<p>I'm having trouble identifying a couple of true safety schools. I want schools with great "bang for the buck" when looking at the academically challenging/difficulty of admission ratio.</p>
<p>My stats are:</p>
<p>GPA - 3.83 UW - top 6% of large Illinois public HS, tons of AP/Honors
ACT - 32 (33 if superscored - took it 2x)
Objectively, no hooks and nothing special in EC, recommendations, essay (all very good but nothing earth shattering)
White female</p>
<p>I have applications in at (in no particular order):
WashU
Emory
Tufts
Michigan
Illinois
Wisconsin</p>
<p>I'm reasonably sure that I will get in at either Illinois or Wisconsin but admissions patterns at both are very unpredictable so I regard neither as a true safety.</p>
<p>I'm looking for a school of >2500 students and (preferably) < 20,000. I'd prefer a non-urban campus (I mean, for example, not U of chicago, Boston Univ, but ok with northwestern, tufts). Undecided on major but it will be liberal arts (probably history or bio). I'd prefer private over public (since I'll be paying OSS tuition anyway). </p>
<p>And, of course, I want it to be a true safety -- like 99% chance of admission. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Well, I guess 99% is a bit of an overstatement. How about a school where the 75th percentile ACT is a 30? That should give me a pretty good shot, don’t you think?</p>
<p>You should check some of the priority deadlines, and some of the schools were EA, so if you had thought about safeties a little earlier, you’d know by Christmas, but nonetheless</p>
<p>As for publics < 20000 </p>
<p>Miami University (Oxford, OH)
Iowa
Truman State
Pittsburgh
Delaware
Vermont
Clemson</p>
<p>I don’t see how any of these schools turn you down. </p>
<p>Privates are harder because they tend to be less numbers driven.
For privates > 2500, </p>
<p>Case Western
University of Denver
Syracuse University
University of Puget Sound
American University</p>
<p>See if you can find a copy of Rugg’s Recommendations in your local library and check out the list of schools for both history and biology. Find schools that are on both lists. Then check the ACT scores of those schools. Other than that, I recommend Rhodes College, Santa Clara Univ, Colorado College. These are the only ones that come to mind right away. I’m sure there are plenty of others, though.</p>
<p>And, of course, I want it to be a true safety – like 99% chance of admission. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>With your stats, there are hundreds of schools that will accept you! :)</p>
<p>Is money no object? Will your parents pay for wherever you go? For a safety to be a “true safety” you have to know for SURE that all costs are covered either by ASSURED grants/scholarship and/or family funds.</p>
<p>As M2CK implies, we will have to assume money is not an issue. However, I can only strongly hope that you not thinking about taking out mega loans to go to any of these schools. My rule of thumb is you should come out of undergrad with no more than $25,000 in debt.</p>
<p>That said, I would second that you look at Tulane and Pitt, and add Miami (FL).</p>
<p>Sometimes you can look at the “overlaps” to see what schools are listed on the Princeton Review site for that school. (on the left hand side of the page). People who applied to
_________ also applied to: and there’s a list. </p>
<p>Sort of like the Amazon website, “People who bought this book, also bought______”. </p>
<p>Yes, he would likely get accepted to Clemson. However, if he needs financial aid, then Clemson wouldn’t be an option.</p>
<p>OP…what is your major? A true safety should also be good in your major (as well as being a school where you’ll be accepted and you know costs are covered.)</p>
You can pay for it out of pocket without any financial aid other than federally determined (FAFSA) aid.
You are guaranteed admission based on your stats.
Your major is offered.
You will be happy attending if it is the only affordable institution that accepts you.</p>
<p>Most often, a True Safety is a home-state public institution, and in many cases, it is a local community college because of Criterion 1. </p>
<p>From your comments, I think that what you are looking for is not a True Safety, but rather a Rock-Solid Academic Safety. Sit your parents down, and find out just exactly how much money there is. Once you know the answer to that question (i.e. the limits for Criterion 1), you will be able to come up with your own True Safety list.</p>
<p>Indiana would be pretty much a sure thing and I think you qualify for a $9,000 scholarship. The application is straightforward and requires no essays or teacher recs.</p>
<p>Deadline for the guaranteed money for IU has passed. 11/1 was the deadline. Honors Scholar money will also be smaller since applaication is past the deadline.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses. Kind of crazy to say, but cost is no object for the right school. My in-state is Illinois - but if I don’t get into UofI the other Illinois schools are a fairly big step down. And, if I am going OOS, I lean towards a private because the cost will be similar to OSS public and I don’t have to worry about crazy state budget cutting - of course, private schools can go bust too, but I’m more worried about public</p>
<p>Except with your stats, you can get into an honors program at a public and get access to a disproportionate share of resources at that university. </p>
<p>Also it might surprise you that Pittsburgh has a larger endowment than BU (around the same number of students) and larger than the entire University of Illinois system. Also, the University of Illinois endowment (system-wide) is only 10% larger than that of University of Delaware, a much smaller school. </p>
<p>Things aren’t always quite as simple as public vs. private because some publics are self-sufficient even without the state involvement.</p>
<p>Since money apparently is no object, as you say, then I stick with recommending Tulane, Pitt and Miami (FL) for schools that are academically excellent and meet your other criteria.</p>