Help finding safety schools

College Search & Selection
1

I’ve compiled a loose list of my colleges that I am interested in, but I feel like I need more safety schools. Also, somewhere that I can get some scholarships at would be nice.

Stats:
1510 single sitting SAT, 1520 superscored
3.8-3.9 UW GPA (upward trend and 4.0 UW this year)
A bunch of extracurriculars with leadership (notably NHS president and Board of Ed student rep)

Preferences:
Somewhere in New England, Mid Atlantic area
Potential major in economics, political science, or maybe business?
Medium sized school (3,000-12,000 student range)
Somewhere not too isolated from larger cities or college towns (like Dartmouth) but also not right in the heart of the city (like NYU or BU are)

Where I am interested in as of now (probably will not apply to all):
BC
William and Mary
University of Richmond
MIT
Yale
Princeton
Georgetown
Villanova
Lehigh
UVA
UConn (just because I am in-state but I don’t love the school)

2

What is your budget? Have you run the NPCs on these schools and showed the cost to your parents?

3

Congrats on your hard work and success! You have a very good list. Great schools. Several are extremely competitive. They are reaches for everyone, including well qualified applicants, like yourself.

I’d add Holy Cross and Dickinson as great political science schools, though Holy Cross is fairly urban and Dickinson is small and small town. Terrific schools though. But to answer your question,

Some possible safeties

Good scholarship opportunity, the numbers:

http://miamioh.edu/admission/merit-grid/

Elon would be another safety–up-and-coming national university, nice town with college area close by, delivers a lot to students, a safety that has some similarities, including weather, with Richmond and William and Mary. You would get merit aid, not sure how much.

4

Somewhat safer but still selective enough not to be sure of admission: Brandeis, Skidmore, Lafayette, Franklin and Marshall

Decidedly Safe and good merit scholarships: Clark

Some of those are in the 2000s.

Brandeis sounds like a good choice for you, as does Clark.

5

Consider whether you want to major in business…Some of the schools on your list don’t offer that major, for some it is a separate admit, sometimes junior year or sometimes freshman year.

6

If you want business, you might add Bucknell. Not really a safety, but a reasonable match.

7

If you would like BC, maybe some other Jesuit colleges? St. Joe’s in Philly or Loyola Maryland. They have contained campuses on edge of city.

8

I like the suggestion of Elon. Union? TCNJ?

9

Your description of what you want sounds like a spot-on description of Brandeis to me, and they do give some merit.

Also look at Pitt. The “sticker price” is lower than a private U, plus they give merit. It’s a bit above your desired size range, but Honors (for which you would qualify automatically) would make it feel smaller. It’s in the same great student neighborhood as Carnegie Mellon. Has econ and poli sci programs in arts & sciences as well as undergrad business majors in the business school. If you’re not liking UConn as a public safety, Pitt has the same size student body and a very similar stat profile, but a completely different environment and vibe… and merit could narrow the difference in cost. (Also, Pitt is more geographically diverse than UConn, with only 62% in-state students vs. 79% at UConn; but UConn has more racial/ethnic diversity.)

10

TCNJ is one of the highest ranked business schools in the area and Bloomberg ranksit #34 nationwide including privates) i can attest that proactive top students gpa above 3.75 will have many great opportunities. S had choice of several very desirable top internships and will in all likelihood result in an offer. In otherwords, great results, lots of student/prof attention, and less $$$ , i would replace UR certainly with TCNJ on the basis of business school results.
Also , have had many placements in top 10 mba programs .

11

Is Fordham too urban?

12

Safeties must be affordable

How much will your parents pay each year?

13

I second a bunch of the schools already mentioned, though some are not safeties. (It isn’t a bad idea to add a couple more matches anyway…)

I would add:

Providence College (safety)
Seton Hall (safety)
U of Scranton (safety)
Fairfield (safety)
Lehigh (match/high match)

Lehigh is known for strength in the sciences, Engineering and Business. Check the others to see if they offer the majors you seek.

And run NPC at every school before applying.

14

You have an excellent record.

Consider the following as safety schools

UDelaware (good honors program which is probably also a safety, not too far from Philadelphia)
McGill (urban, but doesn’t feel more urban than MIT or Yale), easy application.

Toronto (urban same as McGill)
Queen’s University (This may be a great safety for you).
UVermont (beautiful campus, honors program, surely an Early Action safety).
University of Maryland (in metro DC).
Rutgers

15

I would place TCNJ above both Seton Hall and Providence purely on academics but if you look at cost too, then its not even close.

16

I would vouch for UDelaware, it’s a decent sized campus with an honors program you would most definitely get into; Philadelphia is only 45 mins away, NYC is like 2 hours, same with DC/Baltimore. Basically, it’s right in the middle of all of the major cities on the East Coast. Pretty good academically, many good students attend. GL!