junior about to start visiting looking for matches/safeties

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm a junior at a top public school in NYC (very competitive, could be seen as an Ivy feeder), and I'm planning to start visiting colleges over February break. I already know of some top schools that I want to apply to, including Yale, Brown, UChicago, Williams, and Swarthmore. However, I know I need matches and safeties, and I'm not really sure what those would be.</p>

<p>In case it helps, I'd prefer small colleges for my matches, and I'll take anywhere that'll give me money and isn't too gigantic (aka, not Alabama) for safeties. I'm planning to apply as a Classics major, so a good program would be helpful....</p>

<p>Basic outline of my stats:</p>

<p>GPA: 94 (avg at my school is about a 92)
SAT: got a 2270 in October (breakdown: 690 math 780 reading 800 writing); retaking
PSAT: 224</p>

<p>Junior courses: AP Latin, U.S. History, Precalc, Physics, English
Senior courses (theoretically): Latin V, Greek Independent Study, Joyce Elective, English Teaching Internship, Philosophy, AB Calc, Organic Chemistry
(this is a rigorous schedule at my school; we don't offer many APs)</p>

<p>Junior grades:
AP Latin: A+
U.S. History: A-
Precalc: A-
Physics: A
English: B+ (awkward because it's usually my strong subject, but I have a notoriously difficult teacher)</p>

<p>ECs: lots of theater leadership inside and outside of school; 4 years of mock trial; Proust Club; piano; 100 hours of service; National Scholastic Writing Awards</p>

<p>My guidance counselor suggested University of Michigan, Vassar, and Oberlin (where I'm a double legacy) as matches, but I don't trust her.</p>

2

<p>UMich is a very good school (actually one that my counselor suggested as safety as well). I looked into it and only heard great things. Definitely a good safety. My counselor also suggested Whitman, Lawrence, WashU, Notre Dame, USC as more safety/good match schools (some of these are larger though). I honestly didn’t visit any of them because I got into my top choice school early, but you could look at them. I’ve also had friends go to Bowdoin, which is a small and fairly competitive school.</p>

3

<p>Washington University and USC are hardly safeties; they are middle of the road matches, at least. I don’t know if I’d consider Whitman College or Lawrence University safeties, either. To the OP, Alabama has an honors college that is hardly gigantic. Don’t overreach with your safeties. WashU and USC are good matches, as is Bowdoin (though Bowdoin and WashU creep into the upper ranges of match territory). Additionally, look into the University of Iowa as another safety (in addition to Alabama); it’s reputed to have a great classics program, and is located in a good city for literary students.</p>

4

<p>Well I said safeties/good matches. For me Whitman and Lawrence were put in as safeties based on scattergrams and such. And you don’t want just reaches and safeties, you want something in between (USC, WashU…). </p>

<p>OP- I would really look into Bowdoin if I were you. I don’t know much about it, but I’ve heard only good things.</p>

5

<p>Thanks! I’m curious about how you’re defining safety/match – if the average accepted GPA of students in my school to Whitman, for example, is a 90, wouldn’t that make it a low match? The average accepted GPA of students in my school to Bowdoin is about a 93, so I guess that would be a slightly higher match. I’ll definitely look into Iowa; I didn’t know it had a good classics program and I’m really glad I know!</p>

6

<p>And yeah, my cousin went to Bowdoin (graduated '05) and loved it. The only thing I’m worried about is the cold (although I guess if I’m applying to Chicago, I’m being hypocritical)…</p>

7

<p>Well I was doing it how my school does:</p>

<p>Safety- there is a 90%+ chance that you get in
Match- about 60% of acceptance
Reach: 30% or less chance of acceptance</p>

<p>Low match to me means that it’s wavering between normal match and safety. High match is between normal and reach. </p>

<p>My school college counselor places each of your schools in these categories. You want at least 2 safeties, 2 matches, and 1 reach. DONT do what I did and plan on applying to 18 schools (nightmare!). Limit yourself to, say, 8?</p>

8

<p>You could visit the schools to help decide if its too cold for you or not too.</p>

9

<p>Yeah, we’re allowed to apply to 8 private schools and unlimited publics. I feel like a lot of the privates that I want to apply to are reaches, which is why I’m a little worried about matches/safeties.</p>

10

<p>Your school seriously caps how many private schools you’re allowed to apply to?! That doesn’t sound fair…</p>

<p>Well UMich would probably be a very good safety school for you. You can apply to more reaches, just make sure you have mid-level schools between your reaches and safeties.</p>

11

<p>Eh, I think they have a good point – we have a huge workload in general, and writing supplements for more than 8 schools would become kind of crazy. Plus, teachers can’t write that many recs. But it is a little limiting…</p>

12

<p>Well in general I think teacher’s recs don’t change from school to school. If you’re okay with writing the supplements then you should be able to apply to as many schools as you want.</p>

13

<p>Bowdoin is in no way a safety for anyone.</p>

14

<p>Yeah, I definitely don’t think it is, but I’m going to visit. Maybe it’s a match?</p>

<p>Any other safety/match ideas?</p>

15

<p>Bowdoin’s pretty tough to get into. You say you want to do Classics. Have you read anything about St. John’s College in MD or NM? Their entire curriculum is Classics. Seems like a pretty awesome program.</p>

<p>[St</a>. John’s College](<a href=“Concrete CMS Is An Open Source Content Management System For Teams”>http://www.sjca.edu/)</p>

<p>As for safeties/matches, what are you looking for from a school? As a fellow junior interested in LACs, I thought Beloit in WI seemed pretty cool when I visited. They also offer a lot of merit money, so if you’re looking for $$$, consider it. I guess the transition from NYC to small-town Beloit could be a bit of a culture shock, but it’s only about an hour and a half from my house in Chicago, and the town itself is quaint. </p>

<p>[Beloit</a> College](<a href=“http://www.beloit.edu/]Beloit”>http://www.beloit.edu/)</p>

16

<p>Yeah, my mother suggested St. John’s College, and it seems absolutely incredible, but I’m kind of thinking that I want more of a typical college experience. It’s a hard choice – academically and intellectually I think I’d love it, but I don’t know, there’s something to be said for a larger campus (even if that’s just as large as 2000).</p>

<p>I don’t know much about Beloit; I’ll check it out (and the merit money sounds great)! I’m looking for LACs, I guess, along the lines of Vassar/Swarthmore/Wesleyan but…easier to get into, since at the moment I’m considering very few safeties/matches.</p>

17

<p>Our DD absolutely LOVES BU, as does every single student I have talked to. She is in the CGS program, which has classes of 25 and excellent professors who actually write comments on papers. Basically, it is a specialty program where you get all of your liberal arts requirements done while experimenting with major classes as well. We are extremely impressed. By the way, some people that are not in it say that CGS is not very hard, however, professors say that students that come through it are much better prepared than,say, the College of Arts and Sciences students. BU in general is awesome - her friends are in all different colleges and all very very happy. Would be a good safety, and with your stats perhaps you could get a significant merit scholarship and/or into the honors college.</p>

18

<p>I’ll check out BU when I look at Tufts, thanks! I’ve heard good things about it. </p>

<p>One last bump?</p>

19

<p>So I’m guessing you want Northeastern LAC safeties with merit money that offer Classics. Okay, here a few to look at. </p>

<p>Gettysburg College (merit)
[Gettysburg</a> College - a highly selective four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences in historic Gettysburg, PA](<a href=“http://www.gettysburg.edu/]Gettysburg”>http://www.gettysburg.edu/)</p>

<p>Oberlin College
oberlin.edu</p>

<p>Kenyon College
[Kenyon</a> College](<a href=“http://www.kenyon.edu/index.xml]Kenyon”>Kenyon College)</p>

<p>I know Ohio colleges are a little more Midwestern, but they seem Northeastern to me in Chicago, haha. Check them out.</p>

<p>You could also try Skidmore.
[Skidmore</a> College: Creative liberal arts education in Saratoga Springs, New York](<a href=“http://cms.skidmore.edu/index.cfm]Skidmore”>http://cms.skidmore.edu/index.cfm)</p>