Looking for Safeties?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi all,
I have my college list so far, but I’ve been thinking that maybe I should add some safety schools. Here’s my information:

Intended Major: ChemEng

Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.4
UC Capped/Weighted GPA: 4.33
Class Rank: 2/700

SAT: 2290 (720 CR, 780 M, 790 W w/ 10 essay)
SAT II: Math L2 800, Chemistry 770

APs: European History (3), Chemistry (5), Biology (4), Eng Lang (4), Calculus BC (5), US History (5)
APs this year: Computer Science, Eng Lit, US Gov, Statistics, Physics C: M/E&M

ECs:
Girl Scouts (9-12), working on Gold Award Project (highest GS award)
Red Cross Club (9-12), president
Rocketry Club (10-12), VP
Peer Tutoring (10-12), volunteer in 10th and paid 11/12
Volunteer at school library (10-12)
Officer of public library’s summer reading club (11-12)
Leader at school’s freshman orientation (11-12)
Did Civic Leadership Institute over summer (12)

Awards:
AP scholar with distinction
National Merit Commended
California Scholarship Federation sealbearer
School’s math achievement award
District’s Italian scholarship

Letters of Rec:
One came from Italian teacher who nominated me for the scholarship–Amazing letter, called me her best student in 30 years of teaching
One came from AP Chem teacher–I didn’t read it and probably not extraordinary, but I assume it was very good as I was pretty close with her personally, and she called me an exemplary student
Counselor–?? Have no idea

Female, White (Middle Eastern), California, First-Gen College Student

My family is rather low-income (<$20K per year) and I expect to get a fair amount of need-based aid. However, I am looking for safeties that would offer me enough merit-aid to minimize loans and such.

I don’t really have many conditions for colleges, although I would like to avoid rather conservative schools. But I don’t care about location, size, etc.

Here’s my list so far:
Stanford(REA)
Princeton
Caltech
Northwestern
UCB
UCLA
UCSD
UCSB

If anyone could recommend some safeties (both admissions-wise and financially), that would be great! :slight_smile:

2

UCSB is a good safety/low reach but you can apply to a lower UC if you’re worried

3

<<<
My family is rather low-income (<$20K per year)
<<<

Do you have a non-custodial parent?

Does either parent own a business?

4

I would say if you want a UC, UC Merced is 65%, Riverside is 54%,Santa Cruz is 57%. I think Santa Crus is really nice!

5

And financially, CSUs are great! And there are some great schools still, Sac State, Long Beach, Cal Poly, San DIego State, etc.

6

@mom2collegekids I don’t have a non-custodial parent. My parents are married, but only one parent earns income. And neither parent owns a business.

7

CalPoly-Pomona or UC Riverside should be safeties for you, and you would undoubtedly receive a generous scholarship. With so many good public options in state, you don’t need to travel far afield. If you want to leave the West Coast, Pitt, Temple,Clemson, Purdue, et al, are good choices.

8

Georgia Tech might work financially, terrific in ChemE.

Case Western as well.

Couple to add into the consideration.

Good luck!

9

I would add University of Alabama(good engineering program) for full OOS tuition scholarship + 1250/semester engineering scholarship. It’s not hard to keep 3.0 GPA in school

10

Great SATs.

Consider these schools:
Reaches:
-Columbia University
-Princeton University
-Stanford University
-University of Pennsylvania
-Vanderbilt University
-Washington University in St. Louis
-Yale University

Matches:
-Bucknell University
-Cal State Long Beach
-Carnegie Mellon University
-Case Western
-Clarkson University
-Clemson University
-Colorado School of Mines
-Cornell University
-John Hopkins University
-Lafayette College
-Lehigh College
-Northeastern University
-Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
-Stevens Institute of Technology
-Tufts University
-Tulane University
-University of Alabama (You’ll automatically get full tuition + $2,500 a year)
-University of Alabama - Hunstville (You’ll automatically get full tuition + housing)
-UC Berkeley
-UC Davis
-UC Irvine
-UCLA
-UC San Diego
-University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
-USC
-University of Virginia
-Villanova University
-Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Safeties:
-Auburn University
-Drexel University
-Florida Institute of Technology
-Howard University (You’ll automatically get full ride)
-Illinois Institute of Technology
-Polytechnic Institute of New York
-Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

11

With your great record, I think you have a good list…
might as well add UC Davis, UC Irvine, and U Southern California.

Absolutely ZERO reason to apply to out-of-state publics.

12

California publics with chemical engineering include the following:

UCs: UCB, UCD, UCI, UCLA, UCR, UCSD, UCSB
CSUs: CPP, CSULB, SJSU

The less selective UCs and the CSUs should be admission safeties or nearly so. But run the net price calculators to check their financial aid and net price. A commutable CSU will likely be the cheapest (probably $4,000 to $6,000 net price), followed by the UCs (probably $8,000 to $11,000), then followed by the CSUs that are out of reasonable commuting range (probably $12,000 to $14,000).

If you want even cheaper safeties, look at the full ride scholarships that you qualify for at schools with engineering from the list at http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ . These include Tuskegee, Louisiana Tech, Florida A&M, and Prairie View A&M. Maybe Howard also, but the first-come-first-served scholarships are no longer on its web site, so they may have been used up (ask directly if you are interested).

13

Be aware that deadlines for UCs, CSUs, and some scholarships at various other schools are in a few days.

14

I know how hard it must be to get those stats with a low income.Your SATS are great, great EC, I saw your thread about your college essay and I expect that to be astonishing as well. If your looking for Safeties a more precious location would be good. Also do you mind traveling? I can recommend a lot of safeties for you but I would like some type of criteria.

15

@HarvardDream101 I wouldn’t mind traveling, I’m open to pretty much anywhere in the US (though I’d prefer a suburban or urban area). I don’t care about school size. I’d like somewhere more on the liberal side, and also reasonably diverse. That’s about it for my criteria!

16

Washington State University. You should qualify for WUE tuition breaks thorugh the Cougar Award; there may be additional merit aid for you with your statistics.

17

Just a heads up- we ended up spending many thousands extra per year transporting our daughter back and forth from home to school at breaks. This expense is sort of “hidden” so make sure you consider transportation. Certain locations are just expensive, time consuming or difficult to get to- especially on a limited budget or if someone at home has to take time off of work for a few days to get you.

Good luck! You will find many great opportunities with your resume!