Need some safety schools.. Suggestions?

College Search & Selection
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<p>I'm a junior in Florida.</p>

<p>4.0 unweighted GPA, 4.65 weighted. Top 3% in class rank. Will have 8 AP's by the time I graduate (I'm a junior)</p>

<p>ACT Composite: 33
Math 33
Reading 33
English 33
Science 31
Writing(8)/English 30</p>

<p>SAT Combined: 1990 (taking again in May)
Math 630
Reading 660
Writing 700</p>

<p>2 Varsity letters for baseball, NHS, will join Mu Alpha Theta and Interact (community service) next year, 130-150 community service hours, leadership includes being concessions manager in charge of inventory and the entire stand at my local Little League, some more less relevant stuff...</p>

<p>I'm a good writer and will have editing done on my essays by a great English teacher I had a good relationship with in AP Comp.</p>

<p>Schools I plan to apply to now:
Reach: Virginia
Unc Chapel Hill
Texas at Austin
Michigan</p>

<p>Match: Georgia Tech
Florida
Purdue
FSU
Miami</p>

<p>Possible Safeties: Auburn
UCF</p>

<p>Any other suggestions?</p>

<p>I want to go for Computer Science or Software Engineering</p>

<p>Any help will be appreciated!</p>

2

<p>You need to talk to your parents about what they will contribute to your college costs. Then run the net price calculators on each school you are considering to see if they are affordable on need-based financial aid. If not, then check for any large-enough merit scholarhips offered by the school (if so, base reach/match/safety on the scholarship, not admission – e.g. Georgia Tech is a reach if you need the President’s scholarship to be able to afford it). If not affordable on need-based financial aid, and there are no large-enough merit scholarships, remove the school from your list.</p>

<p>If you need large merit scholarships, check the following lists:
<a href=“Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums; (potential safeties)
<a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #50 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #50 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums; (reach/match scholarships, though some of the schools may be safeties for admission)
<a href=“NMF Scholarships: An Updated Compilation - #833 by BobWallace - National Merit Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>NMF Scholarships: An Updated Compilation - #833 by BobWallace - National Merit Scholarships - College Confidential Forums; (if you have National Merit status)</p>

<p>If your parents will contribute enough so that a $35,000 school is affordable without financial aid or scholarships, consider the following schools for your list (although not all are necessarily safeties): Minnesota, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, Stony Brook, Cal Poly SLO.</p>

<p>Your 33 ACT is equivalent to 2180 SAT CR+M+W or 1460 SAT CR+M; it may not be worth retrying the SAT if you do not expect to beat these equivalent scores and do not need it for something (like National Merit) that does not accept the ACT.</p>

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<p>You have very nice stats. The SAT could come up some. But have you considered what your family can afford? You cannot have safeties that the family cannot pay for. So sit down with your parents’ most recent tax return, run the “net price calculators” for the possible safeties and a couple others, and show the results to your parents. Can/will they be able to come up with that amount of money each year for four years? Then come back and talk to us, OP.</p>

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<p>@jkiel911 @ucbalumnus money isnt an issue with our family. Scholarships will definitely be a plus but we won’t qualify for any need-based aid. We’ve already used the net price calculator for a lot of them.</p>

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<p>And I’ve already been registered for another SAT since before my ACT so there’s no getting out of it now</p>

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<p>If money is no matter, Penn State’s COE would be another low match (I think it offers a more “balanced” campus life than Purdue since it has so many different majors etc. when Purdue primarily is a tech school); look into Olin for CSE and URochester for CS; I second the suggestion of Cal Poly SLO for another low match; SJSU would be an absolute safety (with good Silicon Valley recruitment); WPI, RIT, RPI would be likely safeties.
If you want a reach, Columbia’s SEAS would be one. Why don’t look apply to a school like CalTech or HarveyMudd?</p>

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<p>Ohio State has an excellent engineering program and your ACT puts you in range for some nice scholarships there. And Columbus is a wonderful town, and that is a great campus. </p>

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<p>@Decorative22 thanks for the suggestion! I was debating applying there.</p>

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<p>Note that SJSU’s most selective major is computer science, although your stats still clear the 2014 frosh admission threshold (of course, there is no guarantee as to what the threshold will be for 2015 frosh admissions when you apply).</p>

<p><a href=“http://info.sjsu.edu/static/admission/impaction.html”>http://info.sjsu.edu/static/admission/impaction.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Note: those eligibility index numbers are calculated like this:
<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU;
Using HS GPA calculated like this:
<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU;

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<p>An earlier poster suggested Olin - if that was a suggestion for a safety, I would have to disagree. Your test scores are not quite at the 25th percentile for Olin (which would be a reach anyway). Olin is one of those schools that is a reach for just about anyone.</p>

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<p>He’s not getting rejected from San Jose State…</p>

<p>I’d be surprised if you got rejected from Georgia Tech or Purdue although I suppose it’s possible. </p>

<p>If you want a school in a great college town with solid recruiting and strong STEM fields, check out CU Boulder. It’s a safety, and IMO a much better option for an OOS student than San Jose State or UCF.</p>

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<p>Consider some private schools. Except for the University of Miami, all of the schools you list are public universities. Sure, your parents can afford to pay, but private colleges give way more merit aid than do public universities, and also tend to have smaller class sizes. Consider Duke, for example. It is better than any school on your list. Maybe think about Rice and Tulane too, if you want to stay south.</p>

<p>I like the recommendation of the University of Rochester. Outstanding science and technology school. You are a match there. Also look into Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, which has an amazing computer science department (low reach for you). Both are private universities.</p>

<p>The schools mentioned above are not safeties, but I felt they needed to be mentioned in order to get you out of the public university mindset. So, for some good safeties:</p>

<p>U.Tennessee (public)
Rochester Institute of Technology (private)
U.Pittsburgh (public)
Texas Tech (public)
Drexel (private) – especially good if you would like to coop
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (private) is in Indiana and is the highest ranked science/tech school which does not offer a Ph.D… according to US News World Report.</p>

<p>Personally, I do not think that Ohio State offers much value compared to U.Florida. Plus, if you are going to venture that far north, then go all the way to Michigan whose engineering school is superior to Ohio State’s (which is very good, I admit). Other than football, Michigan is better in every way. It is. Ann Arbor is nicer than Columbus. Pittsburgh is much nicer than Columbus – way cooler place to go to college. I know both Pittsburgh and Columbus well. Hands down, no comparison. Pittsburgh beats Columbus.</p>

<p>Do NOT send your SAT scores to your “reach” schools unless you have to. Your ACT is outstanding. Let it carry the load, and send it to every school that will accept it. With your ACT, I would say both UF and FSU are safeties.</p>

<p>Finally, for computer science, Georgia Tech is probably the best choice on your list. See the following website:</p>

<p><a href=“Top 25 Computer Science Programs With The Best Return On Investment (ROI) | BestValueSchools”>http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/computer-science-degrees-best-roi/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Good Luck!</p>

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<p>Not necessarily. In fact, many selective private schools give little or no merit aid.
Many LACs do give out a lot of $5K-$15K merit “discounts”, but those are very different schools than the ones on the OP’s current list.</p>

<p>The Kiplinger’s “Best Value” pages list merit scholarship figures (average amounts, percentage of students who get them) for about 100 private universities and 100 private LACs. The OP’s scores would need to go up to make him competitive for an average merit award at a place like Rochester or Tulane. A merit award for CS at Carnegie Mellon would be a big reach.</p>

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<p>NROTCH:
Personally, I do not think that Ohio State offers much value compared to U.Florida. Plus, if you are going to venture that far north, then go all the way to Michigan whose engineering school is superior to Ohio State’s (which is very good, I admit). Other than football, Michigan is better in every way. It is. Ann Arbor is nicer than Columbus. Pittsburgh is much nicer than Columbus – way cooler place to go to college. I know both Pittsburgh and Columbus well. Hands down, no comparison. Pittsburgh beats Columbus.</p>

<hr>

<p>The OP asked for safety suggestions. </p>

<p>Michigan is already on the list as a non-safety. </p>

<p>:) </p>

<p>Hence the suggestion. </p>

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<p>Stony Brook University is a good safety school. It’s high on the list of “Best Value” schools. Another good safety is Case Western which is free to apply and has no writing supplement. CW also gives generous merit aid and is early action so it can’t hurt to apply.</p>

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<p>It is not true that the OP’s scores would need to go up for places like Rochester or Tulane to give merit aid. An ACT of 33 is well above average for both of those schools. Plus OP’s SAT score is average for both schools and they give some merit aid for less than average students.</p>

<p>We are not looking for full tuition scholarships, just a little help which the parents will appreciate. I have a nephew who just got admitted to Rochester with lower scores than OP, and he got some merit aid. I repeat, merit aid is typically easier at private colleges than state schools. Yes, there are exceptions, but Rochester and Tulane are not among them.</p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon has a fantastic CS program. If admitted, go there or Georgia Tech, perhaps even without merit aid.</p>

<p>DO NOT GET DISTRACTED ABOUT THE FINANCIALS YET.
Apply to any and all schools which look good, then see what financial package is offered. After that, compare and make a choice. Looking at financials too far ahead can be deadly. You do not know what actually will be offered. As long as you also apply to in-state schools (UF, FSU, and UCF), you will be in a good position.</p>

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<p>For the majority of students (though perhaps not the OP of this thread), cost constraints are a major factor. Not looking at financials before applying can be even more deadly if the student cannot afford any of the schools that admitted him/her.</p>

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<p>I totally disagree with ucbalumnus… an intelligent college search will include the now obvious “reach,” “match,” and “safety” schools. “Safety” schools can and often should be about cost. “Reach” schools should not.</p>

<p>I strongly encourage students to apply to their dream school, regardless of cost. Then also have a good backup plan. Plus, everybody needs to apply to a minimum of five colleges. Rock bottom minimum for everybody; regardless of ability or financial need. Any other approach will often lead to heartbreak, pain and an underdevelopment of your talent.</p>

<p>Again, DO NOT START BY LOOKING AT FINANCIAL COSTS. It will only scare you from looking for the best college for you. Just make sure that an average in-state university or two are on the list and things will be fine (this is the true meaning of “safety” school).</p>

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<p>I know you put FSU in the “match” category, but I would go with UCF AND FSU as your safeties. I think you have a good list here. A couple of people I know applied pretty early to UCF this year, and both had acceptance letters before Thanksgiving. So if you apply early, you should have that acceptance in hand as you wait for the other schools. Good luck! </p>

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<p>There is no point to applying to a school with no chance of affordability – that is an “out of reach” school. This means schools where the net price calculator indicates that it is unaffordable on need-based aid, and where there are no large-enough reachable merit scholarships. Applying to such a school is a waste of time and application fees.</p>

<p>Also, reach schools for admissions are less likely to offer merit scholarships than schools which are safety or low match for admissions purposes. For the latter, if the merit scholarship is required to become affordable, then the reach/match/safety assessment must be based on the chance of the merit scholarship, not admission.</p>

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<p>The whole idea of a “dream school” tends to come with the baggage of any other school being a big let-down, so that if the student is rejected, the let-down will happen. Or, if the student is admitted but it is too expensive, the student (and parents cosigning loans) may do something financially stupid to attend and graduate with over $100,000 in debt.</p>

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<p>This is not necessarily true. There are students who have a first choice school that is an admissions safety for them, is clearly affordable for them, and has an excellent program in their intended major(s). Why would it result in heartbreak, pain, or underdevelopment of their talent for such a student to apply to just that one school?</p>