Need help finding safeties

College Search & Selection
1

<p>SATS: 2180 (700 W, 710 CR, 770 M) (retaking, also taking the ACT in the fall)
206 PSAT (possibly commended)
Classes: All honors, 3 APs this past year (Bio: 4, English Lang.: 5, APUSH: 5), 4 APs next year
4.0 UW gpa, top 3% class (I go to a pretty good private catholic school, usually 3-5 get into ivies each year, class sizes are about 150)
ECs: jv indoor track, sailing team, 100+ hours hospital volunteer, 200+ hours helping out with medical research(in a lab and entering data at the hospital-my name is getting published in a paper), volunteering at a nursing home this summer, math team, secretary of club we have that's kind of like a community service/charity-driven club), ambassadors club, math tutoring/mentoring, nhs, nat'l english honor society, excalibur science honor society, mu alpha theta, summer course at brown about being a doctor in 2008</p>

<p>What I'm looking for in a school:</p>

<p>Medium size: 6,000 to 15,000 (that's slightly flexible)
Urban area
East coast school
Warm weather is a plus, I hate snow
Good biology/pre-med program
Undergraduate research opportunities
Not a super-uptight student body, ie. fun is still had
Any merit aid would be great</p>

<p>List so far: (This is definitely getting narrowed down- I only want to apply to about 10 schools)
UMiami
Vanderbilt
Brown
Boston University
Columbia University<br>
New York University
Emory University
Georgetown University
George Washington University
Johns Hopkins University
University of Pennsylvania
Tufts University </p>

<p>I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with good safeties. A couple schools I've considered are American University, College of Charleston, and UNC-Wilmington. Do these schools seem like they would be safeties in my case? How well do they match what I'm looking for? Any other suggestions? </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Honestly, you’ll almost definitely get into Miami, BU, or GW. The rest you can toss up in the air because, well, who knows?</p>

3

<p>bumpp</p>

<p>Any other suggestions?</p>

4

<p>I know that U of Rochester and several of the SUNY schools have very strong biology programs.</p>

5

<p>Those safeties sound good. Take a look at Elon University as well.</p>

6

<p>I think BU and American are safe as long as they’re financial safeties for you.</p>

7

<p>^ and this is key. What can you afford?</p>

8

<p>What about Villanova? I bet with their nursing school they have a lot of good biology and chemistry coursese.</p>

9

<p>go on college p ro wler it really helps out.</p>

10

<p>Might look at Holy Cross-great pre-med school with new science building. HC is a smaller version of Georgetown but easier to get into.</p>

11

<p>Tulane would be a safety. Maybe Clemson or SMU
American, CofC and UNCW are super safeties with your stats.</p>

12

<p>OK, some of this is silly. Virtually all schools in the top 100 of USNWR have good biology programs. We are talking undergrad courses, not grad research. Also, you mentioned a good pre-med program. There is no such thing, technically. You can be a philosophy or music major and be pre-med, and a surprising number of med school students are non-science majors. Pre-med consists of 4 semesters of chemistry with labs, 2 of biology with lab, physics, calculus, and an expository English course. Basic stuff that you can take no matter what your major. But don’t pick a school because of what you think is your major. Well over half of undergrads change their major at least once, including pre-meds. Pick the school you like best for overall academics, location, size, sports scene, Greek scene, whatever is important to you. NYU with its urban “campus” is extemely different than Emory or Penn.</p>

<p>Your stats are strong, you have many schools available to you. The Ivies are a crapshoot, of course. They are for everyone. But you have a slim chance there. A number of the schools you mention are not warm weather, but perhaps you are willing to sacrifice that for prestige. It also depends on how literally you mean “coast”. Duke of course could be on your list. They have limited merit aid, also. Tulane, mentioned above, is warm but obviously not east coast in any definition. However, you would get offered $25,000 in merit from them virtually for sure, and you would have an outside shot at their full tuition scholarship, the Dean’s Honor Scholarship. They usually like to see 2250+ on the SAT for DHS candidates, but you are close and your 4.0 might compensate for those few points. The other nice thing about Tulane is that you can apply EA by early October (they will probably send you a personal app that is free and very easy, but in any case you can apply early and it is always free) and you will find out, with merit info, within a few weeks. So you can have that first acceptance out of the way.</p>

<p>Miami is actually a safety for you, it is slightly less competitive for admission than Tulane. Same with GWU, should be a safety for you. C of C and UNCW are, in my opinion, too far below your capabilities.</p>

<p>Therefore you have GWU, Miami and, if you decide it is OK geographically, Tulane as safeties.</p>

13

<p>University of Florida, American, U of Maryland…</p>