Looking for good safety schools - please help

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey everyone. I'm currently a junior, and lately I've been thinking a lot about the safety schools that I want to apply to. I want a safety where I can get a very good education, where I can be happy, where I can be competitive when applying to med school, and where I can get either a full-ride or a lot of merit-based aid.</p>

<p>I live in Texas, and I've been looking at Southwestern and SMU as low matches for me, possibly safeties. I am hesitant about SMU though because it has a reputation for being very very conservative. I'm probably the most liberal person in my part of Texas lol, borderline socialist :P.</p>

<p>Quick stats:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>I am top 15% of my class, but hopefully that will go up. 98.8 GPA</p></li>
<li><p>I had a very bad freshman year and beginning of sophomore year because of a family crisis. School is very competitive (100% graduate, 98% go to 4-year college)/ Very strong upward trend in grades (all A/A+ this year in all AP/honors classes).</p></li>
<li><p>2050 on SAT. I took the ACT in April and I feel that I will score a 32-33. Been scoring 33 on practice tests.</p></li>
<li><p>Band all four years, went to All-state this year. President of the band next year, community service coordinator for student council this year. Founded the Young Democrats Club at my highschool. 100-150 hours of community service by the end of the summer.</p></li>
<li><p>Taken/will take 12 of the 13 AP classes offered at my school. 5 on the World History AP test.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>I really would love to hear any suggestions for some safety schools. Things that are important to me are having a good pre-med program, not very conservative, beautiful campus.</p>

<p>Thank you very much :)</p>

2

<p>Willamette in OR and University of Puget Sound in WA would be good... they are both pretty liberal, and have nice looking campuses (UPS's is gorgeous), and could both be considered safeties.</p>

3

<p>Thank you for replying! I've heard of Puget Sound. I was actually considering University of Washington for a while and got used to the idea of going to college in WA. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into it some more :)</p>

4

<p>If you are liberal, you could try applying to Berkeley, but admissions and tuition is tough for out of state students.</p>

<p>It would be good to go to a differenct area of the nation to experience new cultures inside our country.</p>

5

<p>The OP is asking for safety schools, right? I wouldn't suggest Berkeley to fill that option.</p>

6

<p>You can try Clark University in MA. The stuudent body is liberal and the campus is quite nice. They are also very generous with aid.</p>

7

<p>If you're in the top 15% of your class and have a 2050 SAT, shouldn't you qualify for TAMU? It's a great school.</p>

8

<p>Ursinus (PA) and Ohio Wesleyan are two that might be worth a look. Not sure on the safety part but you may also want to take a look at schools like Muhlenberg and American. Good luck!</p>

9

<p>
[quote]
If you're in the top 15% of your class and have a 2050 SAT, shouldn't you qualify for TAMU? It's a great school.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Texas has top 10% rule,not 15%.
And Texas A&M is very conservative.</p>

10

<p>
[quote]
If you are liberal, you could try applying to Berkeley

[/quote]

I'd rather recommend UT-Austin.</p>

<p>For safety schools:U of Houston,Texas Tech,UT－Dallas,UT-Arlington,UT-El paso and..many others.</p>

11

<p>As a safety school, look next door, LSU. It's cajun country which is very liberal in its own way.</p>

12

<p>Thanks for the advice everyone. I would not consider A&M because it is extremely conservative and I hate the atmosphere; that's not to say that it isn't a great school.</p>

<p>Also, Texas Tech, UT-Dallas, and UTA are all very conservative. Not sure about UTEP, but I don't think I would consider it anyway.</p>

13

<p>You should look at Oberlin College. It's really liberal and pretty competitive as well. And they have some good science programs there.</p>

14

<p>I agree that Oberlin might interest the OP if they like LACs, but it isn't a safty for them.</p>

15

<p>What about Trinity in San Antonio? Might be a little conservative, but less than SMU I would think. It's really a match for you, but a strong match. If you want to go north, think about St. Olaf's for premed.</p>

16

<p>Are you top 10%? If so, UT is the obvious safety. Forget SMU- you would hate it. A lot of Dallas kids apply to Indiana, Georgia and Alabama as safeties. All are excellent, fun universities. They are big enough that you would find plenty of liberal folks, even at the southern schools.</p>

17

<p>While not a true safety, I believe you would be admitted to Colorado College in Colorado Springs. It has block scheduling, and isn't for everyone, but it has great academics in a neat setting.</p>

18

<p>I second the Trinity rec and the caveat that UCB isn't a safety for anyone in state much less out of state. I like Trinity over SMU but that's just me and some other folks :)</p>

19

<p>Texas is overall very conservative, except for Austin and Rice, so I would say you should look for out of state schools, especially in northeast and in Calif. </p>

<p>SMU gives about 30 full-rides each year, so it's quite nice financially.
Apparently TCU is also good w/ scholarships.
Maybe a small LAC w/ good programs in the natural sciences?</p>

20

<p>And just a comment on Berkeley as saftety. </p>

<p>A girl from my school got into Yale and rejected from Berkeley, so that kinda tells you about UCB as a safety.</p>

<p>++Someone mentioned LSU. They give AWESOME merit money, esp for NMFs. It's like full-ride + stipend + new laptop (you can tell i was a bit tempted ;).
OU is awesome quite nice, and w/ great merit money.
*<strong><em>just a note, it was either LSU or OU that offered the laptop, can't remember now</em></strong>
both of these are really big schools like Austin, so you definitely find ppl of all sorts, and a nice, liberal group of friends for you to hang out w/</p>