richmond are not matches, they're reaches. And I'm assuming you're a MA resident, not a boarding student. Conn College does not require the SAT I, but it does require 2 SAT IIs or the ACT with writing - your chances of admission there will depend in some part on those scores once you take the exams.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure BC is a match for me. On my school's naviance website, the avg GPA for admitted students from my school is a 3.69 and SATs are 2040 (I'm taking them again in Oct. so I could get it up)... also 16/30 students who applied were admitted from my school. I have a legacy there as well and my dad is a pretty active alum.</p>
<p>Richmond is the same deal... avg GPA for admitted students from my school is a 3.62 with 2030 SATs.</p>
<p>You should chck out Wasington College in MD. I don't know much about it, but I know someone who went there because they have really awesome sailing opertunities, and it seems like you'd have a good shot.</p>
<p>Since you don't KNOW 100% that you will be admitted to College of Charleston (maybe they'll go all Tufts on you, maybe by chance there will be a glut of applicants just like you) you need to find another safety or two.</p>
<p>It's a huge waste of time to apply to any school you don't want to attend. Find a couple more safeties you like.</p>
<p>I'm somewhat skeptical about Naviance. Sure, it tells you the stats of students from your school who were admitted, but does it tell the stats of students who were rejected? Does it put in a little asterisk for legacies and recruited athletes? A little data can be a dangerous thing.</p>
<p>Yeah naviance can be pretty sketchy... it says the avg GPA for Columbia is a 3.4... I think that's only because some athlete from my school is going there lol. so yeah I can't completely trust it for some schools, except when there are lots of kids from my school going to one college.... then it's a bit more accurate.</p>
<p>Thanks, I'll check out Washington University... I've never really heard of it but it sounds like it might be a good fit considering what I'm looking for.</p>
<p>
[quote]
3)Don't listen to kwu. You need safeties. Full Stop.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Don't put words in my mouth. Read what I wrote carefully. I did not imply that safeties were unnecessary. They are very necessary. Which is why I followed up with the question regarding whether or not there would be a limit as to how many schools he would be applying to. Stop shaming Georgetown and my twenty friends and colleagues who will be attending next year.</p>
<p>If you plan to apply to 12 schools next year, ensure that at least 3 or 4 of them will be high quality schools that you would genuinely love attending.</p>