in dire need of some safties

College Search & Selection
1

<p>hi all.</p>

<p>college application season is upon us, and i've come to the realization that my list is way too top-heavy. i would really appreciate some input for some more lower match/safety schools.</p>

<p>About me:
White Iranian-American Male, Long Island, NY
Prospective Major: Physics
SAT: 2250, SATII: 790, 770, 750, 750
Rank: 2/~280, AP: 5's in Env. Sci, Bio., Physics B</p>

<p>My absolute first-choice school at this point is Yale. Other schools i'm considering include:</p>

<p>Super-Reach:
Princeton, Harvard, Caltech, MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Columbia</p>

<p>Match/Reach: Cornell (2x Legacy), U.Chicago, UC Santa Barbara</p>

<p>Saftey: SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Binghamton</p>

<p>My problem is that I REALLY can't see myself being happy at the three SUNY's i've been considering. Stony Brook is way too close to home, i've heard very negative things about student morale/spirit at Binghamton, and i'm not crazy about Buffalo (my brother attends med. school there.)</p>

<p>does anybody have any suggestions for schools that would be happy to have me?</p>

2

<p>What majors are you considering?</p>

3

<p>Physics...see original post :)</p>

<p>as you can see by my choice of schools, with the arguable exception of yale, strength in physics has been my major criteria.</p>

4

<p>Delaware, Maryland, American, Ohio State, Ohio U., Indiana U</p>

5

<p>My friend got her pHd in Physics from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces & has been working at Los Alamos ever since. Her husband got his masters there & has started a company which developed special infrared goggles for our soldiers in the Middle East, among other things. He's also inventing fuel cells for alternative enegy. They both thought that New Mexico was the place to study physics.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.google.com/u/newmexicostate?q=physics&domains=nmsu.edu&sitesearch=nmsu.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.google.com/u/newmexicostate?q=physics&domains=nmsu.edu&sitesearch=nmsu.edu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Good luck!
HImom</p>

6

<p>Do EA at Chicago and you may not need a lot more in the way of safeties. Or is money a big consideration?</p>

7

<p>HImom: i heard that proximity to a major research institution (in this case LANL) is more of an indicator of strength in graduate science programs, rather than undergrad. at any rate, i really appreciate your input. i'll be researching New Mexico State University very heavily.</p>

8

<p>midwesterner:</p>

<p>i was toying with the idea of doing EA at Chicago, MIT and Caltech all at once. alas, yale is single choice early action and i'd regret not spending my ea card at my definite first choice school.</p>

9

<p>Franklin & Marshall would be a great safety school</p>

10

<p>Maryland, Delaware</p>

11

<p>Case, Vassar and Mudd. Mudd is said to have one of the best physics programs in the country.</p>

12

<p>Given your stats, if you apply to Michigan-Ann Arbor in the next week or so, you will probably get an acceptance by mid October, at which point, you will not have to worry about safeties.</p>

13

<p>next week!? when does michigan start accepting applicatoins?</p>

14

<p>They already have opened their applications. They're on rolling admissions, and the earlier you apply, the better your (already excellent) chances are.</p>

15

<p>Michigan started accepting applications about 2 weeks ago. The Michigan adcom will review the first batch of applications some time in September and get back to those applicants by early-mid October. In most cases, applicants will be deferred, but your scores and grades are excellent. I am pretty sure you will get a thick envelope. So apply to Michigan as soon as possible. That way, you will have a guaranteed spot in one of the top 10-15 universities and Physics programs. At that point, you can focus purely on your reaches and a couple of your matches.</p>

16

<p>thank you for the sound advice...</p>

<p>will be applying to mich. soon after school starts (2-3 weeks)</p>

17

<p>Just do it!</p>