<p>Colgate has a 29% admissions rate. Pitzer has a 16% admissions rate! While they may be intellectual matches, that is not the same thing as a safety. Now I know these were not supposed to be safeties . . . but don’t most people think of matches almost like safeties?</p>
<p>Perhaps I am just calling into question the idea of a match for schools under a 50% admissions rate.</p>
<p>Some other ideas are Oberlin, Haverford, Weslyan, Skidmore, Bard, Goucher.</p>
<p>Check out Colorado College, which is a little more in line with your stats than Middlebury, Pomona, or Williams. </p>
<p>Colorado College is at the North (residential) end of Colorado Springs, a mid-sized city at the foot of the Rockies about 1 hour south of Denver. It is co-ed, has a few sororities/fraternities but not a huge or exclusive Greek scene. Students tend to be athletic in an outdoorsy way (skiing and hiking are big). “Laidback but hardworking and nice” seems to describe them well.</p>
<p>The two things that most set this school apart are the Rocky Mountain location and the “block plan” (which means you take 1 course at a time).</p>
<p>You might check out Ursinus for a safety (near Philly, nice student body, good school that flies under radar) and Dickinson (more rural but in nice college town, more of a match for you).</p>
<p>Ursinus, like most of the other schools we’ve been suggesting, costs well over $50K/year.
Can your family afford that?
If not, would you qualify for enough aid to cover any gap?
If the answer to both questions is “no”, then none of these schools are safeties.</p>
<p>You can look up each school’s Common Data Set, section H, to find the percentage of determined need covered by the average need-based aid package.</p>
<p>Check out SUNY New Paltz if finances are an issue – it has great in-state rates if you are a NYS resident and pretty good OOS rates as well.</p>
<p>Skidmore could be a match, Colby a reach</p>
<p>Not urban, but not far from a smallish city: Hendrix College in Conway Arkansas.</p>