<p>Hey. I’m an international student from Australia with an SAT 2050 though I’m planning to retake it. I’m pretty sure I want to major in Biochemistry, maybe with a Classics minor. What schools would be good safeties?
I’m an international table tennis player, grade 8 violinist, diploma grade pianist, above average grades, some community service.</p>
<p>Just wanna get a rough idea seeing as I’m not too familiar with the schools :)</p>
<p>Any school I’ve looked at as a safety (and has sufficient financial aid available) has been completely unlikeable — because what I like about a campus is how excited the students are to be there, and a lot of the schools at my safety level have absolutely none of that vibe. (Art schools can be safeties for me but they don’t have any spare money to help with tuition and my family’s not exactly rolling in the cash.) I have a 3.2 GPA taking a mostly Honors and IB, with some CP classes, and my SATs were in the 600s for reading and writing, with a 590 in math, and my SAT Lit subject test score was a 790.</p>
<p>I’m a year younger than most of my classmates, so my plan right now is that if I don’t get into the six schools I’m applying to (all “probably” to “medium reach” based on my GPA and test scores) I will take the next year off and travel (looking into doing the WWOOF program) then reapply with something more impressive under my belt.</p>
<p>Does this sound insane, or does anyone know success stories they want to share about doing this?</p>
<p>I’ve been lucky and have found a lovely safety school I wouldn’t mind going to. It is a state school and tuition is fairly cheap, plus they provide decent financial aid. Definitely not my first choice but it is good to know that there is always /some place/.</p>
<p>How much higher should your stats be than said “safety college”?</p>
<p>won’t even get out of the car? Sounds like a reality check is in order. wow</p>
<p>How do you commit yourself to appliyng to these saftey schools? I’m having a hard time</p>
<p>At a lot of public schools, the out-of-state tuition meet our financial criteria for a safety. We’re from Colorado, so CSU and Wyoming are obvious choices, but how do we determine if public schools in other states accept a reasonable percent of highly qualified out-of-state students? For example, we are also looking at east coast schools, but we know from CC that UNC Charlotte is not a good safety and W&M OOS tuition is ridiculous. Any lists out there? Any public school suggestions for a kid that would prefer an LAC, good GPA, high 20s (maybe 30) ACT?</p>
<p>Try SUNY Geneseo or Oneonta. Their OOS costs are reasonable.</p>
<p>Thanks! The SUNYs do look good.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m an internanional student from Spain.
I’m applying to MIT, Caltech, Princeton and Stanford, but I need to find a good safety college and, since I’m not familiar with the system, I have no idea which one to choose.</p>
<p>I want to major in math probably, and I’m looking for a college to which I can have a higher chance, but still a pretty good one, because if I don’t get in I can go to college here in Spain.
My SAT II scores are 800 math, 800 physics, 780 biology and 750 french, and a 103 in the toefl. My SAT is worse, reading 670, math 760 and writting 600.</p>
<p>My grades are mosly pretty good, but I don’t know the equivalent in U.S. grades (probably mostly As)</p>
<p>I have won 7th place in the Spanish mathematical olympiade, one spot away from going to IMO. I have won some other contest, but mostly regional.</p>
<p>I don’t care about the size or the location of the college (part of the country), but I prefer a city or town one, and not christian.
Thank you very much</p>
<p>EDIT: I forgot to mention that I would need financial aid. My family would not be able to pay 30000$ for a comunity college if they don’t have financial aid programs.</p>
<p>Tookielorange – what is can your family afford to pay? This will help other posters to suggest colleges to you. :-)</p>
<p>I have seen in another post that U Toronto and some other canadian colleges are pretty good, and there is less competition to get in. Do you think it is similar to what I am searching? Is the math deparment there good?
Thank you</p>
<p>We are aiming toward $25k all in, perhaps a little more. So we have a little room to spare with in state schools and Wyoming, but would love to identify some other potential safeties, especially smaller schools.</p>
<p>What is a SUPER good safety for Science Programs??</p>
<p>
Hi Miguel. As a Toronto native and a UofT grad (as is my father, and as was his father), I’ll chime in (admittedly a month late).</p>
<p>At the undergraduate level, I’m inclined to think that one’s education will likely be comparable at the better Canadian universities – and that education will be excellent.</p>
<p>The University of Toronto is truly a strong school in so many fields. Strong academic rigor. Some of the best minds in Canada. Toronto is a terrific city too, tho’ costly. The UofT is insanely large. The first year classes can be insanely large (i.e. - hundreds of students). Worked well enough for me. Going from memory, my discrete math class (the hardest course for my comp. sci. degree) was a second year course of perhaps 100-150 students. The second year calculus and algebra classes were, I think, 30-40 students. A minority (20% or fewer) of my undergrad science classes were taught by TA’s, not professors. A majority (75%) of the smaller course seminars (essentially, breakout sessions) were taught by TA’s.</p>
<p>The best math program in Canada is almost universally agreed to be at the University of Waterloo. McGill and Toronto are probably 2nd & 3rd – which is which depends on who you’re listening to and the phase of the moon. UBC and Queen’s are right up there, and Dalhousie is no slouch either – certainly the best in the maritime provinces. (An insanely bright high school friend of mine, a UofT grad, is a math prof. at Dal.)</p>
<p>[Speaking of which, my son’s acceptance to Dal’s Faculty of Science arrived just yesterday, and I’ll be delighted if he attends.]</p>
<p>As regards entry criteria, A’s should garner admission to most every top Canadian school. My son was admitted to Dal with B’s, tho’ I suspect that his Science ACT score (31 - 97th percentile) helped.</p>
<p>As a word of advice, I had three safety schools, Purdue, Iowa, and Pitt. All but Purdue were rolling, and I Purdue came out early action last week. I’ve been admitted to all three and I’m eligible for scholarships at all three; in fact, if I don’t get into my reach schools, I’ll most likely be going to Pitt.</p>
<p>I chose these schools because numbers often matter the most in their admissions decisions, and they got back to me pretty fast. Although I applied to four more match and three more reach schools, I think all three were great safeties.</p>
<p>For reference, I have a 32 ACT and 3.97/4.64 GPA, and my ECS that they saw were being an Eagle Scout and being in my honors choir an all state choir, among others that I didn’t have room for on my safety school applications.</p>
<p>In the real world, colleges are merely schools. In the end, we all have families and continue to pursue happy lives. So either way, I’ll be happy wherever I end up.</p>
<p>Instead of “safety” college, I would just point out that it is my back-up. Yet even the back-up should meet your interests and desires.</p>
<p>I didn’t apply to a safety school, i only applied to one school and i got in…i honestly believe that everyone just has to be honest with their qualifications and if all the schools you love are a reach then apply to safety schools.</p>
<p>* i only applied to one school and i got in…i*</p>
<p>IF you don’t need FA or you already know that you’ll be given enough aid, then super. But, if you need FA and you haven’t yet seen your pkg, then you are at risk.</p>