<p>My rising senior D has a problem (I am sure not a unique one). She wants to go to a college that is: </p>
<ol>
<li>About the size of Harvard.</li>
<li>In a town about the size of Cambridge, near a city like Boston or bigger.</li>
<li>Preferably in the Northeast, definitely not in the South and preferably not in California.</li>
<li>Has lots of really smart, talented, well-rounded and curious students.</li>
<li>Has top notch faculty.</li>
<li>Is strong particularly in the humanities and social sciences but also natural sciences.</li>
<li>Has lots of extracurricular opportunities.</li>
</ol>
<p>and most importantly,</p>
<ol>
<li>Has an acceptance rate about 3 to 4 times greater than Harvard.</li>
</ol>
<p>Prestige is not an issue. Quality of the educational experience is the main consideration.</p>
<p>^^ Thanks. Tufts is indeed very interesting and does seem like a fit. To be totally honest we stopped considering it when we heard of “Tufts syndrome”. Is it really just a myth?</p>
<p>Definitely recommend Tufts. Don’t believe in Tufts Syndrome but even so, would not affect your D since Tufts would surely not be a “back up school”. </p>
<p>Consider:
Tufts University
Boston College
Northwestern (though not in Northeast)
Carnegie Mellon
Brandeis
Georgetown
George Washington
University of Rochester
Johns Hopkins</p>
<p>I disagree about Penn as the acceptance rate is still low. </p>
<p>The NYU suggestion is a good one but it is definitely larger than Harvard undergrad. Great school though.</p>
<p>But you gave no stats and acceptance rate is just part of the picture.</p>
<p>She has thought long and hard about women’s colleges and has decided not to apply to them. </p>
<p>She also doesn’t want to be in an extremely urban campus (eg NYU). </p>
<p>She was very excited about Penn before she visited but did not like it- thought it was too pre-professional and she picked up some negative social vibes. </p>
<p>Also, Penn isn’t 3x or 4x easier to get into than Harvard. She has plenty of very competitive colleges on her current list- e.g, Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, Northwestern, possibly Stanford. </p>
<p>She is definitely applying to Michigan Ann Arbor. This is a quest for a similarly excellent yet less competitive school, preferably smaller than UMich.</p>
<p>She has considered UChicago, Rochester, Rice but isn’t too thrilled.</p>
<p>soozievt: I didn’t give stats because I didn’t want this to become too much about the stats. She is your usual high-acheiver HYPS-aspiring kid. GPA (UW) 4.0. SAT-I of 2340. SAT-II of 800/790/780. APs 5/5/5/4. Senior year 5 APs. Good private school, class unranked but one of the top 2-3 GPAs in a class of 70. Occupies top right corner of all Naviance graphs for the school. Multiple ECs with deep involvement, regional/state and a few national awards. Will have great recs, great essays. Not URM, not athlete. Not applying for financial aid. Passionately looking for a place where she will be able to immerse herself in a liberal arts education for its own sake. Realizes that while Harvard or Yale would be fantastic, they are too iffy no matter how good you are. Looking for schools with acceptance rates in 25-35%.</p>
<p>She is an outstanding applicant. Your first post just did not give me any idea or that she was even considering Harvard but that you wanted a much easier odds school. Even though she is outstanding, I do think any school with an admit rate below 20% is chancy for anyone. Some of the schools we just discussed are not sure bets either. So, it would be good to have one safety on the list! But definitely some schools in the 20% range would be good to have. Don’t know if your D looked into the ones i mentioned. She may have to give in one criteria to get something else, such as give in on location or setting to get the size or give in on size to get the location, and so on. </p>
<p>I just noticed that she is definitely applying to UMich and so that’s her safety, sorry. I thought you were looking for something instead of UMich and got confused. Anyway, that leaves some schools in the 20 something percent range. If your D likes Tufts, I would not dismiss it. Did she ever look into Boston College or Brandeis? I see that the Northeast is not crucial and so WUSTL or UChicago could work.</p>
<p>After reading your D’s stats, all I can hope for is she’s not applying to any of the same schools as my daughter! Why are you worried about HYP with those stats? Don’t let the doom and gloom people get to you, there’s plenty of room for qualified candidates – especially those who can pay this year. I started to believe those naysayers when my son was applying three years ago and he ended up getting in SCEA to his first choice, no problem. So…stay away from our “second tier” (BC, Brandeis, CM, etc.) schools! J/K</p>
<p>I know you mentioned your D wasn’t interested in a women’s college, but I’d go visit one just to make sure. My D said the same thing and we stopped by Bryn Mawr while visiting Haverford (they are a stone’s throw apart). She ended up going there despite saying she’d never “isolate” herself. In terms of your D’s geographic criteria, I think the tri-co schools (Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore) would all fit the bill, plus they have excellent academics.</p>
<p>If she’s avoiding the teeny-tinies, but somewhat flexible on size, I’d make a plug for Wesleyan. It’s big for an LAC (700+ in each class, so almost 3000 overall.)</p>
<p>UMich was at the absolute top of my D’s list- while a large campus, it seemed there were ample opportunities to create a smaller feel. Between the Honors College and the Residential Communities there were tons of great opportunities. Ultimately for us it came down to cost but it doesn’t seem that’s an issue for your D. It’s a great safety to have.</p>
<p>vp- look for a thread from a year or so ago started by tokenadult with a title somewhat like “safety schools for Harvard applicants” I think he was trying to get a lower range (safeties) of schools where you are looking for something more along the line of matches? But the thread might have some good ideas.</p>
<p>Yes to Tufts, Wash U as match schools, and Brandeis as somewhere between a match and a safety. </p>
<p>Wash U takes a lot of heat on these boards for its aggressive marketing policies, but it’s a great school with really fine academics. Beautiful campus in an interesting, hopping, urban St. Louis neighborhood. Has a Midwestern gestalt, not Southern. Smart, non-cutthroat kids. Brandeis is also a fine school. The campus is on the quiet side, but there is reasonably easy access to Boston. Brandeis offers some excellent merit scholarships to top candidates.</p>