<p>I'm having a hard time finding safeties that I would even consider going to.</p>
<p>Here's my list so far:
reaches- penn, cornell, mit
matches- tufts, uva (oos), villanova
safeties- uconn, manhattan, udel, binghamton?, umass amherst?</p>
<p>My ideal school is between 5k and 10k undergrads with an involved student body (school spirit, not a commuter campus, etc), strong engineering department but also has liberal arts programs, typical suburban campus with grass (not like columbia etc where its just the city), proximity to a city is desirable but not be all end all. Warmer weather is a plus but i'm looking to stay no more than 5-7 hours by car from ct. uva is probably the farthest i'll look at.</p>
<p>My stats are good, nowhere near harvard potential, but i know i m all set with reaches & matches. my main concern is that all of my safeties are huge, industrial campuses without much individual attention for undergraduates. UDel is probably the most attractive one to me right now if that helps</p>
<p>I suggest you post this on the parents forum. You'll get answers and suggestions from experienced CC posters. But you will need to post more specific stats than just "good, but nowhere harvard potential"
And by the way, if your stats aren't tip-top, why are you bothering to apply to MIT?</p>
<p>what about lehigh, in bethlehem PA. you would almost definetly get in, it has about 6k undergrads, and really good engineering. </p>
<p>and i know a lot of kids who apply to lehigh also do bucknell too which is also somewhere in PA and decent sized school with lots of personal attention which has engineering</p>
<p>Northeastern U, hands down. It is not your typical urban campus, but Boston is in your backyard. Very, very green (an urban oddity). Its not a real "safety" school because its acceptance rate is low (39%) but I think its manageable. Definately not the industrial school type you are trying to avoid.</p>
<p>Op, with your math SAT II score you won't be considered for MIT, sorry. I suggest you find another other more realistic "reach" college, not one where you are sure to be rejected.</p>
<p>i looked a little bit at lehigh and bucknell previously and the only thing i found unattractive was the prevalence of greek life, but i could probably live with that, especially if the campuses and programs are what i'm looking for. hadn't considered northeastern though.</p>
<p>menloparkmom: do you have any other potential reach suggestions? i was still a little iffy regarding the campus life at MIT, i definitely want to have fun at college and not study/be high stress 24/7, and your input kind of confirms my suspicions.</p>
<p>A girl can dream and reach, of course! If you have some good solid schools where you can be happy that are very likely to take you, shoot for the stars when it comes to the reaches. Apply early to your safeties so that you have them in your pocket, then knock yourself out in terms of reaches. I will warn you that UVA out of state is considered high reach. That you are a female interested in engineering will be somewhat to your benefit.</p>
<p>I would say that you need another couple of "match" schools, since I agree that UVA is more of a reach because you are OOS. Have you looked at Carnegie Melon? In addition, not many colleges give weight to want a student says their major will be, because many "engineering major" students do change their minds once they find out what a tough haul engineering is. So even though you are female, applying as a pre-engineering major may not be as much of a 'tipping point" as you might think, UNLESS you have already shown a strong interest in engineering with outside activities- membership in Jets, or going to a science or engineering summer program, just for example. Your grades and stats are the most heavily weighted factors in college acceptance.</p>