Difficulty determining my safety schools

College Search & Selection
1

<p>As with most people, thinking of reach schools and maybe even match schools is no problem, but when it comes to safety schools, I am not as sure as to how safe I should go(how many, what level, etc). Could I have recommendations for which schools, preferably in California, would be "safe" safety schools for me. By the way, I am hoping to major in biology related subjects, such as biophysics, biochem, so recommendations of schools with better undergraduate programs for these would also be appreciated.</p>

<p>Academic GPA 10-12, weighted: 4.5473
Unweighted: 4.00
Class Rank: 9
APs taken prev: Euro(5), Calc AB(5), Bio(5), APUSH(4), Lang(4)
APs I'm taking this year: Calc BC, US GovPol, Japanese, Lit, Chem
SAT I: 2320
SAT II: Math II(800), Bio E(790), Chem(730, retaking next month), Chinese (770)</p>

2

<p>I’d use an assortment of UC campuses as your safeties. My daughter did that applied to Berkeley, UCSD, UCSC. Was accepted to all. It’s just one application so put the schools you like and a couple of the easier ones to get into and you should be good.</p>

3

<p>Cost constraints? State of residency? These are important factors in determining what schools can be safeties, since safeties must be affordable.</p>

4

<p>Agree with BrownParent. If you are a CA resident with those stats, you should get into some UC’s for sure. Apply to a few. There must be some with good bio departments.</p>

5

<p>I live in California, so colleges such as CSUs and UCs are relatively cheaper than out of state. As for cost constraints…possibly around the cost of UCs for in state tuition, maybe a little more. I don’t really count as coming from a low income family, but would still like to keep costs down. Thanks for the help!</p>

6

<p>The UC’s would suffice</p>

7

<p>You need to ask your parents how much they’ll pay. Will they pay the $30k per year for a UC? If so, then you’ll be fine. If not, then would you be happy at a CSU and would they pay all costs there?</p>

8

<p>Specifically which UCs? Should I apply to the lower ones such as Riverside and Merced as well?</p>

9

<p>Don’t you have auto admit status for the lower ECs because of your GPA and rank? are you top 4% of your class?</p>

<p>definitely apply to all the UCs or at least most of them…the best ones, the mid ones and the lower ones.</p>

<p>But, they’re all the same price, so will your parents pay their costs?</p>

10

<p>“Specifically which UCs? Should I apply to the lower ones such as Riverside and Merced as well?”</p>

<p>UCB and UCLA are semi-safety or safety schools for you.</p>

11

<p>Apply to UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UCD, UCI…
if those are your actual scores listed above, not projected scores
If you get rejected by all of those then you go to your local cc for 2 years and transfer into the UC best for your major
No disrespect to UCR or UCM, of course.</p>

12

<p>

</p>

<p>UCs’ use of essays and the lack of any auto-admit criteria means that there are no 100% safeties, although applicants with the OP’s stats may be admitted 99% of the time to most of them, making them “almost safeties” for admission (not UCB or UCLA, which are probably fairly likely but nowhere near certain for admission – meaning admissions “match”, not “safety” or “semi-safety”).</p>

<p>OP may want to just apply to all UCs which are acceptable to him/her, leaving off only those which are less desirable than going to an alternative safety (non-impacted CSU, community college, or an automatic scholarship school like those listed in the sticky thread in the financial aid & scholarships forum).</p>