Looking for help in selecting safety/likely schools

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I have more or less picked my high match/reach schools. Given the very real possibility that I get rejected from all of them, I want to make sure I have safety schools/likely schools where I'll be happy at.</p>

<p>What I'm looking for in a school:
Academics:
-Strong natural science (specifically, biological sciences, but all sciences should be good should I want to switch)
-Strong math/computer science</p>

<p>Environment:
-not a tiny school. I don't particularly like enormous schools either, but I don't care about that nearly as much.
-campus is pretty, has nature-y stuff
-Students are involved, and there's a good deal of choice in extracurriculars
-intellectually stimulating environment
-Intramural sports are great, but I don't care if the school has a very good varsity team or not
-not a school where parties and alcohol is pervasive. Some is OK, but I should be able to avoid it if I want to
-I'm not too picky about urban/rural, but I prefer that the school has its own little "bubble" in the city if urban.</p>

<p>To give you an idea of what a safety is for me:
4.3+ GPA in a fairly competitive public school. Top 5%. Rigorous course work with APs.
2310 SAT
3 SAT II's, all 800
Decent ECs (leadership, community service, job, awards) focused towards STEM
Financial aid is not a concern, but merit scholarships are a great bonus</p>

<p>Help in narrowing my search is appreciated!</p>

2

<p>Go to the financial aid forum and look at the pinned threads for assured merit aid and full tuition scholarships. Those will be safeties.</p>

3

<p><a href=“http://www.lafayette.edu/”>http://www.lafayette.edu/&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.butler.edu/”>http://www.butler.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>Fordham-Rose Hill would be worth looking into. You might even qualify for the honors program there.</p>

5

<p>Read point 1 of <a href=“Before you ask which colleges to apply to, please consider - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1621234-before-you-ask-which-colleges-to-apply-to-please-consider-p1.html&lt;/a&gt; .</p>

<p>Many state flagships have strong science, math, and CS departments.</p>

<p>Low cost safety candidates can be found listed at <a href=“http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/”>http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/&lt;/a&gt; .</p>

6

<p>Are you female? Mount Holyoke fits all of your criteria to a T, both in academics and environment :slight_smile: You would be a good candidate for their merit aid, too. It’s part of the 5-college consortium in the Northampton, MA area (with Amherst College, Smith, UMass, Hampshire) so while the MHC campus is very pretty and nature-y, it’s pretty easy to find lots to do socially and culturally by taking the free bus.</p>