I need some match + safety schools

College Search & Selection
1

I have an idea of what schools I am interested in, but I need some safeties specifically. Some matches as well are nice.

STATS (an educated guess for senior year):
1460 SAT
3.87 UW, 4.17 W
10 AP classes
Top 10%

ECs:
President, Founder of the Political Science Club
President, Founder of the FBLA
Vice-President of Student Council (might run for pres. senior year)
Core Student Body Leader
Committee Chair on my school’s board
Student Ambassador for OOS and international students
OMUN (running for office)
NHS

PREFERANCES:

  • Midwest, South or Northeast
  • I would like a medium to large school
  • Prefer a college-like town or a major city
  • Interested in business and poli. sci.
2

Home State: Ohio

3

UW (st louis) would be a good reach for you, considering your major?
a safety school would be a strong liberal arts college, maybe GWU or BU

4

^ There is no UW (St Louis). It’s WashU.

tOSU would be an obvious match. Miami U would also work. Look at the big schools in Miss and Alabama.

5

Pitt would be a good school to visit and with Rolling Admissions you’d know early if you are in and can eliminate applying to other safety/matches if you like it.

6

UW Madison, Penn State, George Washington University, University of Maryland, and Indiana University are all good options!

7

Temple or Drexel in Philly could be good safeties. American U in DC could be a high match/ low reach. Clemson, high match. Syracuse, match. BU or Northeastern, low reaches. Rutgers, safety.

8

Wake Forest, Richmond, and Rochester are other match/low reach possibilities. They may be a little on the small side for you, though.

9

Omg. I just realized I spelled preferences wrong. That’s embarrassing. Thanks everyone! @warblersrule I actually did several college match-ups and Wake Forest came out as a 100% match on multiple occasions. Have you heard good things about it?

10

There are at least two threads about the social life at WFU that you might find interesting.

11

Matches (high to low):
Wake Forest
U of Rochester
Tulane
Boston College
URichmond (barely big enough?)
Lehigh
NYU
Boston U
Brandeis
SMU
Miami (FL)
Fordham
Villanova
GWU
American
Marquette
Syracuse
Baylor
TCU
Drake
Temple
Creighton
Butler
Providence

State schools (low matches, almost safeties):
Ohio State
Miami U (OH)
Ohio U

I wouldn’t pay a lot more to go to an OOS public. Those three are quite good.

Merit possibility, match:
Pitt

Huge auto merit (safeties, probably):
Alabama
Ole Miss
Oklahoma
UAH

12

@prezbucky Holy cow. Thank you so much! I will definitely look into all of these schools. I was thinking OSU if nothing falls through. Great school, but not one of my top choices.

13

There are more, of course, but these should keep you busy for a while. Others had already mentioned some of them.

14

@prezbucky Would Georgia be a good one?

15

Wake Forest and University of Maryland are NOT safeties for anyone. Nor is Lehigh!

16

Look at Villanova, Miami U of OH, Ohio Univ, and Hofstra. Villanova is more of a match than a safety. The other three would be safeties.

17

@phractal

A strong liberal arts college is not a safety by definition. GWU and BU are not safeties for anyone.

18

@STF4717 I don’t think she said that. She put “Matches”. Thanks for the recommendations!

19

Cost constraints?
A school isn’t a safety if you may not be able to afford it without big loans.

For early career placement, internship experiences may matter at least as much as your college choice. The Baltimore-Washington corridor has good internship opportunities for government, business, and technology students. In that area, admission “match” schools with good programs in both government and business:
George Washington
American U.
University of Maryland - College Park

If these schools interest you, run their online net price calculators, then discuss the results with your family.
If they are not able and willing to cover the EFCs, then you might want to focus your match/safety search on in-state public schools.

20

To be honest, for a safety, I’m willing to pay 30-45k a year, because what would be the point in paying 60k for a school that I don’t really even want to go to.